Advanced Drupal provisions Paves Way for Futuristic Web Platforms

The cost involved in hosting a website along with a content management system has come down drastically when compared with what businesses were shelling out a decade back. From being a prestigious luxury it has become a necessity for businesses to have their own website promoting their products and/or services in a unique way.

Before the advent of CMS’s like Drupal the entire system used to be programmed using a language such as C++ and backed by a database management system such as Oracle. The most toiling and time consuming aspect of such kind of development is that any change whether complicated or simple needed the involvement of the programmer to write lines of code. This increased the time, energy and cost involved in maintaining a very simple website. But today drupal developers are able to build web projects and give the control over to the website administrators to edit, delete and manipulate the content present in the website in any for the business requires.

Content Management Systems such as Drupal have completely changed the situation where complex web based projects are developed in a very short span of time and at almost negligible cost as Drupal is an open source technology. The technical expertise one has to have acquired to host a simple website using Drupal is almost none but a Drupal developer needs to have coding knowledge in order to manipulate the project’s advanced features and to add extensions which are available for the platform enabling in a website with content which is advanced and interactive. This has become one of the key features for today’s websites as users are looking for content in websites which are more appealing and informative yet not boring.

Dynamic content has become a must in today’s web marketing scenario as websites which do not change their content start losing on the users and hits each day. With interactive objects and media integration websites have started consisting of high volumes of data in each and every page in them. With PHP being one of the most secure programming language Drupal is built from the scratch using PHP and the stability found in the projects  developed by Drupal programmers have been considered to be exceptional. The information regarding the content present in the site both the structural content used for the website development and the media content displayed in the website are well protected whilst using Drupal to develop a website.

With the mobile platforms revolutionizing the technological side of the world now a Drupal programmer developing a website can easily develop an alternate design especially for the mobile platforms simultaneously by integrating an add-on with the development platform. Such provisions from Drupal are enabling in the building of websites and web based applications in a superior way than what is being done by programmers using other technologies.

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Drupal Facilitates its Developers with Augmented Techniques

The way Drupal has enhanced itself since it was developed as an open source content management system. Drupal developers have been constantly adding various features to it to enhance the experience of programming for the Drupal programmers. It has extensively become user friendly and easier for the Drupal developers to manage and develop content. Following are the various administrative utilities which every Drupal developer can use.

Administrative functions have become more automated by the Drupal developers which enables the administrator to handle surfers during the visits to the sites. Implementing Drupal services have proven to simplify the tasks of administrators and Drupal developers to manage the content in their websites. Drupal developers provide impendence to the administrator in such a way that they can handle and edit the website’s content even if the administrator is not technically proficient and without any external technical supervision.

Many companies are utilizing this easy way of letting Drupal programmers develop websites for them which in turn helps in marketing their companies to a large extent. Drupal developers can easily build such sites which are user-friendly and interactive using the Drupal technology.

Managing Media Using Drupal

Drupal developers use the technology efficiently to organize media related content in a website in versatile ways. If a Drupal developer builds various websites with media content in a similar way then there is a possibility that the developer might build projects in a monotonous way which makes the websites boring. One very important aspect each and every Drupal programmer has to keep in mind is that every project they work should be innovative and charming. Extendable modules in Drupal enable the provision for Drupal developers to manage content such as image, video, music etc. And these objects need not be provided by the Drupal developers themselves, these can be provided to the site by third party providers and the extended modules support them too.

 Globalization of Drupal Trends

Drupal developers find the globalization and internationalization of the Drupal technology to be highly efficacious and influencing. This trend helps the Drupal developers to become a community and share their resources efficiently.

Community Sites’ Flexibility

One amongst the significant features of Drupal development is that it is extremely flexible and it can be molded in any way by a Drupal programmer to suit the website’s usage. This is evident when Drupal is used to manage content in websites where the content is provided instantaneously by the audience. Here the stories are sorted in the website according to the number of votes and every time a new post gets updated it comes up the queue with its increasing number of votes. If a post gets too many negative feedbacks then the Drupal developers can condition accordingly in such a way that it gets pushed back.

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Drupal Features: An Efficient Tool for Drupal Developers

Developing a new Drupal site is generally not a tedious task for a Drupal developer if the site which needs to be developed is a simple one without many complicated features. Drupal developers efficiently use the Backup and Module functions in Drupal to effortlessly build a site from the scratch. To utilize these features efficiently the points discussed below have to be understood by the Drupal programmers completely.

The Drupal programmers can use the already existing database by taking a backup of it, upload the whole repository and once this is done the Drupal programmers can restore the database. By adopting this method a Drupal Programmer can develop a website in no time.

Drupal developers start experiencing obstacles only when they start adding more complex and sophisticated features to the website they have built. The Drupal programmers have to test keenly before the changes are made in the live site and at the same time the Drupal developers have to create a time-to-time guide with the details on making the new feature live. And depending on the data involved the Drupal developer involved in the development can decide the time required for the live site to be in maintenance mode to have control over damage.

As the Drupal programmers have stored all the entities, content and configuration of a sie in a single database it becomes a task for them to make changes, alter already present objects and add new features. To handle Drupal constantly keeps updating its plug-ins which enhances the efficiency of the platform.   

Feature Module

The features module is utilized by Drupal programmers to capture and manage features in Drupal. A certain use-case can be satisfied by a Drupal programmer by using a feature which is a collection Drupal entities.

Drupal developers can collect configurations regarding Drupal core and contributed modules. These collected features can be used by Drupal programmers by exporting them to the code module which can be installed in a similar way to installing any other module to the site. Drupal programmers can also use the User Interface provided by the module to manage all the features.

Advantages of Feature Module

• Configurations can be exported from various modules, including Views, Panels with CTools export API intergrated.
• From variables table using the Strongarm support Drupal developers can export configurations.
• The code can contain the configuration.
• Possibility to add custom code to each feature module created.
• Version control management of configurations.
• Much easier and quicker to deploy updated/new features.

These advantages have excited Drupal developers and Drupal programmers from all around the world and it has made developing Drupal sites into a an effortless task to a great extent.

Anomalous Behavior of the Module

Before developing a Drupal site, a Drupal developer has to understand the oddities that past Drupal programmers have faced and unless these differences are understood a Drupal developer cannot develop a properly working Drupal site.

The first oddity noticed was that the already enabled features were getting automatically updated without asking for permission from the Drupal developer or the site administrator. This can be tackled by frequently checking if new modules that are needed by the feature are uploaded properly.

Another surprising characteristic of this feature is that disabling a Feature might remove certain settings from the global options. When such an error happens it becomes a tedious task for the Drupal developers to first find out the bug in such a huge process. This can be tackled by testing individual modules after every time a feature is disabled.

Drupal programmers found yet another anomaly when Features which had only dependencies were not shown in the Features admin page. This has to be remembered by all Drupal Developers when coding a Drupal site as it will not be considered as an error when one of the used Features are not available in the admin page.

Multiple Ways of Using Features

Features are not the complete solution for inconsistencies in configurations and settings but it gives a better control to the Drupal programmers. There is more than one way of using Features and according to each Drupal developer’s vision it can be handled.

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Drupal: Overview of the Process of Upgrading

Various features and functions are provided by distributions for specific sites and can be customized accordingly. The ways of Utilizing, Upgrading and Customizing are discussed below.

Utilizing Distribution

Distributing Drupal is mostly the first step done by a Drupal developer during the process of developing a site. The easiest way to use a distribution is by starting the installation process in Drupal from the scratch without having any leftover data from the last installation.

Once the initial installation is done the Drupal developers can access other sources and migrate in content from them. The Drupal developer may use one or more already existing websites too, to carry content from.

Migrating content from various assorted pages to the pages present in the new website is almost as simple as copying data from the old site and pasting it to the new site. But for sites which have content above the average size then scripts to customize the process of migration have to be written or even already existing modules of Drupal such as Migrate, Feeds etc can be used. 

Methods of Upgrading

An already existing Drupal page with huge content or/and a database of users with customizable elements can be carried over by directly upgrading the site by the Drupal developer in such a way that it can use the distribution directly. This process used by some of the Drupal developers has helped them in saving a lot of time taken to migrate content. But the Drupal developers faced certain challenges when this type of process was employed. Drupal programmers recommend the process of upgrading the content only if the Drupal developers have time to troubleshoot and customize the migrated content.

Tackling Issues during Upgrading

Configurations of a Drupal site can be exported to another as most distributions are built using the module called ‘Features’. These configurations include content types, fields, views, and so on and these components are integrated into the code which will enable these components on multiple sites.

When components like content types and fields are being exported by the Drupal programmer to a new site then these components have to be marked with labels called as ‘Machine Names’. This Machine Name given by the Drupal programmer will remain the same for these components in whichever site they are integrated on and this is a way to keep a track of these components as well as to avoid inconsistencies in naming.

When a distribution is installed from the scratch then the Drupal programmers can be sure that an inconsistency will not arise due to conflict but if the Drupal programmer has converted a site into a one which is based on distribution then an inconsistency may arise due to the conflict created by two components with the same name. To avoid adding a component with a name which an already present component has, the Machine Name is used. When such an error happens then the task of resolving the problem for the Drupal developers becomes extremely toiling. When distribution creates a field with a new field name and if the new field name is used by an already existing field of a different type than the one being created newly by the distribution. If these issues are addressed properly then upgrading distributions can be vitally utilized.

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Drupal Integrated with Windows

Drupal CMS used by DCKAP’s PHP team has proved to be a vital service which has increased the clientele on the company from all around the world. DCKAP has been providing its clients with advanced PHP solutions and now with the addition of Drupal it has spread its boundaries further.

Albeit all types of services such as Joomla, Magento etc have brought in tremendous response worldwide, Drupal developers have been a tad more efficient from the other technologies to turn the spotlight towards DCKAP. The entire Drupal programmers team of DCKAP has been extremely satisfied with the way it has been acquiring attention in the market.

With enhanced applications and tools for Drupal to get integrated with Windows DCKAP has become more efficient as Windows being the primary Operating System in many regions of the world still.

Drupal developers are also thrilled about the ease of use of these applications and these applications also automatically download the additional add-ons required by the application to develop efficient Web Applications using Drupal.

These applications have been much appreciated, by the Drupal developers and Drupal programmers not just from DCKAP but from all around the world especially from the Asia-Pacific region where Windows is predominantly used, for integrating two such advanced and innovative technologies such as Drupal and Windows.

With these new developments coming in for Drupal every day, Drupal developer are more than confident about developing efficient and competent web applications to widen the horizon.

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Various Efficiencies of Drupal

The incomparable advantages provided by Drupal an open source content management system which makes it the most sought after CMS amongst all others available. 

It makes the process of developing a website very straightforward and engaging which encourages everyone trying their hand at Drupal come up with innovative ideas for new website at ease. For developing website using Drupal the Drupal programmer need not be highly proficient in web development or designing. The Drupal programmer can develop using with Drupal with minimum awareness of developing websites.

Drupal is Open Source

As Drupal is an Open Source the Drupal developer or Drupal programmer does not require a license or certificate to sell his/her work but just needs the royalty. Access to source code of a web application developed by a Drupal programmer is provided to all. Thus there isn’t a limit for enterprises or individuals to utilize a product built using Drupal.

Easy to Use System

Drupal does not expect its programmer to know coding or enhanced proficiency with technology. All a Drupal programmer needs is the rights to access the admin panel, with which any kind of design and implementation changes can be made to the website he/she wants to know. 

Text to be entered in the website by the Drupal developer such as content and other commands can be typed using any simple to enhanced word editor and can be pasted. Once the Drupal programmer turns proficient with the system it will become simpler to analyze individual modules and nodes according to requirements.

Greater Search Engine Optimization

Drupal has been designed exclusively for Drupal programmers after carefully considering the advantages it can bring along with SearchEngine Optimization. Thus using Drupal programmers are made to efficiently handle search engine crawling and ranking. Drupal provides most of all key aspects which are necessary for enhanced optimization of search engines such as Meta description tag, Meta keywords tag, title tag, head tag, etc. Search engines consider Drupal website with a different regard as even the URL of the website which is dynamic can be shown as static.

Web Development Market

The market that Drupal and Drupal developers have carved themselves in the web network is extremely well defined. Many commercially viable websites have been designed and developed using Drupal.

 

Well Defined Extensibility

Modules in Drupal like user administration, publishing workflow, news aggregation, meta-data functionality, etc. are designed in Drupal in such a way that they are highly adaptable and extensible. By having such advanced templates the risk of inconsistencies are reduced to a great level. Extra functionalities like blogs, forums, e-commerce and calendars can easily be applied any time in the future. Additionally, multitudes of third party modules can be chosen from to enlarge Drupal.

Diverse and Vibrant Templates

For both commercial entrepreneurial website and private individual websites the current following is for the diverse and vibrant themes available for Drupal. Additionally, thousands of paid and free templates with Drupal theme can be obtained within a few clicks by trying a simple search in an efficient search engine. Drupal developers can also use an altered one in an already existing theme.

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Drupal Empowers Multilingual Websites

Drupal is an open source content management system written in PHP language and a powerful tool for creating web applications. With Drupal, developers can build web applications of any scale. Ranging from small basic applications to extensive sophisticated web applications, Drupal programmers are able to develop with ease using Drupal.

Many web application developers opt for Drupal for its extensive and versatile features. Being a content management system, Drupal satisfies all extensibility needs in a very fast way which helps Drupal developers to be ahead of other developers using other content management systems.

A database is a definite requirement for its function as the application has to be built on a platform acting as a foundation and it is very useful in developing dynamic web apps. Drupal has become irreplaceable as it provides unique tools for web development. Certain functions which are so indispensable are provided only in Drupal which are vital for efficient web development.

The core file system of Drupal can be extended according the drupal developer’s requirements using UI, modules and themes. User information, logging information, site settings, module settings, content, and content related data can be tracked using Drupal database.

Primary language being used to develop web applications by Drupal developers is English but with the new updates from Drupal it has become possible for developers to use the language they are proficient in and then translate it to Drupal friendly language. The two major translation tools provided to Drupal developers are:

Location Component: This tool can be used for changing the in-built components of the program such as products, choice brands such as ‘Login’, ‘Logout’, ‘View’, ‘Edit’ etc.

Content Translation: If the Drupal developer of the web page has developed the site in a native language then this option can be utilized to translate it into English which is a Drupal friendly language.

Content, configuration, and user interface are the important information which has to be converted. To be able to develop in the way the Drupal developer has to be proficient in two important aspects:

Internationalization: This is a process of developing web/software applications which adjusts to various diverse locations and its languages without every Drupal developer making complicated technical changes. This is a framework which enables a developer to develop a unique web page in 17 different languages and then direct them to other pages of the website according to the user’s choice of location.

Localization: Using this process Drupal developers convert an international Drupal product into a Local product which is comprehended by a selected group of users in a location using locale-specific components or translating text. To change the content of the website Localization can be used. Factors to be taken into consideration are:

According to each language to which the content has been translated the design and overall appearance of the website may vary. For example when content is translated from English to Japanese, the way the content is presented may change from the number of words to the way the sentence is arranged.

Dialects of languages have to be chosen wisely. The chosen dialect should be the most commonly used one.

Numbers and figures like date, time, and currencies should be specifically translated to match each region.

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An Insight about Drupal Layers and 2012 Predictions For Drupal

 The  Flow of drupal through the system layers:-

 

•  At the base of the system is the collection of node it is the data pool. Before anything can be displayed on the site, it must be input as data.
• The next layer up is where modules live. Modules are functional plugins. Modules build on Drupal's core functionality. There are thousands of different options within the fast-growing repository of contributed Drupal modules. They represent the innovation and collaborative effort of everyone from individuals to large corporations.
• At the next layer found are blocks and menus. Blocks often provide the output from a module or can be created to display whatever developer wants.
• Next are user permissions. This is where settings are configured to determine what different kinds of users are allowed to do and see. Permissions are defined for various roles, and in turn, users are assigned to these roles in order to grant them the defined permissions.
•  On the top layer is the site theme -the "skin". This is made up predominantly of XHTML and CSS, with some PHP variables intermixed, so Drupal-generated content can go in the appropriate spotsThe original creator and project lead for the Drupal open source web publishing and collaboration platform, Dries Buytaert was full of optimism and enthusiasm for the coming year.

Here are some of the predictions on Drupal this 2012.

•  As Drupal gains in popularity, the number of developers/shops getting involved will increase, and the Drupal ecosystem on the whole will expand greatly. However, there could be a danger that individual companies who don't invest in marketing may actually see fewer clients as a result. Marketing will be a much larger focus of the business community in 2012.
• 2012 will be the year of the Drupal entrepreneur. Drupal companies who specialize in one particular aspect, such as Pantheon, Drupal Commerce, and Tag1 Consulting have seen a lot of success or promise in 2011, but there are many more niches to fill, and many niches that have plenty of room for multiple companies.
• Drupal, with a revamped administrative interface, is well suited for web applications of any kind from web logs (blogs) and micro sites to collaborative social communities. Drupal sports a new user interface, accessibility improvements, better image handling capabilities, support for rich content metadata, security features, scalability and database interoperability enhancements and automated tests to ensure stability.
•  Drupal developers might experiment with more of a client/server model. That is, people will use distributions as a way to sell different kinds of hosted services.
• Usability is still the number one reason people choose competing solutions to Drupal. Not because the existing features are hard to use — usability of Drupal was vastly improved in Drupal 7 — but because of lack of out-of-the-box features, such as content workflow and content staging tools, accurate content previews, WYSIWYG, media handling, and scheduling.
• Expert team of Drupal developer can provide end-to-end services in
  Web development using Drupal software for professional and large scale applications.

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