Nodes, views, UI's, and API's...

My "geek" shirt from the conference! Lol!
"Nodes" are actually a  piece of content on the website.
Drupal assigns each piece of content
an ID number called a "node".  

What the what? They were speaking my kind of language here.  It was a lot of "geek" talk and a lot of "collaboration" for the latest installment of Capital Camp DC.  Capital Camp DC is a conference that brings together the local Drupal community for two days of learning, sprints, and collaboration. 

Drupal is an open-source content management system (CMS) written in the PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) programming language. Drupal provides a robust platform for publishing a wide variety of content on the web, and is used through government, publishing, commercial and non-profit organizations around the world.

Because it's "open-source" software, there is no added expense in using the software; many of our government sites are transitioning over to Drupal to reduce expenses.  Since there is no added costs for the software, they save millions of dollars in what used to be sent on purchasing software and licensing.  Open Source software receives updates and upgrades from the Community and doesn't belong to anyone, so everyone wins.

So here's a sample of a few website that are running Drupal:

• My first Drupal website :) Choose Civility Washington County 
• http://www.WhiteHouse.gov (White House)
• http://www.ed.gov/ (Department of Education) 
• http://www.commerce.gov/ (Department of Commerce)
• http://www.uarts.edu/ (University of the Arts)

Impressed? Drupal is the next best thing in creative and collaborative CMS tools.  It's amazing!  There was so much that I learned in this Camp, mainly because I had a better understanding than before.  It was a huge learning curve for me initially, but now I'm well on my way to one day becoming an expert!

These were a few of my "aha" items, or things that were interesting to me:

• Panopoly - http://drupal.org/project/panopoly -  (a Sitebuilding view that creates a custom view for a better UI [user interface])
• Pantheon - https://www.getpantheon.com/ (a company that provides a custom Drupal download package that has an easy interface to allow users to get up and running in less that 5 minutes.  One of the developers for this Company is a former Librarian!)
• Guidelines for Intranets & Packaged Intranets (OpenAtrium and Drupal Commons)

1. Prioritize what users need to see
2. Make it easy to find other useful content
3. Since it is difficult to encourage adoption of the Intranet and continued use, develop ways or incentives for users to use the Intranet. (games, points for posting, logging in, etc.)
4. Facilitate communication and discussion (through Forums)

• Drupalize Me -  http://drupalize.me/ (Drupal training videos)
• The Drupal IRC - http://webchat.freenode.net/ - (an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel specifically for Drupal users)
• Drush - http://drupal.org/project/drush - Command line scripting - to make changes to the Drupal site faster (way cool!) 
• api.drupal.org (application programming interface (API) reference guide)

New WCFL Intranet

Overall it was an exciting 2 days for me. I'm excited about some of the newer modules and views that I'll be able to implement into my existing Drupal websites.  In addition to the Choose Civility site, I've also recently published an Intranet website for Washington County.  Now that I've learned how to create my own website and server on my computer, I can play with more tools without disrupting any of the live sites.  I'm super excited about what's next and the great Drupal websites that will be coming your way soon!


Definition of Terms:
Node: a  piece of content on the website.Drupal assigns each piece of content an ID number called a "node"
View: a customized control display in Drupal (basically a puzzle where you pick out the parts and display it how you want)
UI: User Interface.  Much of Drupal involves creating a customized interface for the user.
API: Application Programming Interface - basically the instructions, how it all works.