BASIC DRUPAL COURSE
By
Timi Ogunjobi
Drupal Author and Trainer
timi@websesame.com
ISBN: 978-1-291-52911-1
© 2013 Timi Ogunjobi
Lesson 1 Introduction to Drupal
This introductory lesson is to get the new user acquainted with Drupal , its main users and infrastructural requirements . Following are the highlights:
Lesson 2 Basic Concepts and Features
This lesson shows how Drupal works; its major components and features. It introduces to the basic content types available in Drupal and suggests how to create your own content type.
Lesson 3 Installing Drupal
In this lesson the new user will learn how to install Drupal in several environments and by using several methods. We will learn how to download the installation either direct from the Drupal repository, or by SSH, CVS and Git. We will learn how to install either on a local development environment or on a live server.
Lesson 4 Adding, classifying and viewing content
Here we will learn how to create new content on a Drupal site; how to edit the content and how to view them . This lesson will also show how to link created content to a Drupal menu system.
Lesson 5 Administration overview
This lesson takes us on an introductory working tour of the administrative Drupal back end. We learn how to administer content, appearance, users, and modules. We also learn how to conduct simple configurations as well as read site reports.
Lesson 6 Basic back end administration
This lesson illustrates and explains some basic housekeeping tasks that an administrator ought to get done after the Drupal site is ready and running.
Such include altering site information, and site appearance’ as well as managing content, users as well as access.
Lesson 7 Drupal Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the practice of classifying things. In Drupal, Taxonomy system is used to describe content. This lesson shows how to create and administer an efficient taxonomy system that will enhance the accessibility of content on a Drupal site.
Lesson 8 Moving a static site to Drupal
This lesson shows how to port a site previously created in static HTML into a Drupal framework. ; including how to set up your modules, taxonomies and site content links , and how to copy content.
Lesson 9 Backing up and Migrating
This lesson shows how to back up the content of a Drupal site to avoid loss in case of accidents on the site. It also shows how to move the entire site from one server to another, either locally or online.
Lesson 10 Performance and security
Security, performance, user interaction, maintenance, quality assurance, are the real issues which a live site will have to contend with on a daily basis. Failure to adequately address them could lead to any imaginable scale of disaster . This lesson shows how to stay on top of these issues.
This introductory lesson is to get you acquainted with Drupal and its main features . Following are the highlights:
1.1 What is Drupal?
Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a web site. Drupal has tens of thousands users worldwide.
It is a modular content management framework, content management system, web application framework and blogging engine which was originally developed by Dries Buytaert as a bulletin board system. Today, it is used by many high-traffic web sites and is especially popular for building online communities". Drupal is an English transliteration of the Dutch word “druppel” which means “drop” , as in, “a drop of water”.
Fig 1 . Drupal Logo
1.2 Who are using Drupal?
Drupal is used for very many different web applications , and by many of the top ranking companies all over the world. As a web development tool, Drupal has some basic built-in functionalities, which may be combined with scores of freely available add-on modules to create quite powerful bespoke web applications.
1.2.1 Community Portal Sites
In a typical community portal, people compose and share stories -- including images, audio, and video -- with other users.
1.2.2 News Publishing
These days it is becoming usual for newspapers and magazines to enable online editions to increase their reach, readership and revenue potential. Drupal supplies the advantage of simplicity of use and upgradeability of functionalities. Therefore Drupal is quickly becoming the most popular tool for newspapers and other news organizations to publish their content online.
1.2.3 Aficionado Sites
This is a kind of web site used by groups of people to share their expertise and enthusiasm for a topic. Typical examples will be a webs site for discussing automobiles or for discussing motor bikes.
1.2.4 Intranet/Corporate Web Sites
Because of its flexible permissions system and its easy web based publishing, Drupal works well for company intranets. In Drupal it is very easy to allocate rules and permissions for publishing and accessing content. Key staff no longer has to wait for a webmaster to get the word out about their latest project.
1.2.5 Resource Directories
Drupal enables users to register and suggest new resources while editors screen their submissions and permit adding of new resources. Directories are typically used to aggregate information.
1.2.6 International Sites
The localization features within Drupal, enable developers to create sites implemented in a wide range of languages.
1.2.7 Education
Drupal is being used by several institutions. It enables easy creation of dynamic learning communities to supplement the face-to-face classroom.
1.2.8 Art, Music, Multimedia
As a development framework for community art sites, Drupal provides the rock solid foundation that is needed to make multimedia rich websites that allow users to share, distribute, rate, and discuss their work with others of similar interest.
1.2.9 Social networking sites.
Drupal has many of the required features required to build versatile social networking web sites. The modules that enable this are available, adaptable and free.
Companies presently running their web sites on Drupal include the following :
Fig.2 Typical sites using Drupal
1.3 How is Drupal different from other Content Management Systems?
Actually Drupal may not quite accurately be described as a Content Management System, but rather a Content Management Framework. A system gives the impression of a rigid, clunky structure, while a framework can be viewed as efficient, extendable and stable, and this is the basic difference.
Drupal is adaptable for any type of dynamic site , and the general view is that any web project that can be conceived, you can build it in Drupal.
1.4 How Much Do You Need To Know To Use Drupal ?
Drupal is written in PHP which is the acronym for PHP Hypertext Processor – a high-level programming language used for developing web browser launched applications. If you need to take greatest advantage of the powerful features of Drupal therefore, it might be worth your while to learn a bit aboutPHP and either MySQL or PostgreSQL which are the usual relational databases which Drupal works with . Having said this, there are thousands of Drupal users who cannot write a line of code.
One of the greatest criticisms against Drupal used to be about its usability. Some aspects of Drupal's administration interface can indeed be confusing and intimidating, particularly for new administrators. It is quite possible to master many competing Content Management Systems in a few days , but it could take you