Building with DrupalBuilding Websites with Drupal - A Modular-Driven Open-Source CMS

Eric Sembrat | USG Rock Eagle, October 2014

USG Rock Eagle - October 2014

Eric Scott Sembrat - Georgia Tech

October 23rd - 08:15am (too early!)

PRESENTS

A modular-driven open-source CMS!

Eric Scott Sembrat - Georgia Tech

October 23rd - 08:15am

INTRODUCTION

CMS: AN OVERVIEW

WHAT IS A DRUPAL?

DRUPAL FEATURES

HOW TO GET STARTED

RESOURCES

QUESTIONS, COMMENTS

Introductions

(and a plug)

• Web Manager - College of Engineering, Georgia Tech

• Ph.D. Student - Instructional Technology, Georgia State !!

• Website: http://ericsembrat.com• Twitter: @esembrat

Eric Sembrat

And now, for some plugs..

• Communication list for web developmentdiscussion between the 31 institutionsin the University System of Georgia.!

• http://usgweb.gatech.edu

USGWeb Collaboration Group

http://atlanta.buildguild.org/

Content Mgmt.

Systems Overview

• A content management system allows for the creation, editing, and management of the website from a web interface.!

• Management can include:• Theme / Appearance• Content / Features• Media / Photos• Files / Uploads

What is a CMS?

• CMSs can come as open or closed source.• Open: The community is building, extending, and advancing the product.

• Closed: A company is building, extending, and advancing the product.!

• Open source products are more vulnerable to the public discovery of hacks.

Free Vs. Closed Source

Security is not about open or closed source, but rather about following stringent security

guidelines and procedures. !

Open source allows the community to view and validate the following of said security

procedures, as well as locating edge-case security holes.

Who are the leaders?

Who are the leaders?

Wordpress

45%

Who are the leaders?

Wordpress Drupal

45% 15%

Who are the leaders?

Wordpress Drupal Everyone Else

45% 15% 12%

Assumes that 28% of the top 10k sites use custom, static services.

Why not Wordpress?• Wordpress was initially designed as a blogging tool. !

• Many holdovers from that development include: • Pre-built theme packages• One Size Fits All (OSFA) plugin approach

• Limited user access permissions• Heavy emphasis on Custom PHP Code Writing

Alternative• Drupal serves to take the best parts of Wordpress and provide an enterprise-level environment for custom content management.

What is a

DRUPAL, anyways?

What is Drupal?• Drupal is a scalable, extendible, and customizable CMS built to match a wide-range of use cases and web application offerings.

• First released in 2001• Milestone releases every 1-2 years

Who Uses Drupal?

Who Uses Drupal?

Who Uses Drupal?

Who Uses Drupal?

Who Uses Drupal?

Who Uses Drupal?

Who Uses Drupal?

Modules• Drupal has over 25,000 plugins (called modules) that extend Drupal’s feature set.

• Modules are built as components.• Modules work with other modules.• Modules are maintained by the community.

!

• Out of the box, Drupal has a very limited feature-set.

• Modules are key to building up a Drupal site to work the way you want.

DRUPAL Features

and options!

Entities & Fields• Drupal’s content is composed of entities and fields.

Profile (entity)

Address(field)

Full Name(field)

Photo(field)

Body Text (field)

• Drupal’s content is composed of entities and fields.

Profile (entity)

Address(field)

Full Name(field)

Photo(field)

Body Text (field)

• Where entities can reference other entities.

Friends (field)

Entities & Fields

Content Types• A content type is a collection of data (fields) related to each other.

News (CT)

Full Name

By Line Text

Photo Media

Body Text

Sidebar Text

Photo Album

(CT)

Description

Category

Event (CT)

Description

Start Time

End Time

Location

Photo Media

Photo Media

Slide (CT)

Description

URL

Photo Media

Taxonomy• A taxonomy allows you to pre-define a list of items to be used in content types.

• List can include fields

States (Taxonomy)

State Name

Description

Rating (Taxonomy)

Rating Score

Access (Taxonomy)

Description

User Role

Photo Media

Age (Taxonomy)

Description

Description Start Age

End Age

How Drupal Works

How Drupal Works

Standardized, reusable elements !

(Fields - Name, number, postal address, geographical location, image, YouTube video)

How Drupal Works

Standardized, reusable elements !

(Fields - Name, number, postal address, geographical location, image, YouTube video)

Entities !

(Content types, users, taxonomy terms, etc.)

How Drupal Works

Standardized, reusable elements !

(Fields - Name, number, postal address, geographical location, image, YouTube video)

Dynamic display and organization of content

Entities !

(Content types, users, taxonomy terms, etc.)

How Drupal Works

Standardized, reusable elements !

(Fields - Name, number, postal address, geographical location, image, YouTube video)

Dynamic display and organization of content

Theme framework, theme base, Sass/CSS, and theme settings

Entities !

(Content types, users, taxonomy terms, etc.)

How Drupal Works

Standardized, reusable elements !

(Fields - Name, number, postal address, geographical location, image, YouTube video)

Dynamic display and organization of content

Theme framework, theme base, Sass/CSS, and theme settings

Entities !

(Content types, users, taxonomy terms, etc.)

Entity Display• The basic display of entities and fields are barebones by design.

• This is where Views comes in.

Views• “… Views is a tool to build queries. You can even inspect the query as you build it.”!

• “Views provides you with a powerful tool for creating custom mashups of content and more. You can pull together any information on your site and craft dynamic lists, grids, tables, reports, RSS feeds, and navigation. Views can also be configured to show different results based on visitor interactions, such as displaying posts submitted in the last month, posts with comments and much more.”

Views

Views

Content!Basic Page

ViewsView!

Content: SlidesDisplay As: Slideshow

Content!Basic Page

ViewsView!

Content: SlidesDisplay As: Slideshow

View!Content: Facts

Display As: Unformatted List

Content!Basic Page

ViewsView!

Content: SlidesDisplay As: Slideshow

View!Content: Facts

Display As: Unformatted List

View!Content: Video

Display As: Unformatted List

Content!Basic Page

ViewsView!

Content: SlidesDisplay As: Slideshow

View!Content: Facts

Display As: Unformatted List

View!Content: News

Display As: Unformatted List

View!Content: Video

Display As: Unformatted List

Content!Basic Page

Common Modules• Views• Date• Entity • Panels• Rules• Revisioning• Flexslider• CKEditor• Masquerade

Resulting Sites• With the modular component structure, Drupal can be utilized to build various web applications without ever having to write a single line of code.

Knowledge Mgmt.

Getting started

with DRUPAL!

Local Development• The easiest way to get started with Drupal is to build your first website.!

• Acquia Dev Desktop

See my website for a presentation on local Drupal development.

Hosting Requirements• https://www.drupal.org/node/920682• https://www.drupal.org/requirements

• Any server with PHP, MySQL, and Apache works!

DRUPAL Resources

to learn more!

Suggested Reading• http://drupal.gatech.edu/handbook/video-tutorials

• Free & Paid Training Videos Available!

• https://www.drupal.org/documentation/build

QUESTIONS or

COMMENTS?

Questions? Comments?Thanks for attending this session!