How do I style a node page for a specific content type?

Question

I have a content-type "foo". As you know, you can look at such a node by using it's nid and going to /node/nid. I'd like to create 100% custom markup and CSS for this page.

I want code and files and only code and files. So, what I'd expect is a MVC architecture, meaning, that there's a template file to which all the node related data is passed and I can easily change the markup. But since Drupal isn't MVC at all, it somehow gets very complex and I absolutely don't get the architecture here. I'm not sure can use one template only; if so what's the naming pattern?

Can someone tell me the cleanest and easiest way to create the HTML for the node page?

Answer 1

The easiest way is to create a new template file called node--[node-id].tpl.php, for example node--10.tpl.php

Then you just need to copy/paste your code from the node.tpl.php you have on your actual theme and change it like you want. For the CSS, the cleanest way I think is to add a custom class in your template high enough to be able in your CSS to target it.

You can have a look at this answer that explains the difference between node--[node-id].tpl.php and page--node--[node-id].tpl.php