Drupal Intro
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This document provides an overview of Drupal as a web content management system, highlighting its advantages and disadvantages. It emphasizes the separation of content from presentation, the use of modules for added functionality, and the role of users and permissions. The document also includes examples of sites using Drupal and discusses taxonomy and content organization.
Drupal Intro
- 2. Web Content Management Advantages/Disadvantages of Drupal A Drupal Dictionary Introduction to Drupal
- 3. Content and settings stored in a database Web pages are generated by scripts from information in the database when requested by the client; they’re not stored as individual files Edit content, menus, navigation, etc. on the web Content Management System
- 4. Enter information once, but display it in different ways on different pages Create an event Have that event show up with other events on different pages, in different lists, grids, or calendars, based on date, or category What this means
- 5. What this means… cont. Content is separate from presentation style is consistent across site and can be changed Permissions system different users can have permission to do different actions on the site
- 6. What are your options? Many Content Management Systems (CMS) are available: Drupal Joomla WordPress Expression Engine WebGUI Plone
- 7. Drupal Showcase Examples: http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com ○ Showcase: Company brochure, artist profiles. Note innovative content reuse (see Artists page) http://www.fastcompany.com/ ○ Interaction and Community: Visitors can submit stories, comment, rate stories. http://www.whitehouse.gov/ ○ Theming and taxonomy-based browsing http://materia.kerobia.com/en ○ Internationalization http://drupal.org/cases
- 8. Advantages of Drupal Free, open-source software (FOSS) Huge community of users & developers Flexible architecture Based on standards & best practices
- 9. Disadvantages of Drupal Flexibility … Complexity Free and open source software … No guarantees
- 11. Module Add-on code that hooks into Drupal to add functionality Core: comes with Drupal Contributed: download and install separately Custom: written specifically for your site) Examples: Forum, Blog, Web Form
- 12. Themes Set of PHP files, CSS files, and images that defines the layout and styles for your site Like a “skin” for an application Can be core, contributed, or custom
- 13. User / Role User: anyone who visits your site Non-logged-in users are called “Anonymous” in Drupal Users can have accounts Can be assigned to roles that you can define Permissions to view or edit content are generally assigned by role
- 14. Path Part of the URL of your site that follows the base URL for your site. http://example.com/node/add/page PathBase URL
- 15. Node A piece of content on your site Nodes can be displayed on their own page, as part of another page - or both but usually, 1 node = 1 post
- 16. Nodes cont… A node has at a minimum: Title Body A unique ID number Some meta-data - creation time, last updated, author, etc.
- 17. Content Types Each node has a content type Eg: “Page”, “Article”, “Press release”, “Event”, “Member profile” Content types can be given additional custom fields besides Title and Body Eg: location, event date, banner image, etc.
- 18. Block Basically, boxes of stuff Text, links, images, generated lists, or even nodes. Can be placed into pre-defined regions of your site’s theme (header, sidebar, footer, etc.) Can be configured to display on one or more pages, based on path or role.
- 20. Menu List of links to pages on your site, generally used for navigation in headers, sidebars, footers Drupal has several default menus: Primary, Secondary, Navigation
- 21. Taxonomy Categories, tags, or other classifications that can be applied to nodes (content) on your site Tags like on flickr, in a glossary/index, or a dewey decimal system
- 22. Weight Number that defines the order of a list, such as of menu items. Larger numbers “sink” to the bottom of the list. Lighter, or negative numbers, “rise” to the top.
Editor's Notes
- #9: You don’t have to pay for a software license You can modify the software Many people testing it, finding security issues, etc. Many modules freely available from developers Many people donating their time to writing documentation, helping new users, etc. You can create your own modules for custom features You can create your own themes for custom design Core software is PHP/MySQL, giving many hosting options Output uses XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, so compatible with most browsers
- #10: May not be the best alternative for simple or single-functionality sites Takes some time to learn Takes some time to set up Free support options may or may not be responsive (but you can pay for support) Features you need may or may not be available Your feature requests and bug reports may or may not be acted upon
- #13: Can be applied to an existing configuration, to change how it looks but not how it functions, or can be customized somewhat to change how and where things appear depending on the theme you use.
- #14: So, for example, users with accounts can view or post comments, but only users in the “manager” role can upload attachments.