This document discusses how to build an academic website using Drupal. It recommends planning information architecture and organization, using design principles for graphics and typography, and considering colors and aesthetics. Example pages for a website on local governance built with Drupal are described, including pages on Kerala, Kudumbashree, high court judgments, e-documents, laws/rules, FAQs, journals, archives, presentations, related sites, news, videos, and e-learning integration. The document outlines installing and configuring Drupal, a content management system, along with required software like Apache, MySQL, and PHP. It provides steps for uploading a live website, creating a database, installing Drupal, and configuring modules,

1. Building an Academic Site
with
Drupal
by
K Rajasekharan
Kerala Institute of Local Administration(KILA)
Email rajankila@hotmail.com

2. What is a website?

3. A site : A knowledge unit

4. Purpose of a Site
• To add to the global e-knowledge
• To collect, organise & deliver
information
• To exploit Innovative e-learning
• To use as a fulcrum of institutional
information exchange

5. What makes
a site
exciting

6. Craft
Creativity
Contents worth-
delivering &
Technologies

7. Planning a Website
• Planning is half the work
• Design determines the appearance
• Avoid clutter : make site simple
• Keep users in mind
• Content is the King
• Provide further links from each page

8. Information Architecture (IA)
Structuring, Organization,
Categorization, labeling,
search, and navigation for
Information usability

9. Organization of Information/Pages

10. Graphic Design
Use Design Principles
length, breadth, grid
etc to make the Site
Attractive

11. A three-column design with navigation & footer

12. The Art of Typography
The contrast between
fonts & between text,
blocks & surroundings
improves design & visual
culture

13. Use typography properly

14. Use Colours properly
Colours can set a mood,
attract attention &
ease use of content .
Learn Principles of
Colour Use

15. Site : Colour Scheme Designer

16. A website on
Local Governance at
http://decwatch.org
Using Drupal
-------------
The site no longer
does exist

17. It looks like this

18. A Page on Kerala

19. A page on Kudumbashree

20. High Court Judgments

21. External links a page provides

22. E Documents on Kerala : with Search

23. Kerala Law & Rules : Easier to Use

24. Guidelines on Central Schemes

25. An FAQ on Decentralisation

26. Free E Journals : with Search

27. An Archive on Direct Democracy

28. Classics on Political Science

29. Audio Books for Download

30. Related Websites with Search

31. Power Point - Presentations

32. Related Sites with Search within

33. Archive of News Items

34. A Video Repository

35. It integrates an Article Archive

36. A Mail Group for Discussions

37. Related E Learning Site

38. Site-Admininstration : the back-end

39. Software Used on the Site
• Drupal : One of the best, useful for many
uses
• Wordpress : Very popular, easy to use,
beautiful
• Moodle : one of the best E-Learning tool
• Blogger : Popular blog site
• Google Groups: for email discussions
• Scribd.com & Such sites linked to it to
bring in outside content

40. How to Build a site with Drupal

41. Software for Drupal Installation
• Apache,
• MySQL,
• PhP
• XAMPP contains all the three
• Htdocs/www is the web server root folder

42. Uploading a Live Website
• Get a url & web space from a provider
• Create a database using the Cpanel
• Upload the CMS to the server by using
filezilla/ftp application
• Type url (http://sitename.com) on a
browser
• Configure to make the site

43. Go to phpMyAdmin

44. Create a MySQL Database

45. Drupal Installation : Opening Screen

46. Configure Database

47. Configure Site

48. Add functionality to the Site

49. Site Admin Page : to do other things

50. Theme : to Change the Look

51. Regions & Blocks for Content Placing

52. Module Enabling Page

53. Configuring Modules

54. Editing of Navigation Menu

55. How to Give Permission to Users

56. Easy to Creating a Page