Installing & Using Drupal

Using Drupal

Drupal is a content management system that I recommend as an alternative for Wordpress. Drupal has a lot to offer and what I like the most about it, they explain all of their features there for you, rather then you guessing or having to read a long listed READ ME page. The only down-side to using this CMS, viewers/users will have to create an account in order to access page on your site, unless of course you disable this feature, even so though, they will still need to create an account. Which isn’t so bad, since you can then use this site securely.

Installing Drupal

Once again installing Drupal is the same as installing Wordpress since it is located within the Fantastico application. Once in the Fantastico page, located within your Cpanel, scroll down until you get to the category ‘Content Management’. Drupal is the first link you see. Follow the instructions on installing it and you should be just fine.

Working with Drupal

Here is a list of key features that Drupal has, this will help you better understand each feature.

Administer - This is where you will be able to configure everything for Drupal. You will be able to control Site/content management, site building, configuration, logs, and user management.

Content Management - Edit everything in regards to the content on your website. (RSS, posts, pages…etc.)
Site Building - Edit the way your website is structured. (ex. create a right box on the website layout or delete it)
Site Configuration - Configure your site’s settings here. (site maintainence, file system…etc.)
User Management - Manage users and user functions here.
Logs - See status reports of your website.
Help - Uh oh, I found competition to this short glossary! Find all meanings and overall help on this page.

Create Content - Create/edit/delete blog entries, pages, and stories here.

My Account - View blog posts you have made here and also edit your account information.

News Aggregator - View stats on your RSS feeds and see who and what is accessing them.