Category: drupal

Drupal – Create Products ”; Previous Next In this chapter, we”ll study about Creating Products in Drupal site. Products are the items that are offered for sale. Following are the simple steps used for Creating Product. Step 1 − Click Add Product. Step 2 − Click on Create Product. Step 3 − Now you have to create a product by filling the product information as shown in the following screen. It contains the following fields − Product SKU − Enter the unique identifying number for the product. Title − Enter the title of the product. Image − Upload image and give alternate text for your product which will be used by screen readers, search engines, or when the image cannot be loaded. Price − Enter the price of the product. Status − Set this field to Active option, so that it can be added to shopping cart. If it is set to Disabled option, products cannot be added to shopping carts and may be hidden in administrative product lists. Change History − It provides history of changes made to the product. After filling the fields, click Save Configuration. Step(4) − Now you can see that your product is added, click Add product display as shown in the following screen. Step(5) − The Create Product display page will get displayed as shown in the following screen. It contains below fields − Title − Add title of the product. Body − Here you can add summary for the product. Product − Choose the products to display for sale on this node by SKU. You can also enter multiple SKU”s using a comma separated list. Step(6) − You can see your product displayed on the front page. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Drupal – Form Module ”; Previous Next In this chapter, we will learn about Form module in Drupal. This module lets you create a form in Drupal based on the website for your users. Following are the steps to install Form Module in Drupal. Step 1 − Download the latest file of Form Builder module from the link and install in your Drupal site. Step 2 − Enable Form Builder module from the module page. Step 3 − Click Form Builder example from the dashboard. Step 4 − A Form builder example page gets displayed as shown in the following screen. Here you can add, edit or remove the details manually. Sample Text Field (Properties) Title − Enter the title name for your form. Default value − Sets the default value. Description − Enter description related to the title in that box. Sample Text Field (Display) Prefix − Enter the prefix text. Suffix − Here you must put the suffix text. Size − Input size accordingly. Sample Text Field (Validation) Required − Check the box, when you want to validate the text field. Sample Checkboxes (Properties) Title − Enter your title name for your form. Description − Enter description related to the title in that box. Sample Checkboxes (Options) Options − Add items, mark as default and input the values. Customize Keys − Enable this setting if you want to save any one value. Sample Checkboxes (Validation) Required − Check the box when you want to validate the field. Sample Text Area (Properties) Title − Enter the title name for your form. Default value − Set the default value. Description − Enter description related to the title in that box. Sample Text Area (Display) Rows − Enter rows. Columns − Enter columns. Sample Text Area (Validation) Required − Check the box when you want to validate the field. Sample Radios (Properties) Title − Enter the title name for your form. Description − Enter description related to the title in that box. Sample Radios (Options) Options − Add items, mark as default and input the values. Customize Keys − Enable this setting if you want to save any one value. Sample Radios (Validation) Required − Check the box when you want to validate the field. Sample Select (Properties) Title − Enter the title name for your form. Description − Enter description related to the title in that box. Sample Select (Options) Customize Keys − Enable this setting if you want to save any one value. Allow Multiple values − This will help users choose multiple items in your lists. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Drupal – Aggregator Module ”; Previous Next In this chapter, we will study about Aggregator Module in Drupal. Aggregator Module takes the content from other websites but does not generate any feeds. It is also known as a feed reader. It gathers and displays texts and images from other sites and blogs. Following are the steps to enable Aggregator Module. Step 1 − Click Modules from the menu bar. Step 2 − A list of different modules gets displayed. Enable the Aggregator module and click Save Configuration as shown in the following screen. Step 3 − Now, go back to the aggregator module and click Configure option on the right side. Step 4 − A Feed aggregator page gets displayed. Following are the settings present on this page. Allowed HTML tags − This specifies that you can get only those HTML tags which are included in the given text box as you can see in the image. If you remove any of them you won”t find that particular tag in your content. Number of items shown in listing pages − Select the number of items you want to be displayed on your pages. Discard items older than − You can remove items that are older by using this option. Select categories using − You can select categories accordingly, either by clicking on Check boxes radio button or multiple selectors. Length of trimmed description − Select the length of your descriptions. Once you are done with all the settings, click Save Configuration. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Drupal – Book Module ”; Previous Next In this chapter, we will study about Book Module in Drupal. Books have an in-built hierarchical navigation, which means that you can organize them to read in a special order. The book content type also allows you to make your website content easier to print by site visitors. Following are the simple steps to configure Book module in Drupal. Step 1 − Enable the Book in Modules and click Save configuration. Step 2 − Click on Content and check the boxes, select the content type that you want to enable for books. Click Save configuration to save your content type. Step 3 − Click Create content -> Book page or on Shortcut bar Book page as shown in the following screen. Spread out the section under Book outline and select create a new book. You can set the weight to 0. Click the Save button and your top level page is created. Step 4 − Once your book has been created, you can create child pages by clicking the Add child link at the bottom of the book page. Step 5 − Further, click Content management -> Books -> List as shown in the following screen. Click on edit order and titles under Operations column. Step 6 − You will see the screen as shown in the following screen. This page allows you to move your book pages around to fit your needs. Press and hold on the four pronged arrow and move it to the position to rearrange your pages. You can also drag the page to the right to make it a child page. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Drupal – Optimization ”; Previous Next In this chapter, we will learn how to optimize Drupal to improve its performance and speed. There are few steps through which we can improve the performance of the website. Following are some of the ways to optimize the website. Enable Page Caching Enable Cache blocks and Cache pages for Anonymous Users. Page caching lets your contents store in different database cache tables. Page cache is stored in the HTML content. It optimizes the page load time for anonymous users. Step 1 − Click Configuration from the menu bar. Step 2 − In Development section click Performance. Step 3 − Enable Cache blocks and Cache pages for Anonymous Users by checking both the boxes. Then, click Save Configuration. Compress CSS files If you have many CSS files, it can lower your websites speed. Compress them by enabling Aggregate and Compress CSS files. Enable this setting from AdministrationConfiguration→Development→Performance section. Drupal decreases the number and size of your CSS files. Js Aggregation Java files can also affect the performance and speed of your website. To compress this enable the Aggregate JavaScript files from the Administration→Configuration→Development→Performance in the bandwidth optimization section. Moving Media Files and Static files to a CDN This decreases the number of requests that a shared hosting handles. Use CDN (Content Delivery Network) that hosts your media files and static files. CDN acts as an external cache for your files and will store them in high performance servers so that it is optimized. Optimize Images Size and Their Number Do not have many images which consume more space as this leads to slow website. Always resize your images and have few that are related to your website. Theme Optimization Optimizing themes is a very important aspect. Media files like high quality images, videos, audios and flash can affect your website and slow down the speed resulting in low performance. Try reducing the size and number of media files or maybe you can avoid using flash. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Drupal – Multilingual Content ”; Previous Next In this chapter, we will learn about multilingual content. That means your content can be written and will be displayed in different languages. For this you may either install a multilingual content module or an Internationalism module. Following are the steps to install multilingual content module on Drupal. Step 1 − Click Modules from the menu bar. Step 2 − Check the Multilingual content box from the modules and click Configure. Step 3 − The Multilingual settings page will get displayed. Languages for content − Enabled language only − When you check this box, you can only view languages that are enabled. All Defined languages will be allowed − Only the defined languages will be allowed. Here, we have three different tabs where you can make the required changes. Selection − You can select nodes and taxonomy according to language. Select nodes by language − Check box if you want nodes by language. Select taxonomy terms by language − If you want taxonomy terms by language then check this box. Skip tags − Write those tags which you don”t want to include. Enable for specific pages − If you want to enable settings for specific pages then use this checkbox. Click the save button, once completed. Variables − Select variables to be set as shown in the following screen. Menu Settings − Manages menu settings. Site Information − Helps to make changes on site. Feed settings − You can set your feed description. Regional Settings − Changes time zone and day. Theme Settings − Specifies managing themes. User Settings − You can use this to set users. User emails − Any issues related to user emails can be done. Examples − You can give examples. Click Save when you complete the settings. Node Options − Help you set nodes. You can hide content translations and change the language on this page. Later, click the Save configuration button. Strings − This option helps to change format of the page. Change and translate strings using Translatable text formats settings. You can even change sources as you choose many languages. After completion, click Save button. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Drupal – Site Upgrade ”; Previous Next In this chapter, we will study how to upgrade the Drupal site. Upgrade is a process of enhancing the old version to the latest version. Here we will upgrade the Drupal to the latest version. Below are simple steps to upgrade the site in Drupal. Step 1 − Backup your Drupal files. You can study about this in detail in the chapter Drupal – Site Backup. Step 2 − If there is any upgradation to be done on Drupal site, then a message gets displayed on your site as shown in the following screen. Step 3 − Click on the highlighted word available updates in the message. Step 4 − You can now view the Available Updates page, where it shows exactly what upgradation is to be done on the site. Here, it shows you the recommended version to update your site. Click Release notes. Step 5 − It will take you to Drupal official site page where you can see the latest version tar.gz files available in Drupal. While writing this tutorial, the latest version was drupal – 7.39.tar.gz. Click drupal – 7.39.tar.gz. The tar.gz files get downloaded on your system. Step 6 − Extract the downloaded file, copy all the files and folder except the Sites folder available inside the latest downloaded folder. Later, paste these files into your existing Drupal folder. Step 7 − Go to Reports –> Available updates or else you can refresh the page; here you will view a message as shown in the following screen. Step 8 − Click on Reports –> Status report. You can now see that your site is upgraded to latest version and it will show the status Up to date for Drupal core update status as shown in the preceding screen. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Drupal – Default Modules ”; Previous Next In this chapter, we will study about Default Modules in Drupal. After installing Drupal, you will see total 44 default modules. You can see all these modules in Core section. By default 29 modules are enabled after installation. Step 1 − Click Modules, you will see the list of modules in CORE section as shown in the following screen. Following is the list of default modules installed in Durpal7. These are the core modules required by Drupal and it cannot be disabled. Block − Controls the constructed page with visual building blocks. Blocks are boxes of content provided into an area or region of a web page. Color − Permits administrators to modify the color scheme of compatible themes. Comment − Permits users to comment and discuss about the published content. Contextual links − Provides contextual links to execute actions associated with elements on a page. Dashboard − Offers a dashboard page in the administrative interface for forming administrative projects and tracking information within your website. Database logging − Logs and records system events to the database. Field − Field API allows adding fields to entities like nodes and users. Field SQL storage − It sets to store field data in an SQL database. Field UI − User interface for the Field API. File − Specifies a file field type. Filter − Filters content and exhibits in order. Help − Manages the display of online help. Image − Allows image handling tools. List − Specifies list field types. Creates choice lists with this selection. Menu − Permits administrators to customize the site navigation menu as per the choice. Node − Allows content to be submitted to the site and displayed on pages. Number − It sets the numeric field types. Options − It specifies the choice, check box and radio button widgets for text and numeric fields. Overlay − It specifies the Drupal administration interface in an overlay. Path − Permits users to rename URLs. RDF − It improves your content with metadata to allow other applications (e.g. search engines, aggregators) to its relationships and attributes in understand in a better manner. Search − Permits site-wide keyword searching. Shortcut − Permits users to manage customizable lists of shortcut links. System − Handles general site configuration for administrators. Taxonomy − Enables the categorization of content. Text − Defines simple text field types. Toolbar − Provides a toolbar that shows the top-level administration menu items and links from other modules. Update manager − Checks for available updates and can securely install or update modules and themes via a web interface. User − Manages the user registration and login system. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Drupal – Overview ”; Previous Next Drupal is a free and open source Content Management System (CMS) that allows organizing, managing and publishing your content. It is built on PHP based environments. This is carried out under GNU i.e. General Public License, which means everyone has the freedom of downloading and sharing it with others. Drupal is used on million sites such as WhiteHouse.gov, World Economic Forum, Stanford University, Examiner.com and many more. What is Content Management System? The Content Management System (CMS) is a software which stores all the data of your content (such as text, photos, music, documents, etc.) and is made available on your website. A CMS helps in editing, publishing and modifying the content of the website. History The standard release of Drupal known as Drupal core was developed by Dries Buytaerti in January 2001. It is considered as a leading CMS in variety of industries. Why to use Drupal? If you are developing a website with content management system, Drupal CMS is very flexible than any other CMS. Drupal is very powerful and can be used for building large, complex sites. It is PHP based template and allows non-technical users to add and edit the content without any HTML or Web design knowledge. Using Drupal CMS, it is easy to interact with other sites or technologies as Drupal can handle complex forms and workflows. It is available with more than 16000 modules which can be addressed with Drupal core and add-on modules. Features Drupal makes it easy to create and manage your site. Drupal translates anything in the system with built-in user interfaces. Drupal connects your website to other sites and services using feeds, search engine connection capabilities, etc. Drupal is an open source software hence requires no licensing costs. Drupal designs highly flexible and creative website with effective display quality thus increasing the visitors to the site. Drupal can publish your content on social media such as Twitter, Facebook and other social mediums. Drupal provides more number of customizable themes, including several base themes which are used to design your own themes for developing web applications. Drupal manages content on informational sites, social media sites, member sites, intranets and web applications. Advantages Drupal is a flexible CMS that allows handling content types including video, text, blog, menu handling, real-time statistics, etc. Drupal provides a number of templates for developing web applications. There is no need to start from scratch if you are building simple or complicated web applications. Drupal is easy to manage or create blog or website. It helps to organize, structure, find and reuse content. Drupal provides some interesting themes and templates which gives your website an attractive look. Drupal has over 7000 plug-ins to boost your website. Since Drupal is an open source, you can create your own plug-ins. Disadvantages Drupal is not a user-friendly interface. It requires advanced knowledge and few basic things about the platform to install and modify. Drupal is a new content management system. It is not compatible with other software. Performance is low compared to other CMS. The website which is built using Drupal will generate big server loads and will never open with a slow internet connection. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Drupal – Themes & Layouts ”; Previous Next In this chapter, let us study about Themes and Layouts. Drupal will install Bartik theme as default theme during installation. You can select paid or free themes from Drupal official site. In general, layout is an arrangement of text and graphics. It is a good thought to choose a theme, keeping in mind what different layouts to use on your site. Step 1 − Go to Drupal official site and click Get Started. Step 2 − Click on All Themes as shown in the following screen. Step 3 − You will get a list of themes. Select theme of your choice (let us select Adaptive theme as it consists Layout & General Settings, which will be covered later in this chapter) and click Version as shown in the following screen. Step 4 − Next, right click Download file and copy the link address as shown in the following screen. Step 5 − You can also download the theme directly by clicking on archive file and the module will be downloaded locally on your computer as shown in the following screen. Step 6 − Go to Appearance and click Install new theme as shown in the following screen. Step 7 − You can paste the link address you copied in step (4) and click the install button as shown in the following screen. Step 8 − You can also upload the theme archive, instead of copying the link address, if you have downloaded it and click Install as shown in the following screen. Step 9 − The following screen appears, wait until installation completes. Step 10 − Next, click Enable newly added themes as shown in the following screen. Step 11 − By default the themes are disabled. To enable them, click Enable and set default as shown in the following screen. Step 12 − Click on Settings as shown in the following screen to set the appearance for your site. Step 13 − The Layout & General Settings option pops up on the screen, in this Adaptive theme consists of Standard layout, Tablet Layout, Smalltouch layout and Panels & Gpanels. These options control the display settings for the current AT Admin theme that is already in use. When your site displays the theme, these settings will be used. Now, let us discuss these layouts one by one. Step 14 − In Standard layout you can choose layout for desktops, laptops and other large screen devices. Choose sidebar positions − You can choose sidebar position by clicking on radio button. Set the width of each sidebar − You can set width of first sidebar and second sidebar and unit in % or px or em. Set the page width − You can set width of the page. Set a max width −You can check or uncheck to set maximum width. Media query for this layout − Media query defines different style rules for different media devices and by default for this layout will be 1025px. Step 15 − Next, click Tablet Layout as shown in the following screen. Tablet devices will have two orientations Landscape and Portrait. You can configure a different layout for each orientation. Under Landscape tablet and Portrait tablet you can choose sidebar position, width of each sidebar and page width. Media query for Landscape tablet will be min-width:769px and max-width:1024px. For Portrait tablet it will be min-width:581px and max-width:768px Step 16 − Now, click Smalltouch Layout as shown in the following screen. Smalltouch layout will also have two orientations Landscape and Portrait. You can configure a different layout for each orientation. In Landscape Smalltouch you can choose sidebar position and set width. The Portrait Smalltouch always displays in one column with sidebars stacked horizontally below the main content. Media query for Landscape Smalltouch will be min-width:321px and max-width:580px and for Portrait Smalltouch it will be max-width:320px. Step 17 − Next, click Panels & Gpanels as shown in the following screen. Adaptive theme supports responsive Panels and Gpanel layouts. To use this capability, you can use the Panels module, Display Suite (with Panels) or Adaptive themes native Gpanels layouts. You can select options for each device range and layout their type. Let us see one by one. Under Standard layout you can select the layouts you want to use when the site is being viewed in standard layout. By clicking on TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX or INSET, you can select the columns arrangement as shown in the following screen. Follow the same step for TABLET LANDSCAPE, TABLET PORTRAIT and SMALLTOUCH LANDSCAPE layouts. Step 18 − Once done with all your configurations, click Save configurations as shown in the following screen. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;