Revision of Syllabus for Introduction to Drupal from Tue, 2010-09-14 17:19

Before we start:

• Learning objectives:
  • Who is it for?
  • Set personal goals
• Task:
  • Introduce yourself & your goals on the Intro discussion
• Test connection & sound

Week 1: Introduction 

• Learning Objectives
  • What is Drupal?
  • Understand what this course will cover
• Task
  • Review show case Drupal sites, features and functionality
  • Review definitions
• Discuss in Webinar 1
  • What will this course cover?
  • What questions do you have?

Guest guide: Salim of WebEnabled, Doug Vann

Week 2: Set up and Go! 

• Learning Objectives
  • Using Web Enabled environment
  • Using CCK & Views
  • Exploring your sandbox
  • Using Image handling, imagecache in your content
• Task
  • Installing some modules with Drush
  • Setting up a sandbox testing site
  • Create a custom content type
  • Create a view
• Discuss in Webinar 2
  • What problems people had
  • How can you use custom content on your own site?

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

Week 3: Starting and planning

• Learning Objectives
  • What distributions are available
  • How to access them from Web Enabled
  • Distributions of Drupal: getting you closer to your goal faster.
• Task
  • Try out 3 distributions
  • Try out Drupal Gardens
  • Compare and discuss them online
  • What services available from the companies who created the distros?
• Discuss in Webinar 3
  • What the advantages or limitations of the distributions?
  • How can you extend them?
  • What do you want to do with your site, would the distribution help?

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

Week 4: Organize your site and content for findability

• Learning Objectives
  • Using Taxonomy; Menus & Blocks to organize navigational elements
  • Facted search with Acquia Search and ApacheSolr
• Task
  • Add taxonomy to content
  • Add items to a menu
  • Add an image field to a content type
• Discuss in Webinar 4
  • Questions about implementation
  • How these work together

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

Week 5: Make it look pretty 

• Learning Objectives
  • What is a theme?
  • How to make simple modifications to theme files
  • The Fusion/Skinr theme set
• Task
  • Install and test a few different themes
  • How to modify a file through version control
• Discuss in Webinar 5
  • Any problems people had
  • Best practices for theming

Ask: Salim to ask Steph

Week 6: Workflow that works

• 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/

Finale!

• 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.
• Discuss in Webinar  7
  • Showcase what kinds of things people did in the course.
  • Review of what is learned

Guest guide: as many as can attend!