Last Updated on September 4, 2024
Choosing an appropriate content management system is vital for running a site smoothly. Though there are several CMS’s you can choose from, choosing the best isn’t very easy. If WordPress is for simple sites, Drupal is for complex sites that need full scalability! And the latter, over the years, has proved to be a consistent platform that is too powerful to be true.
Being open source obviously has helped Drupal largely but one cannot take away the credit from the core development team at Drupal for giving such an awesome yet robust platform to host and run a website.
Theming in Drupal
Versatility is the right word when it comes to themes in Drupal. Almost anything and everything can be done with the themes in this platform. You can be in complete control of the look and feel of your website. Right from using free themes to premium ones, offers for Drupal are galore. Most of the themes we are talking about look professional and fresh and work professionally.
Three powerful themes have also been launched for Drupal 7, namely, Bartik, Seven and Stark. Working on HTML5 modules has been largely improved on the seventh version of the CMS, while Dries Buytaert promises further improvements for Drupal 8. The entire ecosystem for theming in Drupal is conducive for every type of website, with adequate tutorials readily available on various forums.
Search Engine Optimization
Much need not be said about the need for search engine optimization. It is sufficient to say that SEO is a must for the success of any website. Having understood this basic requirement, the bigger question is how does Drupal help in SEO? Much has been exclusively written about SEO advantages of Drupal and much can further be added to the already exhaustive list of advantages.
But at this moment, it is sufficient to say that Drupal has well taken care of SEO. Right from including Page Titles, Meta tags and Meta descriptions to integrating SEP plugins, everything happens smoothly on Drupal. Integrating analytics such as Google Analytics is easy and simple too.
Content Construction Kit
Content Construction Kit, simply known as CCK. is a marvel no Drupal developer can dislike. In Drupal 7 it is no longer an add-on feature but rather a default tool. CCK allows you to articles, blog posts in a jiffy. The enhanced CCK also lets you add fields to the content type directly from the administrative interface. After creating the content type (which can include name of the content, complete content and other details), the content contributors can work on the technical aspects without any hurdle.
Better Utilization of HTML 5
Using HTML5 to develop a website has become the norm today. HTML 5 allows developers to code without having to work separately on Flash files. Initially working on HTML 5 and integrating the same on Drupal wasn’t very easy but these things have been largely improved now. Drupal 7 has a contributed module that overrides Drupal’s default markup language replacing it with HTML 5. Further improvements are on the anvil too with the Drupal team promising that HTML 5 will become the default markup, the older HTML and CSS markups will be cleaned up etc.
Community Support
Working on an open source platform has its own set of advantage and needless to say immense community support is one of them. Thousands of developers continuously contribute to Drupal development, enhancing its features, working on the loopholes and extending technical support to others. This way the atmosphere is conducive for innovation, better codes and more competition with better results.
Furthermore, the fact that Drupal has been around for a long time has increased its community base largely and there are many experts of the platform today. Seeking community support and getting immediate response is not a big deal really. Additionally finding developers or designers to help with your current website project is also easier in this free and open market space.
Views
Last but above all, Views, a famous Drupal module, is an incredibly smooth solution to how things can be viewed on Drupal. Views works on a graphical interface, allowing you to query the content without having to work with SQL. In Drupal 7, things have been further simplified allowing you to streamline every display item.
There are different kinds of Views, such as the basic View (which simply lists all the products in the site, configures them easily and saves them in a couple of minutes) and the more advanced set up which has more complicated controls. Views has been documented in three layers: Views 1, Views 2 and Views 3 API.
If you are looking for a platform to develop a simple website then Drupal will be a little tough but if you want to develop a big website and have complex needs, Drupal is a must-use platform.
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