Drupal is a popular content management system because website owners can easily manage users and content without having to rely on website developers.
Drupal Basics
Drupal is a cross-platform content management system that is both free and open-source through the GNA general public license. It has been used to create approximately two percent of all Websites around the world. It can create multi-user blogs, Internet forums and community sites that are driven by user generated content. It has even been used to create the Whitehouse’s official website. The standard version of Drupal has the fundamental features needed to properly manage content systems. This includes taxonomy, maintenance and page layout customization.
Common Drupal terms include pages, which are amalgamations of individual components that are arranged into regional blocks of information. These blocks are called nodes and are a unit of database content such as a blog post or product review. Content type refers to how fields are arranged in websites. Basic pages will have a title and body field, but news content will also have a date and URL field.
What are the Advantages?
Drupal comes with a rich array of easy to use features and functions, such as RSS-feeds, system administration, menu management and user account registration. These user-friendly features maximize usability and promote the development of basic blogs and websites. For advanced users, Drupal has an administration panel that comes loaded with advanced functionalities. New user accounts and custom permissions can be set up with only a few mouse clicks. For example, there are thousands of themes and templates available that only need content to be added for a professional looking website.
Drupal also makes managing site content easy through standard editors that allow users to click and drag, copy and paste and embed images and videos. Thus, Drupal is considered to be very scalable because there are thousands of plug-ins that can instantly expand the site’s functions and capabilities as well as security and services. Finally, Drupal makes user collaboration convenient through giving everyone the freedom to contribute content with flexible administration oversight and control.
What are the Disadvantages?
There are also well-documented disadvantages that some users experience with Drupal. For instance, WordPress is still considered to be the best content management systems available on the market. When compared with WordPress and even Joomla, Drupal comes with a steep learning curb that causes limited usability. Drupal is an advanced CMS that needs developer expertise for installation, management and updates. Many companies struggle to find developers experienced with Drupal, so writing highly customized modules can be difficult.
There are also slow loading times, which occur because Drupal comes loaded with so many embedded tools and features that they affect speed and performance. If new users do not understand how to tweak Drupal’s settings, a lot of bandwidth and IT resources will be consumed. Some users experience compatibility issues because Drupal is a relatively new platform, so it may not work with newer systems. Finally, major updates will take time and resources.
Related Resource: Continuous Data Protection
To overview, Drupal is a popular content management system that is best for advanced website owners and developers.
