Last updated January 4, 2009. Created by dman on September 28, 2008.
Edited by LeeHunter, add1sun. Log in to edit this page.
Occasionally, people who have previously used other editors (FrontPage, Dreamweaver) or CMSs (Joomla etc) ask how they access the admin area or "back-end" of Drupal. Sometimes they ask how they can preview their changes and see the "front-end".
- In Drupal, there is no such distinction, it just provides a unified interface.
- If you are looking at your website, you are previewing it. Log out and you get the full 'anonymous' experience.
- Drupal usually looks pretty much the same to anonymous browsers as it does to editors, only with different features and menu items available.
- Authenticated users with appropriate permissions will see the 'edit' tabs above their pages. That's often the only difference between editor and user experience.
We find that people who have never used a CMS before are often much less confused about this approach than people who have previously used systems where the 'input' screens look totally different from the 'output' screens. It's an un-learning thing.
However, if you want, you can still set an 'Administration theme' (in the settings Administer › Site configuration > Administration theme ) so that your admin pages look different from the front end. ... It still actually behaves the same, but it may help if your public presentation theme is highly graphic or stylized.
Comments
One my top three reasons for loving Drupal
Every other CMS I've used has/had an "admin" interface in addition to the front end. When you've been in ecommerce a while you get used to customers asking questions about products or pages. So you go to the "front" of your site to see what they see, but if you need to make a correction you have to log in at the back, search for the product record or page again, then change/update it.
In Drupal this just doesn't happen. You find the listing, see what the customer sees then edit it right the and then. I can't over emphasize the time saving this feature alone brings.
It also forces you to get your navigation right. If you have trouble finding things on your own site, it's a safe bet your visitors do as well. With a separate admin interface, you might spend a bunch of effort improving your own experience. When the two are the same what makes things easier for you, makes things easier on visitors.
top three reasons for loving Drupal
What are the other two ?
top three
druplicon and angi byron?
2 Things
1. Making custom features.
Once you pass the learning curve you can do much more with Drupal
than any other system I have seen.
2. The need not to make as many custom features because in 80%
of the features have already been built for you in contrib modules.
10-20% needs to be customized by admin. If you are real picky then
learn the system. There is a tremendous need and it will grow. I can't
see anyone that really applies themselves in marketing and knowledge
being able to make less than $100,000+ a year using this great technology.