Drupal

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Drupal

Home page of a default Drupal installation (with a Lorem Ipsum article).
Latest release 6.6 / 22 October 2008; 43 days ago
Written in PHP
OS Cross-platform
Type Content management framework, Content management system, Community and Blog software
License GPL
Website drupal.org

Drupal (pronounced /ˈdru-pal/) is a free and open source[1] modular framework and Content Management System (CMS) written in the programming language PHP.[2][3] It is used as a "back end" system for many different types of Web sites, ranging from small personal blogs to large corporate and political sites.[4]

The standard release of Drupal, known as "Drupal core", contains basic features common to most CMSs. These include the ability to register and maintain individual user accounts, administration menus, RSS-feeds, customizable layout, flexible account privileges, logging, a blogging system, an Internet forum, and options to create a classic "brochureware" Web site or an interactive community Web site.

Drupal was also designed to allow new features and custom behavior to be added by third parties. For this reason, Drupal is sometimes described as a "Content Management Framework"[2]. Although Drupal offer a sophisticated programming interface for developers, no programming skills are required for basic web site installation and administration.[5]

Drupal can run on any computing platform that supports:


Contents

[edit] History

Originally written by Dries Buytaert as a bulletin board system, Drupal became an open source project in 2001.[6] Drupal is an English rendering of the Dutch word “druppel”, which means “drop” (as in “a water droplet”).[7] The name was taken from the now-defunct Drop.org website, whose code slowly evolved into Drupal. Buytaert wanted to call the site “dorp” (Dutch for “village”, referring to its community aspects), but made a typo when checking the domain name and thought it sounded better.[6]

From May 2007 to April 2008, Drupal was downloaded from the Drupal.org website more than 1.4 million times, an increase of approximately 125% from the previous year.[8][9] A large community now helps develop Drupal.[10]

As of October 2008, Drupal 6.6 is the latest release.[11] Drupal is a winner of several Packt Open Source CMS Awards.[12]

[edit] Drupal core

Drupal core is the "stock" installation of Drupal, which can be optionally extended by third party contributions. In Drupal's default configuration, Web site content can be contributed by either registered or anonymous users (at the discretion of the administrator) and made accessible to Web visitors by a variety of selectable criteria including by date, category, searches, etc. Drupal core also includes a hierarchical taxonomy system, which allows content to be categorized or "tagged" with key words for easier access.[5]

Drupal maintains a detailed changelog of core feature updates by version.[13]

[edit] Core modules

Drupal core also includes "core modules" which can be enabled by the administrator to extend the functionality of the core Web site.[14]

The core Drupal distribution provides a number of features[14], including:

  • Access statistics and logging
  • Advanced search functions
  • Caching and feature throttling for improved performance under load
  • Comments, forums, and polls
  • Descriptive URLs (for example, "www.example.com/products" rather than "www.example.com/?q=node/432")
  • Multi-level menu system
  • Multi-site support[15]
  • Multi-user content creation and editing
  • OpenID support
  • RSS Feed and Feed Aggregator
  • Security/new release update notification
  • User profiles
  • Various access control restrictions (user roles, IP addresses, email)
  • Workflow tools (Triggers and Actions)

[edit] Core themes

The color editor being used to adjust the "Garland" core theme

Drupal core includes several "core themes", which customize the aesthetic look-and-feel of the site. These themes can be chosen by the administrator via a special menu.[16]

The Color Module, introduced in Drupal core 5.0, allows administrators to change the color scheme of certain themes via a Web-browser interface. This feature was added to allow a higher level of customization for the average non-coder.[17]

[edit] Translations

As of February 2008, translations for Drupal's interface were available in 44 languages plus English (the default).[18] Some read right to left, such as Arabic, Farsi (Persian) and Hebrew. Drupal 6 provides improved support for content and content administration in multiple languages.[19]

[edit] Auto-update notification

Drupal can automatically notify the administrator when a new version of any module, theme, or the Drupal core itself, becomes available. This feature can help keep a Drupal installation up-to-date with the latest features and security fixes.[19]

An auto-update module for the older version 5.x provides identical functionality, but it is not included in the core release.[20]

[edit] Extending Drupal core

Drupal core is designed to be modular with a system of "hooks" and "callbacks", which are accessed internally via an API.[21] This design allows third-party "contributed" (often abbreviated to "contrib") modules and themes to extend or override Drupal's default behaviors without changing Drupal core's code.

Drupal's modular design, which isolates Drupal core's files from contributed module and themes, increases flexibility and security and allows Drupal administrators to cleanly upgrade to new releases of Drupal core without potentially overwriting their site's customizations.[citation needed] To maintain this separation, Drupal administrators are instructed to avoid altering Drupal core's software.

[edit] Contributed modules

Contributed Drupal modules offer a variety of features including image galleries, custom content types and content listings, WYSIWYG editors, private messaging, 3rd-party integration tools, and more. The Drupal Web site lists 2332[22] free modules (as of June 1, 2008), written and contributed to by the Drupal community.

Two modules are particularly important to typical Drupal installations:[23][24]

  • Content Construction Kit (CCK)[25] allows site administrators to dynamically create content types. A content type describes any kind of information to be stored in the Web site's database. These may include, but are not limited to, events, invitations, reviews, articles, or products.
  • Views[26] facilitates the retrieval and presentation of content to site visitors.

The CCK API is scheduled to be integrated into Drupal as a core module starting with Drupal 7, and Views (without its user interface) will follow at some point thereafter.[27]

[edit] Contributed themes

Contributed themes adapt or replace a Drupal site's default look and feel.

Drupal themes use standardized formats that may be generated by common third-party theme design engines. Many themes for Drupal are written in the PHPTemplate engine[28] or, to a lesser extent, the XTemplate engine.[29] Some templates use hard-coded PHP.

Although early versions of Drupal's theming system were criticized[30] for being less design-oriented and more complicated than those for Mambo, Joomla! and Plone, the inclusion of the PHPTemplate and XTemplate engines in Drupal has addressed some of these concerns.[citation needed] The new Drupal 6 theming system utilizes a template engine in an attempt to further separate HTML/CSS from PHP. A new Drupal development module, Devel, provides assistance to theme authors who use Drupal 6.

Community contributed Drupal themes[31] at the Drupal web site are released under GPL license (free), and most of them are demonstrated at the Drupal Theme Garden[32].

[edit] Well-known Drupal powered sites


[edit] Criticism

[edit] Lack of object orientation

Drupal exclusively uses procedural programming, not object-oriented programming (OOP). While Drupal approximates some of OOP's features,[38] its lack of OOP results in the following:

  • No encapsulation enforced by the underlying programming language system. This precludes the use of private data and causes nonexistent enforcement of namespace separation.
  • Less efficient code reuse since object inheritance is "weak" and polymorphism is only approximated in the rendering layer.[38]

Drupal's defenders counter that even though PHP's OOP language features are not directly implemented (to ensure compatibility with older 4.x versions of PHP), OOP and aspect-oriented programming (AOP) principles are present in Drupal's design.[38] This will help ease the transition to future versions of Drupal core, which, starting with version 7, will begin to take advantage of OOP provided by PHP 5. Drupal 7 will not be backwards compatible with prior PHP releases.[39]

[edit] Poor usability

  • Some aspects of Drupal's administration interface can be confusing and intimidating, particularly for new administrators[40]. According to the Interaction Design and Information Architecture program at the University of Baltimore, Drupal lacks an intuitive, easy administration user interface[41][42][43]. The administration area is regarded as clunky and cryptic with Drupal version 5 and 6, but improved ease of use is planned with the upcoming version 7. According to Dries Buytaert, Drupal 7 won't be released until 90% of the problems identified by the University of Minnesota[44][45]and the University of Baltimore[43] are solved. Usability will be one of the main improvements in Drupal 7 that will close the gap with easier CMS.[46]

[edit] Steep initial learning curve

  • Drupal may be powerful, but it is also complex. The key is overcoming its steep initial learning curve[47][48][40]. Most casual users are willing to sacrifice features for ease of use making Drupal less popular than more user-friendly CMSs despite its enhanced functionality.[49]

[edit] Security response record

From January to May 2008, five security vulnerabilities were reported and fixed in Drupal core.[50] Security holes were also found and fixed in 25 of the 2147 user-contributed modules.[50]

As security holes are discovered, Drupal core is regularly updated to new versions. Administrators of Drupal sites are automatically notified of these new releases via the Update Status module.[51] Additionally, Drupal.org maintains a security announcement mailing list, a history of all security advisories,[50] a security manual[52], and an RSS feed with the most recent security advisories.[53]

[edit] Distributions

Customized Drupal distributions include some repackaged third-party modules, some with modifications to the core, including vbDrupal, which is Drupal integrated with vBulletin. [1] Drupal 4.2 [54] was used for DeanSpace, which hosted many independent Web sites supporting the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign of Howard Dean. After the Dean campaign ended, the DeanSpace project grew into CivicSpace, a Drupal-based "grassroots organizing platform that empowers collective action inside communities and cohesively connects remote groups of supporters." Thus CivicSpace is a spinoff distribution originally based on Drupal 4.2.

Many innovations in CivicSpace have been incorporated back into the Drupal project itself[55]. Features particularly useful for nonprofit organizations and political campaigns are provided in the CiviCRM module for Drupal 5.0 and higher.

It has been suggested to distribute "pre-made" Drupal installations that are pre-customized with third party modules and configured towards a particular type of Web site: an online store, a music review site, a blogging site, etc. Drupal 5.x goes in this direction, providing a set of "installation profiles" tailored to specifics goals[56].

[edit] Acquia

In 2007, a Drupal-focused company, Acquia, was created by Drupal project lead Dries Buytaert and Jay Batson. Acquia announced a subscription-based service for Drupal at Drupalcon Boston 2008 and started services with Acquia Drupal, a distribution based on Drupal 6, in September 2008. Subscriptions include one or more Drupal distributions, a set of companion network-supplied value-add services, and access to a Technical Assistance Center.[57]

[edit] Community

Drupal has a large community of users and developers. More than 350,000 user accounts have been created on Drupal.org, and over 2000 people have signed up for developer accounts.[58] The last major conference in the USA, Drupalcon Boston 2008, attracted over 800 people.[59] The last European conference, Drupalcon Szeged 2008, held in late August 2008, had an attendance of 500.

There are a number of active Drupal forums,[60] mailing lists[61], and discussion groups.[62] Drupal also maintains several IRC channels on the Freenode network.[63]

[edit] See also

Free software portal

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Drupal Licensing FAQ
  2. ^ a b Drupal Overview
  3. ^ a b Drupal System Requirements
  4. ^ 45 Drupal Sites Which You May Not Have Known Were Drupal Based
  5. ^ a b Drupal Features
  6. ^ a b Drupal's Official History page
  7. ^ Translation of Druppel (Dutch) to English
  8. ^ "Drupal Download Statistics (2008)," http://buytaert.net/drupal-download-statistics-2008
  9. ^ "Drupal Download Statistics (2007)," http://buytaert.net/tag/statistics
  10. ^ Growth Graphs
  11. ^ Drupal.com's download page
  12. ^ http://www.packtpub.com/open-source-cms-award-previous-winners
  13. ^ Drupal changelog
  14. ^ a b Drupal's Core Modules
  15. ^ Multisite support on Drupal
  16. ^ Drupal Announces garland is core theme
  17. ^ Drupal.com's color module description
  18. ^ "Translations," Drupal (February 18, 2008)
  19. ^ a b Description of Drupal 6.0 new features
  20. ^ Drupal update status module page
  21. ^ Drupal's API page
  22. ^ Drupal modules
  23. ^ http://blog.venture-skills.co.uk/2007/01/08/cck-views-the-ultimate-combination-part-1/
  24. ^ http://learn.awakenedvoice.com/2007/07/30/drupal-cck-and-views-tutorial/
  25. ^ Content Construction Kit
  26. ^ Views
  27. ^ My Drupal predictions for 2008 | Dries Buytaert
  28. ^ "PHPTemplate theme engine", Drupal.org.
  29. ^ "XTemplate theme engine", Drupal.org.
  30. ^ "How does Drupal compare to Mambo?" discussion thread, Drupal.org. - Old, but still interesting
  31. ^ Drupal themes
  32. ^ Drupal Theme Garden
  33. ^ "Drupal Sites Which You May Not Have Known Were Drupal Based" (2008-09-24).
  34. ^ "Drupal Sites Which You May Not Have Known Were Drupal Based" (2008-09-24).
  35. ^ "Who is Using Drupal?" (2008).
  36. ^ "Drupal Sites Which You May Not Have Known Were Drupal Based" (2008-09-24).
  37. ^ "Drupal Sites Which You May Not Have Known Were Drupal Based" (2008-09-24).
  38. ^ a b c "Drupal Programming from an Object-Oriented Perspective". drupal.org (2008-02-13). Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
  39. ^ Drupal 7 and PHP 5.2
  40. ^ a b "Drupal Addresses Security In 6.3, Usability in 7" (2008-07-10).
  41. ^ "Drupal Usability Research Report" (2008-05-01).
  42. ^ "Drupal usability tests from the University of Baltimore with community solutions" (2008-06-26).
  43. ^ a b "Usability, usability, and usability" (2008-07-03).
  44. ^ "First results from usability testing" (2008-03-10).
  45. ^ "Report from Formal Drupal" (2008-03-03).
  46. ^ "Starting to work on Drupal 7" (2008-02-04).
  47. ^ "Harnessing Drupal for Citizen Journalism" (2007-01-25).
  48. ^ "CMS Review: Drupal" (2007-2008).
  49. ^ "Dries Buytaert's Vision of Drupal" (2008-03-31).
  50. ^ a b c Security announcements | drupal.org
  51. ^ Update Status module
  52. ^ Drupal security manual
  53. ^ Security RSS feed
  54. ^ Predictions for 2004 | drupal.org
  55. ^ CivicSpace
  56. ^ See http://drupal.org/project/Installation+profiles
  57. ^ Acquia FAQ
  58. ^ Drupal.org stats
  59. ^ Drupalcon Boston 2008
  60. ^ Drupal forums
  61. ^ Drupal mailing lists
  62. ^ Drupal groups
  63. ^ Drupal IRC channels

[edit] Further reading

 This article's citation style may be unclear. The references used may be clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.

[edit] External links

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