Drupal is a content management framework, content management system (CMS) module written in PHP and licensed under the GNU GPL. A CMS is a tool used by webmasters to manage a website without having to program the entire server-side software that runs the site. Many contemporary CMS including Drupal, offer an administration interface with which the administrator can manage every aspect of the website, without the need to possess technical skills. History drupal
Originally created by Dries Buytaert as a bulletin board system, became a free project in 2001. The name Drupal is the English transliteration of the Dutch word meaning druppel drop. The name comes from the late drop.org, the site where the code evolved slowly to become Drupal. Buytaert wanted to call the site "dorp" (In Dutch ‘village’, referring to the orientation "to community" of the project), but made a typo when checking the availability of the domain. Re-reading, he decided to drop that sounded better.
Drupal has gained popularity over the years. From May 2006 to April 2007, Drupal has been downloaded more than 600,000 times. Now the development of Drupal has the contribution of a great community.
The structure of Drupal
Drupal has been praised by webmaster, designers and programmers, in part due to its modular design that allows its most basic level, or "core" to provide only essential functions in its default configuration. Additional features and display capabilities can extend the "core" by installing modules and themes.
Drupal Modules
The "core" of Drupal has its own forms. The modules developed by the community can still be downloaded and installed in an area not intended for installation of Drupal "core". The "core" Drupal has been designed with a system of ‘hook’ (hooks), or callbacks, that allow the modules developed by communities to integrate functions in the process of implementation of Drupal.
The modules included in the "core" provides the following features:
* Add, edit and catalog content
* Searching
* Add a comment
* Participate in forums
* Respond to polls
* Working on collaborative writing projects
* Enter and view user profiles
* Communicate with users and site administrators
* Change the appearance of the site using graphical themes already developed and ready for use
* Create multiple levels of menu navigation structure
* Locate the interface in different languages, allowing the user to choose
* Provide RSS feeds
* Aggregate and submit the RSS content from other sites
* Record new users and manage accounts
* Manage in a granular roles and permissions for individual users or entire groups
* Use rules to prevent access to the site to specific users by name, email address, IP address
* Collecting and presenting detailed site stats
* Manage caching and throttling, functionality that lets you disable some modules / blocks in the case of high traffic site
* Create and specify various filters on the input of users and different content models
* Generate easy to remember addresses, allowing a better rating in search engines
In addition, the site contains hundreds of free modules Drupal community developed. Some of the features provided by the modules developed or improved by users:
* E-commerce
* Editorial Workflow
* Photo Gallery
* Self-managed groups
* Google Sitemaps
* Maintenance of mailing list
* Integration with CVS
* Manage pictures and video
* Manage third-party services (Adsense, AuctionAds, Technorati, etc.).
* Add functionality Javascript and Ajax
Tracking System Version
update_status, a new module available for Drupal 5.x (it will be part of the ‘core’ in Drupal 6.0) automatically notifies the operator of the site when they are released new versions of installed modules and themes.
Topics
Most of the themes for Drupal are created using the system or the system XTemplate PHPTemplate. In the past, people used themes developed in PHP only.
Previous versions of the mechanism for the Drupal themes have been criticized for being less design-oriented and more complex than the systems of Mambo and Plone. The inclusion in Drupal PHPTemplate and XTemplate systems were a response to some of these criticisms.
Translations
In August 2007, the Drupal interface translations are available in 37 languages other than English (the default). The supported languages will include some with writing from right to left like Arabic and Hebrew.
Critical
Installing Drupal (and modules) requires access to a database and some advanced permissions, for example the ability to use SQL commands like SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER, and LOCK TABLES. Some web hosting providers do not offer these functions. Who wants to use Drupal to make sure that your server offers these features before you install.
As with other content management systems, you can configure the database starting from the command line or with phpMyAdmin / phpPgAdmin. Since version 5.0, Drupal is possible to install and configure the database almost entirely through a web interface.
Some consider it more difficult to learn to use Drupal and install than other simple CMS or blog platforms like WordPress. Drupal 5.0, released January 15, 2007, contains an installation wizard for use with the browser, in part to respond to these criticisms, Drupal 6.0, which may be published in September 2007, makes it even easier installation.
Some programmers criticize Drupal because it does not consider it developed with the Object-oriented programming (OOP), but Drupal Programming from an object-oriented perspective (in English) explains how the principles of OOP and aspect-oriented programming (AOP) are applied Drupal.
Distributions
To simplify the installation process for those who want to use Drupal in a specific context (an online store, a music review site, blog, etc..), The Drupal community has debated whether to deploy Drupal installation ready for use, pre-configured with third-party modules and set for a particular type of site.
There are already several custom distributions of Drupal. Many are simply made up of Drupal with the addition of third-party modules, but also include some changes to the ‘core’.
A sesempio vbDrupal of these distributions is that Drupal is integrated with vBulletin.
Drupal 4.2 has been used by DeanSpace, which uspitato many independent websites in support of the presidential campaign of Howard Dean in 2004. After the Dean campaign, the project DeanSpace turned into CivicSpace, a "platform for the organization of grassroots movements that provides tools for collective action in communities and connects remote groups of supporters and approximation" based on Drupal. Thus CivicSpace is a derivative distribution based on Drupal 4.2.
Many innovations in CivicSpace were then reported in the Drupal project. Particularly useful for non-profit organizations and political campaigns are available in the CiviCRM module for Drupal 5.0 and below.
- Drupal site Italian Support
- Drupal.it other Italian support site
- Graphic templates or themes to download for Drupal
- ( EN ) Documentation for Developers
- ( EN ) Community for the design of Drupal
- ( EN ) discussion groups on Drupal.org
Source: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drupal
Drupal Installation Guide