DrupalCreate a website/web app quickly with this Content Management System

Jiaying Xujx2129@columbia.eduSpring 2011COMS E6125 Web-enHanced Information Management (WHIM)

Content Management Systems (CMS)

• What is a CMS?• A CMS allows for the management of website

content in a user friendly way• Extension of web application framework that has

additional functionality and is more user-friendly• CMS benefits• Clients can update content themselves• Separation of content and presentation• Easy to redesign website since content is stored in the

database and inserted using page templates• Develop websites/web applications quickly • Utilize built in features such as user management and

content management

• Popular CMSs• Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress

Content Management Systems

Web Application Frameworks

Programming Languages/Databases

Overview of Drupal• Open source• Maintained by many developers

• Community• There are over 400,000 Drupal

websites• DrupalCon yearly conference

• Documentation• Extensive documentation on

drupal.org written by Drupal community

• Developer friendly• Functionality can be easily extended

• Requirements• PHP, MySQL, web server (Apache)

Usage statistics of Drupal from drupal.org, which only shows sites with the Update Status module enabled [1]

Map showing the local Drupal groups around the world from drupal.org[1]

Sites That Use Drupal

• Large variety of organization use Drupal• Corporate, Education, Entertainment, Government, Newspaper, Non-

profit, Sports

Features of Drupal

• Administrative interface• Web interface that allows admins

to manage content, users, etc• Content Management• Allow users to create, edit,

manage content without detailed knowledge of HTML/CSS

• User Management• Built in user authentication• Management of adding, editing,

deleting users• Menus• Easy to add pages to menus• Easy to display menus on website

Content management admin page

WYSIWYG editor seen when editing pages

Features of Drupal

• Statistics• Tracks website usage - referrers,

page hits, visitors, etc• Performance• Tune website performance with

page caching and bandwidth optimizations of CSS and JavaScript files

• File Uploads• Allows users to easily upload files

• URL Aliases• Allows admins to define custom

URL aliases for pages

Recent log entries page

Performance page

Drupal is Extensible and Themable• Modules• Open source add-ons to Drupal that extends its functionality• Over 7000 modules available and you can contribute your own module• Example modules• Pathauto: Generates automatic URL aliases for pages based on a pattern such

as the page title• Content Construction Kit (CCK)• Views

• Themes• Allows you to apply a design to your website• Over 800 themes available and you can contribute

your own theme

Corolla theme[1]

Drupal Basics: Content• Nodes• All content are nodes

• Content types• Page• Story• Add your own

• Examples: Alumni Profile, Event, Lecture

• Content Construction Kit (CCK) Module• Allows you to add custom fields to

content types• Without using CCK, the only fields in a

content type are the title and body• Custom fields can have type: date,

email, file, image, integer, link, text

Custom Alumni Profile content type with custom fields defined using CCK

Creating an Alumni Profile node

Drupal Basics: Views

• Views Module• User interface that allows

you to select and display one or more pieces of content in a single view• Can create view from

content nodes or users• Builds SQL query to select

the content on the back end

Example view to display board members of an organization

Page rendered from view

Building a Job Database Web App

• Functionality• Allow any visitor to post

jobs• Jobs can be viewed and

searched for• Basic steps• 1. Define a custom content

type and CCK fields• 2. Create some sample job

nodes• 3. Create a view• 4. Modify permissions

Result of creating job database app in Drupal

1. Define a Content Type and CCK Fields

Define a content type called job Create custom fields for the job content type

2. Create Job NodesCreate some sample jobs for the job database

Page generated as a result of submitting the “Create Job” form shown on the left

3. Create a View• This generates the main job database

page that lists all the jobs in a table and allows for user searches and filtering

• Fields (SQL select)• Add all the job fields that will be shown in

the display• Filters (SQL where)

• By default, a view shows all nodes• Specify that the node type is job• Add exposed filters so users can filter and

search• Sort criteria (SQL order by)

• Sort all jobs in descending order according to when the job was submitted

• Style• Display the results in a table format

SELECT node.nid AS nid, node.created AS node_created, node.title AS node_title, node_data_field_job_employer_name.field_job_employer_name_value AS node_data_field_job_employer_name_field_job_employer_name_value, node.type AS node_type, node.vid AS node_vid, node_data_field_job_employer_name.field_job_position_type_value AS node_data_field_job_employer_name_field_job_position_type_value, node_data_field_job_employer_name.field_job_paid_value AS node_data_field_job_employer_name_field_job_paid_value, node_data_field_job_employer_name.field_job_category_value AS node_data_field_job_employer_name_field_job_category_value, node_data_field_job_employer_name.field_job_location_value AS node_data_field_job_employer_name_field_job_location_value FROM node node LEFT JOIN content_type_job node_data_field_job_employer_name ON node.vid = node_data_field_job_employer_name.vid WHERE node.type in ('job') ORDER BY node_created DESC

Job database view

Generated SQL query

SQL Select Statement ReviewSELECT – which table columns to retrieveWHERE – what to filter the results byORDER BY – sort results of query

4. Modify Permissions

• By default, anonymous users cannot create content• Modify permissions to

allow anonymous users to create job content Permissions page

Power of Drupal

• Drupal is not just a platform for creating web pages• Allow developers to create

both simple websites and powerful web applications

• Applications that Columbia created using Drupal• Student Affairs -

Student Groups Interactive Directory

• Columbia College: Fellowship Database

• Career Center: Internship Survey Database

Student Groups Directory – ACM page

Bibliography• [1] “Drupal – Open Source CMS.” Drupal. http://drupal.org.• [2] Harrison, Davd. “The advantages and disadvantages of

Content Management Systems.” http://daveharrison.net/articles/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-content-management-systems.

THANK YOU