Intro to Drupal for Museums

David Henry

Missouri History Museum

For Museums and the Web 2009

Goals for the Missouri History Museum website Consistently reflect MHM’s branding Be accessible to nearly all visitors Be easy to use Facilitate creation and updating of content Be accurate and up to date Provide many opportunities for searching and input Enable integration with existing data and content Facilitate interconnections between diverse content

Overview

Part 1: Installation and Configuration Part 2: Site Building Part 3: The Content Construction Kit Part 4: Views

Part 1: Installation and Configuration

Basic install and initial setup Managing users

Exercise 1Managing modules

Exercise 2Finding help online

Basic Install and Setup

Install Any Questions?

Site Configuration Overview of configuration tools

Error reporting File uploads Performance and caching Site information

Managing Users

Add Users User Settings

Tip: Require admin approval Create Roles Create Access Rules Set permissions

Managing Modules

Module Management Interface Core vs. contributed modules Dependencies

Selecting modules By version compatibility By development activity

Installing modules Best practices: install in sites/all/modules Check permissions Update db

Installing FCKEditor Module

Download FCKeditor and FCKeditor module Install In sites/all/modules Reconfigure Enable in modules administration Set permissions Edit FCKEditor profile

Part 2: Site Building

Managing Themes Exercise 3

Managing Blocks Exercise 4

Managing Menus Exercise 5

Managing Themes

Changing themes Selecting themes Configuring themes

Changing colors Change the site logo and site icon Show hide page components

Creating your own theme Copy existing theme into sites/all/themes Change name and info file Select and configure from themes admin interface Theme is infinitely customizable

Managing Blocks

Blocks layout Enabling and positioning blocks Configure a block

Block specific settings – if any Set rights by role Set visibility by role

Create a custom block Enable and position it

Menus

Create a Menu Add menu items Add content to an existing menu Position menu as a block

Part 3: The Content Construction Kit

In drupal, all content starts with a node The CCK enables you to add any number

and type of fields to a node The CCK bundle includes several modules

for managing content types and fields The Date field module enables managing the

complexities of date-based information The Node Reference field module allows you

to link related content together

Content Requirements

Tour Event

Publication

Exhibit

When a visitor is lookingat an exhibit page, he/sheshould also see relatedtours, publications, and events.

Likewise, when a visitor isOn a publication, event, or Tour page, he/she shouldBe able to see related events.

Creating a Content Type

Enable relevant modules Create a new type Add fields Configure fields Associating one content type to another with

a node reference field Theme the content type using a template

Part 4: Views

Views: custom queries and custom displays Example: List exhibits as upcoming, current,

and past The most complicated and the most powerful

drupal module Creating a simple view

Exercise 7 Creating a calendar and events listing

Exercise 8

Creating a View

View types: node, comment, User etc. Navigating the Views interface Selecting and configuring a style Selecting and configuring fields Adding filters Sorting Adding arguments Defining relationships

Creating an events calendar

Using the Date Tools module to create an event content type This also creates a calendar view with multiple

displays that can be adapted to meet your needs Adapting the date_browser view to list events

by date and by any other criteria

Wrap Up

Drupal for museums – examples: http://www.mohistory.org http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/ http://www.imamuseum.org/

Please feel free to contact me about using Drupal: David Henry dhenry@mohistory.org