Build a social or community web site, with friends lists, groups, custom user profiles, and much more
- Step-by-step instructions for putting together a social networking site with Drupal 6
- Customize your Drupal installation with modules and themes to match the needs of almost any social networking site
- Allow users to collaborate and interact with each other on your site
- Requires no prior knowledge of Drupal or PHP; but even experienced Drupal users will find this useful to modify an existing installation into a social web site
In Detail
Drupal is ideally equipped to be used as a base system for creating a custom social networking site like Facebook and MySpace. While these large social networks have their place, niche social networking web sites can help promote businesses, products, projects, and hobbies of any nature.
This book provides careful instructions and clear explanations to take you through the setup and management of your social network site, covering topics from users to marketing to maintenance. It will help you create your own social networking site, suitable for whatever audience you decide!
This book will take you from the very basics of both Drupal and Social Networking right through to more complicated aspects, like creating your own custom design and features for the site. With no experience of Drupal required, the book will introduce you to this award-winning CMS and carefully take you through the steps to create a social networking site from it. As the book progresses, you will learn how to add to and expand your social networking site, adding more features and adding value for your users, and how to make your users feel part of the community. Social networking web sites rely on their users contributing to the site, and this book helps you structure a site in a way users can easily and enjoyable contribute to the site – creating a powerful social network.
The book begins with the fundamental concepts of a Social Networking site, and how we can use Drupal to create such a site. It then goes through installing Drupal before looking at expanding the out-of-the-box feature set with third-party modules designed for Social Networking. Once the web site is running, it looks at securing the Social Network, deploying it on the Internet, and keeping it running and well maintained. It doesn’t stop there however; as Social Networks rely on their user base to run and become successful, the book also covers marketing the Social Network using Search Engine Optimization, Online Marketing, and a range of new Social Media.
What you will learn from this book?
- Get started with Drupal and explore the features of this powerful Content Management System.
- Build a social networking site from the ground up using Drupal 6
- Use a combination of features, modules and some simple custom development to allow user interaction and user contributions
- Enable your users to interact and communicate with one another, building friendship
- Let your users contribute to the site, from those who wish to add a little content to those who wish to help run the site on a daily basis
- Import content into your site from elsewhere on the Internet using the Aggregator module
- Create user profiles, set up roles and permissions, and handle security settings
- Explore Drupal’s modular system, and use it to create modules to add additional functionality relevant and useful to your social network.
- Customize the look and feel of your site by enabling and installing new themes, ensuring that your site is distinctive
- Deploy and maintain your social networking site on the Internet using the maintenance mode, reports, and cron to keep everything running smoothly
- Recover from virus attacks and hacking attempts to your Social Network by making and maintaining regular backups, in case the worst should happen
- Promote and market your Social Network using advertisements, advertising networks, other social networks, and search engine optimization
Approach
This book is packed with clear instructions and careful explanations for creating a powerful Social Networking web site using Drupal 6. With each chapter, you add new features and content until the Social Network is ready to be released to the Internet where it can grow.
By the end of this book, you will have a powerful Social Network either like that of the case-study, or of your own design based on the setup and features the book walks through.
Who this book is written for?
This book is aimed at anyone looking to create their own social networking web site, including:
- Businesses – building a Social Network around a product or service can improve your company profile and increase customer loyalty. Alternatively, an internal social network gives you employees a place to keep resources, discuss ideas, raise concerns, and keep up to date on company policies.
- Hobbyists – create a community around your hobbies and interests; create a local or distributed user group.
- Organisations & Charities – Raise your profile, promote your events / services / fundraisers and get help from the community in organizing them.
- Families – For large families based across the country or across the globe, keep up to date with everyone, and let everyone know what you are up to.
You don’t need any experience of Drupal or PHP to use this book. If you are a Drupal user you will find this book a great way to rapidly tailor an existing installation into a social-orientated web site.
Price: $34.27
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Drupal can significantly decrease the amount of time it takes to code a feature-rich web site, for free. Drupal is a content management platform that can power all kinds of web sites from simple online brochures to more advanced sites that include social networking, blogs, e-commerce, and business portals. It is free, open source software that allows anyone to quickly and easily build web sites.
Its full range of modules including user permissions, security mechanisms, JavaScript menus, WYSIWYG editors, and more: helps create the foundation for a powerful web site. Combined with its templating system (and a few tips and tricks), any graphic design file can be used to create a Drupal web site.
This book covers everything you need to build Drupal-powered web sites quickly. It explains in simple terms how Drupal works, and it provides concepts, tips, and code snippets for every step of the development process. A 200-plus page reference manual and cookbook is included.
- Helps web designers of all technical abilities create Drupal-powered web sites from start to finish
- Gives an overview of Drupal concepts and several contributed modules necessary to understand and leverage Drupal
- Describes the process of building and hosting Drupal web sites, including server administration, design tips, theming, system updates, and more
What you’ll learn
- How to get started using Drupal 7 and reduce the amount of time it takes to code a feature-rich web site
- How Drupal works, including best practices to quickly integrate Drupal into every web site you design
- How to configure a server and manage multiple web sites and testing environments using popular server administration software (cPanel) and a code repository (Subversion)
- How to place Photoshop or Illustrator design files on a Drupal content management system (CMS)
- How to create a foundational CMS that can be used across multiple web sites
- How to use popular Drupal modules, web site recipes, code snippets, and more
Who is this book for?
The primary audience for this book is web site designers throughout the world interested in using Drupal to build web sites. The audience may have previous experience using Drupal but do not consider themselves proficient. They are familiar with coding a basic HTML/CSS web site, although these skills are not required to benefit from the book.
The secondary audience for this book is freelance Drupal developers who actively use Drupal to build web sites. They are proficient developers interested in reducing development time and learning Drupal best practices.
Price: $26.39
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Putting jQuery, AJAX, and JavaScript effects into your Drupal 6 modules and themes
- Learn about JavaScript support in Drupal 6
- Packed with example code ready for you to use
- Harness the popular jQuery library to enhance your Drupal sites
- Make the most of Drupal’s built-in JavaScript libraries
In Detail
JavaScript: It’s not just for calculators and image rollovers.
Drupal 6 is loaded with new features, and not all of them are necessarily implemented in PHP. This unique book, for web designers and developers, will take you through what can be done with JavaScript (and especially with jQuery) in Drupal 6.
With the combination of the powerhouse jQuery library with its own robust set of JavaScript tools, Drupal 6 comes with a pre-packaged killer JavaScript environment. Cross-platform by nature, it provides all of the tools necessary to create powerful AJAX-enabled scripts, gorgeous visual effects, and view-enhancing behaviors. In addition, Drupal developers have ported some of its most powerful PHP tools – like a theming engine and support for localization and language translation – to JavaScript, making it possible to write simple scripts where once only complex PHP code could be used.
This book gives you the keys to the toolbox, showing you how to use Drupal’s JavaScript libraries to make your modules and themes more dynamic, interactive and responsive, and add effects to make your Drupal site explode into life!
If you’ve dipped your toe in the water of theme or module development with Drupal 6, this is the book you want to make the look and behavior of your work something special. With it’s project-based approach, this book is carefully constructed to guide you from how JavaScript fits into the overall Drupal architecture through to making you a master of the jQuery library in the world of Drupal themes and modules.
What you will learn from this book?
- An introduction to JavaScript in Drupal 6
- The basics of the jQuery library
- Creating JavaScript-enabled themes
- Manipulating a page on the fly with jQuery
- Authoring simple PHPTemplate files designed to maximize scripting potential
- Using jQuery to add effects in Drupal 6
- Working with Drupal 6 behaviors
- Adding AJAX to modules
- Using Drupal’s localization and language translation engine in your JavaScript
- Theming on the client-side with Drupal’s JavaScript theme engine
- Building better forms
- Working with Drupal 6’s JavaScript library
- Writing portable JavaScript tools as Drupal modules
Approach
This book focuses on teaching by example. Chapters are packed with example code, providing hands-on examples you can play with and then release to your own Drupal sites. By introducing short projects interspersed with discussion, the pace is rapid yet practical.
Who this book is written for?
This book is for web designers and developers who want to add JavaScript elements to Drupal themes or modules to create more flexible and responsive user interfaces.
You are expected to know about the basic operation of Drupal, and be familiar with the concept of theming and modules in Drupal. No experience of creating themes or modules is required.
You will need to know the basics of client-side web development; this means HTML, CSS, but also have a rudimentary grasp of the syntax of JavaScript. Familiarity with PHP programming will be an advantage, since we will be writing PHPTemplate files and (at the end) creating Drupal modules. However, the PHP is covered thoroughly enough that even the PHP neophyte will not find the text too demanding. The book also covers the jQuery JavaScript library and its use in Drupal, but no knowledge of jQuery is expected – you will learn everything you need in this book.
Price: $33.49
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How to setup, configure and customise this powerful PHP/MySQL based Open Source CMS
- Install, configure, administer, maintain and extend Drupal.
- Control access with users, roles and permissions
- Structure your content using Drupal’s powerful CMS features
- Includes coverage of release 4.7
In Detail
Drupal is one of the most popular content management systems on the internet. Based on PHP/MySQL, its power and flexibility combined with its exceptional design mean it is already on the way to becoming the de facto standard for CMS Websites. Drupal’s modular design and structured source code make it both highly flexible and easily extended and modified. Drupal is extremely scalable, making it ideal for both a simple personal website as well as an industrial strength commercial or institutional web presence.
Drupal is a model open source project in that it has a large, friendly community of people who contribute to the project in various ways. Drupal is not only free and easy to use, but this community provides on going mutual support.
Drupal’s power means choosing an initial pathway can be daunting. The flexibility and power of its content management features mean the right approach needs to be taken. This book takes you from initial set up through site design and creation in a series of carefully structured steps. While there are a few advanced topics that are beyond the scope of the book, all of the core stages of creating a website using Drupal are covered in detail.
What you will learn from this book?
Chapter 1 introduces you to the world of Drupal and looks at where Drupal comes from, where its going and what it can offer you. Because it is important to understand the nature of the tasks which lie ahead, it also discusses how to plan and build your website, taking a sneak preview of the book’s demo Website in the process. Finally, we scrutinize the Drupal community and learn how to make the most of Drupal as an organized, living entity and not just a piece of software.
Chapter 2 deals with how to get everything you need up and running on a development machine and also briefly looks at how all the requisite technologies gel together to produce your working Drupal site. Once everything is up and running, and after looking over some of the more common installation problems, the chapter presents a short tour of Drupal in order to give you an idea of what to expect.
Chapter 3 looks at the most general settings which all Drupal administrators need to contend with. Everything from determining your site’s name to dealing with the cache or file system settings gets treated here before we look at more focused and complex issues in the chapters to come.
Chapter 4 sees us adding functionality to the newly created site. The focus of this chapter is really on modules and how they can be added and enabled, or even how to obtain modules that are not part of the standard distribution. Since blocks are often required to display the functionality provided by modules, this chapter ends off with a discussion on how to control blocks.
Chapter 5 concerns itself with the topic of access control. Drupal has a sophisticated role based access control system, which is fundamentally important for controlling how users access your site. This chapter will give you the information you need to implement whatever access controls you require.
Chapter 6 gets to the heart of the matter by beginning the book’s coverage on content. Working with content, what content types are available, administering content and even a discourse on some of the more common content related modules serve as a basis for moving to more advanced content related matters that follow in the next chapter.
Chapter 7 gives you the edge when it comes to creating engaging and dynamic content. While this chapter doesn’t require you to be an expert in HTML, PHP and CSS it does introduce you to the basics and shows how, with a little knowledge, extremely powerful and professional content can be created. That’s only half the story, because later on it looks at categorization and how this particular feature of Drupal sets it apart from everything else out there.
Chapter 8 gives you a run down of how attractive interfaces are created in Drupal through the use of themes. As well as discussing briefly some of the considerations that must be taken into account when planning your website, it ends off by looking at how to make important modifications to your chosen theme.
Chapter 9 really adds the icing on the cake by looking at a host of more advanced topics. From creating flexible content types and generating revenue from ads, all the way through to building dynamic content using Ajax, you will find something to enhance your website and add that something special.
Chapter 10 takes a pragmatic look at the type of tasks you will need to be proficient in in order to successfully run and maintain a Drupal site. Whether its setting up cron jobs or making backups of your database, everything you need to do throughout the course of running your newly created website will be covered here.
Appendix A deals with the all important topic of deployment. Because all major work should be done on a copy of your Website on a development machine, this appendix presents a sound process for taking the finished product and making it available for public consumption on your host site.
Who this book is written for?
This book will suit anyone who has a need to create a content rich website. Whether you are:
- Adding a personal web page
- Building a forum
- Writing a collaborative book
- Retailing goods
- Creating a blog
- Launching a community Website
This book will prove to be an indispensable companion. Both experts and beginners to computing alike will find the information contained herein to be accessible and easy to intuit.
Price: $34.46
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A hands-on guide to building websites and applications in Drupal
This fast-paced tutorial explains, step-by-step, how to build highly functional websites and applications using the popular and powerful open-source software Drupal. Timed for the newest release, Drupal 7, the book helps you get started very quickly while teaching you many of the more advanced capabilities along the way.
Drupal: A Beginner’s Guide helps you get your great ideas to the Web at minimal cost and effort. You’ll be able to build a site framework that has total flexibility and slick aesthetics. The book also includes plenty of tips for easy, do-it-yourself website maintenance.
Price: $26.39
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