Drupal as a CMS

Drupal is a popular Content Management System that has been around for some time now and is used for creating dynamic websites having different scopes including user administration, news aggregation, community features etc., It is flexible, robust, secure, scalable for future enhancements and easy to manage.  

History of Drupal: Drupal was initially created as a message board software in 1999. In less than one year's time it caught the attention of the developer community and started having a lot of features contributions. The Drupal community was formally incepted in 2005 and since then it has evolved into a very well developed, secure and robust system.

As Drupal's popularity soared, big brands like AOL Corporate, Sony Music, MTV UK etc., started using it.

What kinds of projects does Drupal work well with:

• CMS based websites which have content pages, galleries, forms, blogs etc.,
• Sites that can interact with other sites and technologies.
• Work flow based web sites and applications.
• Social networking sites that have members area, wikis, blogs, forums and other such features.
• Classifieds directories that have paid membership for advertisers.

Are sites made on Drupal safe?: Yes Drupal based sites are very safe provided the version is updated on a regular basis and the basic security measures on the server and any code customizations have been followed.

How long does it take to make a site in Drupal? It all depends on the scope of work. If the site is a simple CMS site with a straightforward design then it can be done within days. However if the scope is vast and the design is complex then it can take a few weeks or months.

What are the minimum server requirements to run a Drupal website? In terms of Disk Space, minimum requirement should be of 15 Megabytes. Web server should be Apache. Database should be MY SQL 5.0.15 and PHP version should be 5.4 or higher.

At Vantagewebtech we have been making websites using Drupal in different scopes. Contact Us for your website needs.

Scoping a Content Management System

A Content Management System (CMS) is a back end application which allows the front end of an application or website to be managed. It can have many features and functions depending upon the requirements of the system administrators. A CMS is being commonly used in most websites these days and there are many ready made CMS like Joomla, Wordpress and Drupal which are readily available to be used.

Features of a CMS can include:

a) Edit existing pages: A simple Content Management System can have a function to easily edit the text, navigation menu names, banners, galleries, images, PDfs, videos and all other media. This type of Content Management System is good for websites which would always have fixed pages.

b) Manage page counts: For sites which would need new pages to be added as well, a Content Management System with the function to add or remove pages is needed. When a new page is added, the navigation menu and the site map should automatically get updated. Similarly when a page is deleted from the system, the link to that page should be automatically erased from the navigation and the sitemap. The design of such sites have to be flexible enough to accommodate increasing or decreasing menus.

c) Manage forms: The administrators can add/delete forms or edit the existing forms.

d) Users types: Websites and applications which have many interfaces and functions cannot be managed by one single Administrator. An Admin user management function is added to allow multiple administrators to manage the website or application. The system has one main administrator who creates sub admin users. These sub admin users can be given access to only certain areas or to the full system. They can be deleted from the system and their details (like password, e-mail id, access areas etc.,) can be easily edited.

e) Manage design: A CMS can have a function to update the design template of the front end. This again can be as simple as changing the color scheme and the background of the template or as advanced as changing the complete structure of the design.

f) Manage Search Engine Optimization: If the CMS is for a commercial website then it should have a system to update the Search Engine Optimization elements on the website such as Meta tags, URLs, image names, ah-refs etc.,

A Content Management System can be either created from scratch using custom coding or from ready to use platforms such as wordpress, joomla and Drupal.