Drupal Workshop
Introduction to Drupal
Part 1: Web Content Management,
Advantages/Disadvantages of Drupal, Drupal
terminology, Drupal technology, directories
Disclaimer and Copyright
This presentation was created by Jennifer Hodgdon of
Poplar ProductivityWare LLC.
This presentation is placed in the public domain.
You are therefore granted permission to use and
modify this presentation as you wish. However, an
attribution to the source is always appreciated.
Information contained here is believed to be accurate,
but is presented with no warranty as to its accuracy.
Use at your own risk.
What does using a Content
Management System (CMS) buy you?
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Content and settings stored in a database: edit
content, menus, navigation, etc. on the web
Web pages are generated by scripts from
information in the database, not stored as individual
files
Enter information once, display in different ways on
different pages (lists, grids, calendars, …)
Content is separate from style/presentation, so style
is consistent across site
Permissions system: different users have permission
to do different actions on the site
What are your options?
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Many Content Management Systems (CMS)
are available:
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Drupal
Joomla
WordPress
Expression Engine
WebGUI
Plone
…
Advantages of Drupal
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Free and Open Source software
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Large and vibrant community of users and developers
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Many people testing it, finding security issues, etc.
Many modules freely available from developers
Many people donating their time to writing documentation, helping new
users, etc.
Flexible architecture
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You don’t have to pay for a software license
You can modify the software
You can create your own modules for custom features
You can create your own themes for custom design
Based on standards:
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Core software is PHP/MySQL, giving many hosting options
Output uses XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, so compatible with most browsers
Disadvantages of Drupal
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Flexibility = Complexity
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May not be the best alternative for simple or singlefunctionality sites
Takes some time to learn
Takes some time to set up
Free and Open Source = No guarantees
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Free support options may or may not be responsive (but
you can pay for support)
Features you need may or may not be available
Your feature requests and bug reports may or may not be
acted upon
What types of sites is
Drupal good for?
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Examples:
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http://www.pdx.edu/ – Showcase: University web
site.
http://www.symantec.com/connect/ – Interaction
and Community: Visitors can submit and answer
questions
See http://drupal.org/cases for more
Technology of Drupal
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Drupal runs on a “LAMP” platform:
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L = Linux operating system(but it can also
run on Windows, Mac)
A = Apache web server (but it can also run
on other web servers; not so well on
Microsoft IIS as on Apache)
M = MySQL database (but it can also run on
PostgreSQL, SQLite, and others)
P = PHP scripting language (no choices
there!)
Drupal Terminology
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Module
 Def: Add-on code that adds functionality to Drupal
 Can be core (comes with Drupal), contributed (download and
install separately), or custom (written specifically for your site)
 Examples: Forum, Blog, Web Form
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Theme
 Def: Set of PHP files, CSS files, and images that defines the
layout and styles for your site
 Can be core, contributed, or custom
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Path
 Def: Part of the URL of your site that follows the base URL for
your site. For example, in http://example.com/node/add, the path
is “node/add”
Drupal Terminology p. 2
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User
 Def: Anyone who visits your site
 Non-logged-in visitors are known as anonymous
 Users with accounts are assigned to roles that you can define,
such as Master Admin, Content Editor, Member
 Permissions are generally assigned by role
Content Item (called “Node” prior to Drupal 7)
 Def: A piece of content on your site, which could be displayed on
its own page or as part of another page (or both)
 Basic content items have a Title, Body, a unique ID number, and
some meta-data (creation time, last updated, author, etc.)
 Each item also has a content type, such as “Page”, “Article”,
“Press release”, “Event”, or “Member profile”.
 Content types can have additional custom fields besides Title and
Body, such as location, event date, banner image, etc.
Drupal Terminology p. 3
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Taxonomy
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Menu
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Def: List of links to pages on your site, generally used for
navigation in headers, sidebars, footers
Weight
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Def: Categories, tags, or other classifications that can be
applied to content on your site
Def: Number that defines the order of a list, such as of
menu items. Larger numbers “sink” to the bottom of the list.
Block
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Def: Text, links, images, etc. that can be placed in a region
of your site’s theme (header, sidebar, footer, etc.), and
configured to display on one or more pages
Drupal’s Directory Structure
Drupal’s core areas (DO NOT MODIFY!):
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(files such as index.php, .htaccess, install.php, update.php) (you might need to modify .htaccess only)
includes
misc
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modules
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profiles
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scripts
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themes
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Contributed and custom modules, themes, and libraries to be shared by all sites hosted here:
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sites/all
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modules
themes
libraries
Subdirectories defining the individual web sites hosted here:
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sites/(other subdirectories)
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settings.php (file)
modules (directory)
themes (directory)