Drupal 6 overview

Aimee Maree Forsstrom

August 2008

Drupal 5 vs Drupal 6

Drupal 6 overview http://drupal.org/node/128752

Drupal 5 overview http://drupal.org/node/128749

Video tutorials covering installing, upgrading, new features and overview

What's New in Drupal 6

Improved installer Localisation / internationalism Available updates New optional core modules added example

(trigger.module) New usability features added PHP Filter (own module and disable by default) Drop and Drag features within site build block

configurations Menu sections are broken down into types of menu,

Navigation/ Primary Links / Secondary Links (and yes you can drag and drop : )

What's New in Drupal 6 continued… Comments appear per content type, can be disabled

or enabled on each content type Date formatting, allows for custom formats Enhanced control over teaser text (you can insert a

break in your teaser text and the body (can chose to show summary in full view)

OpenID Log in ( just what the user always wanted ) HTML corrector filter (user forgets to add an end tag

correcter filter will add the end tag) stops malformed HTML appearing in content

Changes to Performance

Page Compression has now been added (you can chose to enable or disable)

Drupal page cache stores the HTML output of every page into the database (cached copy is then delivered to the end user)

Why is this good because there is one call to the database for page output rather then having to execute functions to create the html output (stores in compressed mode less bandwidth)

Block Cache is now integrated into core now you simply enable or disable (helps anonymous performance and authenticated performance)

Optimize not just CSS but Javascript as well, takes all the JavaScript files and turns them into one javascript file, (makes a call for one file rather then 30 files) helps not only larger enterprise site but aslso shared hosting site

Clear cached data (if using cache you need to clear that cache to see immediate changes)

Information Architecture

Takes a while to get your head around the Drupal way

Need to create a Map of the content types your site requires and the content type you will use to represent that content in Drupal

Think of your time frame and budget Drupal can accommodate for a complex

architecture but you need the time to map the content types

Node Hierarchy Module

Allows a Node to be a Parent Node and have Children nodes

Good for representing a hierarchal information architecture structure

Simple to install and use and provides a good way for new drupal people to create node relationships

Drupal Menu modules

Depends on how complex your navigation system is

Can stick with Primary and secondary links and manipulate the look through template

Can create new menu blocks etc and theme separately

Drupal 6 Themes

New drive toward the separation of logic functions and presentation features

All theme functions must now be registered Better use of _phptemplate_variables() New theme inheritance structure (more

granular) New template files (more template files

added for greater control of regions) Allows for pure CSS themes Theme engines (Smarty, PHPTal,

LOLTheme)

Theme inheritance basics

A sub theme sets ‘base theme’ in info file (Themes now have .info files )

A sub theme gains all style sheets A sub theme gains all templates A sub theme gains all functions in

template.php A sub theme should never use

phptemplate_* functions

CSS only themes

Core page.tpl.php theme based on zen

Uses well-named classes to identify areas

A theme with just an .info file will create an ugly site but with clean XHTML that can be manipulated

Theme Developer Module

Download and install Devel Module http://drupal.org/project/devel Theme developer (Drupal6 only) Works by injecting markers into the DOM to

allow theme information Can pull theme function names and also

function arguments ( ex arrays) Hover over area of template and function

names are displayed for that area Open template file and amend that function

to change the template

Online Resources

http://drupal.org/ (don’t underestimate) http://www.drupalvideos.com/ (tutorial

videos) http://mydrupal.com/drupal-beginner-v

ideos-basics (tutorial videos)

http://drupal.org/project/devel (Devel Module)