INTRODUCTIONVancouver Drupal Clinic

Web Content Management Advantages/

Disadvantages of Drupal A Drupal Dictionary

Introduction to Drupal

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

Enter information once, but display it in different ways on different pagesCreate an eventHave that event show up with

other events on different pages, in different lists, grids, or calendars, based on date, or category

What this means

What this means… cont. Content is separate from

presentationstyle is consistent across site

and can be changed Permissions system

different users can have permission to do different actions on the site

What are your options? Many Content Management

Systems (CMS) are available:DrupalJoomlaWordPressExpression EngineWebGUIPlone

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

Advantages of Drupal

Free, open-source software (FOSS)

Huge community of users & developers

Flexible architecture Based on standards & best

practices

Disadvantages of Drupal

Flexibility … Complexity

Free and open source software … No guarantees

DRUPALDICTIONARY

Introduction to Drupal

Module

Add-on code that hooks into Drupal to add functionalityCore: comes with DrupalContributed: download and install

separatelyCustom: written specifically for your

site) Examples: Forum, Blog, Web

Form

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

User / Role

User: anyone who visits your site

Non-logged-in users are called “Anonymous” in Drupal

Users can have accountsCan be assigned to roles that you can

definePermissions to view or edit content are

generally assigned by role

Path

Part of the URL of your site that follows the base URL for your site. http://example.com/node/add/page

PathBase URL

Node

A piece of content on your site

Nodes can be displayed on their own page, as part of another page - or bothbut usually, 1 node = 1 post

Nodes cont…

A node has at a minimum:TitleBodyA unique ID numberSome meta-data - creation

time, last updated, author, etc.

Content Types

Each node has a content typeEg: “Page”, “Article”, “Press

release”, “Event”, “Member profile” Content types can be given

additional custom fields besides Title and BodyEg: location, event date, banner

image, etc.

Block

Basically, boxes of stuffText, 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.

title

block

regions

body

node

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

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

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.