Drupal Content Management System

Recently I decided to develop a community driven website. This just means that members/users of my website will be able to produce content, vote on content/polls and make site decisions. I decided to use a Content Management System (CMS) to keep things easy and, since I'm on a budget, it had to be affordable. After test driving several, I decided to go with Drupal.

What is Drupal?

Drupal is an open source web content management system, which means that it's a completely free way to set up and manage your web site. That fit perfectly into my budget. The only expense then is the price of hosting. Drupal runs with PHP programming, so it's important to make sure the web host you choose is reliable and offers plenty of Mysql database space as well as storage space. Drupal uses quite a bit of space for its core functionality and you're probably going to use more for adding on modules and themes. Modules are extras that are added onto the core to increase functionality. Themes are just "skins" that change the look of the site.

For Site Configuration

Site owners and administrators will love the backend of Drupal. Setting up the look of your site is as easy as deciding what to put on the sidebars. The content is arranged by blocks, which consist of a header, content, sidebars, and footer. These blocks are the core. You can add blocks to these, as well as subtract blocks. [Note: I don't recommend taking off the core blocks. You could disable your site] To configure the page you decide where you want key features- login, navigation, links, recent content, etc. - by choosing from drop down menus and assigning them numbers. For example, for "user login" you could choose "right-sidebar" and "-10". That would place the login at the very top of the page (the smallest numbers "float" to the top). You would then decide which components you want in the sidebars and assign their placement the same way. After you've determined the look (blocks) you may want to increase usability (modules).

For Function and Usability