New Drupal DVD/Video - Understanding Drupal

By KentBye on 1 Jul 2008 at 16:07 UTC

Understanding Drupal is the first video in The Lullabot Learning Series. This video provides an overview of Drupal as a content management system, as a PHP web application framework, and as a developer community. Its documentary-style exploration covers all the terminology and fundamental concepts for both site administrators and developers. If you've ever been confused by Drupal or are still trying to wrap your head around the community and platform, this video is intended as a roadmap to accelerate your journey up the Drupal learning curve.

Lullabots Addison Berry (add1sun), Angela Byron (webchick), Jeff Eaton (eaton), Nathan Haug (quicksketch), Jeff Robbins (jjeff), James Walker (walkah), and Matt Westgate (matt westgate) sit down to tell us about Drupal in this video directed and edited by Kent Bye (kentbye). A portion of the profits from this video will be donated directly to the Drupal Association.

Topics include...

How content is entered and managed
How users and user permissions are handled
What blocks are and what they can do
The concepts and capabilities of Drupal’s powerful module system
How Drupal handles navigation and its menu system
How themes alter the site layout, design, and presentation
Site configuration and administrative messages and settings
This video uses Drupal 6 for examples, however it is focused on general Drupal concepts rather than version-specific how to's.

High-resolution download is available immediately. DVD version is available for pre-order and should ship before July 21.

More information available from http://store.lullabot.com

Comments

Creative Commons?

sirkitree commented 1 July 2008 at 18:38

What's the license on this video? I think we cold do some fun stuff with it over at drupalmao ;)
_{~Professionally: Sony BMG - myplay.com

~Personally: sirkitree.net | drupalmao.com}

_{~Professional: Lullabot

~Personal: jeradbitner.com}

Traditional Copyright

KentBye commented 1 July 2008 at 19:39

It's a traditional copyright, but Fair Use rules still apply. This is a good resource. ;)

Why not CC-NonCommercial?

deproduction commented 2 July 2008 at 13:42

Kent,
Doesn't seem like you and Lullabot to use standard copyright...
If this were CC, I'd love to show it on our TV station and expose new audiences to Drupal and Lullabot. I realize how much work this DVD has been, but am disappointed there's not some CC version... non-commercial, attribution, that could allow people to use this as a tool to share with wider audiences. Are there other videos you're aware of that could be shown on a noncommercial TV station to try to evangelize Drupal a bit. Maybe a few chapters could be released on the web?

Some info wanted

RKC commented 1 July 2008 at 21:50

Hi,

This looks nice. Just a few questions.

1. Does the video cover information on functionality/capabilities of Drupal or does it also cover information on how to achieve that functionality. I mean is it just introduction to concepts or does it include examples as well.
2. Does it have introduction to views/panels??
3. Is there a low-resolution file available? I mean the file size is around 990 MB and downloading it can be cumbersome?

Thanks,

RKC

I have bought and now

lvthunder commented 2 July 2008 at 04:15

I have bought and now watched the video so I can answer these questions.

1. Yes the video covers what Drupal can do and introduces you to the concepts. It doesn't however teach you how to do anything.

2. No I don't recall it talking about views or panels. It does talk about CCK though.

3. No I didn't see a place for a low res file. There are some screen shots that it probably wouldn't look good at low res. If downloading it would be a pain I suggest buying the DVD.

I would say this video is designed more for someone either completely new to Drupal (as in not installing it yet) or a marketing video as to why you would want to use Drupal. I was hoping to see them talk about say CCK then have them show me how to do it, but I guess the showing is in the next volume.

If you have listened to all the Lullabot podcasts and have been using Drupal for any length of time this video is not meant for you unless your a developer and need help explaining to clients why they should use Drupal. That being said I'm not disappointed in the video because I like supporting the people that entertain me (I listen to all the podcasts).

I can second that opinion

jpewert commented 2 July 2008 at 06:25

I can second that opinion 100%. I started using Drupal just a few weeks ago. There was practically no new information for me in the video. It exclusively explains jargon, it contains no information on how to do anything in Drupal.

However, I do not regret buying it, since it was a good primer for my wife who is a total newbie and this way could avoid searching around in the forums for the meaning of terms such as "nodes" or "CCK" (or asking me all the time). Also, Lullabot has provided a lot of free helpful info during my first weeks so it was a given for me that I would purchase their video.

Next Videos...

quicksketch

he/him

commented 2 July 2008 at 05:43

We've still got a lot of plans for the next DVDs. As mentioned, this video is very much geared towards "what is Drupal and does it do?", rather than "how do I do X with Drupal". It's a broad overview that would certainly assist in explaining Drupal to clients, new users, or significant others.

That said, it's not the beginning and end of the DVDs, hence why it's the first in the "series". Theming is a hot topic we want to cover, as well as CCK and Views. Thanks to those who've taken the plunge so far!

Nathan Haug
_{creative graphic design w: quicksketch.org

& software development e: nate@quicksketch.org}

When

lvthunder commented 2 July 2008 at 20:05

Any idea when the next one might come out? Sometime this year I hope.

Hello, Can you tell us how

kwgossett commented 2 July 2008 at 22:16

Hello,
Can you tell us how many videos in the series there will be? Also, is there any kind of package for the info? $40/video adds up over time, but if there were a package deal, it may be a better option.
thanks.

cheap!

Chill35 commented 2 July 2008 at 23:35

I don't work for Lullabot but I feel compelled to reply.

Forty dollar for a corporate or educational video is dirt cheep. This is not your average movie DVD for which the cost of production will get watered down in the amount of copies sold. Lullabot, with its educational videos, will never sell that many copies, yet still have to cover their production cost. What's more, part of the money they'll get from selling this video won't even go toward covering the cost but will be donated to the Drupal Association.

Drupal is 'free' to use. It boggles my mind that some people are not ready to pay for a book about Drupal — or a DVD.

Side note: I notice that Lullabot is using Shopify.com to sell their goods. Is this because the Lullabot people don't want to build a Drupal 5 site using ubercart or e-commerce?

My current 'paying' project is a Shopify site by the way.

Chill! Out!

kwgossett commented 2 July 2008 at 23:50

I just asked how many videos in the series and if there would be a package. Seemed like a fair question to me. I never complained about the price and have bought plenty of books and educational material...but only when I understood what I was getting.

profits, not cost

Chill35 commented 3 July 2008 at 00:18

What's more, part of the money they'll get from selling this video won't even go toward covering the cost but will be donated to the Drupal Association.

Oupsy, it's more like "a portion of the profits from this video will be donated directly to the Drupal Association." So in the event that they make a profit, part of that profit will go the Association.

Caroline
^{11 heavens.com}

Side note: I notice that

venkat-rk commented 3 July 2008 at 12:32

Side note: I notice that Lullabot is using Shopify.com to sell their goods. Is this because the Lullabot people don't want to build a Drupal 5 site using ubercart or e-commerce?

I found that very curious too. Is that a subtle statement on the state of the two e-commerce solutions, I wonder?

----
Previously user venkat-rk.

Shopify

matt westgate commented 3 July 2008 at 16:44

It's good to jump out there and try other things every now and then ;-)

They Shopify peeps are great and they solved some of the ecommerce gotchas in innovative ways. What we've gained from this experience is perspective we can bring into Drupal and ecommerce. The bots have been chatting with Ryan from Ubercart for some time now and we made a list of nips and tucks we're sponsoring in order to refine the Ubercart experience.

***
lullabot loves you

Matt

Chill35 commented 3 July 2008 at 16:59

That's great!

Are you using Fetch for your downloadable dvd? http://www.fetchapp.com/

I am asking not out of curiousity but because I need similar functionality with my current shopify project.

How life works!

My client sells 3D footage clips for cinema. In the product page, there has to be these 2 variants: 'ship me the DVD' and 'let me download it'.

The client would like eventually to use Amazon S3 to store videos he's selling. Shopify, through what they call a 'web book', could possibly notify some middle-man application (a Drupal site, e.g.) about the transaction, then the middle-man would send the customer a download link by e-mail... a link to his purchased file, stored on Amazon S3.

Caroline
^{11 heavens.com}

It was S3

lvthunder commented 3 July 2008 at 20:09

The video did come from S3. I saw that when I downloaded it.

Mmm interesting

Chill35 commented 3 July 2008 at 20:50

I wish I knew how that's implemented.

Caroline

11 heavens.com

It's good to jump out there

venkat-rk commented 4 July 2008 at 20:34

It's good to jump out there and try other things every now and then ;-)

Indeed :-) Way better than being the frog in the well that thinks there is no world beyond its well.

It's very heartening to hear that Lullabot will be sponsoring refinements to Ubercart.

----
Previously user venkat-rk.

great news

bertboerland commented 2 July 2008 at 19:45

I know Hagen had a german version out a long time ago and I am planning on making a dutch one. however, i think that just making the footage and the script will take you 100-200 hours, video-editing another 200 hours and the dutch market isnt that big to support all these hours. so my employer might end up sponsoring or we will find another creative way but there will be a dutch version before the end of this year that will truly rock!

--
groets
bert boerland

At first glance...

StevenSokulski commented 2 July 2008 at 23:54

At first glance your estimates seem pretty far off. My advice, rather than do it yourself taking up oodles of your time it may in the long run be cheaper to hire somebody with the skill set to move through the project at a more brisk pace. The difference between your personal time and the cost of finding somebody willing to work on it. I remember when I started doing corporate video I'd take projects on for peanuts just so I could have my name on a decent project. I wish something this cool had come along then, though.

too low?

bertboerland commented 3 July 2008 at 14:48

thanks for the feedback. i do have some knowledge when it comes to videocasting and I do think that I can write a good script and let it be captured in 200 hours. doing the post production (just video editing) can be done as well in 200h. testing etc and delevery is not in here. yes, for some parts i will outsource the tasks but i wont do this for the money but for fun so I will do some stuff myself :-)

--
groets
bert boerland

Congrats

jbrauer commented 2 July 2008 at 23:24

Congrats on a great video! Thanks Lullabot!

Also not noted in the announcement is that you can buy a combination of the DVD and the download at a discount. Certainly worth having and being abel to share with people who are new to Drupal.

PS For anyone in the Boise, Idaho area the Boise Drupal User Group will be screening the video ahead of Thursday's Drupal Meetup. More info http://groups.drupal.org/node/12653

-----------------------------------------
Blog: Adding Understanding
Drupal Developer Search Engine
Drupal Services: Brauer Ranch.

Teaser says "Drupal is difficult"

AltaVida commented 2 July 2008 at 23:31

It looks really well done, congratulations. My first thought was that this would be a great way to introduce Drupal to potential clients. One thing that really concerned me though was one of the opening lines in the teaser:

The learning curve for Drupal was really difficult. It felt like I spent most of my time just trying to get enough knowledge to do what I wanted to do.

This is great quote to help sell your learning DVD's to new Drupal developers, but not something I'd want potential clients to hear (even if I agree with the statement).

Out of curiosity, is this video supposed to be targeted at developers or site owners (aka clients)? Or both?

Thanks.

Audience

jbrauer commented 2 July 2008 at 23:37

I would suggest the ideal audience would be a client who has some background in web and this would be a great tool to help explain what Drupal is and why it is a great tool for many sites.

-----------------------------------------
Blog: Adding Understanding
Drupal Developer Search Engine
Drupal Services: Brauer Ranch.

Does it mean that it will

venkat-rk commented 3 July 2008 at 12:35

Does it mean that it will not help at all to convince an experienced php developer to work in drupal? I have been trying to get someone to do so and was hoping this DVD might do the trick.

----
Previously user venkat-rk.

hard to say

jbrauer commented 3 July 2008 at 23:45

@Venkat-Rk - It's a little hard to say as different people respond to different things. It may be that somebody deeply familiar with PHP and content management in general may not get enough from the video and that a copy of Pro Drupal Development (PDD) would be a better fit. There is some high-level coverage of things like Drupal's hook system, the community and many other great points about why Drupal rocks covered in the video. But if you're looking for an in-depth look at any of these things this video might not be as good as PDD.

--
Blog: Adding Understanding
Drupal Developer Search
Drupal Services: Brauer Ranch

Thank you, JBrauer. I gave

venkat-rk commented 5 July 2008 at 11:03

Thank you, JBrauer. I gave this developer a copy of ProDrupal 5, but I was hoping a video might act as the tipping point :-)

----
Previously user venkat-rk.

"Drupal is Difficult" line ended up on the cutting room floor

KentBye commented 3 July 2008 at 17:12

Hi AltaVida,
It turns out that the very specific line did not make the final edit of "Understanding Drupal" partially because of those very concerns that you bring up. The Drupal Learning curve is still briefly mentioned, because it does still exist, but it's not dwelled up as being insurmountable like it felt like to Jeff Robbins when he first started into Drupal. There are a whole lot more resources available for people to help through the Drupal Learning curve than there were when Jeff first started.

And yes, I'd say that the DVD is geared more towards people starting at ground zero and potential clients. But I also know that developers can benefit from hearing how the Lullabots describe different aspects of Drupal, because I think it'll help clarify in your own mind what Drupal is and how to talk about it to other people.

Great to hear.

AltaVida commented 4 July 2008 at 00:00

Thanks, I'm glad to hear this. I think I'll go download it now.

I bought it

AltaVida commented 4 July 2008 at 21:58

The production is fantastic. The content itself is really good as well. Kudos.

No, experienced Drupal devs won't learn much, but this will be a great tool to educate other people about Drupal and CMS's in general.

There's are some parts that are going to go way over the heads of most clients IMHO. What would be nice, is if one of the Lullabot people could post the start times for each chapter. That way I could show people only the parts that I know will interest/educate them.

Cheers.

Feature Request

jbrauer commented 5 July 2008 at 06:44

With the risk of putting feature requests in the forum (but hey I'm a risk taker)... It would be great to have the download have chapter markers.

--
Blog: Adding Understanding
Drupal Developer Search
Drupal Services: Brauer Ranch

i bought it too. Very useful

Fred125 commented 19 January 2009 at 10:04

i bought it too. Very useful

Don't waste your money on

sciman commented 3 July 2008 at 17:38

Don't waste your money on this unless you know absolutely nothing about Content Management.

Basically, the Video discusses what CMS is and how Drupal goes about managing content. You will learn nothing about using or administering Drupal.

I'm very dissapointed in the video.

dginis commented 7 July 2008 at 23:22

Okay, thirty dollars is not a lot of money to spend - I agree. But, I was hoping to actually learn something. The video seemed more of a promotional video for drupal by means of interviewing drupal experts. I kept thinking the whole time during the video that the instructional part is coming up... never did. The title "Understanding Drupal" is misleading. It doesn't help you "understand" any of the basic building blocks of drupal, let alone show you how to go about using anything. It's more or less talk about why drupal is cool and lean and bla bla bla. We know this already! I'm sorry but I was expecting something a lot better from lullabot. I didn't care for the great graphics in the video. What I cared for was gaining some insight into drupal. Of which, I never did.

I really don't enjoy being harsh like this, and I do wish to support this community but the dvd was made with a commercial interest in mind and thus deserves my fair and accurate opinion. Sciman is right, you will not learn anything about using or administering drupal. I wish I had listened before purchasing the video.

-Dimitris

Okay for someone new to Drupal

bsnodgrass@drupal.org commented 30 October 2008 at 18:21

I'll use it to introduce someone completely new. Not much there if you have any hands on experience with Drupal.

Thought it was great!

pneill commented 5 July 2008 at 23:56

I loved it. I've been kicking the tires of Drupal for a while now, but I've been too lazy to read the documentation. I've hacked themes and I've set up a few sandbox sites and have basically taught myself by trial and error. This video really helped me understand I lot of the ideas behind drupal and has inspired me to read the documentation. So well done there, Lullabot.

I look forward to your next video (when can I expect it?). I hope you do something about CCK.

Oh, and to those who say it cost too much. Please. Forty bucks for a hours worth of time with 5 experts on drupal is cheap. (Someone working at fast food joint makes $10/hr). But I recommend you buy the downloadable version (which is higher resolution and $10 cheaper) and then play it on your TV. I used my Apple TV and it worked great.