Responsive Theming for Drupal

Chapter 6. Responsive Theming Using Omega

And then there’s Omega. If Zen and Aurora are on the lighter-weight side of base themes, Omega is definitely at the other end. It’s a feature-rich, Sass-based theme that can get you there quickly if you stay on the rails.

A Note About Versions

Omega rose to popularity in version 3, which is worlds different than version 4 (the currently recommended version). Here are just a handful of differences, and this barely scratches the surface:

• Version 3 does not include any Sass integration or helpers of any kind, and version 4 highly recommends using Sass.
• Version 3 organized stylesheets primarily by screen width and version 4 gives the user an SMACSS-based code structure by default.
• Version 3 revolves around building layouts and configuring your theme all in the GUI, whereas version 4 does that stuff in code.
• Version 3 relies on the Delta module and the Context module to create customized layouts for pages/sections, and version 4 relies on the power of Sass/Compass and a non-GUI “theme API” (discussed later in this chapter) for creating layouts.
• Version 3 hasn’t seen an update for about a year and a half at this point, and version 4 gets frequent updates.

In this book, we will be talking about version 4, but if you’re the type of person who finds joy in clicking your way through the theming process, you might find a cozy home in version 3 despite the fact that it is stagnant at this point.

Pros and Cons

Omega 4 has a lot going on, for better or ...