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Introduction To Drupal

Drupal is an open source content management system (CMS) toolkit that allows users to manage and publish content on websites. It is flexible and powerful but also complex, requiring technical skills to customize. Drupal uses modules to add functionality beyond core features. Common modules allow features like searching, user profiles, and taxonomy (categorizing content). Content in Drupal is organized into nodes, which are individual pieces like articles or images that can be published, arranged on pages using blocks, and categorized with taxonomy terms. Drupal has a large online community that provides free themes, modules, documentation, and support.

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Denny England
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
66 views

Introduction To Drupal

Drupal is an open source content management system (CMS) toolkit that allows users to manage and publish content on websites. It is flexible and powerful but also complex, requiring technical skills to customize. Drupal uses modules to add functionality beyond core features. Common modules allow features like searching, user profiles, and taxonomy (categorizing content). Content in Drupal is organized into nodes, which are individual pieces like articles or images that can be published, arranged on pages using blocks, and categorized with taxonomy terms. Drupal has a large online community that provides free themes, modules, documentation, and support.

Uploaded by

Denny England
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Drupal Module Development

Open Source CMS

Content Management Systems manage website (or intranet) content Open Source Content Management Systems have become one of the real open source success stories The three most popular open source CMS in the nonprofit sector are:

Joomla Drupal Plone

Content Management System (CMS)



Effective websites have regularly updated content Multiple sections are updated Updating should be easy (word processing) Updating by various authorized users

Content Management Systems allow: Multiple staff updaters Familiar interface Web page layout and design controls Management of text, audio and video content Ability to rank or weigh content Constituent interaction

Effective Web Presence


= Multiple Content Sections Regularly Updated

Stories News Featured Video eNews

Events

Fundraising

Seasonal Appeals

Documents

Content Management System (CMS)


Open Source Content Management Systems:

Drupal Plone Wordpress Joomla

Tool Kit

Product

FOSS CMS Strengths & Challenges


All are FOSS CMS tools, require technical help to use Drupal - A toolkit with many powerful, flexible tools
Strength - Online communities, web-based applications Challenge - Flexibility = Complexity

Plone - A single tool


Strength - User Friendly default installation Challenge - Less flexibility, less potential

Mambo, Joomla - A single tool


Strength - Usable/Good design out of the box Challenge - Web-based applications difficult to do

Drupal

Drupal is an open source CMS based on PHP and MySQL It can be installed and run on any server with Apache, MySQL and PHP (including Linux/UNIX, Windows and Macintosh) It also runs on PostgreSQL (another open source Database system) It has an extremely active developer community, with lots of resources available It has become arguably the most popular open source CMS for nonprofits

Drupal, cont.

Drupal is more developer friendly than it is user friendly (for site building, primarily) This makes it extremely flexible and powerful It makes it possible for developers to create feature rich sites It makes it very difficult for nonprofits to build websites on Drupal on their own (unless they have staff who know it or can learn it.) However, organizations can maintain Drupal sites quite well once trained

Brief History of Drupal

It was created originally as a bulletin board system, and open sourced in 2001 It has had broad adoption since version 4 It is now on version 6.6 (point upgrades happen every few months) Version 5.x is also maintained (now at 5.12) Many sites are still built with Drupal 5 because some modules haven't caught up.

Support Forum - Drupal

Drupal
Open Source Content Management System

Community Collaboration Tools


Installed on Organizations Computer Accessed through Internet Interface Community Supported International Translations Powering 75,000+ sites in 2006

Drupal
Has rules, constraints and processes Can be modified in a variety of ways Contains core functions: Drupal Core
Functionality expanded through Modules

Takes time to understand, test and configure


Customization requires PHP programmer

Community helps you configure and support

Websites using Drupal

Websites using Drupal

Websites using Drupal

Websites using Drupal

Websites using Drupal

Taiwanese government blog

Websites using Drupal

Websites using Drupal

Websites using Drupal

Websites using Drupal

Websites using Drupal

Websites using Drupal

Drupal Vocabulary - Modules & Users


Drupal Core
The base installation of Drupal, includes some modules, themes and other add-ons Modules Files that add functionality to Drupal, i.e., A Search module adds the function of search to a website Themes Designs that give the sites a certain look. Modules give themes control of how things look. User A person who is registered on the Drupal website. Has user name, ID, password and email address Roles How users are grouped by permissions. Allows posting of content. Defaults are authenticated or anonymous.

Modules

Modules available online by name, category, date

Module Example

Theme Examples

Drupal Vocabulary - Nodes


Node:
A piece of content. Can be a picture, blog, etc. anything in Drupals create content menu

Blocks:
Places to put content,i.e., sidebar, footer. Modules can add blocks or can be added manually - Check for blocks when adding modules

Nodes and Blocks


Pieces of content = nodes
& Search

Can be a picture, a block of text, a blog, audio, video, etc. Navigation Top Story:
75th Anniversary

Content is placed

onto page sections, Nodes are placed into Blocks

Latest Publication

Youth Outreach

Program Information

Calendar of Events

Current News Headlines

Drupal CMS Concepts


Nodes are placed into blocks
Navigation & Search Top Story: 75th Anniversary Latest Publication Youth Outreach Program Information Calendar of Events Current News

Node attributes - states


You can turn on or off certain node attributes: Published
Published, Moderated, Promoted, Sticky, Revisions

on - item is visible to authorized users off - item visible only to administrators Items are sorted by stickiness, then by date, affects their weight and where they are listed - July newsletter Program Information - June newsletter - May newsletter Calendar of Events

Sticky

Taxonomy
A way to categorize content Example:
Categories contain user/admin-defined vocabulary People who post stories on your website about surfing could categorize their posts:
- Surfing Spot Info - Environmental Concerns - Equipment Related - Style and Moves (Best Places/Times) (Erosion, Water Quality) (Boards, Suits, etc.) (Handstands, Dogs)

Post can then be sorted and searched by categories

Taxonomy and Navigation


Advanced - Interacts with navigation With advanced version of navigation, can expose taxonomy as navigation blocks

Surfing Spot Info Environmental Concerns Equipment Related Style and Moves

Taxonomy

Profiles - Overview
Provide ways of presenting data and data fields Using existing data fields and data, profiles are built to
meet specific business process needs for data entry, data viewing or searching for data. Examples: - User Registration - Client Intake Data Entry - Client Search - Client History Summary - Volunteer Skills Synopsis - Conference Presenter Summary

Summary
Drupal is a powerful CMS toolkit Open Source Large Community Free Modules and Themes

Drupal Module Development

ICT Center
We are making IT happen

Integrity

Commitment

Teamwork

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