What are the criteria to decide between modules ThemeKey and Switchtheme?

Question

There are (at least) 2 modules that allow for switching between themes, i.e.:

• ThemeKey.
• Switchtheme.

What are the typical criteria, or pros/cons, for a site builder (without any custom coding or custom theming) to decide for either one?

I have the impression that using ThemeKey the administrator (only) determines how the theme is switched, while by using Switchtheme it is rather the user who decides (from a list predefined by the administrator). Am I close?

Answer 1

Switchtheme is a user-driven theme switcher with a couple of automatic options. It provides a couple of blocks (displayed via a custom Switchtheme permission) where a user can select a theme to choose on a per session (or user account) basis.

Its automatic (admin configured) solutions are:

• A per-browser automatic switcher through the Browscap module
• A per-URL switch through adding a ?theme=theme_machine_name query parameter to the page request (e.g. http://example.com/?theme=seven)

ThemeKey is a combination of user/admin driven theme switching based on various settings & rules.

Its theme switching solutions provided are:

• A per-alias solution that allows to set a theme for each Drupal alias
• A per-node solution that allows a permissioned user to set a theme for any node they create (as well a default option).
• A per-user solution that allow a user to set a default theme for their configured account.
• A chain of custom rules that evaluates various Drupal system, user, comment, node, taxonomy, and Views properties.