Site administrators

See the original announcement about Building Powerful and Robust Websites with Drupal 6’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

This book updates the bestselling Drupal: Creating Blogs, Forums, Portals, and Community Websites, released for Drupal 4.7. David Mercer revisits the hugely popular Drupal CMS and expands, concentrates, and upgrades the original book to bring it line with the vastly improved latest version, Drupal 6. This book is for people with little or no experience in website design, people who are not familiar with PHP, MySQL or HTML, and above all people with little to no experience in using Drupal. Even intermediate Drupal users will find this book of interest although it is specifically aimed at pushing beginners up the learning curve.

About the Author

David Mercer was born in August 1976 in Harare, Zimbabwe. Having always had a strong interest in science, David came into regular contact with computers at university where he graduated cum laude with majors in applied math and math (although he minored in computer science).

As a programmer and professional writer who has been writing both code and books for about nine years, he has worked on a number of well known titles, in various capacities, on a wide variety of topics. His books have sold tens of thousands of copies and have been translated into over 6 different languages to date.

David finds that the challenges arising from the dichotomous relationship between the science (and art) of software programming and the art (and science) of writing is what keeps his interest in producing books piqued. He will no doubt continue to write professionally in the future.

David balances his time between programming, reviewing, writing, and contributing to interesting web-based projects such as RankTracer and LinkDoozer. When he isn't working (which isn't that often) he enjoys playing guitar (generally on stage and unrehearsed) and getting involved in outdoor activities ranging from touch rugby and golf to water skiing and snowboarding. Visit RankTracer or find him on LinkDoozer where he is generally lurking.

A second edition of this book has been released.

See the original announcement about Drupal for Education and E-Learning’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

Create engaging learning experiences using Drupal. A friendly and clear guide from the creator of the DrupalEd distribution. This book is for anybody looking to use Drupal to support teaching and learning; more generally, the examples given in this book can also be used by anybody looking to use Drupal to publish social media. This book is not a developer's manual; you do NOT need to know code, or HTML, or CSS, to benefit from this book. People new to Drupal will find clear examples describing how to set up their site. More experienced Drupallers will find tips and tricks for extending their site, and step-by-step instructions on how to make the most out of Drupal's flexibility.

A second edition of this book is now available.

See the original announcement about Using Drupal’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

With the recipes in this book, you can take full advantage of the vast collection of community-contributed modules that make the Drupal web framework useful and unique. You'll get the information you need about how to combine modules in interesting ways (with a minimum of code-wrangling) to develop a variety of community-driven websites. Each chapter describes a case study and outlines specific requirements for one of several projects included in the book—a wiki, publishing workflow site, photo gallery, product review site, online store, user group site, and more.
With Using Drupal, you will:

• Get an overview of Drupal concepts and key modules introduced in each chapter, with a bird's-eye view of each module's specialty and how it works
• Explore various solutions within Drupal that meet the requirements for the project, with details about which modules are selected and why
• Learn how to configure modules, with step-by-step recipes for building the precise functionality the project requires
• Get information on additional modules that will make the project even more powerful
• Be able to access the modules used in the chapter, along with other resources

Newcomers will find a thorough introduction to the framework, while experienced Drupal developers will learn best practices for building powerful websites. With Using Drupal, you’ll find concrete and creative solutions for developing the exact community website you have in mind.

See the original announcement about Drupal 6 Social Networking’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

Build a social or community web site, with friends lists, groups, custom user profiles, and much more

• Step-by-step instructions for putting together a social networking site with Drupal 6
• Customize your Drupal installation with modules and themes to match the needs of almost any social networking site
• Allow users to collaborate and interact with each other on your site
• Requires no prior knowledge of Drupal or PHP; but even experienced Drupal users will find this useful to modify an existing installation into a social web site

In Detail

Drupal is ideally equipped to be used as a base system for creating a custom social networking site like Facebook and MySpace. While these large social networks have their place, niche social networking web sites can help promote businesses, products, projects, and hobbies of any nature.

This book provides careful instructions and clear explanations to take you through the setup and management of your social network site, covering topics from users to marketing to maintenance. It will help you create your own social networking site, suitable for whatever audience you decide!

This book will take you from the very basics of both Drupal and Social Networking right through to more complicated aspects, like creating your own custom design and features for the site. With no experience of Drupal required, the book will introduce you to this award-winning CMS and carefully take you through the steps to create a social networking site from it. As the book progresses, you will learn how to add to and expand your social networking site, adding more features and adding value for your users, and how to make your users feel part of the community. Social networking web sites rely on their users contributing to the site, and this book helps you structure a site in a way users can easily and enjoyable contribute to the site - creating a powerful social network.

The book begins with the fundamental concepts of a Social Networking site, and how we can use Drupal to create such a site. It then goes through installing Drupal before looking at expanding the out-of-the-box feature set with third-party modules designed for Social Networking. Once the web site is running, it looks at securing the Social Network, deploying it on the Internet, and keeping it running and well maintained. It doesn't stop there however; as Social Networks rely on their user base to run and become successful, the book also covers marketing the Social Network using Search Engine Optimization, Online Marketing, and a range of new Social Media.

What you will learn from this book?

• Get started with Drupal and explore the features of this powerful Content Management System.
• Build a social networking site from the ground up using Drupal 6
• Use a combination of features, modules and some simple custom development to allow user interaction and user contributions
• Enable your users to interact and communicate with one another, building friendship
• Let your users contribute to the site, from those who wish to add a little content to those who wish to help run the site on a daily basis
• Import content into your site from elsewhere on the Internet using the Aggregator module
• Create user profiles, set up roles and permissions, and handle security settings
• Explore Drupal's modular system, and use it to create modules to add additional functionality relevant and useful to your social network.
• Customize the look and feel of your site by enabling and installing new themes, ensuring that your site is distinctive
• Deploy and maintain your social networking site on the Internet using the maintenance mode, reports, and cron to keep everything running smoothly
• Recover from virus attacks and hacking attempts to your Social Network by making and maintaining regular backups, in case the worst should happen
• Promote and market your Social Network using advertisements, advertising networks, other social networks, and search engine optimization

Approach

This book is packed with clear instructions and careful explanations for creating a powerful Social Networking web site using Drupal 6. With each chapter, you add new features and content until the Social Network is ready to be released to the Internet where it can grow.

By the end of this book, you will have a powerful Social Network either like that of the case-study, or of your own design based on the setup and features the book walks through.

Who this book is written for?

This book is aimed at anyone looking to create their own social networking web site, including:

• Businesses - building a Social Network around a product or service can improve your company profile and increase customer loyalty. Alternatively, an internal social network gives you employees a place to keep resources, discuss ideas, raise concerns, and keep up to date on company policies.
• Hobbyists - create a community around your hobbies and interests; create a local or distributed user group.
• Organisations & Charities - Raise your profile, promote your events / services / fundraisers and get help from the community in organizing them.
• Families - For large families based across the country or across the globe, keep up to date with everyone, and let everyone know what you are up to.

You don't need any experience of Drupal or PHP to use this book. If you are a Drupal user you will find this book a great way to rapidly tailor an existing installation into a social-orientated web site.

See the original announcement about Cracking Drupal’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

The first book to reveal the vulnerabilities and security issues that exist in the sites that have been built with Drupal?and how to prevent them from continuing Drupal is an open source framework and content management system that allows users to create and organize content, customize presentation, automate tasks, and manage site visitors and contributors. Authored by a Drupal expert, this is the first book to reveal the vulnerabilities and security issues that exist in the sites that have been built with Drupal?and how to prevent them from continuing. The main goal of this guide is to explain how to write code that avoids an attack in the Drupal environment, while also addressing how to proceed if vulnerability has been spotted and then regain control of security.

From the Back Cover

Uncover threats and protect your Drupal® site with proven strategies
What is the worst-case scenario if your Web site gets attacked and the security is broken? By following the strategies in this guide, you don't have to find out. It first walks you through the vulnerabilities you'll face and the steps you should take to protect a basic Drupal site. You'll then discover how to review a module to find weaknesses and fix them. And you'll learn how to keep your site running securely by implementing more advanced techniques.
Take control of your site by learning how to:

• Prevent the common ways that Drupal gets cracked
• Uncover parts of the attack surface that can expose your site
• Install extra modules and configure Drupal to maintain your site's security
• Control the security of your site using Drupal's API
• Utilize the Drupal Access system to limit who can see specific content
• Test your site with automated scanners like Grendel
• Follow strategies to find, exploit, and avoid vulnerabilities
• Leverage resources from the Drupal Security Team

For all the code in this book, as well as all the latest updates, visit the Web site http://crackingdrupal.com.

About the Author

Greg James Knaddison is Principal of Growing Venture Solutions and a dedicated Drupalista. As a member of the Drupal security team, Knaddison has participated in every part of the process including identifying vulnerabilities, creating fixes, testing fixes, and writing security documentation and advisories. He has also contributed modules and publishes the news site DrupalDashboard.com.

See the original announcement about Drupal 6 Content Administration’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

This is a fun, informative, hands-on learning guide that uses an actual case study. In an interactive and informal manner, this guide presents purposeful examples that continue to build on each other. Clear, concise instructions and practical examples mean you can learn quickly how to take care of the content in your Drupal site. This book is designed for those who run the site day-to-day but didn't set it up, and aren't necessarily that well versed in Drupal or web technologies. You could be a content editor, proofreader, graphic artist, feature editor, or anyone else concerned with managing content on a Drupal installation.