Are you like me, never used Drupal and don’t really know what it is and what it can do?

If so, here is some information and facts on Drupal.

After reading about all of the powerful features, and finding out what it can do in the way of managing content and content sites, I’m definitely going to be using it in the future.

Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual, a company or corporation, or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website.

Many thousands of people have used Drupal to power scores of different web sites, including

Community web portals
Discussion sites
Corporate web sites
Intranet applications
Personal web sites or blogs
Aficionado sites
E-commerce applications
Resource directories
Social Networking sites

Drupal is ready to go from the moment you download it (and it’s free to download).

It even has an easy-to-use web installer! The built-in functionality, combined with dozens of freely available add-on modules, will enable features such as:

Content Management Systems
Blogs
Collaborative authoring environments
Forums
Peer-to-peer networking
Newsletters
Podcasting
Picture galleries
File uploads and downloads
and the list goes on and on.

Drupal is open-source software distributed under the GPL (“General Public License”) and is maintained and developed by a community of thousands of users and developers.

Drupal is free to download and use, so why wouldn’t anyone want to give it a look-see.

If you feel some detailed video training would be a real short-cut to getting Drupal installed, configured, and operating on your web site, then take a look at this video tutorial on Using Drupal Content Management.

Lewis Poteet

Well, it depends on what , exactly, you are looking for.

Listed below are some of the types of people who use Drupal. Also listed are some of the features they may want and the skills they’re likely to have.

If the features meet your needs and you have the right level of skills, Drupal may just be the perfect system for you.

(More about the skills later.)

#1 I’m a Blogger and I need…

single-user or multi-user blogs (or both)
ways to assign categories to my content
commenting
trackbacks
themes I can use to customize the style and layout of my site
support for images or other media, using contributed modules (plug-ins)

Skills needed: end-user, administrator

#2 I’m evaluating Drupal for my organization or company and we need…

customizable user roles and permissions
robust security
scalability
functionality we can configure and extend to meet specific business needs
a support infrastructure (documentation, community, etc.)
ways to assign categories to our content
additional features or functionality

Skills needed: evaluator, end-user

#3 I’m a community organizer and I need…

ways for community members to easily share ideas (blogs, forum, files, etc.)
tools members can use to self-organize
the ability to evolve as the community evolves (keeping up with the state of the art for interactive web sites)
a support infrastructure (documentation, community, etc.)
customizable user roles and permissions
safety and security on the web (control over spam, trolls, etc.)
preconfigured tools for community-relationship management like CivicSpace.

Skills needed: evaluator, end-user, administrator, site developer (to some extent)

#4 I’m a small-business owner and I need…

a site I can set up myself
themes I can use to customize the style and layout of my site
customizable user roles and permissions
scalability and adaptability to the needs of my changing business
ways to to categorize my content
a support infrastructure (documentation, community, etc.)
e-commerce support for
shopping carts
premium paid-content subscriptions
functionality I can configure and extend to meet specific business needs

Skills needed: evaluator, end-user, administrator, site developer (to a limited extent)

#5 I build or design websites for clients and I need…

the freedom to create a custom look and feel with my own themes
additional features and functionality
easy-to-provide support for my clients
access to a community of designers and developers

Skills needed: evaluator, administrator, site developer, developer (to some extent)

#6 I’m a programmer and I need…

a robust, well-designed, modular system I can customize and extend
well-documented APIs
system and architecture documentation and coding standards
access to a community of other developers
a rich list of features

Skills needed: administrator, programmer

Do you know what type of Drupal user you want to be?

If you do, review the skill sets below to see what you’ll need to get started:

Evaluator: Be familiar with web terminology and concepts.

End-user: Be familiar with browsing, clicking, submitting web pages, selecting options.

Administrator: Manage roles, select themes, categorize web pages (content), configure module settings, install and upgrade software and databases, apply security fixes.

Site designer/developer: Install software, design style and layout (with css and minimal php), build and deploy websites, evaluate contributed modules, work with LAMP.

Programmer: Program in php, administer databases, program through a well-defined API, design database objects, evaluate existing solutions, apply patches, collaborate with other developers.

Drupal is a very powerful and robust system, and chances are it can be of great benefit to you or your organization.

For some detailed information on installing and using Drupal, here is where you can find a video tutorial on how to install and configure Drupal.

Lewis Poteet