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The Naked Node: code-free Drupal

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The Drupal learning curve is much talked about, and rightly so as Drupal can be used to construct huge and complex websites. But Drupal is also really great at small websites, and with Drupal 7 that deathly curve has become a gentler incline. This beginner session will take participants on a high speed journey to creating a functional small site, all with no custom PHP.

This session is aimed at Drupal beginners, particularly those looking to move from static HTML, or other content management systems like Wordpress or Joomla. Taking the case study of a small music website, the session is designed to introduce participants to the key core and contributed modules that are essential to building a Drupal website without any custom code. The case study will build up a set of features that are common to many small sites: a blog, an events calendar, an image gallery and a set of featured content blocks. Participants will learn how modules like Views, Display Suite, Context, Taxonomy and Bean can be used to quickly build up a website without having to stick to the Drupal defaults, and the feature recipes will provide a great starting point for participants to begin their own custom development.

Participants will be provided with detailed recipes so they can recreate the features on their own, as well as a handbook with an introduction to Drupal and useful information for the non-coding developer on where to put modules, themes and custom CSS, how to choose a reliable contributed module, Drupal best practice and where to get help.

Erica Bramham started Drupal life having only built a few old-school static HTML websites, and was thrown into the deep end maintaining a community organisation's outdated Drupal site. With a little training, fewer resources and no PHP or database knowledge whatsoever, she learned the hard way how to work around these shortfalls. She believes that no one else should have to struggle through the beginning steps of Drupal at the same excruciatingly slow pace, and aims to fast-track new developers toward building their first finished, functional projects. And constructed on the extendable Drupal platform, these baby sites can even grow up to become the giant, complex monsters just like their Drupal big brothers and sisters if they want to.

Schedule info
Status: 
Accepted
Time slot: 
Thursday, February 7 - 10:45am-11:45am
Room: 
Oceanic Ballroom East
Session Info
Speaker(s): 
Track: 
Sitebuilding
Experience level: 
Beginner

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