preventing drupal headaches: content type checklist
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
CONTENT TYPE CHECKLIST
Prevent Drupal Headaches!
1Wednesday, January 22, 14
training.acquia.com/events
2Wednesday, January 22, 14
Who is this for?• Moving from another
CMS
• You’re planning a new Drupal site
• You inherited a new Drupal site and sense there might be something wrong...
3Wednesday, January 22, 14
In this presentation...• The basics of content types• Beware the defaults!• The big problem: Content Architecture• A final check when you’re ready to go live
4Wednesday, January 22, 14
Not in this presentation...• Views display• File field• Image fields and WYSIWYG• Drupal 8 content modeling
• Improving content administration (very important!!)
5Wednesday, January 22, 14
Site Building Checklist• With Suzanne of Evolving Web• Site Building Checklist (slides)
6Wednesday, January 22, 14
Future friendly content• KAREN MCGRANE - Keynote, DrupalCon
portland2013.drupal.org/keynote/karen-mcgrane (24:20 mins in)
7Wednesday, January 22, 14
Content admins are important
• Slides: “Content Administrators are Users Too” Karen McGrane and Jeff Eatonslideshare.net/KMcGrane/baby-got-backend-content-administrators-are-users-too
8Wednesday, January 22, 14
The basics!
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What is a content type?
A “node”A “content type”
10Wednesday, January 22, 14
Assembling• A typical Drupal “page” is made up of
assembling components from content types, fields, blocks, views, panels, etc!
listlist w/thumbnailthumbnail text w/picture
11Wednesday, January 22, 14
Content typesArticle
Content title
Instruction manual
Content title
Tips
Content title
Article content. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia.
tags tags tags
Tips content. This is a great way to use your new product.
This is a guide. The best place to start is here. Then you can go there and further.
DownloadThis is a file download
12Wednesday, January 22, 14
About content types• Content types have
basic settings. • Simple version
control (revisions). • Adding fields
extends and customized the content type
News article
Lead image
Topic
Event
Generic plus:
Topic
Date of event
Generic content type
Title
Author
Date published
Comments?
Menu option?
Generic plus:
13Wednesday, January 22, 14
Content types are not...• Content types are not page templates!• Other CMSs workflow is “container first”.• Define site map...• Create page templates...
• In Drupal: Panels, Page manager, etc. can be used.
14Wednesday, January 22, 14
Quick demo!• Super fast demo
filepaths.localhost:8082/admin/structure/types15Wednesday, January 22, 14
Typical Drupal workflowDrupal workflow just for content modelling
1. Add the content type
2. Configure default settings
3. Add fields
4. Manage display
5. Set permissions
6. Test adding content
16Wednesday, January 22, 14
What actually happens?Drupal workflow just for content modelling
1. Add the content type
2. Configure default settings
3. Add fields
4. Manage display
5. Set permissions
6. Test adding content
17Wednesday, January 22, 14
Beware the defaultsA quick checklist
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Content type defaults
1
2
3
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Submission form• Default title field label is “Title”. Does this suit
your content type?• Submission guideline is empty!
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Better editing experience• Use meaningful field labels• Add help text
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Revisions• Default: It’s disabled. • Enable revisions for most content types. This
helps editors greatly, especially when collaborating.
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Promoted to front page?• Default: It’s enabled. • Disable if you don’t want content to go to
your front page and global RSS feed by default
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Menu options• Default: New content types allow new nodes
to be added to the main menu.• Do you want users to be able to add this
particular item into your “Main menu”?
24Wednesday, January 22, 14
Comment settings• Though you can turn the default setting to
“closed” content admins can still “open” them.
• Configure your content settings, threading, number of comments, even for closed types!
25Wednesday, January 22, 14
Body field• Default field label is “Body”. Does that work
for your content type?• Default allows for an editable summary.
26Wednesday, January 22, 14
The big problem: Content architecture
Check your designs for these pitfalls
27Wednesday, January 22, 14
• Content Modelling: A Master Skill by RACHEL LOVINGER April 24, 2012
Drupal is different• CMSs have a bias. They’re often designed
around a certain “unit” of content and that’s what they’re optimized to create.... For most web content management tools a unit is a webpage, even though we’re more likely to be making dynamic sites that use (and reuse) content in a variety of configurations.
28Wednesday, January 22, 14
Org charts
• Content Modelling: A Master Skill by RACHEL LOVINGER April 24, 2012
29Wednesday, January 22, 14
Other CMSs - ouch!
https://blog.gathercontent.com/from-blobs-to-chunks-a-real-life-example30Wednesday, January 22, 14
The solution??
https://blog.gathercontent.com/from-blobs-to-chunks-a-real-life-example
Expression engine
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Drupal could do it better!
https://blog.gathercontent.com/from-blobs-to-chunks-a-real-life-example32Wednesday, January 22, 14
Content separate from display
• Content types with presentational markup
http://karenmcgrane.com/2013/05/23/drupalcon-keynote-video-and-talk-notes/33Wednesday, January 22, 14
Structured content
In HTML:
Body textTags
LocationMedia (video,
images)
Title
Image upload
Title
Location
Tags
Body text
Compare
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What to display?
Image
Title
Location
Tags
Body text
Author
Date
Googlehttp://domain.com
Web Page Title
Show 2 most recent.Image as square thumbnail. Body text up to 100 words
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Show author and date?
Googlehttp://domain.com
Web Page Title
Image
Title
Location
Tags
Body text
Author
Date
Show 9 per page with pagination.Image as thumbnail. Author link to profile. Short date.
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Display options• Limit your fields to only what you need to
reuse and display.
listlist w/thumbnailthumbnail text w/picture
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Design choices• When to use multiple fields?
Example a. Example b. Example c.
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• Depends on your needs
Design choices
Example a. Example b. Example c.
Single image field
Single image fieldmultiple values
Two image fieldsSingle values
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Too many?• 42 content types which could be
consolidated• Consolidate: Content types with similar
purposes with names like “Page - front” and “Page - products”
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Too few? • 2 or 3 complex content types with many
fields and references.• Divide: Limit fields to only necessary data
which suits the model for that type.
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How many is too many?• Too many content types can be a burden on
overall performance. • The number of fields and references within a
content type will have a significant impact on performance.
• A large number of fields and complex forms also increase the chance for error and harm user experience.
42Wednesday, January 22, 14
Prevent at design stage!• Limit the number of content types • Limit unnecessary complexity • Limit unnecessary fields• Combine similar content types• Reuse shared fields for the same data (where
they have the same global settings)
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Review as you develop
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Field related modules
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Module selection - FAQ v FAQ field?
drupal.org/project/faq drupal.org/project/faqfield46Wednesday, January 22, 14
• Simplify entity references functionality• Displayed within the content type. Can be
edited separately.• Can pose performance problems
Field collection
https://drupal.org/project/field_collection
Pet name select animal type
snakes
catsgoldfish
dogs
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High performance• https://groups.drupal.org/high-performance
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Pitfalls to avoid
4sitestudios.com/blog/oct-08-2013/8-pitfalls-avoid-when-developing-content-models-drupal
49Wednesday, January 22, 14
Final check!
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Real content test drive• Test content types with real content and real
content editors. **• You will always be surprised!• Change order of content editing fields to
match user’s needs, even if different than display.
• ** Warn editors this content probably will be destroyed
51Wednesday, January 22, 14
Permissions!• Check permissions after you add each
content type. • Check permissions for untrusted user roles
on all contributed modules.
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Pathauto patterns• Check your path auto patterns
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Display configuration• Check all view modes• Don’t forget “Search results”
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Module maintenance• Subscribe to the issue queues of any
modules you’re using on the site. • Apply security updates on-going
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Tidy up!• Delete test content.
• Delete test content types. • Delete any content types not in use.• “Retire” old content types (which still have
content on display) by disabling editing permissions for content editing roles so they don’t see that content type in their Add content list.
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Next week
acquia.com/resources/webinars/preventing-drupal-headaches-permissions-and-roles-checklist
57Wednesday, January 22, 14