Presentation_Jiaying_Xux - Programming Systems Lab

Drupal

Create a website/web app quickly with this Content Management System



Jiaying

Xu

jx2129@columbia.edu

Spring 2011

COMS E6125 Web
-
enHanced

Information Management (WHIM)

Content Management Systems (CMS)

•
What is a CMS?

•
A CMS allows for the management of website
content in a user friendly way

•
Extension of web application framework that has
additional functionality and is more user
-
friendly

•
CMS benefits

•
Clients can update content themselves

•
Separation of content and presentation

•
Easy to redesign website since content is stored in the
database and inserted using page templates

•
Develop websites/web applications quickly

•
Utilize built in features such as user management and
content management

•
Popular CMSs

•
Drupal
,
Joomla
,
Wordpress

Content
Management
Systems

Web Application
Frameworks

Programming
Languages/Databases

Overview of Drupal

•
Open source

•
Maintained by many developers

•
Community

•
There are over 400,000
Drupal

websites

•
DrupalCon

yearly conference

•
Documentation

•
Extensive documentation on
drupal.org written by
Drupal

community

•
Developer friendly

•
Functionality can be easily
extended

•
Requirements

•
PHP,
MySQL
, web server (Apache)

Usage statistics of
Drupal

from drupal.org, which only shows
sites with the Update Status module enabled
[1]

Map showing the local
Drupal

groups around the world from
drupal.org
[1]

Sites That Use Drupal

•
Large variety of organization use
Drupal

•
Corporate, Education, Entertainment, Government, Newspaper, Non
-
profit, Sports

Features of
Drupal

•
Administrative interface

•
Web interface that allows
admins

to manage content, users, etc

•
Content Management

•
Allow users to create, edit,
manage content without detailed
knowledge of HTML/CSS

•
User Management

•
Built in user authentication

•
Management of adding, editing,
deleting users

•
Menus

•
Easy to add pages to menus

•
Easy to display menus on website

Content management admin page

WYSIWYG editor seen when editing pages

Features of
Drupal

•
Statistics

•
Tracks website usage
-

referrers,
page hits, visitors, etc

•
Performance

•
Tune website performance with
page caching and bandwidth
optimizations of CSS and
JavaScript files

•
File Uploads

•
Allows users to easily upload
files

•
URL Aliases

•
Allows
admins

to define custom
URL aliases for pages


Recent log entries page

Performance page

Drupal

is Extensible and
Themable

•
Modules

•
Open source add
-
ons to
Drupal

that extends its functionality

•
Over 7000 modules available and you can contribute your own module

•
Example modules

•
Pathauto
: Generates automatic URL aliases for pages based on a pattern such
as the page title

•
Content Construction Kit (CCK)

•
Views

•
Themes

•
Allows you to apply a design to your website

•
Over 800 themes available and you can contribute

your own theme

Corolla theme
[1]

Drupal

Basics: Content

•
Nodes

•
All content are nodes

•
Content types

•
Page

•
Story

•
Add your own

•
Examples: Alumni Profile, Event,
Lecture

•
Content Construction Kit (CCK)
Module

•
Allows you to add
custom fields
to
content types

•
Without using CCK, the only fields
in a content type are the title and
body

•
Custom fields can have type: date,
email, file, image, integer, link, text

Custom Alumni Profile
content type
with
custom fields
defined using
CCK

Creating an Alumni Profile
node

Drupal

Basics: Views

•
Views Module

•
User interface that allows
you to select and display
one or more pieces of
content in a single view

•
Can create view from
content nodes or users

•
Builds SQL query to select
the content on the back
end


Example view to display board members of an organization

Page rendered from view

Building a Job Database Web App

•
Functionality

•
Allow any visitor to post
jobs

•
Jobs can be viewed and
searched for

•
Basic steps

•
1. Define a custom content
type and CCK fields

•
2. Create some sample job
nodes

•
3. Create a view

•
4. Modify permissions

Result of creating job database app in
Drupal

1. Define a Content Type and CCK Fields

Define a content type called job

Create custom fields for the job
content
type

2. Create Job Nodes

Create some sample jobs for the job
database


Page generated as a result of submitting
the “Create Job” form shown on the left


3. Create a View

•
This generates the main job
database page that lists all the jobs
in a table and allows for user
searches and filtering

•
Fields (SQL select)

•
Add all the job fields that will be
shown in the display

•
Filters (SQL where)

•
By default, a view shows all nodes

•
Specify that the node type is job

•
Add
exposed filters
so users can filter
and search

•
Sort criteria (SQL order by)

•
Sort all jobs in descending order
according to when the job was
submitted

•
Style

•
Display the results in a table format

SELECT

node.nid AS
nid
,
node.created

AS
node_created
,
node.title

AS
node_title
,
node_data_field_job_employer_name.field_job_employer_name_value

AS
node_data_field_job_employer_name_field_job_employer_name_value,
node.type

AS
node_type
, node.vid AS
node_vid
,
node_data_field_job_employer_name.field_job_position_type_value

AS
node_data_field_job_employer_name_field_job_position_type_value,
node_data_field_job_employer_name.field_job_paid_value

AS
node_data_field_job_employer_name_field_job_paid_value
,
node_data_field_job_employer_name.field_job_category_value

AS
node_data_field_job_employer_name_field_job_category_value
,
node_data_field_job_employer_name.field_job_location_value

AS
node_data_field_job_employer_name_field_job_location_value

FROM

node
node

LEFT JOIN
content_type_job

node_data_field_job_employer_name

ON
node.vid = node_data_field_job_employer_name.vid
WHERE

node.type

in
('job') ORDER BY
node_created

DESC

Job database view

Generated SQL query

SQL Select Statement Review

SELECT
–

which table columns to retrieve

WHERE
–

what to filter the results by

ORDER BY
–

sort results of query

4. Modify Permissions

•
By default, anonymous
users cannot create
content

•
Modify permissions to
allow anonymous users
to create job content

Permissions page

Power of
Drupal

•
Drupal

is not just a
platform for creating web
pages

•
Allow developers to create
both simple websites and
powerful web applications

•
Applications that Columbia
created using
Drupal

•
Student Affairs
-

Student
Groups Interactive Directory

•
Columbia College:
Fellowship
Database

•
Career Center:
Internship
Survey Database

Student Groups Directory
–

ACM page

Bibliography

•
[1] “
Drupal

–

Open Source CMS.”
Drupal
. http://drupal.org.

•
[2] Harrison,
Davd
. “The advantages and disadvantages of
Content Management Systems.”
http://daveharrison.net/articles/the
-
advantages
-
and
-
disadvantages
-
of
-
content
-
management
-
systems.

THANK YOU