Drupal facts for kids

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Drupal

Screenshot showing Drupal 9 content authoring interface in action
Original author(s)	Dries Buytaert
Developer(s)	Drupal community
Initial release	January 15, 2001; 24 years ago (2001-01-15)

Stable release	Lua error in Module:Wd at line 1575: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). / Lua error in Module:Wd at line 1575: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).; Error: first parameter cannot be parsed as a date or time.[±]

Written in	PHP, using Symfony
Operating system	Unix-like, Windows
Platform	Web platform
Size	140 MB (uncompressed Drupal 9.1 core)
Type	Content management framework Content management system Blog software Open-source Knowledge management
License	GPL-2.0-or-later

Drupal is a special kind of computer program that helps you build and manage websites. It's like a powerful toolkit for creating all sorts of online places, from simple blogs to big company or government sites. It's also free and open-source, which means anyone can use it and help make it better!

Many websites around the world use Drupal. It's used for personal blogs, business sites, and even websites for governments. It can also help people share information and work together online.

A huge community of people helps develop Drupal. This community includes over a million members, with many actively working on it. They create thousands of free add-ons (called modules) to give Drupal new features. They also make thousands of free themes to change how a Drupal website looks. This means you can customize a Drupal site in many ways!

The basic version of Drupal is called Drupal core. It has all the main features you need for a website. This includes things like letting users sign up, managing menus, and organizing content. You can use Drupal core to make a simple website, a blog, an online discussion board, or a community site where people can share their own content.

Drupal is also seen as a web application framework. This means it provides a strong base for building complex web applications. Even though it's powerful, you don't need to know how to code to set up a basic Drupal website. It works on almost any computer system that can run PHP and a database.

History of Drupal

Drupal was first created by Dries Buytaert as a simple message board. He made it so his friends could chat while they were at university. Later, he put the site online for everyone and called it Drop.org.

The name Drupal comes from the Dutch word druppel, which means "drop" (like a drop of water). Dries wanted to call his site "dorp," meaning "village," because it was for a community. But he made a typo when checking the website name, and "Drupal" sounded better!

Drupal became an open-source project in 2001. This means its code is free for anyone to use, change, and share. Drupal became much more popular in 2003. It was used to build "DeanSpace" for Howard Dean, who was running for president in the U.S. DeanSpace helped many people connect and share ideas online using Drupal.

After this, more companies started to focus on developing with Drupal. By 2013, hundreds of businesses offered services related to Drupal. The Drupal community continues to grow, with many people working together to improve the software.

Over a million websites use Drupal today. Many famous organizations, companies, and schools use it. Drupal has also won several awards for being a great open-source content management system.

New versions of Drupal are released regularly. Drupal 7, a very popular version, was released in 2011. Its support was extended several times due to its wide use. The latest major versions are Drupal 10 and Drupal 11.

What is Drupal Core?

In the Drupal world, "core" means the main part of the program. It's built by many people working together. You can add more features to it using special add-ons called modules.

Drupal core is the basic building block of any Drupal website. It includes important parts that help the website run. Starting with Drupal 8, Drupal uses some parts from another system called Symfony.

By default, on a Drupal website, people can add content. This can be done by users who have signed up or even by visitors who haven't (if the website administrator allows it). This content can then be seen by anyone visiting the site.

Drupal core also has a way to organize content using a taxonomy system. This lets you sort content into categories or tag it with keywords. This makes it easier for people to find what they are looking for.

Core Modules: Built-in Features

Drupal core comes with many modules that you can turn on. These modules add more features to your website.

Here are some of the things Drupal can do:

Track who visits your site and keep logs.
Offer advanced search options.
Let you create books, comments, and discussion forums.
Make your website faster by storing information (caching).
Let you create custom types of content, like events or articles.
Create easy-to-read website addresses (URLs).
Manage complex menus with many levels.
Run multiple websites from one Drupal installation.
Allow many users to create and edit content.
Provide RSS feeds and gather feeds from other sites.
Tell you about security updates and new releases.
Let users create their own profiles.
Control who can see or do what on your site (user roles, IP addresses).
Help you set up workflows for content (like publishing steps).

Core Themes: Changing the Look

Drupal includes basic themes that change how your website looks. Themes like Garland and Bartik are examples.

There's also a Color Module that lets website administrators easily change the colors of some themes using a simple tool in their web browser.

Languages and Translation

Drupal is available in over 100 languages, including English. It also supports languages that read from right to left, like Arabic and Hebrew. This makes it easy to create websites for people all over the world.

Automatic Updates

Drupal can automatically tell the website administrator when there are new versions of modules, themes, or Drupal core itself. It's important to update quickly, especially when security updates are released.

Before updating, it's always a good idea to make a backup of your website. This way, if something goes wrong, you can easily restore it.

In 2014, a serious security problem was found in Drupal 7. If websites weren't updated very quickly, they could be attacked by hackers. This shows how important it is to keep Drupal updated to protect your site.

Making Drupal Work on Windows

Drupal 9 makes it easier for people who use Windows computers to develop websites with Drupal. This is because of new ways it handles databases and its ability to run on Windows web servers.

Accessibility: Websites for Everyone

Since Drupal 7, the community has worked hard to make Drupal websites accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. Drupal is a great tool for building sites that follow accessibility guidelines.

Drupal 8 brought many improvements to help both website visitors and administrators. These include:

Easier drag-and-drop features.
Better color contrast for easier reading.
"Skip navigation" links for keyboard users.
Automatic labels for input forms.
Better ways to hide and show text.
Support for tools that help people with screen readers.
Improved keyboard navigation.

The Drupal community has a special team that focuses on finding and fixing accessibility problems.

Extending Drupal's Core Features

Drupal's core is designed to be very flexible. It has a system that lets you add new features without changing the main code. This is done using modules and themes.

This design keeps the main Drupal files separate from any custom changes you make. This makes it easier and safer to update Drupal to new versions without losing your website's special features. The Drupal community has a saying: "Never hack core," which means you should never change the main Drupal files directly.

Modules: Adding New Powers

Modules are like apps or plugins for your Drupal website. They add extra features that aren't in the basic Drupal core. These can include things like photo galleries, special content types, tools for editing text, private messaging, and more. As of December 2019, there were over 44,000 free modules available!

Some popular modules include:

Content Construction Kit (CCK): This lets you create different types of content for your website. For example, you could make a special content type for "events" or "product reviews." Parts of CCK are now built into Drupal core.
Views: This module helps you display content from your website in many different ways. You can use it to create lists of articles, photo galleries, or custom reports. Basic Views features are now in Drupal 8 core.
Panels: This is a drag-and-drop tool that helps you design the layout of your website pages visually.
Rules: This module lets you set up automatic actions based on certain events. For example, "If a new user signs up, send them a welcome email."
Media: This makes it easier to upload and manage photos and other media files on your site.

Themes: Changing the Look

Themes change the overall look and feel of your Drupal website. They control the colors, fonts, layout, and design. As of December 2019, there were over 2,800 free themes available.

Drupal themes use standard formats. Many are built using special tools like PHPTemplate or Twig. These tools help separate the design (HTML/CSS) from the programming code (PHP). This makes it easier for designers to create themes without needing to be expert programmers.

All community-contributed themes on the Drupal website are free to use and share.

Distributions: Ready-Made Websites

A distribution is like a pre-packaged version of Drupal. It comes with a collection of modules, themes, and settings already put together for a specific purpose. For example, you could install a distribution that turns Drupal into a ready-to-use news site, a simple brochure site, or an online store.

Distributions save you time because you don't have to find and install all the extra parts yourself. They make it much faster to set up a complex Drupal website for a particular need.

How Drupal Works

Drupal is built using a design pattern called Presentation Abstraction Control (PAC). Think of it like this:

The menu system is the Controller. It takes your clicks and requests.
It then gets the right information (Abstraction) from your website's content.
Finally, it shows you that information in a nice way (Presentation) using the theme.

This design helps keep different parts of Drupal organized and working smoothly together.

Drupal Community

Drupal.org is home to a large and active community of users and developers. They work together to create new updates and improve Drupal's features. Many thousands of users contribute actively to the project.

Big conferences called "DrupalCon" happen twice a year in different parts of the world. These events bring together thousands of people who use and develop Drupal.

Smaller events, called "Drupal Camps" or "DrupalCamp," also happen throughout the year all over the world. Some of these camps even involve "Coding for a Cause," where people use their skills to help local non-profit organizations.

The Drupal community also organizes smaller local meetings called "meetups" in many cities. There are also over 30 national communities on Drupal.org that offer support in different languages.

Drupal Media

There are several ways to learn about Drupal through media. Podcasts are very popular, with shows like DrupalEasy, TalkingDrupal, and the Lullabot Podcast having many episodes and listeners.

Recently, The Drop Times has become a news source focused on stories important to the Drupal community.

Who Uses Drupal?

Many well-known organizations and companies use Drupal for their websites. Here are just a few examples:

Security

Drupal takes security very seriously. When a security problem is found, they announce it and release a fix.

Website administrators can get automatic notifications about new security updates. It's very important to install these updates quickly to keep websites safe. Drupal also has a security team, a mailing list, and an RSS feed to keep everyone informed.

In 2014, a very serious security flaw was found in Drupal 7, nicknamed "Drupageddon." If websites weren't updated within hours, they were at high risk of being hacked. This showed how critical it is to apply updates right away. If a site was not updated quickly, it was recommended to take it offline and restore it from a backup made before the problem was announced.

Another major security issue, "Drupalgeddon2," was found in 2018. This bug allowed hackers to take full control of Drupal sites if they weren't patched. Large-scale attacks started soon after the fix was released.

Drupal continues to release regular updates to fix any security problems that are found, ensuring websites remain safe.

The Future of Drupal: Headless CMS

Drupal is moving towards a new way of building websites called "headless CMS." This means separating the "front end" (what you see and interact with) from the "back end" (where the content is stored and managed).

This approach gives developers more freedom to deliver content to many different places, not just traditional websites. For example, content from a headless Drupal site could be used on digital signs, smartwatches, chatbots, mobile apps, or kiosks. This makes Drupal even more flexible for the future of digital content.

Images for kids

The Drupal logo, showing its name.
A screenshot of the Drupal 9 content editing screen.