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Drupal CMS+context
Drupal is software, an open source free Content Management System (CMS).
+resources and best practices
Drupal CMS+background
A short summary on Drupal, but see the Drupal organization card for more information, or go to the Wikipedia Drupal article.
History
Originally written by Dries Buytaert as a message board, Drupal became an open source project in 2001. Drupal is an English rendering of the Dutch word “druppel”, which means “drop” (as in “a water droplet”). The name was taken from the now-defunct Drop.org website, whose code slowly evolved into Drupal. Buytaert wanted to call the site “dorp” (Dutch for “village”, referring to its community aspects), but made a typo when checking the domain name and thought it sounded better.
From May 2007 to April 2008, Drupal was downloaded from the Drupal.org website more than 1.4 million times, an increase of approximately 125% from the previous year. A large community now helps develop Drupal.
Drupal's popularity is growing rapidly. Over 70 well-known brand names and not-for-profit organizations now use Drupal.
As of February 2009, Drupal 6.10 is the latest release. Drupal is a winner of several Packt Open Source CMS Awards.
What is Drupal?
Drupal (pronounced /ˈdruː-pʌl/) is a free and open source modular framework and Content Management System (CMS) written in the programming language PHP. It is used as a "back end" system for many different types of websites, ranging from small personal blogs to large corporate and political sites.
The standard release of Drupal, known as "Drupal core", contains basic features common to most CMSs. These include the ability to register and maintain individual user accounts, administration menus, RSS-feeds, customizable layout, flexible account privileges, logging, a blogging system, an Internet forum, and options to create a classic "brochureware" website or an interactive community website.
Drupal was also designed to allow new features and custom behavior to be added by third parties. For this reason, Drupal is sometimes described as a "Content Management Framework". Although Drupal offers a sophisticated programming interface for developers, no programming skills are required for basic website installation and administration.
Drupal can run on any computing platform that supports:
Drupal CMS+definitions
See our Content Management System (CMS) card for more on what a CMS is. Here's a brief definition:
A content management system (CMS) is a computer application used to create, edit, manage, search and publish various kinds of digital media and electronic text. CMSs are frequently used for storing, controlling, versioning, and publishing industry-specific documentation such as news articles, operators' manuals, technical manuals, sales guides, and marketing brochures. The content managed may include computer files, image media, audio files, video files, electronic documents, and Web content. These concepts represent integrated and interdependent layers. There are various nomenclatures known in this area: Web Content Management, Digital Asset Management, Digital Records Management, Electronic Content Management and so on. The bottom line for these systems is managing content and publishing, with a workflow if required.
Drupal CMS+where to start
Drupal CMS+best practices
Drupal 101
by Peter Campbell October 05, 2009 Idealware Blog
Drupal CMS+issues
Drupal Moves Into the White House
By Ashlee Vance October 30, 2009 New York Times "In the Internet world, Drupal is not as bad as it sounds. The open-source software package helps people create and manage their Web sites. And this week, a new WhiteHouse.gov site arrived that had been built via the Drupal code." http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/drupal-moves-into-the-white-house/Drupal CMS+standards in field
Awards and Current Drupal Sites.
Drupal has won many awards, including:
Packt Open Source CMS Awards: 2009, Drupal won the inaugural Hall of Fame Award and Best Open Source PHP CMS. 2008, Overall Winner and Best PHP Open Source Content Management System. 2007, Overall Winner.
Lists of sites using Drupal:
Who is Using Drupal?: An excellent list of high-profile websites built with Drupal.
DrupalSites.net:A massive list of thousands of wibsites built with Drupal. The list is in the form of a community and people can add any site they like. You can also search the list and narrow it down to a given company, or area, for example by searching for the word, "foundation".
45 Drupal Sites Which You May Not Have Known Were Drupal Based: another detailed list of high-profile sites.
