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