Everything You Need To Know About Drupal.
Drupal is an open-source content management system that is driven by the community. Millions of individuals and organisations use it to construct and manage websites all around the globe. Many big corporations and government organisations use Drupal, so you probably use it every day without realising it.
Drupal is GNU Public License-licensed open source software. This means that it offers intrinsic advantages over proprietary software in terms of cost, flexibility, independence, security, and responsibility. Drupal, for example, is completely free to download and customize. This prevents “vendor lock-in” and allows users all around the world to monitor and fix compliance and security vulnerabilities in Drupal’s core code.
Drupal is at its heart a content management system (CMS), which means that it lets you organise and manage your content. It also lets you make flexible ways to publish content and a wide range of dynamic features for that content.Drupal also serves as the key component of your digital experience platform for enterprises wishing to transform and extend their digital presence (DXP). This implies it can work with payment gateways, CRMs, analytics tools, social media platforms, and marketing automation platforms.
Drupal is a powerful and flexible open-source content management system (CMS) used by millions of websites and applications worldwide. It is known for its robust features, scalability, and flexibility, making it a preferred choice for complex and large-scale websites. This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know about Drupal, from its core features and benefits to its architecture, customization options, and community support.
Introduction to Drupal
What is Drupal?
Drupal is an open-source CMS written in PHP, designed to build and manage websites and web applications. It is highly customizable and extensible, allowing developers to create a wide range of digital experiences. Drupal’s modular architecture makes it suitable for various use cases, from simple blogs to large enterprise applications.
History of Drupal
Drupal was created by Dries Buytaert as a message board in 2000 and was officially released as an open-source project in 2001. Since then, it has grown into one of the most popular CMS platforms, supported by a vibrant community of developers, designers, and users. Drupal has undergone significant evolution, with major releases introducing new features and improvements.
Key Features of Drupal
- Modular Architecture
- Flexibility and Customization
- Scalability
- Security
- Community Support
- Multilingual Capabilities
- Content Management and Publishing
- SEO and Marketing Tools
- API Integration
- Performance Optimization
Core Features of Drupal
Modular Architecture
Core Modules
Drupal core comes with a set of essential modules that provide basic CMS functionality. These include user management, content creation and management, taxonomy, menu systems, and more.
Contributed Modules
The Drupal community has developed thousands of contributed modules that extend Drupal’s functionality. These modules cover a wide range of features, such as SEO, e-commerce, social media integration, and advanced content management.
Custom Modules
Developers can create custom modules to add specific functionality tailored to their needs. Drupal’s API and hook system make it easy to build and integrate custom modules.
Flexibility and Customization
Themes and Templates
Drupal’s theming system allows for extensive customization of the website’s appearance. Developers can create custom themes or modify existing ones to achieve the desired look and feel. Drupal supports Twig, a flexible and secure templating engine.
Content Types and Fields
Drupal provides a flexible content model, allowing users to create custom content types with specific fields. This enables the creation of complex data structures and relationships between content.
Scalability
Drupal is designed to handle high-traffic websites and large-scale applications. It supports advanced caching mechanisms, load balancing, and database replication, ensuring optimal performance and scalability.
Security
Drupal is renowned for its strong security framework. The Drupal Security Team actively monitors and addresses security vulnerabilities, providing regular updates and patches. Drupal’s robust permission and access control system ensure secure management of users and content.
Community Support
Active Community
Drupal has a large and active community of developers, designers, and users who contribute to its continuous improvement. The community provides support through forums, mailing lists, and IRC channels.
Documentation
Comprehensive documentation is available on Drupal.org, covering all aspects of Drupal development, theming, and site administration. This resource is invaluable for both beginners and experienced users.
Events and Conferences
Drupal events and conferences, such as DrupalCon and local meetups, provide opportunities for learning, networking, and collaboration. These events foster community engagement and knowledge sharing.
Multilingual Capabilities
Drupal offers extensive multilingual support, allowing users to create and manage content in multiple languages. Core modules and contributed modules provide features for translation management, language detection, and content localization.
Content Management and Publishing
Content Authoring
Drupal provides a user-friendly content authoring experience with features like WYSIWYG editors, drag-and-drop interfaces, and in-place editing. These tools make it easy for content creators to produce and manage content.
Workflows and Permissions
Drupal’s workflow and permission systems allow for granular control over content creation, editing, and publishing. Users can define custom workflows and assign roles and permissions to ensure proper content governance.
SEO and Marketing Tools
Drupal includes built-in SEO features and integrates with various marketing tools to enhance website visibility and engagement. Features like clean URLs, meta tags, XML sitemaps, and social media integration help improve search engine rankings and user experience.
API Integration
Drupal’s API-first approach makes it easy to integrate with external systems and services. RESTful APIs, GraphQL, and JSON
support enable seamless data exchange and integration with third-party applications.
Performance Optimization
Drupal provides various tools and techniques for optimizing website performance. Caching, content delivery network (CDN) integration, image optimization, and performance monitoring help ensure fast and efficient websites.
Architecture and Technical Aspects
Drupal Core
Drupal core is the foundation of the CMS, providing essential features and APIs. It includes modules for user management, content creation, taxonomy, menus, and more. Core updates are managed by the Drupal Security Team to ensure stability and security.
Modules
Core Modules
Core modules are included in Drupal core and provide basic CMS functionality. These modules can be enabled or disabled based on the site’s requirements.
Contributed Modules
Contributed modules are developed and maintained by the Drupal community. They extend Drupal’s functionality and can be downloaded from Drupal.org. Popular contributed modules include Views, Pathauto, and Webform.
Custom Modules
Custom modules are created by developers to add specific functionality to a Drupal site. They use Drupal’s API and hook system to integrate seamlessly with the core and other modules.
Themes
Core Themes
Drupal core includes several themes that provide basic styling and layout options. These themes can be customized or used as a starting point for custom themes.
Contributed Themes
Contributed themes are developed by the Drupal community and offer a wide range of design options. They can be downloaded from Drupal.org and customized to fit the site’s branding and design requirements.
Custom Themes
Custom themes are created by developers and designers to achieve a unique look and feel for a Drupal site. Drupal’s theming system, including Twig, provides flexibility and security for theme development.
Drupal API
Hook System
Drupal’s hook system allows modules to interact with the core and other modules. Hooks enable developers to alter or extend Drupal’s behavior without modifying the core code.
Services and Dependency Injection
Drupal 8 introduced a service-oriented architecture and dependency injection, improving code organization and reusability. Services are reusable components that perform specific tasks, and dependency injection allows for better control over these services.
Configuration Management
Drupal’s configuration management system allows developers to manage site configuration consistently across different environments. Configuration data is stored in YAML files, making it easy to export, import, and version control.
Customization and Development
Custom Module Development
Developers can create custom modules to add specific functionality to a Drupal site. Custom modules use Drupal’s API and hook system to interact with the core and other modules. This flexibility allows for extensive customization and integration with external systems.
Custom Theme Development
Custom themes provide a unique look and feel for a Drupal site. Developers can create custom themes using Drupal’s theming system, including Twig templates, CSS, and JavaScript. Custom themes can be tailored to match the site’s branding and design requirements.
Site Building
Drupal’s site-building tools enable users to create complex websites without extensive coding. Features like content types, fields, views, and taxonomy allow for the creation of structured content and dynamic displays.
Performance Optimization
Optimizing a Drupal site involves various techniques and tools, including caching, content delivery network (CDN) integration, image optimization, and performance monitoring. These strategies help ensure fast and efficient websites.
Community and Resources
Drupal.org
Drupal.org is the official website for the Drupal project, providing resources such as documentation, modules, themes, and community support. Users can download Drupal, find contributed modules and themes, and participate in forums and discussions.
Drupal Community
The Drupal community is a global network of developers, designers, and users who contribute to the project’s development and support. The community provides resources, support, and collaboration opportunities through forums, mailing lists, and events.
Drupal Events
Drupal events, such as DrupalCon and local meetups, provide opportunities for learning, networking, and collaboration. These events feature sessions, workshops, and sprints, fostering community engagement and knowledge sharing.
What is the use of Drupal
Design and Advertising Firms
Drupal’s speed and ability to manage a lot of content in a precise way will help digital design and other creative companies that work with it..
Using Drupal’s built-in AJAX functionality, which is especially prominent in the acclaimed Views module, the platform may be transformed into a gorgeous showcase of an agency’s creative work.
Digital Portfolios with a High Level of Complexity
We are now fully ensconced in the internet era, and there are no signs that this will change very soon. That is why, in this day and age, it is critical to digitise your creative firm portfolio in such a manner that it appeals to your target audience both aesthetically and practically.
NGOs & Charities
Drupal has a lot to offer charities and other non-profit organisations.
Because the CMS’s ecosystem is so open-source, they may take advantage of contributed themes, modules, and patches without having to pay exorbitant fees for development time or the purchase of a large number of paid plugins, as is the case with other open-source CMSs like WordPress or Joomla.
Websites about travel and tourism
Due to its complexity, Drupal has become the platform of choice for many travel and tourism websites in recent years.
Because Drupal has a solid backend framework and features like Rest APIs, which have become more popular since Drupal 8 came out, more travel companies are using it as their main or secondary platform for advertising trip packages, collecting user data, etc.
Those who provide digital services
Drupal is the finest CMS for websites with a large user base and a high volume of traffic. Because of its long-term reliability and security, Drupal is widely selected by digital service providers such as web hosting, Internet service providers, and creative or development firms.
Websites that Help
Drupal is an ideal support platform in a variety of ways due to its capacity to handle enormous levels of traffic and complex site structures.
The CMS is favoured in this field because of its flexible access roles and privileges, which enable a large number of users to contribute to the website in a variety of ways.
Websites for Communities
Drupal’s built-in user management feature is used by many community websites. Drupal has significantly more user management capability than its CMS competitors.
Drupal seems like a good choice for a high-traffic community site, especially since there are so many contributed modules for community sites that can be used.
Advantages of Drupal
Multiple users and roles
If you have a team working on the site, you can give them different roles with different rights. Even though one or two people may be in charge of the site most of the time,when the organisation is huge or there are numerous areas or departments, it is likely that more than five people are working on the site, uploading and modifying material. In this regard, Drupal simplifies the work by allowing each person to establish a user with varied responsibilities and permissions. That is, one individual may only have access to the News section, while another may be in charge of maintaining the Benefits section.
Themes,and templates system.
Templates that may be purchased or generated from scratch are used by Drupal. What makes the Template useful is that it separates the structure and content from the visual aspect, allowing you to change the design tomorrow while maintaining all of the previously loaded content.
Content management
Drupal lets you build pages quickly and easily, giving you full control over the information on your website. This way, you don’t have to hire a web developer to post and change text, images, and videos.
Setup time is minimal.
With Drupal, you can get your site up and running quickly. Since earlier versions, the time it takes to install Drupal has gone down a lot. You can quickly start taking advantage of some of its strong features right now.
Because Drupal has so many features, you’ll almost surely end up with a website you enjoy straight away.
Performance and security
Drupal is known for having a secure content management system (CMS) with a solid performance system that makes the site quick to load.
Demonstrate your accomplishments.
If you’re proud of where you’ve gotten with a campaign and want to show it off, Drupal includes a number of modules that might help. You may show how near you are to attaining your objective visually.
Content generation is simple
Theming and writing in Drupal 8 are meant to be easy to use. Drupal 8.6, for example, supports remote media types. It’s simple to include a Vimeo or YouTube video into your content.
Furthermore, the Workspace module now enables for more advanced content modification in a staging environment before going live.
Outstanding client service
Drupal 8 has APIs that allow you to create your own solutions. That is, you may communicate with prospective customers via a variety of channels at the same time. D8 has altered the way websites are developed as well as the expectations that consumers have of them.
Disadvantages of Drupal
- The problem of familiarisation. The building and promotion of a site using Drupal can be tough for users who have never done so before. While mastering the basic features of the system may not take long, completely comprehending it may take several months.
- The UI is advanced. Drupal is challenging to master in professional construction systems. It is not very intuitive due to its sophisticated UI.
- System requirements are high. Before you begin using this CMS, you must be willing to forego low-cost flights and pay a high hosting charge.
- The scarcity of high-quality designs available for free. The majority of system users are working on self-development plans for their projects. As a result, there is a scarcity of good themes.
- Updates and programme modules are proving difficult to install. Because updates and additional modules of the Drupal software are installed over FTP, this approach is challenging for site developers who have previously worked with a simple CMS.
Drupal Site Builder
A Drupal site builder is someone who makes Drupal sites by pointing and clicking in the admin interface without writing much or any custom code. I say “much” because they might occasionally use a hook. But setting up Drupal core and contributed modules gives the site or app most of its functionality. Site builders will have experience with a variety of donated modules and will understand how they interact to solve an issue. They will understand the limitations of modules and be able to effectively debate the benefits and drawbacks of various solutions. Content types, taxonomies, navigation, image presets, rules, and other features will be created by Site Builders. One great thing about Drupal is that it doesn’t leave out people who aren’t developers. The Drupal community and platform give people a very powerful set of tools they can use to make innovative and complex websites without having to know how to code. And being able to do this well is a very useful skill in and of itself.
Why will Drupal still be a top CMS in 2022?
- Drupal is a powerful tool that gets better with use.
- Drupal is a good way to manage the web experience
- User experiences that focus on the customer and are tailored to them
- APIs make it easy to add on to Drupal.
- Drupal works well with well-known marketing tools.
- Drupal is great for SEO: It has the best tools for metadata and taxonomy
6 Awesome Drupal 8 Example Websites in 2019
Drupal 8 case studies
There are a lot of new websites that show up on the internet every day. But when it comes to the user experience they offer, some sites stand out more than others. After looking at this list of awesome Drupal 8 websites, you’ll understand why Drupal is the best choice if you want to give your audience an unforgettable digital experience.
1. Chupa Chups- .Chupa Chups has the first really cool Drupal site. The website for Chupa Chups had to be changed to fit the idea of “Forever Fun.” Plus, they had to build a platform that can host all of the over 100 international Chupa Chups websites.
The issue was ensuring that their new website satisfies the requirements of their buyer personas. To accomplish so, they had to make sure that the design they picked was compatible with both their desires and the expectations of people from many cultures throughout the globe.
2. Mintz- Mintz is a full-service legal practise with more than 450 professionals across the globe. The firm has realised that it has to alter its name to better represent its culture of hard effort and forward thinking, which assists it in guiding customers through periods of tremendous upheaval.
The rebranding was shown by the launch of a new website that better showed how Mintz works. As part of the rebranding, the name was shortened and the logo was changed. These two changes were the most important. A lot of good things were said about the change by both the community and the business world.
3. Panasonic North America- Panasonic is one of the largest companies in the world that makes electronics. But the website no longer showed how the Panasonic brand had changed. In other words, the website was falling behind the times.
Because the Panasonic brand is always changing, they had to use an API-first approach. On top of that, they had to make sure that the customer was at the centre of the project and that the redesign met customer needs.
4. COIT- COIT is a cleaning company that was started in California in 1945 by a family and is run by that family. They have more than 100 offices in the U.S. and Canada and serve more than 12 million homes. Even though this was true, their website was really out of date.
For this problem to be solved, a good CMS had to be chosen. The company had a corporate website with more than 100 microsites. Drupal 8 was chosen because of the large number of websites that had to be taken care of. COIT was able to handle the complexity of the task and get the visual performance they wanted thanks to Drupal 8.
5. Rotary Foundation- The Rotary Foundation is a non-profit group that helps Rotary International reach its goals of world peace and understanding through humanitarian, educational, and cultural exchange programmes.Someone who wished to give money to the website had to go through a lengthy and inconvenient procedure. This was the first indication that anything was awry.
Drupal was selected as the solution to this issue. Because the company already had Drupal websites, it was chosen. This made it easier to make an app that can handle transactions without any problems. On top of that, the app had to work with other internal processes, like membership and finance.
6. WWF Switzerland- The World Wide Fund is a non-governmental group that works to protect wildlife and lessen the damage people do to the environment. WWF decided that in order to reach its goal, it needed a strong online presence, which basically means a website that shows what the company stands for.People need to be able to learn from and be persuaded by the website about how people’s actions affect the environment and animals. But the website didn’t make people feel anything the way it was. It was just like a Wikipedia page.
Part of the challenge was being able to redesign the new website and add many different things at the same time. One of the hard requirements was to be able to handle complex editorial, which let editors add pages without needing help from the IT department. On top of that, the website had to have content in more than one language, integrate CRM, and have better tools for analysing data. All of these needs were met with the help of Drupal 8.
Conclusion
Drupal is without a doubt the most powerful content management system available today. Some of the biggest and most popular websites in the world use Drupal for a reason. We now have a module that works. It took up a page and a block. You should be able to create your own modules at this time. It’s a good idea to start with a block module and then go on to a node module. It’s also possible to make your own filter or theme.
Frequently Asked Questions
Drupal 9 includes all of Drupal 8’s sophisticated multilingual capabilities without requiring any re-architecture. Drupal 9 and later will be the only versions of Drupal that will get future improvements to its multilingual features.
The experience platform of the future is Drupal 9. Drupal does a great job of letting users make full digital experiences by using the latest web technology.
Drupal does not have a formal plan to switch to a microservices approach. On the other hand, Drupal is still committed to an API-first architecture, which is in line with many of the ideas that make a microservices model desirable.
Yes. The most important security change in Drupal 9 is that the system requirements and third-party libraries have been brought up to supported versions. You will not be able to upgrade if you keep using Drupal 8 with the old system requirements or libraries.
The Drupal Association is a non-profit dedicated to advancing Drupal. It provides money, infrastructure, promotion, events, distribution assistance to the Drupal community.
