Drupal From Scratch Lesson 2


Intro, installation, configuration.





Austin Drupal Newbies Meetup

2013 Edition

Drupal?

  • Free, open-source CMS+ (Content Management System)
  • Moduler framework for building websites
  • Runs on standard/cheap LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) hosting
  • Powers small and large websites from you're moms blog to whitehouse.gov
  • Not limited to "standard" websites: Desktop, mobile, API all possible
  • Can be hard to learn

Installation

Quick and easy browser based installation.

  1. Get a hosting account (and domain if necessary)
    • Hostgator, Dreamhost, Bluehost, A Small Orange
    • XAMPP, WAMPP, Acquia Dev Desktop
  2. Download lastest stable release of Drupal.
  3. Upload to host and extract files (or extract files to local computer if using *AMPP)
  4. Create a database (phpmyadmin)
  5. Run yourdomain.com/install.php (pick standard install profile)

Drupalingo

Content (formally Node)

  • Every individual piece of content
  • Many different Content Types (page, article, story)
  • Can create your own Content Types
  • Structured data

Theme

  • Defines the look and feel of website
  • Can have many installed, users may pick their own
  • Defines what Regions are available to put Blocks
    • Regions help define layout (sidebar, header, footer, etc)
    • Regions surround Content

Block

  • Small, contained "content." Could be Content, menus, forms, etc
  • Modules may provide blocks or you can create your own
  • Blocks get assigned to Regions. Can controll which pages to show on and who can see them
  • Single block can only be in one region

Menu

  • Ordered, hierarchical list of links
  • Menus and links can be created or provided
  • Can move links from Menu to Menu
  • Menus become Blocks which can be put into Regions

Taxonomy

  • A way to organize your content
  • Taxonomy is a bunch of Vocabularies with a bunch of their own Terms
  • Vocabulary can be anything (blog tags, site section, organization owner)
  • Terms can also be anything. Can be created on the fly (tags) or set in stone
  • Provides automatic lists of Content with a Term

Module

  • A contained set of functionality that can be installed/uninstalled, enabled/disabled at will
  • Many modules come with Drupal by default (called Core modules)
  • Many more module available to download, for free, from https://drupal.org/project/modules

Modules & Themes

  1. Download from project page
    • Read project description to see what is recommended version
    • Generally, lastest stable release is correct
    • Version numbers in form of core.version-module.version
    • For Drupal 7 you want 7.x-x.x
  2. Extract and upload to sites/all/modules or sites/all/themes
  3. Enable at admin/modules or admin/appearance

Useful Modules

  • Admin Menu
  • Module Filter
  • Backup & Migrate
  • Advanced Help
  • Global Redirect
  • Google Analytics
  • Path Auto
  • SEO Checklist
  • Views
  • WYWIWYG
  • IMCE
  • Webform

Demo

  • Where to find common configuration
  • Where to find module configuration
  • etc.

Questions?

Brandon Williams
@rocketeerbkw
rocketeerbkw@gmail.com
rocketeerbkw.com