Building Websites of the Future With Drupal 7

Building Websites of the Future with Drupal 7

Welcome

jay-epstein.com @jeppy64


Welcome

Introductions



Welcome

Lets chat about…Quick Glances:

What is Drupal? Drupal core history. Birth of the druplicon. How many sites use it?

Overview of the pieces:

Platforms. Content layer. Presentation layer. Mobile device theme design. Permissions & roles.

Software as a service (SaaS)

Drupal Gardens Pros & Cons


Discussion Panel:

Introduce other Drupal pros. Field questions.

A toolbox filled with everything you need to createsites from the smallest personal site all the waythrough a site with tens of thousands of registeredusers.

A toolbox filled with everything you need to createsites from the smallest personal site all the waythrough a site with tens of thousands of registeredusers.


What is Drupal?

So… what’s up with this thing called Drupal?

What is it?


2000, University of Antwerp: • Dries Buytaert and Hans Snijder set up a wireless bridge between their student dorms to share Hans's ADSL modem connection among eight students. (apparently, Ethernet connections weren't great).

• Dries adopted the project portion to develop a way for these students to share information, news, notes etc. (hint hint… blog).

• The day after graduation, they moved this website, live to the internet so they could stay in contact with each other.

2000, University of Antwerp: • Dries Buytaert and Hans Snijder set up a wireless bridge between their student dorms to share Hans's ADSL modem connection among eight students. (apparently, Ethernet connections weren't great).

• Dries adopted the project portion to develop a way for these students to share information, news, notes etc. (hint hint… blog).

• The day after graduation, they moved this website, live to the internet so they could stay in contact with each other.


Where did it come from?


The quick Drupal history lesson


• Dries, decided to name the domain dorp.org, but made a typo when registering and wound up registering drop.org. (dorp was wanted due to the Dutch translation to Village).

• Drop.Org began taking on new discussions, future plans, testing etc and clearly became much more than a school “pet project”.

• January/2001, Dries released the software behind drop.org as "Drupal." The purpose was for others to extend the experimentation platform. Drupal, pronounced "droo-puhl," derives from the English pronunciation of the Dutch word "druppel," which means "drop."

• Dries, decided to name the domain dorp.org, but made a typo when registering and wound up registering drop.org. (dorp was wanted due to the Dutch translation to Village).

• Drop.Org began taking on new discussions, future plans, testing etc and clearly became much more than a school “pet project”.

• January/2001, Dries released the software behind drop.org as "Drupal." The purpose was for others to extend the experimentation platform. Drupal, pronounced "droo-puhl," derives from the English pronunciation of the Dutch word "druppel," which means "drop."




The quick Drupal history lesson




• When the logo issue came up, Kristjan Jansen (Kika) came up with the idea of putting two sideways drops together to form an infinity symbol. When placed inside a filled circle, it resembled a face. After more work by Steven Wittens, the Druplicon was created: a stylised drop with the "infinity" eyes, a round nose and a mischievous smile.

• When the logo issue came up, Kristjan Jansen (Kika) came up with the idea of putting two sideways drops together to form an infinity symbol. When placed inside a filled circle, it resembled a face. After more work by Steven Wittens, the Druplicon was created: a stylised drop with the "infinity" eyes, a round nose and a mischievous smile.



2000 2010

7,000,000 plusACollegeProject

10 Years and more than 2% of the entire web uses Drupal…

Really?

Who uses Drupal?



jay-epstein.com

Drupal installation environments

What platforms “play nice”?

Drupal requires a web server capable of running PHP and a database.

DatabasesWeb servers

• Apache• IIS• Lighttpd• nginx

• MySQL• MariaDB• PostgreSQL• Sqlite• MongoDB• MS SQL Server

Server Environment Local Environment

Drupal 7 requires minimum PHP 5.2

Windows & Mac• Acquia Drupal• Acquia Dev Desktop

Multisite Mgmt.• Aegir

Optional

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Distribution Packs• SimpleNews• OpenPublish• OpenScholar• OpenPublic


jay-epstein.com

Drupal content layer

Content is king.

Drupal content scales with you.

• Article (time based: news, events)• Basic Page (static: about us)• Book Page (hierarchal: FAQs, instruction)• Blog Entry (time based: single or multi user)• Forum (threaded discussions: communities)• Poll (voting: stat collection,opinions)

Default content types:

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Modules

Modules extend Drupal core to perform additional tasks.

• 8323 total modules.• 1987 for Drupal 7• 400 really stable for 7

• Many default types (boolean, decimal, file, image…)• Easily add as many as you wish (infinite)• Control field display (teaser, full, views)

Add fields to extend content: Taxonomy

Create your own tags, lists and vocabularies to classify content.


jay-epstein.com

Drupal content layer

Content is king.

Drupal content scales with you.

• Content containers usually “surround” main content.• Can display any content.• Create new content apart from core.• Full control of placement.• Context shows “smart” blocks.

Blocks

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Views

Main job: retrieve and display content types:• Alter core display.• Create data sets.

Views is the single most important module to master.


jay-epstein.com

Drupal presentation layer

Making it pretty…

Hundreds of free base themes. “Pay for” themes available.

• Combo of HTML, PHP and CSS.• Regions display your content.• Blocks are assigned to regions.• Do not have full creative control.

Base Theme

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• Copy of a base theme.• Allows for full customizing.• Inherits base theme updates.

Subtheme

Header Region

Main Region

Block

Block

Block

Block

Block Block BlockFooter Region


jay-epstein.com

Drupal presentation layer

Making it pretty…

Ensuring that ALL devices see ALL of your content.

• Knows your device’s display capability.• Knows your device’s orientation.• Stacks or un-stacks content automatically so there is no horizontal scroll.• Works on ANY device.• Unlimited design possibilities.• The best of the best and newest themelayer technology.

Responsive Theme

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Header Region

Main Region

Block

Block

Block

Block

Block Block BlockFooter Region


jay-epstein.com

Drupal permissions and roles.

Who’s allowed to do what.

Drupal allows fine grained of everything!

• Admin is the lord.• Add new “more limited” roles.• Set up hierarchal roles for publishing.• Apply to content types, individual entries.• Apply to blocks.

Roles

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Example:

Admin: Owns everything.

Newspaper:• Reporter enters story with images.• Editor corrects.• Copy editor publishes.


jay-epstein.com

Drupal software as a serice. (Saas)

All the benefits – no work!

All core, module and theme updates are automatic!

• All the Drupal, none of the maintenance.• Theme layer is point & click.• Custom CSS can be added.• Constant “new features” added.• Very fast development times.• Great for smaller budget clients.• Build your site for free.• Custom domains cost pennies.• Export a site intact to a full environment.

Drupal Gardens: PROS

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Drupal Gardens: CONS• Small scale Ecommerce solution.• No control of module additions.• Themes are not 100% controllable.


Welcome

Links & Stuff


• Drupal.org• Drupalgardens.com• Whitehouse.gov• Popsci.com• Warnerbrosrecords.com• Economist.com

Google the phrase:

“Made with drupal”

• Browarddrupal.org• Meetup.com/broward-drupal• Meetup.com/palm-beach-drual

A Few of the Big Boys I hang out at: Thanks for listening!

Technology

Building Websites of the Future With Drupal 7