1st Edition

Drupal Web Profiles

By Timi Ogunjobi Copyright 2013
    259 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
    by Auerbach Publications

    259 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
    by Auerbach Publications

    Demystifying one of the most popular content management systems in use today, Drupal Web Profiles offers a complete introduction to the installation, configuration, and administration of Drupal versions 6 and 7. Filled with worked examples, step-by-step instructions, and hands-on projects, it provides readers with the tools to develop effective business web solutions using Drupal.

    The book supplies easy-to-follow instruction on the primary aspects of the Drupal framework—from basic installation, configuration, and administration to creating new functionality with custom modules and themes. Defining key Drupal terminology in a way that users and developers can easily understand, this project-based guide explains how to:

    • Create an installation environment for Drupal as well as how to carry out the actual installation
    • Build web applications using Drupal builds and profiles
    • Add new content to a Drupal site and describe, classify, and organize content using the Taxonomy module
    • Optimize Drupal performance with automatic throttling, bandwidth optimization, and page caching
    • Customize Drupal themes and create, install, and debug modules

    The first five chapters describe how to install, configure, and administer a basic site using Drupal version 6 or 7. The next five chapters introduce Drupal profiles and explain how to get them set up and running. Supplying in-depth treatment of web analytics, including Google analytics, parsing Web logs, and node tagging, the book arms you with time-tested advice on how to monitor, analyze, and optimize the performance of your Drupal installation.

    Introduction to Drupal
    What is Drupal?
    Who is using Drupal?
    How is Drupal different from other content management systems?
    How much do you need to know to use Drupal?
    What do you need to run Drupal?
    What version of Drupal should you use?
         Drupal 6.x or Drupal 7.x 5
         What is new in Drupal 7.x 6
         What version of Drupal is used in this book?
    The architecture of Drupal 
         Basic concept and features 
         Node 
         How nodes work
         Database
         Tables 
         Taxonomy 
         Module 
         User, Permission, Role 
         Comment 
         Path 
         Theme 
         Regions and blocks 
         Menu 
         Menus and blocks
         Themes and modules 
         Content types
    Installing Drupal 
         Obtaining Drupal installation scripts
         Installing Drupal on a local computer
         Installing Drupal 6.x on localhost using WampServer 
         Installing Drupal 7.x on localhost 
         Installing Drupal on a remote live server
    Learning Drupal
    Summary

    Adding, Classifying and Viewing Content
    Adding your first posts 
         Add, post and link a menu
    Viewing and editing a node
    Drupal taxonomy 
         Drupal taxonomy functions 
         Planning taxonomies 
         General principles that apply to the Drupal taxonomy module 
         Guidelines for taxonomy design
    Moving a static site to Drupal 
         Moving to Drupal 
         Enable clean URLs within Drupal 
         The Pathauto module 
         How to install and select new modules 
         The WYSIWYG module 
         Set up taxonomy/terms to reflect the existing folder structure 
         How to install and select a theme 
         Setting up a menu 
         Copying text from browser 
         Copying raw formatted html 
         Path to images and other web assets
    Summary

    Administering Drupal
    Administration overview 
         The administrative toolbar 
         The Shortcut Bar
    Basic site administration 
         Status reports 
         Site information 
         Site appearance 
         Contextual links 
         The Administrative overlay
    Content management 
         Managing nodes 
         Managing comments 
         Managing URL paths 
          Automatically generating URL path aliases with Pathauto
    User management 
         Registration and login 
         Open ID
    Backing up and restoring a Drupal Site 
         Backing up a Drupal site using a GUI 
         Backing up a Drupal site using the command line 
         Backing up a Drupal database using the command line 
         Restoring a database backup using command line
    Migrating a Drupal site (server to server) 
         Steps in migrating a Drupal site 
         Restoring a site
    Performance and security 
         Performance
         User interaction 
         Security
    Summary

    Creating Drupal Themes
    How a theme works 
         Theme Engines
         Theme hooks
    Planning a theme
         The .info file 
         The .tpl.php template files 
         The template.php file 
         Sub-themes 
         Others
    Building the theme 
         Creating the directory structure 
         Building the info file 
         Building the page.tpl.php file 
         Building other template files
         Menus and theme settings 
         Creating new theme regions
         Content to regions 
         The header wrapper 
         The style.css file 
         Adding a screenshot 
    Summary

    Creating Drupal Modules 
    How modules function 
         Components of a module 
         The .info file 
         The .module file 
         General coding standards for modules 
         Comments 
         How the hook functions
    Planning the module 
         Naming the module 
         Create a folder
    Creating the .info file
    Creating the .module file 
         Implementing the help hook
    Other module files 
         .install files 
         .inc file
    Testing and troubleshooting 
         Enable the module 
         Troubleshooting
    Resources for module development
    Summary

    Building a Community Site with Drupal Commons
    Acquia Drupal Commons 
         Corporate community sites 
         The benefits of Commons
         Drupal Commons support 
    Installation
    Features
    Optional features
    Themes
    The installed site
    Configuration 
         Changing the header graphic 
         Changing the home page introductory block 
         Adding a page to the website outside of a group 
         Changing order in the navigation menu
    Administration 
         Subgroups 
         Activity streams 
         Creating a status message 
         Sending messages to other users 
         Posting messages to a group
    Building Administrative Skills
    Summary

    Building a Conference Site with COD
    Acquia COD 
         COD Benefits
    Installing COD 
         Obtaining COD
    Preliminary configuration 
         Changing the header graphic 
         Changing themes 
         Creating roles and permissions 
         Cart Settings
    Features 
         COD Features
    Content management
         Creating an event 
         Sponsor setup
         Creating a room 
         Create session 
         Creating the schedule 
         Create product
    Administering COD 
         Creating conference attendees 
         Creating a community for attendees 
         Administering schedules
    Conference management 
         Session collection 
         Voting on sessions 
         Your Schedule display 
         Checking in attendees
    Building COD Skills 
         Other online resources
    Summary

    Creating a News Publishing Site with OpenPublish
    Acquia OpenPublish 
         Benefits
    Installation 
         Obtaining your download 
         Completing the installation
    Configuration 
         Accessing administration page 
         Changing the site logo 
         Features
    Content Management 
         Taxonomy 
         Create content 
         Adding files 
         Adding images 
         Adding multimedia 
         Editing Content
    Other Features 
         CKEditor 
         Calais 
         Related terms
         More Like This 
         Topic Hub
    Improving OpenPublish skills
    Summary

    Creating an Intranet with Open Atrium
    Open Atrium
    Installation 
         Obtaining your download 
         Completing the installation
    Configuration 
         Accessing administration page
         Changing the site logo
         Features
    Creating a new admin user
    Creating groups
    Creating users
    Creating content 
         Adding new content type
         Adding a blog entry 
         Adding a book
         Add Event
         Add case
    Working with the dashboard 
         Section (1) Layout selection
         Section (2) Category selection
         Section (3) – available blocks
         Available blocks
    Developing Skills
    Summary

    Creating a Learning Management System with ELMS
    ELMS 
         Benefits
    Installation
         Possible installation problems 
         Page Not found
    Configuration 
         Accessing administration page 
         Terminology 
         Roles 
         Changing the site logo 
         Features 
         Content management
         Adding content
    Improving ELMS Skills
    Summary

    Monitoring, Optimizing and Analyzing a Drupal Site
    Monitoring
         Logging and errors 
         Reports 
         Security
         Security modules
    Optimizing 
         Caching 
         Bandwidth optimization 
         Performance Tips 
         Performance resource modules
    Analyzing
         Google Analytics
         Yahoo! Web Analytics 
         Piwik Web analytics
         Summary

    Index

    Biography

    Timi Ogunjobi is a software developer, technical author, and open source evangelist. Timi has been developing web applications using a variety of frameworks for nearly a decade and has written on a broad range of topics for more than twenty years.

    Mr. Ogunjobi balances his time between programming, reviewing, writing, and contributing to interesting community projects especially those relating to wildlife conservation. When he isn’t working, he enjoys playing jazz guitar and getting involved in outdoor activities—principally cricket, golf and swimming.

    Mr. Ogunjobi is the Chief Executive Officer of Xceedia Limited (www.xceedia.co.uk), a software development and training company. Timi has written two other books on Drupal that are currently in print (Drupal 6 Site Blueprints and Drupal 6 Site Blueprints: Lite). He has also published several fiction and non-fiction books, and has been featured in several anthologies. One of his fiction books has been nominated for the Commonwealth Book Prize.