Content Construction Kit (CCK)
The Content Construction Kit allows you to add custom fields to nodes using a web browser.
Drupal 7 and Fields in Core
Part of CCK is moving to core in the Drupal 7 version. The API to create and manage fields is now in core and this module, CCK, has been ported to Drupal 7 to serve as the UI for fields in core. Try it out! Use the D7 (HEAD) version of CCK to drag 'n drop your fields onto either nodes or users in Drupal 7.
CCK Resources
CCK is a very powerful system with many different contributed modules to extend its functionality. Install the Advanced Help module for additional help, and use the Views module to display CCK information in a variety of ways.
Here are a few other comprehensive documentation and tutorial resources to help get you started:
- Text: The CCK Handbook on Drupal.org
- Text: CCK Module basics tutorial
- Video: Adding Fields With CCK video
- Video: CCK & Views Tutorial (for Drupal 5)
- DVD: Learning CCK in-depth training by Lullabot
- Book: Using Drupal O'Reilly covers CCK with lots of examples
- Video: Karen Stevenson's CCK Presentation at the Do It With Drupal Seminar (paid access)
Important: D5 to D6 Upgrade information
YOU MUST RUN ALL POSSIBLE UPDATES TO YOUR DATABASE IN 5.x USING THE LATEST 5.x CODE, BEFORE UPGRADING FROM 5.x to 6.x.
ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR DATABASE BEFORE UPGRADING!
1) Before upgrading to 6.x, upload the latest 5.x versions of all CCK modules, go to update.php and run all possible updates.
2) Disable all CCK modules and remove them from the modules folder before upgrading.
3) Install Drupal version 6. Leave all contributed modules out of the modules folder until core modules are up and running. Set your administration theme to a core theme like Garland until everything has been updated to help ensure you don't encounter theme-related problems accessing the administration area.
4) Once core is running, upload and install the latest 6.x versions of ONLY CCK CORE FILES (the ones in the tarball on this project page). Enable them, then go to update.php and run all possible updates. DO NOT add any other CCK modules to the modules folder until the core CCK files are updated and working correctly.
5) After updating CCK core modules, you may get messages saying that some updates failed and that you need to run update.php again. If you get messages like that, keep re-running update.php until you get no more messages.
6) Once the core CCK modules are updated and working correctly, add other CCK modules to the modules folder, enable them, and run update.php. For best results, do this one module at a time so you can tell immediately if any of them create problems without letting those problems interfere with other updates.
Your database should now be ready to run in CCK version 6.x.
The extra steps in the 5.x to 6.x upgrade are because all modules in the modules folder are automatically updated in Drupal 6, even if they are not enabled. That means that modules that rely on core CCK may try to run their updates even if core CCK is not enabled, and contributed CCK modules that have broken updates will have their broken updates run even if they are not enabled.
A number of updates are dependent on other updates and won't work until previous updates are finished or specific modules are enabled, so you may get messages that other modules need to be enabled or that update.php needs to be re-run, and you need to follow those instructions until all the updates complete.
Taking extra time during the upgrade by leaving modules out of the modules folder altogether until you are ready to enable and update them should reduce or eliminate update problems.
