Drupal: The Basics & More

Walter Nelson

RAND Corporation

walternelson.com

Disclaimer

RAND Corporation does not use Drupal All my Drupal experience has been extra-

curricular Non-profits, movie theater, personal site etc.

I am self taught and there is much I don’t know

Open Source Content Management Systems Drupal Joomla! WordPress I know Drupal, so that’s what I will discuss Search “Drupal vs. Joomla vs. WordPress”

for informed comparisons

About Drupal

Creates database driven website/Content Management System

Open Source Currently at version 7 Uses PHP and MySQL

Database Driven?

Content and format are separate Internal search engine is a standard feature Self-organizing (if you are organized) Content can be entered in once place, and

appear in many

Some Advantages

Easier to add content – no need for Dreamweaver etc.

Multiple contributors with VERY granular permissions

Contributors can’t break it – unless you let them

Format changes are instantaneous

The Down Side of a CMS

Initial setup is a lot of work – to include wrapping your head around the architecture of your information

Performance may be slow You can destroy the whole website with a

single mistake (back up your database) You can’t make format changes to specific

pages

Open Source Advantages

Not owned by anyone Developed by a huge community Constantly growing and expanding Amazing variety of capabilities No cost to acquire

Open Source Disadvantages

It’s a jungle out there! Constant changes are hard to keep up with New modules or versions may not be

compatible with key pieces of your installation Existing modules may not be compatible with

each other Modules may be abandoned by their developers If there’s a problem there is no patient chap in

Mumbai to whine to

An option to consider

3rd party vendor They run your Drupal for you They usually want to host it for you, so they

can manage it properly

Installation

Step by step videos Helpful “Fix this to continue” messages The easiest web application I have ever

installed

Some Problems

Your server’s PHP installation may not support all modules (e.g. graphics issues)

Insufficient memory allotted to application or database

Performance issues if resources are constrained Caching is imperfect fix

Modules

Drupal has hundreds of modules which do almost anything you want to do Download and unzip Upload to server Activate via Admin page Set appropriate permissions Use it

Selected Modules

Date + Calendar MARC (turn your OPAC records into web

pages) Contact form Image uploader RSS feeds (lots of them) Feed Aggregator Commenting “CAPTCHA” spam reducer

Taxonomies – be still my librarian heart Each term creates aggregated pages, each

with RSS feed Fixed vocabulary with sub-headings Free form “tags” do the same

“Book” format with “child pages” creates menu tree Affiliates pages hierarchically and menu is created

automatically Easy to change location in hierarchy

Permissions

Everything on the site, including the ability to see a thing, is permission driven

Every module has its own set of permissions You can create special content types with

unique permissions Permissions are bundled in admin-defined

“Groups” Users are assigned to Groups

Some screen shots

The interfaces at work

Module On/Off Admin Panel

Typical Content Creation Screen

Permissions Management

Themes

Drupal Example

Another Drupal Site

Graphic & Attached Document

Feed Aggregator

Calendar

Contact Form

MARC Display

Conclusion

Drupal gives those without the resources or skill set the power to create a real CMS driven website

Collaborative community provides resources beyond anything an individual or small organization could create

Drupal can do the job

A Final Observation

Drupal is the real deal It is not “Content Management” lite It is a real CMS, and it is as good as your

understanding of data architecture can make it