drupal - refreshpittsburgh.org · what is drupal? thursday, january 28, 2010 drupal is a free and...

Drupala content management framework

Thursday, January 28, 2010

What is Drupal?


Drupal is a free and open-source content management framework that is stable, flexible, and has a large community of contributors and maintainers.

PHP SQL


it is built with PHP & is most commonly used with MySQL. However, it’s database abstraction layer allows for it to easily support multiple database servers.

jQuery• Auto-complete• Drag & Drop• Table Sorting• Sticky Table Headers


Drupal is also distributed with jQuery and allows for easy integration of features such as auto-complete, nested dray & drop ordering, table header sorting, & sticky table headers.

Is Drupal is easy to use?


Yes, you can have it setup and you’ll be able to start posting content within 5 to 10 minutes without a problem.

So I installed it, but it’s ugly.


Yes, the default user interface is not as nice as some others out there.

I can’t stand it the UI though.


There are several modules and themes available that only take a few minutes to download and install. They help a lot. Or you could always take a little time and make your own pretty easily once you get the hang of the theming system


There are several modules and themes available that only take a few minutes to download and install. They help a lot. Or you could always take a little time and make your own pretty easily once you get the hang of the theming system


There are several modules and themes available that only take a few minutes to download and install. They help a lot.

It’s still ugly.


With the help of the Devel module and a little bit of CSS you can come up with your own admin theme easily.


With the help of the Devel module and a little bit of CSS you can come up with your own admin theme easily. This particular interface is for a Drupal-based aggregation applicaiton called Managing News.

Why Drupal then?


Drupal might lack in the pretty default interface, but it makes up for it with it’s stability, flexibility and powerful API’s. Drupal also has a large collection of reliable modules that have been contributed by the Drupal community.

Content • Custom Types• Custom Fields• No coding necessaryTypes


Drupals gives administrators the ability to create custom content types and custom content fields with the CCK module. quickly and via a simple interface is one of the top reasons Drupal is so superior over other blog software and CMS solutions. While Drupal provides you with base content types like story or page, you can remove these and create your own custom types of content.


Drupals gives administrators the ability to create custom content types and custom content fields withthe CCK module. quickly and via a simple interface is one of the top reasons Drupal is so superior over other blog software and CMS solutions. While Drupal provides you with base content types like story or page, you can remove these and create your own custom types of content.

Menu API• Drag & Drop UI• Attribute Control• Internal/External


The Menu API is available to the Drupal’s module system and also has an easy to use, drag & drop interface to create menu’s from within the administration area. With the help of the Menu Attributes module you can easily update all of the attributes the anchor tag provides you, from the ID or class attribute down to the REL attribute.

Paths• Alias System• 403/404 Redirects• Automated URLs



The Menu API is available to the Drupal’s module system and also has an easy to use, drag & drop interface to create menu’s from within the administration area. With the help of the Menu Attributes module you can easily update all of the attributes the anchor tag provides you, from the ID or class attribute down to the REL attribute.

Taxonomy• Drag & Drop UI• Free-form (tags)• Structured (category)


Drupal also provides a multi-level, drag and drop user interface similar to the Menu API’s for creating taxonomies.

Form API

• Files• Nodes (basic content)• Revisions• Taxonomy Terms• Users


The Form API provides module developers with a quick, array-based way to create, validate, and submit custom form data to the settings table or to custom, module-specific tables.

Access• Administration• Content Types• Content Fields• Settings

Control


Drupal provides adminstrators the ability to create an unlimited number of custom roles. The administrator can turn around and apply fine-grained view and edit permissions on content types, fields within content types, and even the ability to limit access to admin or user created pages. Setting permissions and creating roles can be handle via a module or through the easy to use admin interface.


Drupal provides adminstrators the ability to create an unlimited number of custom roles. The administrator can turn around and apply fine-grained view and edit permissions on content types, fields within content types, and even the ability to limit access to admin or user created pages. Setting permissions and creating roles can be handle via a module or through the easy to use admin interface.

Views• Files• Nodes (basic content)• Revisions• Taxonomy Terms• Users


Views is a UI for creating pages, page elements, and searchable indexes from practically any site data.

Cache• Blocks or Widgets• Forms• Pages• Theme Templates• Views

& compress


Drupal provides easy to use ways to cache and compress the pages and elements you serve ot your users.

Combine • Stylesheets• Javascript


CSS & JS can get a little out of hand from time to time. You’ll end up loading around 12 Javascript files and sometimes 15 or more CSS files. These files come from the core modules, contributed modules, and of course your theme. Drupal provides a simple on/off CSS and JS file combiners, granted you include your files correctly when using them within modules and themes.

Upgrades• Contributed Modules• Documentation• Schema Changes


Upgrades, primarily when using contributed modules, can be frustrating and difficult. Depending on the module maintainer, upgrade paths form full version 1 to 2 or 2 to 3, often contain bugs when updating database tables and sometimes the upgrade path’s just don’t exist.

ALWAYS READ THE INSTALL & README DOCS... if all else fails SEARCH

Default UI• Contributed Theme• Professional Theme• Custom Theme


Help • Drupal.org Search• Confusing Tutorials


Drupal.org’s search does not always work well. Use google site search, you’ll come up with things quicker. The tutorials are often confusing are mostly written for individuals that have a firm grasp on PHP.

Getting• Backup & Migrate• CCK• Context• Panels• Views

Started


basic

• Menu Attributes• Nodewords• Path Redirect• Page Title• Pathauto• XMLSitemap

GettingStarted


search engine optimization

• Admin Menu• Admin Theme• Form Defaults• Vertical Tabs• WYSIWYG API

GettingStarted


UI

Tips

• Use Version Control• Backup Often• Use Stable Versions• Get to know PHP• IRC


• Always use Version Control - hosted sevices available• Backup your database often, and especially before installing and testing contributed modules• Never use dev, alpha, rc of Drupal modules unless you really know what’s going on• When you’re creating CCK fields use descriptive names• Get to know PHP, Drupal is much more of a developer’s friend than a designers

Meetup• Demos• Questions• Tutorials• Monthly


• site/project demonstrations• good place to ask questions• present a tutorial (last one was Drush a drupal shell command module)• 2nd or 3rd week of each month

@joshuapowellwww.developedsimple.com


http://www.developedsimple.com

http://www.developedsimple.com

drupal - refreshpittsburgh.org · what is drupal? thursday, january 28, 2010 drupal is a free and...

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