We may have heard the term template before when talking to someone about theming, but what exactly is a template? We can think of a template as a text file no different from any HTML document that provides a method for separating the presentation layer from the business logic.

In traditional PHP websites, we can mix PHP with HTML and CSS, which makes managing web pages both difficult and dangerous. Drupal provides us with the ability to use templating engines to enforce the separation of the two, so we can begin to focus more on the HTML and CSS and worry less about the PHP.