Using Drupal

Chapter 2. Drupal Jumpstart

This chapter, intended for readers who are new to Drupal, provides a tour of its capabilities, as well as definitions for its sometimes obscure terminology, by demonstrating how Drupal can be used to build a simple website. Readers who are familiar with Drupal already may still want to skim this chapter, as later chapters will assume knowledge of all content covered here. By the end, you’ll understand how to perform administrative tasks in Drupal, such as configuring modules, working with content types, and setting up site navigation.

This chapter assumes that you already have Drupal up and running. For assistance, check out Appendix A, as well as the helpful online Getting Started guide at http://drupal.org/getting-started.

This chapter introduces the following modules:

Node (core)

Allows you to post content and create your own content types

Comment (core)

Allows users to create replies to node content

User (core)

Handles allowing users to log in, as well as Drupal’s robust roles and permissions systems

Block (core)

Adds dynamic sidebars and other supplementary content

Menu (core)

Handles management of a Drupal website’s navigation

Path (core)

Allows entry of friendly URLs such as http://www.example.com/about rather than http://www.example.com/node/1.

Administration Menu (http://drupal.org/project/admin_menu)

Provides a dynamic drop-down navigation menu to speed administrative tasks

Contact (core)

A simple form that site visitors may use to send inquiries to website owners ...