9780321591319

Using Drupal, web professionals can create full-featured websites with just a few clicks. Drupalrs"s core is compact and well documented, but much of Drupalrs"s immense power lies elsewhere: in external modules that, until now, have not been well documented. Now, however, therers"sDrupalrs"s Building Blocks,an authoritative tutorial, reference, and cookbook for Drupalrs"s most valuable modules. The authors are Drupal insiders whors"ve spent years creating and supporting these modulesEarl Miles, developer of the Views module, and Lynette Miles, Drupal documentation team member. Theyrs"ve brought together indispensable, up-to-date information you wonrs"t find anywhere else, as well as extensive sample "recipe" code designed for easy adaptation and reuse. Learn how to Use Content Construction Kit (CCK) to customize your data around your needs Improve site flexibility with Drupalrs"s node system Add optional field types, including PHP-based fields Use modules with themes to display data more attractively and legibly Build powerful Views query displays Integrate with SQL databases Customize Views with relationships, arguments, and filters Optimize query performance Add styling through the Panel UI or custom-code-based designs Maintain full control over sites as you deploy into production This book will help you create more powerful, flexible, usable, and manageable websites-whether yours"re a web developer, designer, administrator, architect, or consultant. About the Website The accompanying website contains all examples, code, and themes presented in this book.

Earl Miles is a permanent member and founder of the Drupal Association. In 2005, Earl found Drupal and thought it was exactly what he needed to build a website in his spare time. When he found that Drupal lacked some key features, Earl ignored work for three weeks and created the Views module which has been instrumental in Drupal’s continued growth. Earl has been active in the community providing support, as well as posting tips and tricks when the mood strikes him. A lifelong programmer, he is currently employed by iO1, a company that actively participates in the development and consumption of open source software.

Lynette Miles has worked for fifteen years in professional software technical support, mainly for Alcatel-Lucent. She became involved with Drupal after attending DrupalCon Brussels and DrupalCon Barcelona. Since then, she has spent most of her contributing time working with the Drupal Documentation team and triaging the Views and Panels queues.

Foreword xvii

Preface xix

Acknowledgments xxiii

About the Authors xxiv

Part I: Content Construction Kit

Chapter 1: Introducing CCK and Nodes 3

The Node System 3

Quest for the Grail: How CCK Was Born 8

Getting Started with CCK 10

Creating a New Content Type 11

Summary 15

Chapter 2: Field Concepts 17

What You Should Know Before Creating Fields and Content Types 17

The Content Type Pages 17

Creating New Fields for Content 24

Putting the Parts Together 30

Summary 38

Chapter 3: Deeper into Fields 39

Choosing Field Types 39

Constraining Data with Widgets 43

Date Module 48

Computed Fields 51

Link and Email Fields 54

Highly Visual Media 55

Summary 57

Chapter 4: Themes and CCK 59

Theme Basics 59

CCK Specific Theming 62

Helper Modules 69

Summary 73

Chapter 5: CCK API 75

Using the CCK API 75

The Field Model 76

Widget Type Modules 85

Formatter Modules 87

Creating Field Instances Using Content Copy 91

Creating Field Instances with the CRUD API 91

Creating Data for CCK Fields 95

Miscellaneous Helper Functions 97

Summary 98

Part II: Views

Chapter 6: Relational Databases 101

Drupal, SQL, and the Emergence of Views 101

The Basics of Relational Databases 102

Filtering and Sorting 105

From SQL to Views to Human Language 107

Summary 108

Chapter 7: Creating Views 109

Views UI 109

Showing Your Views to the World: Creating Displays 131

Summary 136

Chapter 8: Arguments, Exposed Filters, and Relationships 137

Arguments 137

Exposed Filters 145

Relationships 148

Summary 151

Chapter 9: Theming Views 153

An Overview 153

Classes in Views 153

Template Files 156

Working with Templates 164

Summary 175

Chapter 10: Query Optimization 177

Balancing Development Time against CPU Time 177

Sticking with What Views Gives You 177

When You Need More Than Views 178

Experimenting with Your Site 183

Summary 183

Chapter 11: Views API 185

Data Architecture 185

The Views API 199

The Life Cycle of a View 201

The Database Schema and Data Hook 206

Handlers Versus Plugins 210

Summary 213

Part III: Panels

Chapter 12: Introducing Panels 217

Introduction to Panels 217

Modules 222

Summary 224

Chapter 13: Creating Panels 225

Your First Panel 225

Adding Content to Panels 237

Access Rules 244

Overriding Core Display Pages 246

Overriding Core Node Editing Pages 253

Summary 255

Chapter 14: Contexts, Relationships, and Arguments in Panels 257

Contexts 257

Arguments in Panes 264

Relationships 271

Summary 274

Chapter 15: Panels Theming 275

Layout 275

Stylizer 280

CSS in the Panels UI 284

CSS in Source Code 285

Summary 290

Chapter 16: Site Deployment 291

Configuring Your Development Environment 291

Moving to Production 293

Exporting Your Structures 294

Helper Modules 299

Summary 300

Part IV: Appendices

Appendix A: Other Useful Modules 303

Extending the Use of Your Modules 303

General Modules 303

CCK 307

Panels 308

Appendix B: Reporting Issues 309

Submit a Complete Report 309

Read the Documentation 310

Check Other Sources 311

Know the Difference between a Bug and a Support Request 312

Stay on Topic 312

Understand the Life Cycle of a Bug 312

Be Patient 313

Remember That You’re Asking for Someone Else’s Time 314

Contribute Back 314

Appendix C: Views API Handlers and Plugins 315

Views Handlers 315

Views Plugins 317

Views Classes 318

Index 327

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

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Drupal's Building Blocks Quickly Building Web Sites with CCK, Views, and Panels

Drupal's Building Blocks Quickly Building Web Sites with CCK, Views, and Panels

0321591313

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

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