Theming Tools (theming_tools)

A suite of test modules for Drupal admin theme development. Each submodule exercises one UI component or form pattern — buttons, dialogs, tables, form widgets, pagers, tabs, and so on — across multiple themes so regressions can be spotted visually.

History and scope

The module was originally named "Clarodist Tools" (with the cd_ module prefix): these modules were originally built to support development of the Claro admin theme, and originally shipped as two separate modules (cd_core providing shared fixtures, cd_tools providing the test suite). They have since been consolidated and renamed to theming_tools, a theme-agnostic regression test harness used to develop and test any Drupal admin theme, including the new Admin theme (default_admin) shipping with Drupal 12 as Claro's successor.

None of the test pages are theme-specific — each renders in whatever theme is active, so the suite works equally well against Claro, Admin, Olivero, Stark, and any contrib/custom admin theme. That's intentional: the whole point of the module is to surface cross-theme rendering differences.

What the root module provides

• Drupal\theming_tools\Form\DashboardForm — a dashboard at /admin/modules/theming-tools listing every test submodule with enable/disable operations and bulk actions.
• hook_menu_links_discovered_alter() — auto-collects menu links from every submodule tagged theming_test: true and reparents them under the theming_tools.dashboard entry in the admin menu. The result is an expandable "Theming Tools" drawer in the Drupal Navigation sidebar that lists every enabled test page, sorted alphabetically, with zero per-submodule maintenance.
• hook_entity_type_alter() — registers ContactFormAccessControlHandler on contact_form entities so test contact forms ship open to anonymous users for test access.
• Three test themes — fixtures used to exercise the theme admin UI: noscreenshot_theme and noscreenshot_2_theme (themes without screenshots) and incompatible_theme (intentionally pinned to core_version_requirement: ^7 as a fixture for the incompatible-theme code path — do not touch this constraint).

How auto-discovery works

• Every test submodule is tagged with theming_test: true in its info.yml and ships a normal .links.menu.yml file pointing at its test route.
• theming_tools_menu_links_discovered_alter() walks the menu link registry, finds every link whose providing module carries the theming_test flag, and reparents it under the theming_tools.dashboard entry in the admin menu — sorted alphabetically.
• The Navigation sidebar renders the admin menu, so the "Theming Tools" drawer shows up automatically at the bottom with every enabled test page nested inside it. Disabling a submodule automatically removes its link.

Adding a new test submodule requires nothing in the root module: set theming_test: true in the submodule's info.yml, ship a .links.menu.yml with its test route, done.

Submodules

Submodule	Purpose
actionlink	Test page for the Action Link component.
autocomplete	Test pages for the autocomplete form widget.
button	Test pages for <input> buttons and button links, including primary/secondary/small variants.
card	Opens the appearance admin page to anonymous users for Card component tests.
tt_navigation	Test pages for the core Navigation block rendering. (Named tt_navigation to avoid a machine-name collision with core's navigation module.)
tt_node	Provides a minimal cd content type used by other submodules as a fixture.
checkboxradio	Test form for checkboxes and radios on a contact form fixture.
details	Opens the site information form to anonymous users for <details> element tests.
devhelp	Disables render caching and enables debug mode via a config override. Dev-only.
dialog	Test page with examples of regular, modal, off-canvas, and off-canvas-top dialogs.
dropbutton	Test pages for the Dropbutton / Operations component, exercising link-based, submit-based, and small-variant dropbuttons side by side.
exposed_form	Test pages for Views exposed form and bulk operations form.
fieldcardinality	Test form for multi-cardinality field widgets on a contact-form fixture.
fieldset	Test pages for the Fieldset component.
imagefile	Test form for image and managed file form widgets.
lang_hebrew	Installs Hebrew as a second UI language and adds a language switcher block, for RTL tests.
message	Test page for the Message component, including Drupal.Message JS API variants.
pager	Test pages for pagers (via Views).
password	Provides a test route for the password-confirm widget.
pointertracker	Overlays a crosshair on the page that follows the mouse/touch pointer.
presuf	Test form for form item prefixes and suffixes.
progress	Test page for progress indicators (throbber, progress bar, fullscreen).
select	Test form for single- and multi-value <select> widgets.
sidebar	Tests the entity meta sidebar by opening node/add routes to anonymous users.
tab	Provides test routes for local task tabs (at /tabs).
table	Test pages for the Table component (sortable, selectable, responsive).
tabledrag	Draggable table tests: taxonomy term overview, mixed-height rows, nested tables, nested hierarchy.
testfilters	Demo text formats and a CKEditor 5 editor config (cd_basic_html) for filter-tip tests.
textarea	Test form for plain and formatted (CKEditor 5) textarea widgets.
textfixtures	Defines color, password, and search field types used by form-widget test modules.
textform	Test form for text-like form items (textfield, telephone, email, url, datetime, ...).
themeswitcher	Adds a footer form that auto-switches the active theme on change, via a cookie.
title_shortcut	Tests page titles alongside shortcut badges. Uses the tab submodule's routes as the host page.
vertical_tabs	Test pages for the Vertical Tabs component.

Dependencies

Cross-submodule dependencies

Many form-widget test submodules depend on other theming_tools submodules as fixtures (e.g., most depend on the root theming_tools module for the side_by_side layout plugin and contact-form access handler; some depend on theming_tools:tt_node for the cd content type, theming_tools:lang_hebrew for RTL fixtures, or theming_tools:testfilters for text format fixtures). Drupal resolves these automatically when enabling submodules — you don't need to enable them manually.

• title_shortcut depends on theming_tools:tab — it reuses the tab submodule's /tabs route as the page on which to test title+shortcut rendering.

Contrib modules removed from Drupal 11 core

Drupal 11 moved several modules out of core that theming_tools submodules depend on. Install from contrib as needed:

ddev composer require drupal/contact       # checkboxradio, fieldcardinality, imagefile, presuf, select, textarea, textform

If these aren't installed, the dependent submodules simply won't enable. Every other submodule will work without them.

Drupal support

core_version_requirement: ^10.3 || ^11 || ^12

Tested against the main branch of Drupal core (the future Drupal 12). The declared ^10.3 || ^11 compatibility in info.yml files is best-effort — active development and regression testing happens against main only. Supported rendering targets include Claro, the new Drupal 12 Admin theme (default_admin), Olivero, Stark, and any contrib/custom admin theme. The test pages render in whatever theme is active on the page — typically the frontend theme for non-admin routes and the admin theme for admin routes — which is the entire point: the module is designed to surface rendering inconsistencies between themes. Do not force a specific theme on the test routes — doing so defeats the regression-testing purpose.

Installation

ddev drush en theming_tools
# then enable specific test submodules as needed:
ddev drush en button dialog table tabledrag dropbutton textform textarea

Or enable the lot at once through the dashboard form at /admin/modules/theming-tools (once theming_tools is enabled).

Dashboard and navigation drawer

• Dashboard form — /admin/modules/theming-tools, provided by Drupal\theming_tools\Form\DashboardForm. Lists every test submodule with per-row operations to install or uninstall, plus bulk enable/disable.
• Navigation drawer — a "Theming Tools" expandable group auto-injected at the bottom of the admin menu. Clicking the drawer header navigates to the dashboard form; expanding it reveals alphabetically-sorted links to every enabled test submodule's test page.

Not for production

Everything in this module is intended for local development and regression testing. Several submodules intentionally open admin routes to anonymous users so tests can reach them without authentication; others ship fixture content types, fields, contact forms, and test data; devhelp disables render caching site-wide. Do not install on a public site.