Friends of Ed, a division of Apress, has published "Foundation Drupal 7: Learn how to use the Drupal framework to quickly build feature-rich web sites" by R.J. Townsend, with a chapter on the Fusion theme by Stephanie Pakrul (aka StephTheGeek).
Drupal is a content management framework that powers web sites from simple online brochures to more advanced sites including social networking sites, blogs, e-commerce sites, business portals, and more. It is free, open source software that allows anyone to quickly and easily build web sites. Its full range of modules—including user permissions, security mechanisms, JavaScript menus, image uploaders, WYSIWYG editors, and more— helps you easily create the foundation for a powerful web site. With its templating system (and a few tips and tricks), any graphic design file can be used to create a Drupal web site.
Foundation Drupal 7 covers all the topics necessary to quickly build Drupal-powered web sites, explaining in simple terms how Drupal works and providing you with concepts, tips, and code snippets for every step of the development process. From setting up a Drupal-ready web host and installing Drupal to using the administrative interface and configuring a site from start to finish, there is something here for everyone. In addition to thoroughly discussing all of Drupal’s core modules, this book reviews more than 50 contributed modules, including WYSIWYG HTML editors, JavaScript drop-down menus, web forms, and even the powerful Views module. Stephanie Pakrul (aka StephTheGeek), creator and maintainer of the Fusion theme, coauthors a chapter on how to lay out and add graphics to a site through Drupal’s administrative section. After reading this book, you will walk away with everything you need to know to quickly and successfully build a Drupal-powered web site.
Whether you’re an experienced Drupal site builder looking to expand your skills, a web developer or designer interested in learning Drupal, or a weekend hobbyist looking to build your first site, Foundation Drupal 7 will give you the knowledge and inspiration you need to bring your ideas to life.
What you’ll learn
- Significantly decrease the amount of time it takes you to code a feature-rich website.
- Understand how Drupal works and learn best practices to quickly integrate Drupal into every website you design.
- Learn how to configure a server and manage multiple websites and staging environments using popular server administration software (cPanel).
- Learn practical techniques to place Photoshop or Illustrator design files on a Drupal Content Management System.
- Have a reference manual and cookbook at your fingertips for help with CSS, popular Drupal modules, website recipes, code snippets and more.
The primary audience for this book is web site designers interested in using Drupal to build web sites. The audience may have previous experience using Drupal but do not consider themselves proficient. They are familiar with coding a basic HTML/CSS web site, although these skills are not required to benefit from the book.
About the Authors
R.J. Townsend became a Drupal convert in late 2006 when searching for a CMS for a project and his brother-in-law commented, “hey, have you checked out Drupal?” He has spent the following years singing its praises to anyone who will listen. R.J. has since built over 40 Drupal-powered websites for clients in a number of industries, including retail, business-to-business, non-profit, political advocacy, e-commerce, and higher education. With a passion for automating processes, research programs, and otherwise laborious tasks, Drupal has become his tool of choice. He currently works almost exclusively with agencies and freelance designers, providing consulting, development, training, managed hosting, and technical support services.
Stephanie fell in love with Drupal back in 2005 as a tool to turn the ideas in her head into powerful websites. Her background in both design and web development were nicely bridged with this emerging field of "theming" -- pulling together the visual design with the underlying functionality. She co-founded TopNotchThemes in 2007 to bring that expertise to site owners who seek the same thing that brought her to Drupal in the first place: turning dreams into reality without hiring a coder. Fusion and its line of free and premium Drupal themes have taken that goal a step further by allowing you to control the layout and styles of your site through Drupal's UI.
Comments
Follow-up from author
Few notes from the author (that's me!):
All screenshots and tutorials are taken from the Drupal 7.x betas (1 & 2 mostly, with a few from 3), and I plan to writing chapter updates as they are needed, which will be freely available through Apress.com.
I have also provided the website FoundationDrupal7.com as a resource for people to try out Drupal and follow along in the book.
Finally, I've committed to giving 10% of all profits (that I receive) to the Drupal Association. :)
--rj
I read the book - it's good
I am going to post my full book review on Amazon.com but I'd like to quickly comment that this book does a good job at introducing Drupal 7.
LA Drupal
Published since 2007
Drupal is easy and powerful. This book does well to show that.
An element of this book that I liked was how little it reflects on Drupal's past. For new users of Drupal (or those coming back to Drupal) drowning them in terminology can hurt the perspective a person has about the platform. Drupal is easy. Drupal is powerful. This book does very well to show that. The installation chapter is one of the best I've read (and I read almost every Drupal book printed in English) - users are taught how to properly install Drupal - AND - what best-practice steps to take after installing Drupal (like *proper* file and folder permissions). You get to learn Views and how to produce Drupal themes using Fusion. This book is definitely a marker of next-gen Drupal and will fill your reading time with the absolute latest and greatest Drupal site building know-how. And, not to take away from the main chapters but the last couple extra chapters at the end of the book are gems!
LA Drupal
Published since 2007
Sample chapter?
This book's topic sounds interesting - is there a sample chapter and/or a table of contents somewhere?
Excellent Primer Going Beyond the Basics of Drupal 7
A simple and well written book from Robert and Stephanie that contains not only Drupal 7 essentials but also all other things you need to know to create and run successful Drupal powered website including collection of requirements, selecting a host, selection and installation of components, setup for development, staging and production. Authors exhibit extensive Drupal experience and the book is full of useful tips yet it is written in very accessible and pragmatic manner that will not cause you head to explode from information overload.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is new to Drupal, evaluates upgrading from version 6 or is seasoned CMS designer who wish to learn about Drupal's power.
What I liked about the book:
- Simple and to the point explanation of the subject
- Examples with plenty of screenshots
- Access to author's website with super user privileges
- Tips going beyond scope of simply setting up and running CMS
- Excellent and complete theming tutorial
- Links to many resources for further study
What I did not like about the book:
- It gives away secrets of the trade that creates stronger competition :)
- It refers to modules that are not yet ported to Drupal 7 but I recon that is only matter of time when they will and it is good to know about them anyway.
Overall, I was very pleased to see this book being published at the right time when Drupal 7 was released and it being a comprehensive reference and set of easy to follow tutorials.
Great Book
This is probably one of the few tech books I've actually read cover to cover, and I'm extremely pleased that I picked it up.
I was looking for a book that provided a broad introduction to Drupal that would allow me to get up to speed quickly, understand the fundamentals, and provide enough of a basis to be able to both construct something functional and to start asking tougher questions. This hit all the right points, and it was an easy read on top of it.
Definitely recommended for Drupal beginners.
-dan
A good book, but ahead of the curve
I bought this as part of my introduction to Drupal; I had previously purchased a video series on Drupal. I learn better by getting a visual/audio big picture, followed by a book to burn the information in.
This book covers a lot of information, some of the kinds of things that seem difficult, but after reading the explanation, seem obvious. It took me to the point of actually setting up the site and feeling comfortable playing with what's there.
I did run into a problem with my site while trying to follow through with the book. It ended up being a setting that my hosting provider needed to work around to allow Drupal 7 to do its thing, but r.j. was one of those who came to my aid in the forums and helped get me past it.
The only reservation I would have at this point is that, if you are buying the book to learn theming, it's too early. It relies upon skinr, which is not yet finished or functional for Drupal 7.