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Robin Hastings Missouri River Regional Library
Drupal 101
Robin Hastings
Info Tech Coordinator at Missouri River Regional Library
Web worker for 15 years
Pretty comfortable with Drupal, HTML/CSS and PHP, can edit other people’s JavaScript
Avid knitter, reader and sometimes World of Warcraft player
Objectives
• Understand what Drupal is and what it can do for you
• Be able to locate further training resources
• Understand how Drupal displays content
• Become familiar with Drupal concepts
• Learn how one library set up their site
Goals
What did you come here to learn?
CMS
• Content Management System > Drupal
• Database with a fancy UI
• Free– Drupal– Joomla– Wordpress
• Expensive– Lots of options, none we considered…
Application Development Platform
• Blogs
• Forums
• E-commerce sites
• Civic sites (CivicSpace is a port of Drupal geared toward municipalities)
• Social Networks
• ?
Resources
• Lynda.com – training videos
• DrupalCon – conference with LOTS of Drupal learning opportunities
• DrupalTrainer.com – seminars all around the country
• Drupal Handbook – community-created help for every part of Drupal, from Core to Modules
Best Practices
• Plan – not just for what you want now, but what you will want in the future
• Make backups a habit
• Test changes if possible (test servers are your friend)
• Do not “hack” core (makes updates crazy…)
• Get involved with the community – contribute what you can
From
Drupal’s W
ebsite:http://drupal.org/node/171194
Regions
• Blocks of content on the page
• Defined in .info
• Managed in the “blocks” area of the administration site
• VERY POWERFUL
Nodes vs. Content
Nodes Content
• Discrete bits of content contained in the database
• Any kind of content
• Building block of your site
• Made up of 1 or more nodes
• Can be pulled in from off-site
Administration Menu
CCK – Custom Content Kit
Views
Webforms
Scheduler
Embedded Media and Nice Menus
Themes
• Lots of “drop and use” options– www.osskins.com– www.themebot.com– www.topnotchthemes.com
• HTML/CSS to Drupal is possible – How we did it– Not the easiest– Not the cheapest
Planning Process
• Worked out what features were needed– Used old site’s logs– Used survey responses
• Did complete content inventory on old site– Got rid of unneeded content– Added content that was needed
• Planned out navigation/Information Architecture of new site
Training
• I went to hands-on administrator training
• Came back and trained staff– Group “what is Drupal” sessions– One-on-one “these are your pages” sessions
• Got a video for staff to use for refresher
• Made myself *very* available for questions/problems
Design
• Hired out the design to a local designer
• Designs were received and modified by Public Relations staff
• HTML and CSS were delivered to me
Theming
• 3 .info files created
• 3 template files created
• Kludges and workarounds abound…
• Best practice – get the theme in “drupal-ready state”
Content
• Copied and pasted content from old site
• Created “shells” of pages with staff in one-on-one training sessions
• Use log files to determine content needs (include search terms in that!!)
Launch
• Live on Nov 17th (board meeting)
• *Completely* forgot major content page (new materials)
• Otherwise, very smooth
Maintenance
• Update Drupal core monthly (roughly)
• Update Drupal modules as needed (weekly-ish)
• Update server (LAMP) monthly
• Keep learning about new ways to do stuff (daily)
Features
• Flickr Slideshow
• Twitter badge
• Facebook badge
• Blog headlines
• Content Spotlight
• Drop-down menus
• Announcements and Event Ads
• 2 Menus; 2 Menu styles
Drupal in Government
• Whitehouse.gov
• List of Drupal sites in Government (State and Federal) - http://groups.drupal.org/node/19885