Beginner

Publisher’s description:

This hands-on guide takes a look at the main functional areas of Drupal that have significant new features. It explains these new features and how to use them, drawing attention to significant differences from how things used to behave, and giving the reader an idea of the kind of consequences these changes will bring to them. Drupal 7 First Look is written for site administrators, themers, and developers who have some experience with Drupal 6 (or even Drupal 5) and want to upgrade their sites, themes, or modules to Drupal 7 or just learn more about Drupal 7. No programming experience is required, but several code examples are covered for readers that want more in-depth information about building themes and modules.

Review

“On the whole, a great way to dive into Drupal 7 for team members on any level actually working to build Drupal web apps” —Victor Kane

“The book, Drupal 7 A First Look, is a very useful tool in grokking the update from 6 (or even 5) to 7. It will give you a good grounding in the newness and it's pretty darn comprehensive” —David Herron

About the Author

Mark Noble has worked in software development and website design for over 13 years in a variety of capacities including development, quality assurance, and management. He takes pride in developing software and websites to make businesses run more effectively and delights in helping users to get their jobs done more easily.

Mark currently works developing websites to help libraries manage their books. He also does occasional contract work for clients in a variety of industries.

When he isn’t in front of a computer, Mark enjoys playing with his family, photography, and geocaching.

See the original announcement about Drupal 7’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

The approach of this book has been revised and updated for Drupal 7 based on comments from thousands of readers. The book takes a pragmatic look at the steps necessary to get a website up and running. Drawing on years of writing experience, David Mercer utilizes a friendly, engaging style that is both clear and concise-perfect for the Drupal newbie. This book is for people with little or no experience in website design, people who are not necessarily familiar with PHP, MySQL or HTML, and above all people with little to no experience in using Drupal.

Reviews

“The Drupal 7 title is good for Drupal beginners and novices who are just starting out with Drupal but it also has a wealth of information and resources” —Trevor James - http://books.slashdot.org/story/10/10/20/1311253/Drupal-7

“It also highlights major improvements to previous versions which standout as selling points for Drupal 7 compared to other CMSes around.” —Josh Waihi- http://www.joshwaihi.com/content/review/drupal-7-by-david-mercer

About the Author

David Mercer was born in August 1976 in Harare, Zimbabwe. As he always had a strong interest in science, he came into regular contact with computers at the university where he graduated cum laude with majors in applied math and math (although he minored in computer science).

As a programmer and professional writer who has been writing both code and books for about ten years, he has worked on a number of well known titles, in various capacities, on a wide variety of topics. His books have been translated into over nine different languages to date.

David believes that everyone should be able to benefit from the vast potential of the Internet. He founded Site prebuilder (siteprebuilder.com) to provide education and services to reduce the barrier to entry for Internet newcomers. The aim of Site prebuilder is to empower ordinary, non-techie people with the knowledge and skill required to run any website efficiently.

When he isn't working, which isn’t that often, he enjoys playing the guitar (generally on stage and unrehearsed) and getting involved in outdoor activities ranging from touch rugby and golf to water skiing and snowboarding.

See the original announcement about Foundation Drupal 7’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

Drupal is a content management framework that powers web sites from simple online brochures to more advanced sites including social networking sites, blogs, e-commerce sites, business portals, and more. It is free, open source software that allows anyone to quickly and easily build web sites. Its full range of modules—including user permissions, security mechanisms, JavaScript menus, image uploaders, WYSIWYG editors, and more— helps you easily create the foundation for a powerful web site. With its templating system (and a few tips and tricks), any graphic design file can be used to create a Drupal web site.

Foundation Drupal 7 covers all the topics necessary to quickly build Drupal-powered web sites, explaining in simple terms how Drupal works and providing you with concepts, tips, and code snippets for every step of the development process. From setting up a Drupal-ready web host and installing Drupal to using the administrative interface and configuring a site from start to finish, there is something here for everyone. In addition to thoroughly discussing all of Drupal’s core modules, this book reviews more than 50 contributed modules, including WYSIWYG HTML editors, JavaScript drop-down menus, web forms, and even the powerful Views module. Stephanie Pakrul, creator and maintainer of the Fusion theme, coauthors a chapter on how to lay out and add graphics to a site through Drupal’s administrative section. After reading this book, you will walk away with everything you need to know to quickly and successfully build a Drupal-powered web site.

Whether you’re an experienced Drupal site builder looking to expand your skills, a web developer or designer interested in learning Drupal, or a weekend hobbyist looking to build your first site, Foundation Drupal 7 will give you the knowledge and inspiration you need to bring your ideas to life.

What you’ll learn

• Significantly decrease the amount of time it takes you to code a feature-rich website.
• Understand how Drupal works and learn best practices to quickly integrate Drupal into every website you design.
• Learn how to configure a server and manage multiple websites and staging environments using popular server administration software (cPanel).
• Learn practical techniques to place Photoshop or Illustrator design files on a Drupal content management system.
• Have a reference manual and cookbook at your fingertips for help with CSS, popular Drupal modules, website recipes, code snippets and more.

Who this book is for

The primary audience for this book is web site designers throughout the world interested in using Drupal to build web sites. The audience may have previous experience using Drupal but do not consider themselves proficient. They are familiar with coding a basic HTML/CSS web site, although these skills are not required to benefit from the book.

The secondary audience for this book is freelance Drupal developers who actively use Drupal to build web sites. They are proficient developers interested in reducing development time and learning Drupal best practices.

Table of Contents

1. An Overview of Drupal
2. Setting Up a Web Host and Installing Drupal
3. Configuring a Basic Drupal Web Site
4. Adding Content Types and Fields
5. People, Roles, and Permissions
6. Enabling and Configuring Core Modules
7. Essential Contributed Modules
8. Theming a Drupal Website
9. Designing for a Browser
10. Going Live
11. Maintaining and Updating a Drupal Site
12. Translating Business Requirements to Drupal Functionality
13. Drupal and Search Engine Optimization
14. Drush, the Command-Line Shell for Drupal
15. 50+ Contributed Modules to Spice Up Any Site
16. Views Recipes

See the original announcement about Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

Visual QuickStart Guides, designed in an attractive tutorial and reference format, are the quickest, easiest, and most thorough way to learn applications, tasks, and technologies. The Visual QuickStart Guides are a smart choice and guide the learner in a friendly and respectful tone. Visually presented with copious screenshots, the focused discussions by topic and tasks make learning a breeze and quickly take you to exactly what you want to learn.

The free and open-source package Drupal is one of the most user-friendly and popular web content management systems (CMSes) available. Sites built on it are highly visible and include The White House and Amnesty International. Its web-based interface allows those with little or no experience to create professional-looking sites quickly while its flexibility gives them access to such features as blogs, polls, and forums.

Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide uses plenty of screenshots and step-by-step instructions to walk a reader through the process of building a site using Drupal. To begin, the book details the process of downloading and unpacking Drupal, creating the MySQL database, and installing Drupal. It then moves on to explain the administrative interfaces, how to select a visual theme and create and customize content, and how to improve access to that content. Next the book walks readers through managing user accounts, customizing Drupal’s look and feel, and extending Drupal with modules.

Although Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide is written for beginners, it goes beyond the basic package to ease readers into advanced topics. A glossary and cross-references throughout the book give readers complete possession of the concepts, vocabulary, and steps necessary to reach Drupal mastery. From start to finish, it’s a complete guide for getting up and running with Drupal 7.

See the original announcement about Drupal Intranets with Open Atrium’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

Discover an intranet solution for your organization with Open Atrium

• Unlock the features of Open Atrium to set up an intranet to improve communication and workflow
• Explore the many features of Open Atrium and how you can utilize them in your intranet
• Learn how to support, maintain, and administer your intranet
• A how-to guide written for non-developers to learn how to set up and use Open Atrium

In Detail

In today’s global society, online collaboration has gained tremendous importance as businesses look for ways to share ideas and collaborate easily. Open Atrium is a powerful and flexible Drupal installation that provides intranet solutions to businesses and organizations for sharing ideas. It is used to create intranets where co-workers or teams can collaborate easily. But Open Atrium is filled with so many powerful features that you may need some help to use it to its full potential. Open Atrium is also a viable alternative to SharePoint.

Drupal Intranets with Open Atrium unlocks the power of Open Atrium and guides you through real-world examples of an Open Atrium intranet. Examples and screenshots are used throughout the book so that you can follow along on your Open Atrium installation. The examples walk through setting up your site, user administration, implementing core features, and maintaining your intranet site.

This book starts off with explaining how to set up a web server on a Windows or Mac computer and install Drupal with the Open Atrium distribution. After installing Open Atrium you will learn how to add and maintain users. The book also covers some exciting topics such as the different “spaces” or “workgroup” micro-sites that can be created to match your organization’s structure. Reading each of these sections, you will understand and become familiar with managing the Open Atrium interface. Once you comprehend the Open Atrium interface, you will learn how to create a blog, document library, and issue tracker for each group's dashboard or site page. The book covers everything from editing a single piece of content to arranging the layout of that content on each page.

By the end of this book, you should be able to establish your own intranet site for your organization or workgroup using the Open Atrium Drupal distribution.

A how-to guide with examples and screenshots to guide you through every step of creating an intranet with Open Atrium.

What you will learn from this book

• Add all the major features of an intranet to your site with Open Atrium
• Get to grips with Open Atrium's interface and its features
• Install Open Atrium and customize it for your organization or company
• Create sub-sites (spaces) for each of your teams, departments, or workgroups
• Manage users and create a member directory
• Add core features packaged with Open Atrium such as Blog, Calendar, and Issue Tracker
• Extend the functionality of Open Atrium by adding pluggable features developed by the Drupal Open Source community
• Maintain your intranet by performing routine maintenance tasks
• Analyze your site's logs and reports to ensure that it is running in tip-top condition

Approach

Packed with screenshots and clear instructions, this book allows you to follow along with your own site and ensures you won't get lost. It's a how-to guide that guides you simply through each step.

Who this book is written for

This book is intended for beginning to intermediate computer users who either have not worked with Drupal before or want to expand their Drupal knowledge by installing Open Atrium. If you want to learn how to quickly set up an intranet to improve your organization's communication and workflow, then this book is for you.

See the original announcement about Pro Drupal 7 for Windows Developers’s release in the Drupal news section.

Publisher’s description:

Drupal 7 opens the door for you as a Windows developer to build Drupal sites—including custom modules—all without leaving Visual Studio! Pro Drupal 7 for Windows Developers gives you everything you need to know to achieve this, whilst drilling down into the advanced topics that you’ll want to master whilst working with Drupal 7 as a Windows developer.

Pro Drupal 7 for Windows Developers starts with the Drupal page model, which Windows programmers can contrast against the ASP.NET page model. You will then explore the various features of Drupal, including the hook model, theming, roles, and caching. You'll also discover the data abstraction layer which lays the foundation for integration with your enterprise-level databases and external systems. Pro Drupal 7 for Windows Developers focuses on the important topics for the programmer coming to Drupal:

• An up-to-speed introduction to Drupal for developers so that they can get past the initial learning curve most efficiently.
• Key introductions to the important features of Drupal, including the page model, the hook architecture, the theming layer, and custom module development.
• How to work with the Drupal 7 features you want to work with within the Windows development environment.
• Step-by-step tutorials on building, testing, and deploying custom modules for internal use or for sharing with the Drupal community.

Pro Drupal 7 for Windows Developers provides a bridge to Drupal for you as a Windows developer—by speaking your language!

What you’ll learn

• How to install Drupal in your Windows development environment
• The Drupal page lifecycle and how it differs from ASP.NET
• How to invoke Visual Studio's step debugger with breakpoints
• The Drupal unit testing and web testing frameworks
• How to use Drupal with IIS and SQL Server
• How to program custom modules and customize existing modules
• The Drupal theming environment

Who this book is for

.NET and ASP developers interested in integrating Drupal 7 into their current environment, and Drupal 7 developers who need to navigate the potential pitfalls of working with Windows back ends.

Table of Contents

• Wherefore Drupal?
• The Page Lifecycle
• PHP and MySQL
• Drupal Installation and Configuration
• Module Development
• Content Types and Permissions
• Theming
• Testing
• The Database Layer
• Deployment
• Windows Development Environment
• From Start to Omega: Using the Omega Starter Kit
• Selected Reference Material