 Content management systems or CMS are a real godsend for development of easy-to-manage dynamic websites. There is a lot of content management systems: free and paid, open source and proprietary. It is quite difficult to choose one CMS which will fit you among all existing content management systems. You should take into account a lot of different factors. Drupal CMS is a very popular free modular content management system. It is a suitable solution for development of most kinds of sites such as news sites, forums, multiuser blogs, corporate sites, personal and small business sites.
How to install Drupal CMS?
In general, installation of Drupal CMS is similar to installation of other CMS: you have to download an archive with system files, unpack it into the root directory of the site, create a database and a database user with complete access rights, go to the installation page in your browser and install Drupal system on the remote or local server following the instructions. Installation of different versions of Drupal may slightly vary. The latest actual version of Drupal is the sixth.
Drupal is a multiplatform system for website development and can be launched on such OS as Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows and Mac OS X. Drupal also maintains web servers Apache, IIS, Unix, Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows, Mac OS X.
Which facilities for website development does Drupal CMS provide?
Drupal is a system with an extremely wide range of various opportunities. Let us have a closer look at some of them.
- Drupal does not depend of the kind of used databases so it is suitable for those developers who cannot use MySQL (which is maintained by the majority of other CMS) for any reason.
- Drupal have services for development of multilanguage websites so all texts can be translated with the help of graphical interface.
- To identify site structure by separating it from representation Drupal uses an original method – taxonomy. Taxonomy permits to identify the right number of sections and each document of the site can be a part of one or several sections at once. These sections can be presented in the form of a list or a complex hierarchical structure.
- Drupal have ready-made solutions for typical tasks. You can create a small business site, a corporate site or a blog using modules which are a part of base case system.
- Search in Drupal is carried out taking into account types of content and sections. All links have “friendly URL” so they are well indexed by the search engines.
- Drupal system permits to work with templates by separating site content and representation. That is why you can easily change site design in Drupal without harming its content.
- Comments component is Drupal permits to manage comment opportunity for different documents and comment access for different user groups.
- Drupal has a built-in forum management system which includes main forum functions. Thanks to the taxonomy method a forum can contain subforums and categories of different nesting degree.
- Drupal permits to export materials into the RDF/RSS format. This option is very convenient because these formats can be easily viewed offline with the help of external programs.
- User management in Drupal is realized by assigning the users different roles. Rights of access to different documents and functions of the site for this roles are in many cases determined by the system modules.
- Drupal provides an opportunity to manage versions of documents. During editing of the document its old version is stored in the history and you can come back to one of the earlier versions if you need it.
- Drupal permits to track updates. All updated documents are grouped on one common page which can be accessed from the user menu. It is convenient for development of a site with complex structure and great number of sections.
- Drupal system permits to connect a lot of different modules which are intended to expand the functionality of the initial build. It can be modules for managing advertising banner demonstration, video or audio players, SPAM blocking modules and many others. Such modules are written both by the developers of Drupal and common programmers who use this system.
What support does Drupal CMS have?
Drupal is system for website development which is quite popular among Russian-speaking developers. For this reason there are a lot of documentation translated into Russian, forums and communities devoted to support of this product. Thanks to the fact that Drupal is an open source system programmers can expand its functionality themselves by writing additional functions and components.
Drupal content management system (base case system) is an excellent solution for development of different websites: forums and communities, single-user and multiuser blogs. You can create other kinds of sites in Drupal too thanks to the high level of flexibility and expandability of the system.
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drupal,
website development in drupal,
website development,
cms analysis,
web programming,
web design,
small business site,
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