Journey to the Center of Drupal: How I learned to build Drupal sites the ‘right way’ in 1001 easy steps

Journey to the Center of Drupal: How I learned to build Drupal sites the ‘right way’ in 1001 easy steps Julia Kulla-Mader Triangle NC Drupal @TriDUG

Julia Kulla-Mader Drupal.org member for 2 years and 31 weeks

Agenda 1. What is Drupal? 2. Why use Drupal? 3. What Not to Do 4. Building Drupal Sites the “Right Way”

What is Drupal? • Open Source Content Management System • Written in PHP • Drupal is an English rendering of the Dutch word “druppel”, which means “drop” (as in “a water droplet”)

Part I: Why Use Drupal

Trustworthy • Security • Customizable Permissions

Small, Modular and Useful • Lightweight core code • 4,000+ Modules

Lots of Smart, Helpful People • 1,400+ at last Drupalcon • Active support forms • Used by major businesses & nonproﬁts • Acquia

Part II: What Not to Do

Hello Frankenstein • There’s a module for that! • CRM + E-Commerce = Pain

Hacking Core & Other Misadventures

Highly, Highly Customized Design = Pain

Part III: Building Drupal Sites the “Right Way”

1. State Your Goals From the Start

2. Work with a Stakeholder Group to Develop a Work Plan

3. Develop a Communications Plan

4. Introduce Non-Technical Staff to Drupal Early

4. Assess In-House Technical Skill Early

5. Get Drupal Technical Training Early • Watch Lullabot or Lynda.com videos and/or go to a workshop • Purchase Using Drupal and/or Pro Drupal Development • Listen to Drupal podcasts

6. Build a Drupal Support Network • Join the Triangle NC Meetup group • Ask questions at groups.drupal.org • Tweet Drupal questions • Ask questions in #drupal-support in IRC • Have someone to call when problems arise

7. Hire Experts for Complex Tasks

8. Think Carefully Before 3rd Party/Drupal Integration

9. Prioritize Content Migration • Add content to your Drupal site during the development process • Use content export and import modules to move content from development to live sites (Node Export, Deployment) • If you are migrating from an existing CMS, heavily test your content migration modules during the ﬁrst phase of the project

10. Evaluate Modules Before Starting Development • Review modules at drupalmodules.com • Check to see how many times a module has been downloaded on Drupal.org • Read through the module’s issue queue on Drupal.org before installing it • Don’t put untested modules on a production site

Part IV: What Comes Next?

What Comes Next?: You 1. Download Acquia Drupal distribution 2. Buy “Using Drupal” 3. Join Triangle Drupal 4. Fill out Julia’s survey if you have built a Drupal site before http://bit.ly/drupalsuccess

Thank you for listening

Journey to the Center of Drupal: How I learned to build Drupal sites the ‘right way’ in 1001 easy steps

by Julia Kulla-Mader

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