Drupal is a free engine that can be downloaded from the developer’s website or installed through the administrator panel on the hosting. The second method is more preferable, because when using it there is no need to create a database and perform the preliminary configuration of the system – it is enough to attach a registered domain name to the hosting account and select it to deploy the content management system.
It takes time to get used to the Drupal interface. It is logical enough, but the abundance of functions and settings complicates the task for novice webmasters.
When installing Drupal already has a standard set of modules with which you can manage the site. These include:
- Tracker for tracking new products;
- Block for displaying content on pages;
- Color for changing the color scheme of the site, if the theme provides such an opportunity;
- Image for image processing;
- Node for adding new content.;
- Search for organizing site search;
- System to manage system settings;
- User to manage registered users;
- Locale to select language packs;
- Path to rename links;
- Update Manager for checking for updates.
These modules form the core of the system. However, their functionality will not be enough to, for example, launch a store. This requires add-ons, which can be downloaded from the engine’s official website. Applications offer different tools, so you need not only to read their descriptions, but also to study forums and various guides to customize sites on Drupal.
For example, here is what store modules offer:
- convenient shopping cart and checkout page;
- buyer’s profile with information about his actions;
- order tracking system;
- online payment of goods;
- automatic change in the cost of goods depending on the selected currency.
You can search for modules suitable in terms of functionality or immediately download a ready-made assembly, which contains a standard set of tools. For example, a company website is built on Open Atrium. If you need a corporate portal with elements of a social network, then look at the Commons distribution. For a store you can use OpenStore, and for a news site – Drigg.
The main thing to remember is that the modules on Drupal act in conjunction, complementing each other’s capabilities. Therefore, when changing the functionality of the assembly you will have to check which modules are compatible with the set that was pre-installed. Similarly, the work on customization of the system based on the Drupal core. An example of how it looks like, you will see in the section about search engine promotion – all optimization tools are added by bundles of 2-3 modules.
It is impossible to refuse to use add-ons, because they solve tasks without which the site cannot function. For example, to manage pages and publications on Drupal there is an editor CKEditor. But for comfortable work with it requires a module ICME, which adds editing tools. To display content, you need the Taxonomy module – and so on for everything. This provides flexibility to the engine and at the same time creates a headache for novice webmasters.
Design
Immediately after installing the engine, you choose one of the standard templates, which will determine the appearance of the user part of the site. Other themes can be downloaded from the official CMS website. The catalog has several thousand templates of different levels of performance: some themes are so far behind in life that they do not even have adaptive layout, but there are still quite a lot of worthy options.
You should pay attention not only to the adaptability of the interface, but also to the structure of the layout. What number of blocks offers the page, how they are located, whether you can change their places without editing the template files.
The theme you like is first downloaded from the catalog, and then uploaded to the server through the Appearance section in the admin panel. After the operation is completed, the template will appear in the list of pre-installed design options. It’s not very convenient, but it makes you choose a theme more carefully – here you can’t switch between templates in one click like on WordPress, viewing them at once in practice.
Editing a theme is done with two main tools:
- Block Layout is a visual editor that offers the same tools as the designers. You get access to ready-made elements that can be freely dragged and dropped. These are used to form the interface of each page;
- Theme Settings – basic theme settings, where you can change the color scheme, adjust the display of pictures, set the logo and favicon;
- The third way to change the appearance is to edit the template files.
If you know how to handle HTML files, stylesheets and scripts, you will be able to customize the theme as you want. This task can also be entrusted to specialists, with the search for which is not difficult – orders for site development on Drupal is on any freelance exchange, as well as their performers.
