Drupal Training Series

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Drupal Training Series

• About OSU Drupal 6

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What Well Be Covering

• Introduction
• What is Drupal?
• Why Drupal?
• Drupal 6 Upgrade The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
• Whats Changed?
• Permissions
• Big Changes
• Some New Features
• Books
• Poll
• Gallerix
• Story
• Some Revised Features
• Views UI
• Menus
• Deleted Modules / Features
• Containers
• Categories
• Approval Queue

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Introduction

• About Your Hosts
• Sher Fenn
• IT Consultant, Central Web Services
• About Central Web Services
• Part of OSU Information Services gt Media Services
• We host approximately 80 of OSUs websites
• We develop a wide range of OSU web applications
  including
• OSU Events Calendar
• OSU Campus Map
• OSU 360 Virtual Tour
• OSU Media Manager Newly Released
• We provide FREE, regularly scheduled training in
  Drupal use and for other applications developed
  by CWS

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What is Drupal?

• Web Content Management System
• A software framework that helps manage the
  creation and publication of web pages
• Allows everyday computer users the ability to
  create fairly sophisticated websites
• Advanced programming knowledge not needed

• Open Source
• Free to download
• Programming is done by a volunteer community
• Programmers are encouraged to improve and
  innovate upon source code

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Why Drupal?

• Convenience
• Content changes can be made as needed
• Contributors dont need vast computer skills
• Cost
• Decreased development costs
• Decreased maintenance costs
• Control
• Theming helps ensure a more consistent look and
  feel
• Sites built using our installation are more secure

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OSU Drupal 5 Learning

• Drupal 5 was our learning curve
• Only been active since mid-2007
• 142 production sites were built in just under 2
  years
• On average thats nearly 6 new sites a month
• Some features in OSU Drupal 5 werent perfect
• Category module had auto menu issue
• Containers were highly customizable, but very
  difficult to understand and use
• Views module not very user friendly
• Approval Queue caused bottlenecks

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Roles Permissions

• There are still three different roles in OSU
  Drupal 6, but there have been changes in both
  title and permissions, as shown below
• Author
• Can access Full HTML
• Can access CSS Styles, to change color
• Can administer Menus
• Can administer Blocks
• Can administer Taxonomies
• Has access to all default content types
• No longer has to be approved to publish content
• Advanced Author all permissions of Author,
  plus
• Can use PHP code
• Needs to be granted with extreme care
• Can build Views
• Can create Custom Content types
• Administrator All permissions of others, plus
• Maintains all former permissions
• Focus is directed more towards user management

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New Module Books

• About the Books module
• Part of Drupal Core - Optional
• Creates the Book Page content type
• Creates menus on-the-fly
• Great for use with
• Hierarchical content
• What does this mean?!
• Lets take a look

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Case Cascades Campus Site

• The Cascades Campus site is a great example of
  how the Books module could really help
• Over 300 pieces of active content
• All menu items are manually set
• To add menu items for content, all users must
• Know how to manipulate menus within an extremely
  complex menu system
• Know how to find the parent categories they need
  to connect to
• Often tertiary or deeper menu items
• Understand the difference between relative and
  absolute URLs

http//www.osucascades.edu/
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Book Content Type Features

• The Book content type has some very user friendly
  features
• Menu Settings group
• Located at top of page, near Title
• No need to find Node ID
• No need to search through Menus to find parent
• No need to manually set link
• Book Outline group
• Allows creation of a new book right from form
• Can order book outline right from form

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Book Content Type Results

• After the top Book page is designated
• To add pages to the book, just click the Add
  Child Page link
• Child menu items are created on-the-fly

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Book Settings

• Other content types can be selected for inclusion
  into a Book structure by going to
• Administer gt Content Management gt Books gt
  Settings Tab

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New Module Poll

• About the Poll module
• Part of Drupal Core - Optional
• Creates the Poll content type
• Provides an easy-to-use method for creating
  simple opinion polls
• Content type interface is very straightforward
• Can revise poll question and answer sets
• Collects answer data, including who answered the
  poll (either with ONID user name or IP address
  for anonymous participants)
• Automatically provides response bar graph
• Great for use with
• Sites needing simple feedback from users
• Lets take a look

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Case Student Health Services

• The Student Health Services site is a good
  example of how the Poll module could provide some
  additional functionality
• Simple polls could be conducted here to gather
  information on health issues and trends

http//studenthealth.oregonstate.edu
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Poll Content Type Features

• The Poll content type differs quite a bit from
  others at the top part of the form.
• Below the Menu Settings group, though, the
  content type is exactly the same as all others.

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Completed Poll Content

• After the Poll content has been created
• Select an answer
• Click the Vote button
• The updated Results will automatically show

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Poll Results

• Simple results and statistics are provided
• Results aggregate and display in real time as
  more respondents participate
• If anonymous users are permitted, they are
  indicated by their IP address in the Votes list

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New Module Gallerix

• About the Gallerix module
• Third Party Module
• Creates the Album content type
• Eliminates the need for manual layout of image
  galleries
• Can use Album content type to categorize
  different image collections
• Provides single or multi-image viewing options
• Latest Pictures and Random Pictures blocks
  created by module
• Great for use with
• Images to be distributed
• Lets take a look

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Case Rec Sports

• The Rec Sports site is a good example of how the
  Gallerix module could further visually promote
  everything that Rec Sports does
• This would be a great place to combine Book and
  Album content types
• Many different categories of activities
• Each top level could have its own gallery with
  related images

http//oregonstate.edu/recsports/
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Album Content Type Features

• Initial Album content type is fairly similar to
  others, with the exception of the Sort Order field

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Album Content Management

• After the Album has been initiated
• Add pictures by browsing and uploading
• Manage pictures
• Add captions to images
• Custom order images
• Delete images

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Album Results

• Two different views are available
• Single Picture
• One large picture
• Carousel underneath
• All Photos
• Shows thumbnails of all images in album

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Gallerix Add-Ons

• The Gallerix module also builds two different
  blocks
• Random Pictures
• Can have multiple images
• Latest Pictures
• Shows most recent pictures added to site
• Can have multiple images

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New Content Type Story

• About the Story content type
• Similar to a Page content type in form
• Intended to be used for more dynamic content
• Great for use with
• Sites that have frequent news or PR releases
• Sites that utilize human interest stories which
  should be refreshed on a regular basis
• Lets take a look

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Case Music Dept. Home Page

• The Music Department site is a good example of
  how using a Story content type in combination
  with Views and a Custom Block could pay off.

http//oregonstate.edu/cla/music/
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Story Content Type Features

• The Story content type looks just like the Page
  content type.
• Exactly the same fields
• Created the same way

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Why Not Just Use A Page?

• The main reason for having the Story content type
  is that it provides a node type that is different
  from the Page content type.
• This seems like a trivial thing, as the two
  content types are so similar, but it has some
  benefits when it comes time to create a View.
• Lets do that right now with the new and improved
  Views User Interface (UI).

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About Views

• About the Views module
• Third Party Module
• Administrators and Advanced Authors can build
  Views
• Powerful data retrieval and display tool
• Used for many different purposes
• Filtering data
• Sorting data
• Creating different displays for pages, blocks,
  feeds, etc
• Creating different display formats, such as
  tables, lists, etc
• Great for use with
• Any site that needs to retrieve and display data
  collected through the site
• Lets take a look

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Create a View

• To create a view, go to
• Administer gt Site Building gt Views
• and click on the Add tab
• Enter the information regarding the View which
  includes
• Name
• Description
• Type

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Improved Views User Interface (UI)

• All Views have a Default setting, which appears
  at the top of the left side Views menu.
• Here is where you title the View, determine the
  layout and style, choose the fields, set any
  arguments, filters, and sort options desired.
• This interface does quite a bit of work.

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View Developer Features

• As the view is being built, additional action is
  occurring on the screen just down below the
  fold.
• Handy Arguments entry field
• A Live Preview of the views results as it is
  being created
• Real time SQL query building display
• Statistics
• The user can actually watch the query and results
  develop right on the screen which is quite
  helpful.

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Display Creation

• After the Default settings are established,
  additional Displays can be made off of the master
• Attachment
• Block
• Date Browser
• Feed
• Page

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Finished View

• Once the View is saved, it will appear on the
  Views List.
• If the View is a Page or Feed display, a URL will
  be present.
• For other display types, the objects they are
  associated with, such as a Block, will have to be
  configured and enabled.

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What You Can Do With Stories

• The output of the View can be used in many ways.
• At left, a simple Page display is shown but, as
  we saw earlier, this information can also be put
  into a variety of displays, including Blocks and
  Feeds.
• With a set-up like this, any time Story content
  is created, it will automatically be added to
  this display.

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Improved Taxonomy

• About the Taxonomy module
• Drupal Core Optional module
• All access roles can build Taxonomies
• Powerful classification tool
• Used for many different purposes
• To create vocabularies with definitions
• To relate terms
• To create organizational categories by which
  queries can be executed
• To create tags
• As a base for other modules which require
  organized content to function
• And more
• Great for use with
• Sites that will require some sort of dynamic data
  activity such as employee / member lists, etc.
• Sites that include a Glossary as a feature
• Lets take a look

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Case CWS WebTrain

• The CWS training site, WebTrain, is a good
  example of how using a Taxonomy combined with a
  Glossary can provide users with automatic
  context-sensitive help.
• WebTrain has multiple training categories, many
  of which have their own specific terms (such as
  Drupal).

http//oregonstate.edu/cws/webtrain
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Create A Vocabulary

• A Vocabulary is just a name for a particular
  collection of terms. Here, well use some
  WebTrain topics as an example
• Go to Administer gt Taxonomy
• Click the Add Vocabulary tab, enter the desired
  name of the Vocabulary and all other relevant
  information
• After the vocabulary is submitted, you will be
  redirected to the List tab where the new
  Vocabulary item will display

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Create Terms For The Vocabulary

• After a Vocabulary is declared, terms that are
  specific to that Vocabulary can be added
• Click the Add Terms link
• Enter the name of the new Term, a Description
  (this would be something like a definition), and
  any other relevant information
• After the vocabulary is submitted, you will be
  redirected to the List tab in the respective
  Vocabulary group where the new Term will display

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Ive Built A Taxonomy Now What?

• As mentioned earlier, there are quite a few
  different things that a taxonomy can be used for.
• For this presentation, though, well use our
  little taxonomy as the base for another feature
  offered in OSU Drupal 6 - Glossary.

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Improved Glossary

• About the Glossary module
• Third Party Module
• Administrators and Advanced Authors can configure
• Works inside of Taxonomy
• Creates dynamic, context based help
• Great for use with
• Sites that contain many acronyms
• Sites that contain many words or objects that
  require definition
• Lets take a look

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Configure General Glossary Settings

• Setting up a Glossary is not very intuitive,
  which is probably the reason why it was
  under-utilized in Drupal 5. Some configurations
  need to happen before the Glossary will activate
• Go to Administer gt Site Configuration gt Glossary
  Settings
• Complete the configurations on the General tab
  first

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Configure Input Profile Settings

• Configure the Input Format next for OSU Drupal
  6, the default ones are
• Filtered HTML
• Full HTML
• PHP Code
• Note PHP Code is plain text only so should not
  have to be configured
• Note When configuring, you may get a message
  that Glossary needs to be enabled for the Input
  Format type it will redirect you to the Input
  Format in question just click on Enable
  Glossary and return to the configuration screen

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Glossary In Action

• After everything is configured, its time to
  create some test content
• Create a test page by going to Create Content gt
  Page
• In the content Body, make sure to include at
  least one Taxonomy term
• After the page is published, the Taxonomy terms
  will be indicated by whatever method configured
• Here we use a superscript g
• A tool tip will appear with the glossary term on
  mouse hover

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Other Glossary Views

• Glossary can do more, as well
• Clicking on the superscript g links to the single
  Glossary term
• Clicking on a character in the menu above will
  open that particular page of Glossary terms
• Note These things are all configurable
  Glossary will display in the manner you configure
  it to

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Improved Menus

• How have Menus improved in Drupal 6?
• Vastly
• The days of clunky drop down boxes are over.
• With Menus new grab and drag system, users can
  literally place their menu items exactly where
  they want to.

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Grab and Drag Menus

• To change a menu item
• Grab the directional arrow of the menu item
  to be changed with your mouse
• Drag the item to where it should be placed this
  can be
• Up or down the list to a new parent item
• In or out, to create or eliminate a sub-menu
• To expand the menu, check the corresponding
  Expanded checkbox
• Click the Save Configuration button

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Add Item to Different Menu

• To move a menu item from one menu to another
  entirely different menu
• From within the Menu where the item is located
• Locate the menu item and click Edit in the
  corresponding row
• Select the Parent Item to move to
• Click Save

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More Great Stuff

• Drupal 6 will contain even more, but,
  unfortunately, the remaining big items are fairly
  complex and cant quite be covered in the scope
  of this presentation.
• Lets take a look at what they are, though
• Improved Custom Content Kit (CCK)
• Create custom data entry forms
• Administrators and Advanced Authors only
• Content types can be limited by role
• Powerful combination with Views as the data
  processor / display
• New Translate Interface
• Allows for on-the-fly language translation of
  content
• Administrators and Advanced Authors only
• Requires upload of language packets
• Can be done through Admin UI
• Many different packets available
• Not a perfect solution yet, but growing

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Deleted Features

• There have been a few deleted features as well
• Category Module
• Had auto-menu issue which was not easy to
  troubleshoot
• Didnt work well with some other modules
• Taxonomy performed many of the same tasks in a
  better fashion and is more stable
• Container Module
• Difficult to use
• OSU Approval Queue Related Modules
• Created workflow issues for users
• Difficult to maintain for developers

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Any Questions?

• To contact CWS Training
• Phone [phone]
• CWS Help Request http//oregonstate.edu/cws/conta
  ct