Understanding These Instructions

Instructions on understanding the instructions. It's all easy stuff, I promise.

Alphabetizing

A small but important thing. There are many words we'll need to use in discussing your site that have normal, everyday meanings, but also have special technical meanings within Drupal. A perfect example is "page": it's impossible to discuss a web site without referring to "pages" left and right, yet Drupal also speaks of a special, specific kind of content it calls (confusingly enough) "page".

Context often makes the difference clear, but I like precision in words. It's easy to add that clarity in text: I'll write "normal" words normally, and capitalize those with special meaning in Drupal. So, words like "page", "term", and "vocabulary" have their normal, generic meanings, but "Page", "Term", and "Vocabulary" have special technical meanings.

Note that other sites, books, etc. aren't likely to capitalize like this; it's an EDAM exclusive. Even administration forms within your site, and the helpful little blurbs of instruction that appear there, don't use this capitalization. Context should make things clear in those spots. Usually. Good luck!

Referring to pages on your site

We'll often want to refer to a specific page address (URL) on your site. But that'll differ for every site, as the domain differs for every site.

I'll write it like this example:

<your site domain>/node/add

Replace <your site domain> with your actual domain, and you're in business.

For example, if your site's domain is www.drupalace.com (which it isn't, by the way), then you get to the URL

<your site domain>/node/add

by typing

www.drupalace.com/node/add 

into your browser's address field.

Referring to menu items

To send you to a specific page on your site, the manual will often ask you to click on such-and-such link in so-and-so menu. I'll write it starting with the menu's name, followed by the menu item to click, followed by additional sub-items (if any). An example:

Navigation menu » Create content » Blog entry

That tells you to go to the Navigation menu (about which much will be said later), click the item "Create content", and from the additional menu items that appear from there, click "Blog entry".

Important Terminology!

A name for everything

Drupal is an open-source content management system awash in accolades for its flexibility and power. That said, some of the terminology that Drupal's creators and users make use of can sound a bit odd. In fact, I'm tempted to go ahead and replace a bunch of those terms with more sensible ones, but that would cause you trouble when reading resources outside of this site.

So let's learn a few key words that Drupal uses. That will make it easy for you to understand instructions from any source, and talk with other users and experts.

Remember: Special "Drupal words" get capitalized in this manual (though not generally in other resources). A "page" is any web page; a "Page" is a special type of page. And so on.

If any of the definitions here are incorrect or if more words need defining, please speak up!

The list

node

It's out of alphabetical order, but this one comes first. "Node" is a key piece of terminology in Drupal. Each "piece of content" you create is usually stored as a node. Typically this will be an "article" of some sort, such as a blog posting, a news story, a corporate info page, and so on. But Drupal allows many kinds of nodes, including polls, forum topics, ratable product reviews, and much more.

Building a site with Drupal is largely about creating and then manipulating nodes: you create the nodes that are the meat of your site, and then instruct Drupal in where and how to make those nodes appear as part of the site. Naturally, you can also tell Drupal to keep a node hidden (as a work-in-progress draft, for example), delete a node, and so on.

There's no need to capitalize "node", as it's not going to be confused with any other use of the word.

administer

This is a "computer-sounding" word that puts fear into some newcomers, but it's nothing sinister. Managing your site – adding or changing what's on it, modifying how it works, and so on – is administering the site. That's what you'll be doing, with more ease than you may have thought possible. You're ready to become an...

administrator

A person who is authorized to edit or otherwise manage the site. "Admin" is a common abbreviation. Drupal allows many levels of admin; sufficiently high levels can set what lower levels are allowed to do. It's possible to set many levels of admin, each with a very finely-detailed list of permitted administrative actions.

alias

See path, alias, and URL.

block

A typical site has its "main" information displayed as a node, or a list of nodes, in the center. But there may also be menus, lists, links, ads, and other information off to the sides of the page. These are "blocks", and you're in control of them on your site: you can create, modify, and relocate them. You can of course turn them on or off – even for specific pages only.

A sample block containing a site's main menu.

As used by Drupal, "block" shouldn't get confused with other uses of the word, so there's no need to capitalize it.

browser

A browser is a program used for viewing web pages: Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, OmniWeb, and so on. (If you refer to that software as "the Internet", please stop.)

One of the great things about your Drupal site is that you also administer it using the same browser; no separate software is required.

Category

Drupal lets you assign keywords, or "Terms", to your nodes. The language it uses to discuss this, however, is frankly confusing. Here's your guide:

• Term: A Term is a keyword or tag that you associate with a node. Useful Terms include words like "news", "product", "pets", anything you can think of that classifies your content. With Terms to classify your content, you can easily organize it. For example, you can create a menu item called "News from the Pet World", which is set up to display any nodes that have the Terms "news" and "pets" attached – i.e., the articles you've written about pet-related news.
• Vocabulary: A Vocabulary is a number of Terms grouped together for convenience. For example, you might have a Vocabulary called "Product Type", containing Terms like "sweater", "jacket", "socks", etc., for use with any node that describes a product.
• Taxonomy: This is a somewhat vague word to indicate the overall way Terms are used to classify and organize nodes in your site. You likely won't need to worry about this word; if you see it in some document discussing Drupal, just know that the topic concerns Terms and Vocabularies.
• Category: This is a confusing word: some Drupal documents say it means the same thing as Taxonomy, others seem to equate it with Vocabulary. I'll try to avoid using it, and stick to discussing the words that Drupal is clear on: the "Terms" that act as tags for your nodes, and the "Vocabularies" that are groups of Terms. (But just to keep things complicated: to set and edit your Terms and Vocabularies, you need to visit a form titled "Categories".)

content

Content is a vague word. It's the stuff you fill your web site with: news, stories, photos, you name it. Most content on a site is either text or images, though your content may include streaming movies, downloadable files, and other more exciting things.

Much of your content will exist as nodes (see above), with each node being a specific story, article, blog post, poll, etc. But everything placed within blocks, menus, and so on is also content.

Drupal

The strange name of the content management system you'll be working with. Drupal is used to make countless dynamic web sites, including this one. Drupal lets the administrator – you – command how and when your content appears, in what configuration, to what viewers. And that's just for starters. Drupal is a very flexible and powerful system. (It's not the easiest to get started with, though, which is where many beginners appreciate a helping hand.)

The online headquarters for Drupal developers and users is www.drupal.org.

excerpt

An excerpt (also called teaser) is a short form of a node's content, typically shown in place of the full node in lists.

For example, you might have a blog display excerpts from your last 10 posts, instead of the full posts. Each excerpt might be the first paragraph or two from the full post, or a separate short text introducing the blog post. Readers would then click on the post's title, or a "Read More" link, to display the full post.

field

A field is a text box, check box, etc. into which you (or another user) inputs data. When you log in, you type your ID and password into the appropriate fields. When you create a new node, you input information and settings into the appropriate fields, in a form that's full of fields. And so on.

form

I'm using this word for pages that are for editing content or settings. A form could be a page for creating content (a blog posting, an article, etc.), or could be a page for modifying site settings (such as setting the position of blocks).

front page

The first page that site visitors see. Many sites use the front page to display a list of nodes: blog postings, news, products, anything. But users with a little skill can also create a custom front page, such as a single large "splash page" image.

Navigation menu

A menu that appears to an administrator when logged in. The menu appears in a block headed by your user name, and contains links to all the important controls you need to create content, administer the site, log out, and more.

node

See node at the top of this list.

node-list page

There's no accepted name for this, so I'm making one up. A node-list page is a page that doesn't present a single node as its focus, but rather lists several nodes, whether full nodes (like complete news stories) or excerpts (like the first paragraph of news stories, followed by a 'Read More' link).

page

As mentioned many times in this manual, I'll try to avoid a common cause for confusion by using "Page" (capitalized) to mean a specific type of node that Drupal calls "page", and by using "page" (uncapitalized) to mean a web page.

If you're new to content management systems like Drupal, always keep in mind the big picture: You don't use Drupal to create whole pages, top to bottom, like webmasters did in the old days (you know, a few years ago). You use it to create the "components" of your web site – the nodes that contain your articles, info, etc.; the blocks that add other features; the menus for navigation; and so on – and tell Drupal how to put all those together into pages. Drupal does the actual page creation lifting from there.

path, alias, and URL

A path is the internal "address" of a node or other content item that can be specified via the browser. Your site will automatically give such content a path like node/14.

An alias is an alternative, friendlier path, which can be used in place of the less-friendly path that Drupal creates. For example, when Drupal gives your product info page the unexciting URL node/14, you can add the alias product_info.

Note: Drupal administration pages aren't always as consistent in their use of the words; some places freely mix "path" with "alias". Meanings should usually be clear, though. In any case, the usage in this manual is pretty standard tech usage, so capitalization isn't needed.

URL generally refers to the Internet address of a content item. For example, sticking with the above examples, visitors can reach your product info page at the URL <your site domain>/node/14 or the URL alias <your site domain>/product_info.

Taxonomy

See Category.

teaser

See excerpt.

Term

See Category.

Theme

A Theme is a set of instructions, stored as a number of files on the web server, that define a specific graphic design and layout for your site. The Theme specifies things such as text design, placement of site elements, background colors, and so on. You can choose freely from available Themes, changing the entire look of your site with a couple of clicks. Those with advanced programming and design skills can create new themes.

URL

See path, alias, and URL.

Views

A View is a very powerful, flexible way to create a list of nodes and display the list on a page. Using Drupal's Views function, you set criteria – say, all Blog entries published in the last month by user Jim – and Drupal returns those nodes as a list, called a View. You can also tell Drupal how to present the resulting list – say, titles only, or titles and excerpts, all arranged alphabetically or arranged by date or whatever you like.

Views let you create pages or blocks listing the content you want to present, in the way you want to present, and are a great feature for the Drupal admin to learn.

Vocabulary

See Category.

Best Practices for Site Admins

I'll keep a list here of best practices that will make your job easier.

Use a good browser

Your site should display well on any modern browser. Unfortunately, some administrator functions may not work perfectly on all browsers. Here's a list of known issues:

• Safari: Support for text editing features, such as TinyMCE, are experimental on Safari 2.x or lower, and may not work well. Safari 3.x may work well, but test before attempting to post a long article. If there's any doubt, consider using Firefox instead.
• Internet Explorer 6 or lower: These older, but still very common, versions of Internet Explorer don't have particular incompatibilities with Drupal; they're just poor products. They don't support tabs, which can make your admin job much easier (see below); they can't handle modern PNG graphics, which you may want to use; and they're horribly insecure. Consider upgrading to Internet Explorer 7, or even better, Firefox.

For a good, Drupal-friendly browser, it's hard to get much better than Firefox, but use whatever you like and works well for you. In any case, though, follow this advice:

Use browser tabs

Modern browsers like Firefox, and browsers like Internet Explorer 7, support browser tabs. Administering your site requires you to open one page or form after another; you're working with pages over the Internet, and there can be an annoying lag with every link or 'Save' button.

The job is much smoother opening every link in a new tab. Open the main administration page in the first tab

Navigation » Administer 

and maybe the Create content page in the second

Navigation » Create content

and any other often-visited pages in additional tabs.

Leave those pages open, and from there, open new administrative pages, or new content pages, in new tabs. The benefit: less waiting to return to often-used pages again and again, and while you're waiting for a page to save or open, you can switch to another page's tab and do some work there.

Experiment in private

If you're experimenting with big changes, overhauling the layout, or otherwise tweaking the site a lot, visitors may see confusing shifts in design (or see in-progress changes you didn't yet want to reveal). Consider taking your site off-line while you work.

• Maintenance and Construction Notices

Save long text during input

It's easy to forget this when things are working well, but when you administer your site you're communicating with a server that may be thousands of kilometers away, via Internet byways of imperfect stability. Add in the possibility of local trouble on your own computer, and once in a rare while, a page you're working on may go "poof!" without making it into the site database first.

If you're creating a long bit of text, consider copying the work in progress every few minutes, and pasting it into a word processor document locally. Just in case.

Editing text outside the site

You can even do your writing in your favorite word processor, and paste the finished work into the form for your new site page. Just watch for one thing: your word processor and your site's text fields may handle line returns and other formatting details differently; you may have to perform some clean-up in the web form after pasting in the text. But the task will in some cases be easier than doing all the writing inside your site's forms.

Play carefully with Themes

Your site may have multiple graphic Themes available (see Configuring Your Theme). It's fun to switch Themes and try on a new look, but be careful – some Themes will just look awful with a given site. Worse, the occasional Theme may screw up the appearance of the Themes form so much that you can't switch back to a safe Theme!

Before playing with Themes, follow this safety tip: open the Themes form twice (in two separate browser windows or tabs). Experiment using one only. If you should run into that rare bug of a messed-up Themes page, use the backup open Themes page to switch to a safe Theme.