Drupal Architecture Diagram?

Posted by neko on February 12, 2003 at 12:10pm

Hi guys,

Just wondering if there is a Drupal architecture diagram(s) - I think some nice diagrams would help understanding how everything fits together.

I'm thinking class diagram, rendering pipeline (sequence diagram?) ER diagram for the database etc.

Always good to keep a systems documentation up to date

cheers,
neko

Comments

nuthin

Posted by moshe weitzman on February 12, 2003 at 2:59pm

we don't have anything like that, as far as I know. Something as elegant as Drupal does deserve some pretty diagrams though. Hope someone is inspired to produce this.

Diagrams of Drupal

Posted by Anonymous on February 13, 2003 at 10:28pm

Here Here! Excellent thoughts. The diagrams are a real MUST have!

Uhm

Posted by Anonymous on May 21, 2003 at 5:09pm

(just stumbled in by random)

Isn't the diagram a help to create the database? Not the other way around?? Just skip the diagram guys! You should have had it before you made the database!

I beg to differ

Posted by chaska@blogger.com on May 23, 2003 at 3:43pm

It's always good to have documentation, even if it is written after the fact, instead of before.

As for an Entity-Relationship (ER) diagram of the database, it is definitely worth having even after the database is made. It makes the database easier to understand for someone new to working on Drupal. And if there is every any change to the database, it will be just as invaluable as having created it before the first database.

If you've got an ER tool, it's even better because you can reverse engineer the current database into an ER diagram, and then generate the database after making changes in the tool to the diagram.

Is the database relatively normalized (e.g. 3rd or 4th normal form) for most of the tables? If so, I've got Sybase's Power Designer here and can reverse engineer the database with a little help on getting the non-obvious relationships connected.

--
Slavica

ER Reverse Engineering

Posted by Anonymous on July 20, 2003 at 8:38pm

Try downloading dbdesign from fabforce,com. It's GPL, windows app, and is a pretty good ER diagrammer designed for MySQL and can reverse engineer a database into a diagram very well. I tried it on the Drupal db and it worked fine.

ER Designer

Posted by emerygjr on May 11, 2007 at 11:07pm

It is fabforce,net

there is an ER diagram of the drupal database

Posted by ax on July 20, 2003 at 9:24pm

made by slavica here

This would be sooo helpful.

Posted by kenyob on December 7, 2006 at 9:36pm

Does anyone have a copy of the image posted above?

I found the old link on archive.com but the ERD PNG image isn't available:
http://web.archive.org/web/20041114055745/drupal.org/node/1805

Im looking for a simple diagram showing how the template system works together.
Its kind of comfusing because the tpl files use php variables like $content .
However other than hackinf through the css and php code there is no way to see how one tpl file fits and relates to another along with the CSS related elements.

Hi, It appears to be this

Posted by greg.harvey on April 19, 2007 at 2:43pm

Hi,

It appears to be this one:
http://lists.drupal.org/archives/support/2003-05/pngauQLvYDfix.png

I found it here:
http://lists.drupal.org/archives/support/2003-05/msg00058.html

--
http://www.codeenigma.com/

Jeff Eaton has some great

Posted by ChrisKennedy on May 12, 2007 at 9:11am

Jeff Eaton has some great diagrams on aspects of the Drupal system, primarily the FormAPI:

Development cycle - http://jeff.viapositiva.net/node/477
Drupal form processing - http://jeff.viapositiva.net/node/457 (see attached image)
FormAPI 3.0 - http://drupal.org/node/138706#comment-233445 and http://drupal.org/node/138706#comment-233448

Edit: wow, I didn't notice initially that this was such an ancient topic.

Guys, I'm looking for Drupal Architecture diagrams

Posted by arman on June 13, 2008 at 10:21pm

Greetings,

I'm looking for Drupal Architecture diagrams for a document I'm putting together.

If there are none I'll draw em up and contribute them back.

Any new updates on this front.

Arman.

Yes please

Posted by colin_e on June 21, 2008 at 11:28am

I've just negotiated with the supplier of a Drupal-hosted site a regular export of the database for reporting purposes. I think i'm going to be wandering around in the dark without some clues on the db structure, so please do post any diagrams.

(This is Drupal 5 BTW, I assume 6 is significantly different?)

Regards: Colin

best diagram for drupal 6 database structure

Posted by mgifford on December 18, 2009 at 10:16pm

I found this earlier today, but had hoped that there would be more options.

http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/tmp/schemagraph/output/schemagraph-2007-1...

--
OpenConcept | Twitter @mgifford

do you know who create it?

Posted by omerle on December 20, 2009 at 5:02pm

or where can I find a smaller pic?
the whole scheme is quite enormous and I'm just looking for bits and pieces.

10x,
Omer

In theory there is no difference between facts and theory,
but in fact there is.

Amazing

Posted by gaellafond on March 24, 2010 at 5:46am

Thank you, that's exactly what I was looking for. You just save me hours of work!
Unfortunately, the diagram do not include the content module (CCK group). I will have to search more or create it by myself...

[modify]
I just discovered a wonderful tool call schemaspy. It create the schema automatically for you.
http://schemaspy.sourceforge.net/

There is an example of what it can produce:
http://webdevgeeks.com/schemaspy/index.html

Thanks for the links

Posted by izmeez on July 25, 2010 at 4:33pm

@gaellafond, Thanks for the link to this interesting tool.

thanks

Posted by vacho on September 30, 2010 at 4:01pm

excellent, a good data dictionary drupal BD

Looks good

Posted by willhallonline on April 2, 2010 at 4:23pm

This looks like a good tool. I am doing a presentation on "migration to drupal" and a quick way to generate a diagram is fantastic as I certainly prefer looking at diagrams to understand the relational nature of databases than just looking at the data. I am going to try this out on a few database configurations (with cck/views/some seo modules etc) i will sort out the diagrams and repost where I can. Great find.

Drupal 5 RC1 - Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

Posted by carlpr on July 24, 2010 at 1:26am

Using Google's image search, I found an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) for Drupal 5 here:
http://drupal.org/files/issues/Drupal5RC1_Database.png

HTH

Thanks,
Carl

not a pretty sight (the ERD)

Posted by lancsDavid on July 25, 2010 at 12:55pm

maps are objects for understanding terrain
computer software is very complex terrain
if maps aren't attractive objects in themselves it makes studying them much harder

for these reasons i reckon a combination of a (shorter) bayeaux tapestry, the london underground map & the Entity relationship diagram is needed to make drupal properly understandable in as short a time as possible

nothing short of a new evolution in map making

i mean, the more complex the terrain then surely, the greater the need for a good map?

( not that i ever get the impression there's much of an appetite for this kind of stuff in the drupal community. in my experience its pretty much a community of programmers/developers. not designers/artists )

Drupal DB Map (ER analysis)

Posted by hanoverhr on September 8, 2010 at 1:25am

Our team is working on a completed ER/DB map for Drupal 6 (at least for core, and the modules we use). It's being done by hand, as we could not find a good analysis program...can't believe this is not out there somewhere already. It is critical for migrations and DB translations/overlay (we need it for this purpose).

Once we have something in the next month or so, we'll post it here! A lot of scanned sheets, but it might help someone!

Regards --
Sean

Sean R. Hanover
703-402-2723
Project Manager/Senior Programmer
SeanHanover@hhc-inc.com

Best I could find

Posted by werfu on September 13, 2010 at 6:37pm

This is the best I could find. I guess its better than nothing and cover most core functionalities.

http://knownexception.blogspot.com/2009/12/drupal-6x-approx-core-databas...

Thanks werfu!

Posted by nvedia on June 7, 2011 at 3:56pm

Thanks werfu!

Trying to explore Drupal

PAC ....

Posted by Sree on June 8, 2011 at 7:15am

This might also be helpful to understand the architecture: http://www.aspiringcraftsman.com/2007/08/25/interactive-application-arch...

-- Sree --
IRC Nick: sreeveturi

MySQL WorkBench

Posted by aosiname on August 2, 2011 at 11:45am

I asked a similar question a while ago specifically about the database diagram. Using MySQL Workbench free software - I was able to reverse-engineer a Moodle MySQL database - so I assume you can do it to Drupal - takes a while moving all the tables around and you need a pretty huge monitor but its well worth it.

D7 using MySQL Workbench

Posted by ursula on August 8, 2011 at 9:04pm

I created a data model for the standard-install of Drupal 7 using MySQL workbench, and also collected some links to other drupal data models.

http://upsitesweb.com/blog/2011/06/drupal-7-database-schema

The purpose was to familiarize myself with the data structure. Maybe, it is helpful for others as well.