Beginning Drupal 8

Beginning Drupal 8 teaches you how to build, maintain, and manage Drupal 8-based web sites. The book covers what Drupal is, using Drupal when building a new web site, installing and configuring Drupal, creating and managing content, managing users, adding functionality to your web site through Drupal modules, and advanced topics on using themes, panels, and views. The book also builds practical examples of common Drupal sites, such as a company website, a community website, and a commerce website, that you can take and expand on to create your own Drupal 8 sites. By reading this book, you will understand the power of the Drupal platform, and why you should be using Drupal if you're not already. Through following the samples in the book, you will quickly build your confidence and your ability to use Drupal. Beginning Drupal 8 gives you the knowledge necessary to build, deploy, and manage web sites on Drupal 8. What you'll learn What Drupal is and why you should use it How to install a basic Drupal web site from scratch How to create content in your new Drupal web site How to manage users on your new Drupal web site How to change the look and feel of your new Drupal web site through themes How to install and configure modules Who this book is for This book is for nontechnical users who want to use Drupal 8 to manage content, as well as developers who are new to Drupal 8. Table of ContentsIntroduction to DrupalCreating and Managing ContentCreating and Managing UsersCreating and Using TaxonomyCreating Content TypesCreating and Using ViewsCreating and Using Page PayoutsCreating and Using MenusCreating and Using BlocksTheming Your SiteMaking Your Site ResponsiveExtending Your Site Through Contributed ModulesThe Anatomy of a ModuleUsing MultilingualAdministering Your Drupal SiteUsing DrushUsing GitPutting It All TogetherBuilding a Blog SiteBuilding a Company WebsiteBuilding a Community WebsiteBuilding a Commerce WebsiteApp A: ModulesApp B: Learn More" Contents at a Glance 5 Contents 7 About the Author 17 About the Technical Reviewer 18 Acknowledgments 19 Introduction 20 Chapter 1: Introduction to Drupal 21 Content Management Systems 21 Drupal 22 Drupal Core 22 Contributed Modules 23 Drupal Themes 24 Creating Content 24 Summary 27 Chapter 2: Creating and Managing Content 28 Understanding the Basics 28 Creating Content in Drupal 28 Teasers and Full Nodes 31 Editing Content 31 Other Content Options 33 Revision Information 33 Menu Setting s 35 Comment Settings 36 URL Path Settings 37 Authoring Information 38 Promotion Options 39 Deleting Content 39 Previewing Content 40 Finding Content 40 Summary 41 Chapter 3: Creating and Managing Users 42 Users, Roles, and Permissions 42 User Accounts 43 Configuring User Account Settings 43 Creating Roles 45 Assigning Permissions 47 Creating User Accounts 48 User-Generated Account s 50 Resetting Users’ Passwords 52 Summary 52 Chapter 4: Taxonomy 53 Taxonomy Overview 53 Creating Vocabularies 54 Assigning a Taxonomy Vocabulary to a Content Type 57 Selecting a Taxonomy Term when Creating Content 59 Creating Human- and Search Engine–Friendly Lists 61 Hierarchical Terms 62 Assigning More Than One Vocabulary 64 Summary 64 Chapter 5: Content Types 65 The Basic Page and Article Content Types 65 Defining a Custom Content Type 66 Creating a Custom Content Type 66 Customizing Your Content Type 71 Other Field Types 77 Radio Buttons 77 Check Boxes 81 Select Lists 83 File Uploads 84 Text Area 86 Numeric Fields and Other Field Types 87 Formatting the Input Form for a Custom Content Type 88 Formatting the Output of a Custom Content Type 89 Summary 90 Chapter 6: Using Drupal Themes 91 How a Drupal Theme Works 93 Finding a New Theme 94 Installing a Theme 96 The Administration Theme 99 Configuration Options 99 Summary 100 Chapter 7: Creating Menus 101 Ordering from the Menu 101 Adding an Item to a Menu 103 Adding a Content Item to a Menu 103 Adding a Menu Item for an External Page 104 Creating a New Menu 104 Summary 108 Chapter 8: Drupal Blocks 109 Blocks, Blocks, and More Blocks 109 Making Blocks Appear on Pages 109 Finding the List of Available Blocks 110 Rearranging Blocks 111 Reassigning and Deactivating Blocks 111 Configuring Blocks 112 Using Blocks from Contributed Modules 114 Creating Custom Blocks 114 Summary 116 Chapter 9: Views 117 The Views Module 117 Creating Your First View 118 Page Display 121 Block Display 125 Filtering 127 Advanced View Output 130 Creating RSS Feeds 130 Creating Tables 131 Views Add-on Modules 133 Summary 134 Chapter 10: Creating Pages 135 Foundation for Creating Pages 135 Creating Landing Pages 138 Creating Views 139 Summary 143 Chapter 11: Drupal Modules 144 Finding Contributed Modules 144 Downloading and Installing a Module 145 Downloading Module Files to Your Server 145 Using the Install New Module Feature 146 Configuring Modules and Setting Permissions 150 Enabling Other Modules 152 Upgrading a Module 153 Uninstalling a Module 153 The Top Eleven Modules 154 Views 155 Layout 155 Rules 155 Display Suite 155 Nicemenus 155 Pathauto 156 Webform 156 Backup and Migrate 156 Date 156 Library 156 Drupal Commerce 157 Summary 157 Chapter 12: Anatomy of a Module 158 Your First Drupal 8 Module 158 Step 1: Create the Module’s Directory 159 Step 2: Create the Module’s info File 159 Step 3: Create the Module File 159 Step 4: Create the Module’s Routing File 160 Step 5: Create the Module’s Controller 161 Other Module Files 162 Summary 162 Chapter 13: Multilingual Capabilities 163 Getting Started with Multilingual 163 Configuring Multilingual Capabilities 164 Specifying the Languages 164 Configuring Language Activation 165 Content Translation Example 167 Configuring Entities 168 Translating Content 169 Summary 171 Chapter 14: Administering Your Drupal Site 172 Backing Up and Restoring Your Site 172 Backing Up with the Backup and Restore Module 173 Backing Up with Drush 175 Restoring a Backup 175 Restoring with Backup and Migrate 175 Restoring with Drush 176 Backing Up the File System 176 Restoring the File System 177 Checking the Log Files 177 Recent Log Messages 178 Top ‘Page Not Found’ Errors 178 Status Report 179 Checking for Updates and Security Patches 180 Approving Requests for User Accounts 181 Summary 183 Chapter 15: Using Drush 184 Installing Drush 184 Installing Drush on Unix, Linux, or OS X 184 Installing Drush on Windows 185 Drush Commands 186 Summary 190 Chapter 16: Using Git 191 Installing Git 191 Installing Git on Linux 191 Installing Git on OS X 192 Installing Git on Windows 192 Using Git 192 Using GitHub 194 Using Git on Drupal.org 197 Summary 197 Chapter 17: Putting It All Together 198 Now What? 198 Look At Other Drupal-Based Sites for Ideas 198 Keep Tabs on Drupal and Contributed Modules 198 Get Involved in Your Local Drupal Users Group 199 A Methodology for Building Your Site on Drupal 199 Summary 204 Chapter 18: Creating a Responsive Site 205 Responsive Defined 205 How Responsive Web Design Works 205 Making Your Site Responsive 208 Browser Tools to Help You Test Your Responsive Theme 208 Common CSS Changes to Address Responsiveness 211 Summary 212 Chapter 19: Creating a Blog Site 213 Identifying Requirements for a Blog Site 213 Installing Drupal 214 Installing and Creating a Theme 214 Creating Taxonomy 215 Updating the Article Content Type 216 Creating Views 217 Assigning Blocks 218 Summary 220 Chapter 20: Building a Company Site 221 Identifying Requirements for a Company Site 221 Installing Drupal 222 Installing and Creating a Theme 222 Creating Taxonomy 225 Updating the Article Content Type 225 Creating the Client Portfolio Content Type 226 Expanding Drupal’s User Profile 229 Aggregating External News Feeds 230 Contact Form 231 Assembling the Site 231 The About US Page 232 The Client Portfolio Page 232 The Service Offerings Page 235 The Key Staff Page 236 The News Page 238 The Staff Blog Page 239 Adding the Contact Form to the Main Menu 239 Creating the Footer 240 Creating the Homepage 240 Summary 242 Chapter 21: Building a Community Site 243 Requirements for a Community Site 243 Installing Drupal Commons 243 Creating New Groups 249 Adding Events 251 Creating Posts 251 Creating Wikis 251 Managing Groups 251 Additional Capabilities 251 Summary 252 Chapter 22: Building a Commerce Site 253 Identifying Requirements for a Commerce Site 253 Installing Drupal Commerce Kickstart 254 Setting Up Product Categories 259 Setting Up Products 260 Creating a Product 263 Displaying Products 267 Shipping, Taxes, Payment, and Other Features 270 Shipping 270 Taxes 271 Payments 274 Summary 278 Appendix A: Installing Drupal 279 The Foundation Required to Install Drupal 279 Setting Up your Platform in Preparation for Drupal 280 Installing Drupal 280 Downloading Drupal 281 Decompressing the Drupal Installation Package 281 Moving the Drupal Distribution to the Root Directory of Your Web Server 281 Creating the settings.php File 281 Creating the files Directory 282 Creating the Drupal Database 282 Creating a Database User Account 283 Configuring Drupal 284 Summary 287 Appendix B: Additional Resources 288 Drupal Modules 288 Drupal Themes 288 Drupal Documentation 288 Where to Go When You Have Problems 289 Where to Host Your Drupal Site 289 Where to Go to Learn HTML and CSS 289 Video Tutorials 290 Drupal Podcasts 290 Index 291