Drupal Ingredients Diagram: Let’s start at the very beginning…

Published on Monday, November 1, 2010 at 9:25am

In conversations with potential clients, at project kick-off meetings, or during Drupal training sessions, I often have to explain Drupal terms and basic concepts such as Drupal “core”, contrib modules, themes, configuration options, and custom modules. To introduce these concepts I created a diagram that provides a simplified overview of the different pieces that come together to make a Drupal website.

• Drupal Ingredients — Graphic (PNG): Diagram only. Suitable for including in presentations or articles. (see below).
• Drupal Ingredients — Handout (PDF): Includes introductory text. Formatted for 8"x11" and suitable for printing.

Drupal Ingredients Diagram

The following text is included in the handout:

Drupal is a free and open source web content management system. It can run on any computing platform that runs the PHP programming language, a supported web server, and a supported database. The standard release of Drupal is known as Drupal Core. It provides fundamental web content management features for building many different kinds of websites. It includes “core modules” that can be enabled to extend functionality and “core themes” that can be configured to change the appearance of the website.

To add more features or customize Drupal’s behavior, select from thousands of free, community-contributed modules known as contrib modules. To add new features or alter Drupal behavior, build your own custom modules. (Drupal’s modular framework makes this possible without modifying Drupal Core.) If your module may be useful to others, contribute it back to the Drupal community. The appearance of a Drupal website is controlled by a theme. In addition to core themes, you can select from many free pre-built contrib themes contributed by the Drupal community. Pre-built commercial themes are also available for purchase from theme vendors.

To create a unique look you can build a custom theme. Consider contributing it back to the Drupal community. The secret to building Drupal sites is in the selection of appropriate modules and in the configuration of various Drupal components and their interaction with each other. The text (HTML) content you add to a Drupal website is stored in the database. It is searchable using Drupal’s built-in search engine. In addition to HTML content you can also upload files such as images, PDFs, and multimedia content. For more information visit drupal.org

Feel free to use the diagram and send me suggestions or feedback.