Site administrators

Publisher’s description:

A thorough introduction that lessens the learning curve to building sites with Drupal 7

Drupal 7 is the latest version of the free, open source content management system Drupal. A powerful content management system and framework Drupal has an unfortunate reputation of having a steep learning curve. This guide to Drupal 7 methodically demystifies Drupal and shortening the learning curve.

Author Jacob Redding is deeply embedded in the Drupal community, and walks first-time Drupal developers through the installation and configuration of a Drupal system. In-depth information on key areas of Drupal explore the Drupal hook system, Drupal's theming layer, and Drupal's API. You'll also get sample code, and lessons that guide you through various aspects of Drupal.

• Introduces you to every aspect of Drupal 7
• Demystifies key areas of Drupal and shortens the learning curve for even the most novice beginner
• Features lessons and sample code that offer extra insight into a Drupal web site
• Exploring simple single website installations and more advanced multiple site installations that share users and/or content.
• Addresses how to use Drupal's theming layer to your advantage.

With this comprehensive and clear book by your side, you will quickly learn to leverage Drupal's impressive power.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

From the Back Cover

Shorten the learning curve and quickly leverage the power of Drupal

Drupal is an open source framework and content management system used to create web sites that is known for its steep learning curve. This introduction offers you a clear and solid understanding of Drupal so that you can get started programming a Drupal site immediately. Author Jacob Redding walks you through the installation and configuration of a Drupal web site and presents a clear understanding of Drupal's hook system, theming layer, views, and API. Throughout the book, helpful examples and step-by-step instructions provide you with a strong proficiency in the power and capabilities of Drupal.

Beginning Drupal:

• Addresses ways to manage and moderate comments on your site
• Looks at why Drupal's node system is the pivotal structure of Drupal
• Explains the basics of the views modules and shows you how to control the output of your content
• Guides you through Drupal's built-in themes and modifying them to suit your needs
• Examines the power of Drupal's community and demonstrates how to become engaged with it
• Covers the entire module-development process, including creating custom configuration settings, blocks, and database tables

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

About the Author

Jacob Redding is an open source evangelist and technologist, and an active member in the Drupal community. In addition to managing several modules on drupal.org and providing Drupal-related training and consulting, he is also a board member on the Drupal Association.

Publisher’s description:

This hands-on guide takes a look at the main functional areas of Drupal that have significant new features. It explains these new features and how to use them, drawing attention to significant differences from how things used to behave, and giving the reader an idea of the kind of consequences these changes will bring to them. Drupal 7 First Look is written for site administrators, themers, and developers who have some experience with Drupal 6 (or even Drupal 5) and want to upgrade their sites, themes, or modules to Drupal 7 or just learn more about Drupal 7. No programming experience is required, but several code examples are covered for readers that want more in-depth information about building themes and modules.

Review

“On the whole, a great way to dive into Drupal 7 for team members on any level actually working to build Drupal web apps” —Victor Kane

“The book, Drupal 7 A First Look, is a very useful tool in grokking the update from 6 (or even 5) to 7. It will give you a good grounding in the newness and it's pretty darn comprehensive” —David Herron

About the Author

Mark Noble has worked in software development and website design for over 13 years in a variety of capacities including development, quality assurance, and management. He takes pride in developing software and websites to make businesses run more effectively and delights in helping users to get their jobs done more easily.

Mark currently works developing websites to help libraries manage their books. He also does occasional contract work for clients in a variety of industries.

When he isn’t in front of a computer, Mark enjoys playing with his family, photography, and geocaching.

See the original announcement about Drupal 7’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

The approach of this book has been revised and updated for Drupal 7 based on comments from thousands of readers. The book takes a pragmatic look at the steps necessary to get a website up and running. Drawing on years of writing experience, David Mercer utilizes a friendly, engaging style that is both clear and concise-perfect for the Drupal newbie. This book is for people with little or no experience in website design, people who are not necessarily familiar with PHP, MySQL or HTML, and above all people with little to no experience in using Drupal.

Reviews

“The Drupal 7 title is good for Drupal beginners and novices who are just starting out with Drupal but it also has a wealth of information and resources” —Trevor James - http://books.slashdot.org/story/10/10/20/1311253/Drupal-7

“It also highlights major improvements to previous versions which standout as selling points for Drupal 7 compared to other CMSes around.” —Josh Waihi- http://www.joshwaihi.com/content/review/drupal-7-by-david-mercer

About the Author

David Mercer was born in August 1976 in Harare, Zimbabwe. As he always had a strong interest in science, he came into regular contact with computers at the 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 ten years, he has worked on a number of well known titles, in various capacities, on a wide variety of topics. His books have been translated into over nine different languages to date.

David believes that everyone should be able to benefit from the vast potential of the Internet. He founded Site prebuilder (siteprebuilder.com) to provide education and services to reduce the barrier to entry for Internet newcomers. The aim of Site prebuilder is to empower ordinary, non-techie people with the knowledge and skill required to run any website efficiently.

When he isn't working, which isn’t that often, he enjoys playing the guitar (generally on stage and unrehearsed) and getting involved in outdoor activities ranging from touch rugby and golf to water skiing and snowboarding.

Publisher’s description:

Written in cookbook style, this book offers solutions to all common theme design problems through recipes. Each recipe contains step-by-step instructions followed by the analysis of what was done in each task and other useful information. The book is designed so that you can read it chapter by chapter, or you can look at the list of recipes and refer to them in no particular order. This book is written for Drupal developers who want to refresh the look and feel of their sites. If you are a Drupal site administrator who is looking to go beyond the basics and customize the presentational aspects of your Drupal site, then this book is for you. It assumes that readers are familiar with rudimentary PHP and acquainted with Drupal installation and general usage. Readers are also expected to have knowledge of CSS and XHTML.

See the original announcement about Foundation Drupal 7’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

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, 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.

Who this book is for

The primary audience for this book is web site designers throughout the world 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.

The secondary audience for this book is freelance Drupal developers who actively use Drupal to build web sites. They are proficient developers interested in reducing development time and learning Drupal best practices.

Table of Contents

1. An Overview of Drupal
2. Setting Up a Web Host and Installing Drupal
3. Configuring a Basic Drupal Web Site
4. Adding Content Types and Fields
5. People, Roles, and Permissions
6. Enabling and Configuring Core Modules
7. Essential Contributed Modules
8. Theming a Drupal Website
9. Designing for a Browser
10. Going Live
11. Maintaining and Updating a Drupal Site
12. Translating Business Requirements to Drupal Functionality
13. Drupal and Search Engine Optimization
14. Drush, the Command-Line Shell for Drupal
15. 50+ Contributed Modules to Spice Up Any Site
16. Views Recipes

See the original announcement about Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

Visual QuickStart Guides, designed in an attractive tutorial and reference format, are the quickest, easiest, and most thorough way to learn applications, tasks, and technologies. The Visual QuickStart Guides are a smart choice and guide the learner in a friendly and respectful tone. Visually presented with copious screenshots, the focused discussions by topic and tasks make learning a breeze and quickly take you to exactly what you want to learn.

The free and open-source package Drupal is one of the most user-friendly and popular web content management systems (CMSes) available. Sites built on it are highly visible and include The White House and Amnesty International. Its web-based interface allows those with little or no experience to create professional-looking sites quickly while its flexibility gives them access to such features as blogs, polls, and forums.

Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide uses plenty of screenshots and step-by-step instructions to walk a reader through the process of building a site using Drupal. To begin, the book details the process of downloading and unpacking Drupal, creating the MySQL database, and installing Drupal. It then moves on to explain the administrative interfaces, how to select a visual theme and create and customize content, and how to improve access to that content. Next the book walks readers through managing user accounts, customizing Drupal’s look and feel, and extending Drupal with modules.

Although Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide is written for beginners, it goes beyond the basic package to ease readers into advanced topics. A glossary and cross-references throughout the book give readers complete possession of the concepts, vocabulary, and steps necessary to reach Drupal mastery. From start to finish, it’s a complete guide for getting up and running with Drupal 7.