Book Description

With the recipes in this book, you can take full advantage of the vast collection of community-contributed modules that make the Drupal web framework useful and unique. You’ll get the information you need about how to combine modules in interesting ways (with a minimum of code-wrangling) to develop a variety of community-driven websites. Each chapter describes a case study and outlines specific requirements for one of several projects included in the book — a wiki, publishing workflow site, photo gallery, product review site, online store, user group site, and more. With Using Drupal, you will:

• Get an overview of Drupal concepts and key modules introduced in each chapter, with a bird’s-eye view of each module’s specialty and how it works
• Explore various solutions within Drupal that meet the requirements for the project, with details about which modules are selected and why
• Learn how to configure modules, with step-by-step recipes for building the precise functionality the project requires
• Get information on additional modules that will make the project even more powerful
• Be able to access the modules used in the chapter, along with other resources

Newcomers will find a thorough introduction to the framework, while experienced Drupal developers will learn best practices for building powerful websites. With Using Drupal, you’ll find concrete and creative solutions for developing the exact community website you have in mind. Download Now »

Book Description

Free Software now offers a creative platform with world-class programs. Just ask the people who have completed high quality projects using open source desktop applications, or developed popular multimedia Web 2.0 sites using Free Software libraries. This phenomenon is no longer underground, or restricted to techies – there have been more than 61 million downloads of the Audacity audio editor, and more than 60 million downloads of the GIMP for Windows photographic tool, from SourceForge.net alone.

It used to be that creative software had a high barrier to entry, not least because of the complexity and cost of the programs. Even among those who could afford a Mac, many creative people have resorted to crackware in order to access the software tools that they need. Thanks to the generosity and expertise of Free Software creators, shady downloads and bootleg CD-ROMs are no longer required. With Free Software you can be a digital artist without paying an entrance fee, and almost any computer will do – but you still have to learn how to use your tools.

Free Software for Creative People is your foundation course in photographic manipulation, illustration, animation, 3D modelling, publishing, recording audio and making music, DJ’ing, mixing and mastering audio CDs, video editing and web content delivery. Every technique described in the book can be achieved on GNU/Linux, but many of the applications covered run on Windows and Mac OS X as well. New to GNU/Linux, and a little daunted? Don’t worry, there is a step-by-step tutorial on Ubuntu, for either temporary use or permanent installation. Download Now »

Video Description

In this video, Addison Berry, Angie Byron, and Jeff Robbins illustrate Drupal’s concepts and define much of its jargon while building a complete website. You’ll see how to download and install modules, create and configure content types, build listing pages, and configure Drupal’s multi-user permission system. The team shows how to use Drupal’s taxonomy system to classify and organize your site’s content, how to create and configure sidebar content using blocks, and many common tasks such as setting up a rich-text editor. Also discussed are tips for choosing which contributed modules to use, how to create private content, and how to launch a site. The video also shows how many pre- and post-launch tasks such as configuring cron, and how to upgrade your site to a new version of Drupal. This video will give you the knowledge you need to building powerfully flexible and dynamic community websites.

Full chapter listing:

1. Introduction
2. Installing Drupal
3. Orientation to a new Drupal site
4. Installing & enabling modules
5. Building different content types
6. Creating listing pages
7. Creating user roles & permissions
8. Adding taxonomy fields to content Download Now »

Book Description

The earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. Despite several advantages, many Drupal sites suffer with poor search engine standings. Perhaps you are aware of the importance of SEO for increasing traffic to your site, but do you know how to apply it to your Drupal site? Here comes the first book about search engine optimization for Drupal sites.

This practical, step-by-step guide takes the mystery out of Drupal search engine optimization (SEO) by showing you the tricks of today’s top marketing pros to achieve top ranking in the search engines. This isn’t a book of Drupal SEO theory – it’s a practical guide showing you which modules to install, which settings to use, and dozens of the most closely guarded “tricks of the trade” to get your web site optimized, higher in the search engines, and more profitable.

With this book and basic Drupal 6 knowledge – how to log in, create content, and install modules – you can build a perfectly search engine optimized web site. Each chapter uses easy, step-by-step instructions to walk you through the Drupal SEO modules, configurations, and content you will need to increase traffic on your web site. You start by reviewing the modules and tools that you should use to optimize your site, how to set up your analytics, and so on. Each subsequent chapter gives detailed instructions on implementing these features in Drupal. Later chapters cover topics like site organization, A/B testing, and automatic content tagging to maximize SEO and increase the conversion rate of your web site. When you have completed the book, you will have implemented the changes to your site required to rank well in the search engines. Download Now »

Video Description

How to manage the content, community, and functionality of your Drupal site. You’ve finally gotten your Drupal site finished. Now what?

Have you been handed the reins to a Drupal site you don’t understand? Are you a Drupal developer who wants to empower your client to run their own site? If you need to run a Drupal site or you know someone who needs to run a Drupal site, then THIS is the video you need. Addison Berry, Angie Byron, and Jeff Robbins present a finished site with many common modules enabled and walk through common administration tasks and concepts such as:

• The content creation process and the different types of content
• Assigning roles and permissions
• Dealing with problematic users
• Organizing content and comments through the taxonomy and menu system
• Controlling the look and feel of the site
• Basics of Drupal image handling
• The differences between the front-end and the back-end
• An introduction to the module configuration that drives the functionality of your site
• Reports and logs that help you monitor the health of your site
• Resources for getting further help

This video pairs with Site Building With Drupal, which builds the website used as an example throughout this video. Download Now »

Book Description

Drupal is a powerful CMS used to build all kinds of web sites. But when you’re urgently tasked with building a specific kind of site, it’s not always obvious which plugins to use or where to begin. If I could show you simple directions to create Drupal web sites for personal or business use within a day, without the initial need to bother about the in-depth details of using Drupal, would you be interested? Build first learn later!

This book will give you a competitive edge by helping you to rapidly implement prototype web projects for personal and business use. With this book almost anyone with just a bit of Drupal knowledge can build a web site and tailor it to his/he needs.

This book is a project-based guide to developing web applications with Drupal. It should enable you to take full advantage of the powerful core features offered by the Drupal framework together with the many available contributed modules and themes to develop applications within hours. You will be guided, by means of illustrated hands-on example projects, to build foundation projects that you may easily adapt or enhance to create even more powerful web projects. If you want to develop exciting web applications for profit or pleasure this book is for you.

This book is, however, not an introduction to Drupal, nor an in-depth manual for using Drupal; and even though it partially covers some basics such as installation and how to create nodes, this is only done in the process of building the featured projects. Readers should therefore already have an understanding of the basic Drupal terminologies, how to access and to use the administration pages, and also how to customize by uploading and engaging new themes. Download Now »