Introduction to Drupal

Learning objectives:
- Who is it for?
- Set personal goals
Activity:
- Read the Welcome message
- Introduce yourself & your goals on the Introduction forum
Recording of orientation video, with Heather James: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub7XFT-rsRQ
Test connection & sound

Learning Objectives
- What is Drupal?
- Understand what this course will cover
Activities
- Tasks: http://p2pu.org/webcraft/introduction-drupal/document/week-1-tasks
  - Review orientation & welcome screencasts
  - Identify some learning goals: "3-5 features you want to learn"
- Discuss online: http://p2pu.org/webcraft/node/8692/forums/9454
Recording of Week 1 Online Session, with Doug Vann: http://www.viddler.com/explore/LearnDrupal/videos/1/
- What will this course cover & Introduction to Drupal

Guest guide: Salim of WebEnabled, Doug Vann

Learning Objectives
- Understand: "What is Site Building with Drupal?"
- Using Web Enabled environment
- Using CCK & Views
Activities:
- Tasks: http://p2pu.org/webcraft/node/8692/document/9771
  - Installing some modules with Drush (would have learned this in Week 1)
  - Setting up a sandbox testing site
  - Create a custom content type
  - Create a view
- Discuss online: http://p2pu.org/webcraft/introduction-drupal/discussion/week-2-discussion
Discuss in Webinar 2
- Listen to and Watch the video on Viddler: Week 2 Site Building
- What problems people had
- How can you use custom content on your own site?

Guest guide: Doug Vann http://dougvann.com/

Learning Objectives
- What distributions are available?
- How to access them from Web Enabled
- Compare and discuss them online
Activities;
- Week 3 Tasks: Try out some Distributions
- Discuss: can you use a distribution for your project?
- Subscribe to feeds, pod casts or webinars
Discuss in Webinar 3
- How can you extend them? How do you upgrade them?
- How do distributions work?
- Things to watch out for.
- And a mention of community podcasts, feeds and webinars to check out.
- Week 3 Recording: http://www.viddler.com/explore/LearnDrupal/videos/4/

Guest guide: Ryan Price of Drupal Easy http://drupaleasy.com/

Learning Objectives
- How to help visitors find content on your site through navigation & search
- Using Taxonomy; Menus & Blocks to organize navigational elements
- More like this and Facted search with ApacheSolr
Task
- Week 4 Tasks: Organizing your site content
- Week 4 Discussion
Discuss in Webinar 4
- Search engine optimization
- How these work together

Guest guide: Tom McCracken from Level Ten http://levelten.com/

Learning Objectives
- What is a theme?
- How to select, install and enable a theme
- How to make simple modifications to theme files
Task
- Week 5 Tasks: Introduction to Theming in Drupal
- Install and test a few different themes
- How to modify a Drupal theme
Discuss on Forum : Week 5 - Any questions about theming with Drupal?
Webinar
- Intro to making a sub-theme in Zen
- Best practices for theming

Guest guide: Heather

Materials on this week's session
Thanks to James Stone for this week's lessons!
Learning Objectives
- What is version control
- Migration from Web Enabled to local environment with DAMP stack
- Working collaboratively
- Backing up and maintenance best practices
- Work environment & tools
Task
- Backup your site
- Set up a local work environment
- Local environment, overview of tools on Mac + PC; and command line (via Acquia Drupal or Xampp)
Discuss in Webinar 6
- Demonstration of various developers’ work environments

Guest guide: Joshua Bruaer from Acquia http://acquia.com/

Final Week learning materials
Learning Objectives
- Connect to the community
- Places to find resources and help
Task
- Locate either a local or topical group on g.d.o, write a post, or respond to a post
- Respond to a forum post on drupal.org
- Showcase! Screenshot a part of your sandbox.
- Task: Describe How did you do that? Blog or post on drupal.org ‘Post installation’ forum.

Course Material