Content Management Systems
Drupal
Content
Introduction
Setting up Drupal
Structure
Features
Core functions
Comparison of Joomla and Drupal
Total Cost of ownership of Open source CMS
Additional Resources
Introduction
Drupal is full featured Content Management System. Many refer to it as CMF, Content Management Framework.
Started in 1999 by Dries Buytaert to provide a discussion forum among students.Wanted to name is dorp.org (means village in dutch) but a typo error made it drop.org. In 2001, he decided to release the software under name Drupal.(druppel in dutch means drop). Current version is 6.0 (released on Feb 13 2008).
• It has 600+ modules, 250 + themes and supports more than 40 language localization
Setting up
There are 2 options1)Subscribe to web hosting service: Drupal installation
takes couple of minutes and site is ready to design
2)Install and configure Drupal on a web server. Step by step instructions are given here
http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/how-to-setup-drupal.shtml
System Requirement: Linux/Windows, Apache/IIS, PHP, MySQL/PostgreSQL
Structure
Modules are freely
available add ons used for adding /extending functionality e.g.Calendar, todolist, project
Core -optional
Core required
Contributed Modules
Core required- layout
Features
➲ Discussion Forum➲ Blog➲ Collaborative writing such as articles, books etc.➲ Comments➲ Polling➲ Guest book➲ Tests/Quizzes➲ Search Engine optimization (SEO)➲ Wiki➲ Photo Gallery➲ IRC chat➲ E-commerce➲ E-publish for newspapers, magazines, newsletters➲ Many, many more...
Typical applications
Typical Drupal applications
Content Management (stories, blogs, forums, downloads, images). Administrator defined access control. Entire site search available.
Weblogs (supports blogger API, provide RSS feed, can ping weblog directories)
Discussion based community (admin can control content and approval)
Collaboration (wiki like collaboration book module include versioning control of documentation)
Drupal- layout
Available to all logged in users, contains nodes for each type of content. Page, story, blog entry
etc.
Available to administer only
User Management
Permissions: Defines who can access what. Access rules: Set up user name and email address access rules
can be managed here.E.g. User name should be at least 8 characters long.
Roles : Define new roles, can edit permissions for 1 role at a time.
Users: register, login, log out, maintain user profiles, etc. User settings: How user can be created, sample email
notifications such as account activation, account blocked etc.
Content Management
Possible items under this category are: Comments Content Content Type Forum Post settings RSS publishing Taxonomy Books Categories News AggregatorItems marked in blue are available only when
corresponding core module is selected.
Site Building
Blocks: Boxes of content which can be rendered at certain regions on the web page.
Possible regionsLeft sidebarRight sidebarContent HeaderFooter
Menus: Module selection adds menu items. Custom menu items can be added.Modules: All available modules are listed and if installed contributed modules will also appear here.Themes : Theme of a website can be changed. Many available themes to chose from.
Drupal core features
Some popular core modules are:
Aggregator
Blog
Discussion forum
Polls
Content Translation
Taxonomy
Extending functionality
To add a contributed module: download desired module from drupal.org to local drive. Upload files to the web sever. List of features will appear in administer->site building->modules.
To add a new theme, download themes from any site offering drupal themes(e.g. drupal.org,Drupalgarden.com) and copy it in www\themes folder. This theme will appear in the Administer->site building -> themes area.
Setting up Aggregator
Goto Administer->Site Building-> Modules, select AggregatorTo add feed items, go to Administer-> Content Management->News aggregatorList: Lists feed items and categories defined. Details such as last update time of each feed and number of items. Update items refreshes news items in that feed. Edit Items, details such as name, site url or update frequency can be modified here.Add categoryAdd FeedFeed items and categories appear as separate items under Blocks. Appearance of each feed and each category can be controlled such as in which block (left panel, right panel etc) and relative place in that block.
Setting up Blog
Administer->Site Building-> Modulesselect BlogBlock: Recent blog posts (list of recent blog posts appear in the selected block)Content Management->content type-> blog entry (set properties of blog posts)Multi user blogs: Blogs can be owned by many people on the same site. Blog Api: post blog from blogging tools
Sample web sites-Forbes
Sample web site – Warner records
Sample web site – Hillary Clinton
Drupal Learning curveFrom Buytaert.net
Most popular CMS
JoomlaDrupalXOOPsTypo3Word press
Problem areas
Document ManagementTemplate/Theme creationEvent calendar
Comparison of Joomla and Drupal
Joomla Drupal
Ease of use Easy Easy
User Permissions Admin oriented great
External Integration Average great
Community feature Good Good
Event Calendar Good Poor
Template/Theme Good Difficult
Document Management Good Not enough
Content Management No cross categorization great
Internationalization Not easy excellent
SSL compatible poor yes
Comparison -Cont.
Joomla Drupal
SEO poor Yes
Shopping cart yes yes
Multisite Management No yes
Documentation average Good
Learning Curve shallow average
What does it really cost? from Cignex.com
Lets look at CMS life cycle (from cignex.com)
TCO of open source CMS from cignex.com
So which one is better?
Joomla excel in functions while Drupal excels in architecture.
From a developer's point of view, having good architecture is important and features can be built easily.
If for you architecture is more important than function you're likely going to want to choose Drupal. However, if you need to make a quick sell where function, third party integration, and eye candy is important right out the box...Joomla still has the advantage.
Additional Resources
"Using open source software to design, develop and deploy a collaborative web site" http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/ibm/library/i-osource1/
Various screencasts of Drupal 6.0 features http://www.masteringdrupal.com
Important Drupal moduleshttp://www.lullabot.com/audiocast/drupal_podcast_no_40_top_40_projects
Joomla - Drupal Comparisonhttp://www.alledia.com/blog/general-cms-issues/joomla-and-drupal-%11-which-one-is-right-for-you?/
Compare any number of CMS http://www.cmsmatrix.org
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