Drupal 7 Explained: Your Step-by-Step Guide, Rough Cuts

Description

This is the Rough Cut version of the printed book.

At last: Drupal made truly easy!
Master Drupal 7 hands-on, step-by-step, through easy examples from a leading Drupal trainer!
Drupal 7 is an amazingly powerful web content management system. But many newcomers find it confusing, and most Drupal books are just too complicated to help. If you want to spend less time struggling with complex instructions, and more time building sites that make you proud, this is the book for you!
Top Drupal trainer Stephen Burge teaches everything you need to know—and nothing you don’t need to know! You’ll master Drupal one easy step at a time, through a complete, real-world sample project. You’ll find crystal-clear visuals, simple explanations, perfect analogies—all extensively tested with real Drupal beginners.
This Guide’s quick, easy coverage includes
• Planning a site that will be easy to build and manage
• Installing Drupal and setting it up to work reliably and securely
• Quickly finding the Drupal tools and features you’re looking for
• Mastering an easy 3-step workflow for creating new content
• Delivering more interesting content with fields and new content types
• Creating intuitive site structures and user navigation
• Adding powerful site features with just a few clicks
• Completely redesigning your site in minutes with Themes
• Adding site search, registration, and more
• Presenting content in tables, lists, grids, or photo galleries
• Creating advanced layouts and 2- or 3-column designs
• Controlling what users on your site can see and do
• Preparing your site for launch
• Administering and updating a live site efficiently and safely
Drupal 7 Explained requires absolutely no experience with Drupal, content management, website construction,
programming, scripting, or even HTML. Stephen Burge has taught thousands of beginners—and thousands more
who’ve experimented with Drupal but haven’t mastered it yet. Nobody knows more about guiding Drupal users up the
learning curve—from confusion to results!

Sample Content

Table of Contents

1  Drupal Explained     1
The What, When, Where, Who of Drupal     2
Why Drupal?     2
How Much Is Drupal?     3
What Does Drupal Mean?     3
How Many Versions of Drupal Are There?     4
Who Uses Drupal?     4
This Book Explained     7
  What You Need     7
  What This Book Covers     7
  This Book Is Small     8
  This Book Is Active     9
  This Book Uses Specific Examples     9
  Things in This Book May Have Changed     9
What’s Next?     10
2  Drupal Planning Explained     11
Drupal Site Planning Explained     11
  Website Plan     12
  Project Management Plan     13
  Development Plan     14
  Maintenance Plan     14
Our Drupalville Website Plan     15
  Content Requirements     16
  Communications Requirements     16
  Navigation Requirements     16
  Feature Requirements     17
  User Requirements     17
  Design Requirements     17
Our Drupalville Project Management Plan     21
Our Drupalville Development Plan     22
Our Drupalville Maintenance Plan     23
What’s Next?     23
3  Drupal Installations Explained     25
Hosting Your Drupal Site Explained     25
  A Local Server Installed on Your Computer     26
  A Web Server That You Own or Rent     26
  A Web Server That’s Hosted by Drupal Specialists     27
Installation Recommendations Explained     28
Automatic Drupal Installations Explained     28
Manual Drupal Installations Explained     35
  Step 1: Create a Database     35
  Step 2: Download the Drupal Files and Upload Them to Your Web Server     39
  Step 3: Complete the Drupal Installation by Connecting the Database and Files Together     43
Getting Help with Installations     49
What’s Next?     49
4  Drupal Administration Explained     51
The Administration Menu Explained     51
  Home Icon     52
  Dashboard     52
  Content     55
  Structure     59
  Appearance     60
  People     61
  Modules     63
  Configuration     64
  Reports     66
  Help     67
  Hello     69
The Administration and Visitor Areas Explained     71
Log Out     71
What’s Next?     73
5  Drupal Content Explained     75
Content Types     75
Default Content Types Explained     76
  Creating an Article     76
  Creating a Basic Page     84
  What Have We Learned?     91
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