This document summarizes an introduction to the open-source content management system Drupal. It begins with an overview of Drupal and what it can do, such as building websites, managing content, and being customizable. It then demonstrates how to install and set up Drupal, including modules, themes, and administration. It addresses the questions of what Drupal is, what it can do, and whether it is suitable for different users and organizations.
On other screen, make sure drupal.org is up the entire time until we move through other sites using Drupal.
The bulk of the “hands-on” portion is going to be number 2: What can Drupal do?
If you’ve never heard of Drupal, this is probably going to be the most important two minutes of the whole session. If you have, just bear with us.
Albert’s picture. First started making Web sites, this is what “content management” was like. ALBERT: Tell your story about why you started making Web sites. Make sure to say CONTENT
Time went on, Web sites started to have and display more and more content. The more content, the more there was a need for a way to manage it. <slide>
Looking around for different options. There had to be a better, more efficient system than what I had been doing.
Today, we have the phrase “content management system” to mean any type of application that runs on the Internet that allows a user to control and customize their content.
ALBERT: Tell WHY Drupal was the best solution for Headwreckas. David follow up with suit out of the box, tailor benefits for Drupal as it related to Albert’s story. Should have taken about 4-6 minutes.
DAVID: We’re going to spend the bulk of the afternoon here because this is where the magic happens. Drupal can DO a lot of things, but we want to make sure you also take away the HOW when you leave today.
ALBERT The Onion, Fast Company, Sony Artists page, and one we did, WEG. ALL SPECIFIC TO WEG SITE: On WEG’s, show the Interview content type in a number of different views. Note that the ON-LINE COMMUNITY played a huge part in all of this.
JMO Make sure to establish All Stars Web series as a NODE when you click on it. Note that Drupal offers different ways to display nodes, whether it be the full node, a grid view of the nodes, or an entirely custom view of the node like on the home page.
Today we’re going to set up a site that will allow a non-profit to publish a custom Press Release. Mine, Al, and JMO’s non-profit is obviously about making money, so we’re going to publish a Press Release for the Leave Money Association Organization, or LMAO, to leave us some money. You may be a small business looking to display latest products or an organization looking to display the latest news.
JMO We’re not going to spend a lot of time here, but if you need detailed help, find us afterward. There is a link on your hand out that you can go to for providers.
ALBERT SLIDE Click on Site Information and walk through that page FOR CREATE A PAGE DON’T TALK ABOUT ANY ADVANCED SETTINGS After adding a page, make sure to take note of the URL; we’re going to need to know that to add it to our menu Note the terminology: Drupal calls the menu “primary links”, NOT navigation. Navigation is the Admin menu. Show USERS screen. Click Add User. Show them the Roles view. Add a Role. Do NOT show permissions page.
JMO SLIDE Extending the functionality of Drupal What is a module? Out-of-the-box, Drupal comes with plenty of modules, some already turned on. We highly recommend turning some extra ones on: Make sure to turn on Taxonomy and create Press Release categories. JMO Flesh this out. Finish up core modules conversation with other mentionables: Polls, Upload, Profiles. Come with core, but may be overkill on your site. GO CHANGE A PATH TO ABOUT
Why install them in a specific directory? When updating Drupal’s core, this will leave your modules untouched.
ALBERT IS GOING TO SHOWCASE MORE POWERFUL THIRD PARTY MODULES Ones we’ll be using today to create a Press Release content type (this is the heart of Drupal): CCK (Content Construction Kit) (GIVE EXAMPLES: WEG has this content type, has that content type) For this hand-on experience we’re going to create a Press Release. Image API/ImageCache/File Field/Image Field Views Mention the hand out with other recommended modules. Remember: /sites/all/modules/
This is where we actually demo adding a press release to the site and displaying it using Views. We have all the ingredients, let’s make the magic happen. Ask JMO to give some fields that would be in a press release. Make sure mentioned: IMAGE, AUTHOR, SUB-TITLE. If not, David or JMO will ask. Save content type. Go to “Create Content” in Administer menu. Fill out your fields. Hit Save. Content is published! It’ll show the node, then go to home page to see it published to the home page. Explain how the home page works by default. Any published content (OTHER THAN PAGES) will show up newest first on the home page. If you don’t have ANY content, it’ll default to the intro screen we saw a while back. Show how to remove a piece of content from home page stream, explain what the other publishing options are.
DAVID Show the look of a site with a core theme, with a third-party theme, and a custom theme (bird’s eye view). Change look with a CORE THEME: BLUEMARINE. Add a new logo. Note the search box. Uncheck the display box to HIDE it.
Like a suit you buy off the rack, out of the box, you can take Drupal and tailor it to your organization’s needs.
Whether it’s blogs, news, interviews, stories, articles, products, or users, you can create easy ways to get them on your site for end users to view.
There are plenty of other CMSs out there, and Drupal isn’t always the best fit.