The core installation
The core Drupal installation is a blank slate. Although the core installation contains the potential to become a powerful and flexible learning tool, much of this functionality needs to be enabled and configured. However, before we begin extending the features and functionality of your site, we will look at the functionality of the core Drupal installation and how the administrative sections are organized. The core installation provides the foundation on which we will build your site.
The default navigation menu seen in the preceding screenshot shows the options available in the core Drupal installation. In this explanation, we will break them down into core user functionality and administrative functionality.
Core user functionality
The options enabled in the default Drupal installation provide a starting point for creating your site. We will add to these options; however, before we begin making changes to the site, we will run through some of the features enabled by default.
My Account
The My account page, shown in the following screenshot, shows your user profile (all users have a profile page):
The Edit tab allows users (or site administrators) to edit their profile information. Chapter 11, Social Networks and Extending the User Profile, goes into more detail on how to extend the user profiles to introduce some of the common features of social networking sites.
Add content
The items in the Add content submenu allow you to add content to your site. To see the full list of content types that can be created, click on the Add content link or navigate to node/add:
In the core installation, the two content types are enabled by default: Article page and Basic page. The pages and articles provide two ways of adding content to your site. Functionally, they are interchangeable; however, because they are different content types, you can configure them differently and assign different access rights to them. For example, you can give one set of users the right to create pages and another set of users the right to create articles.
Log out
The Log out link logs you out of the site. When you click on this link, you will see the site as an anonymous user. This will be helpful when testing permissions later in this chapter.
Administrative functionality
You can see the Administration screen by clicking on any of the links in the navigation menu or by navigating to admin.
The administrative functionality is broken into nine sections:
- Dashboard
- Content
- Structure
- Appearance
- People
- Modules
- Configuration
- Reports
- Help
We will now explain each of these sections briefly. Most of these sections will be explained in greater detail in later chapters.
Dashboard
The Dashboard section provides a convenient and customizable place to access frequently used administrative functions. By default, it includes a list of recently added content, a site search form, and a list of recently added users.
By clicking on the Customize dashboard link, you can add, remove, or move other blocks of content that you use frequently. It works much like the Blocks section of Drupal, which will be covered in the Structure section and more in depth in Chapter 14, Theming and User Interface Design.
Content
The Content administrative section is accessed by clicking on the Content link or by navigating to admin/content.
The administrative features of this section provide a set of tools for managing content, including comments, on your site.
You can add content via a link on this page, filter content based on its status or type, or make certain updates to the filtered content in bulk.
You can access all the comments on the site by clicking on the COMMENTS tab or navigating to admin/content/comment. Here, you will find the comment moderation queue, where you can publish, unpublish, or delete comments in bulk. The comment settings will be covered later in this chapter. Refer to the following screenshot:
Structure
The Structure administrative section is accessed by clicking on the Structure link or by navigating to admin/structure.
The administrative features of this section allow you to add additional functionality and structure to your site. The Menu and Block sections, described in more detail in Chapter 14, Theming and User Interface Design, allow you to create a flexible navigational structure tailored to the specific roles within your site. Refer to the following screenshot:
The Content types and Taxonomy sections will be covered later in this chapter, in the Creating content types section.
Appearance
The Appearance administrative section is accessed by clicking on the Appearance link or by navigating to admin/appearance.
The Appearance section allows you to change the look and feel of the whole site. Whenever you need to enable or disable a theme, you will do so in this section. Installing themes will be covered later in this chapter, and the topic of theming will be addressed in greater detail in Chapter 14, Theming and User Interface Design.
People
The People administrative section is accessed by clicking on the People link or by navigating to admin/people.
The administrative features of this section let you filter your list of users, make bulk updates to users, add roles, and assign rights to those roles.
The details of user management are covered in more detail in Chapter 5, Enrolling Students.
Modules
The Modules page is accessed by clicking on the Modules link or by navigating to admin/modules:
The Modules page gives an overview of all modules installed and enabled on your site. Whenever you need to enable or disable a module, you will need to go to this page. Installing and enabling modules will be covered later in this chapter.
Configuration
The Configuration administrative section is accessed by clicking on the Configuration link or navigating to admin/config:
The administrative features of this section allow you to fine-tune various features of the site. In most cases, the default values will work perfectly well. In subsequent chapters, we will adjust the settings in this section to fine-tune the functionality to run your site.
Reports
The Reports administrative section is accessed by clicking on the Reports link or navigating to admin/reports.
The options in this section provide different report logs of activity on your site.
The information logged in this section gives you an overview of how your site is running. In particular, the Available updates section at admin/reports/updates (covered in more detail in Chapter 15, Backup, Maintenance, and Upgrades) gives you an at-a-glance overview of any modules in need of upgrading.
The Status report admin screen at admin/reports/status, as shown in the preceding screenshot, gives you useful technical information about your Drupal codebase and the hosting environment. Frequently, when troubleshooting issues with your site, the information from this page can be invaluable. For those users with a technical inclination, the more information link after the PHP version number links to a page that gives you an overview of how PHP is configured.
Help
The administrative section also includes a brief Help section, which is accessible by clicking on the Help link or by navigating to admin/help. The help texts in this section provide an overview of the modules and functionality within your site and link to any relevant handbook pages:
