Re: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?

  • From: "E.J. Zufelt" <lists@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:48:39 -0500

Hi Rick,

For the most part you need to do no development to build a site with Drupal.  I 
usually build on a linux server, but I also use MAMP on my Macbook.  XAMP or 
any other solution that allows you access to Apache mySQL and PHP will work 
just as well.  That being said, there are definitely sites out there using 
Drupal on IIS and there may possibly be a module / installation profile that 
will allow you to use MSSQL, I haven't needed to do this myself.

As far as the site lifecycle goes, here is a simplified approach.

1. Determine the functional requirements of the site.
2. Install the Drupal core package.
3. Install any required contributed modules, there are over 5000 for Drupal 6 
and they can be found on http://drupal.org/project/modules
4. Configure Drupal core and the required modules
5. Create any Views* that you may need (almost every Drupal site uses the Views 
module).
6. Select a theme from http://drupal.org/project/themes or build your own

*Views is a module that allows you to build a query of pretty much all of the 
data stored in your Drupal database, you can then choose to present the results 
of the query in pretty much any way imaginable as the content of a page, or as 
a block of content within another page.  As an example, you can build a View 
that lists the 5 most recent comments, the users who have most recently signed 
in, etc.

**A theme includes stylesheets, graphics, and template files that allow you to 
customize the markup generated by Drupal.

Should you find that you have a functional requirement that is not met by the 
contributed modules you can build your own.  There is definitely a learning 
curve to this, since it requires an understanding of PHP and of the Drupal 
module API.  There is a module available called something like Module Builder, 
that actually helps create a skeleton of the module .info file and the modules 
php code.  As an example, if you were to create a module that simply adds a new 
page to the main menu, the module builder module would create the required 
.info file and a php file that contains the hook_menu() function, which is used 
by Drupal to allow modules to add items to menus.

If you are looking at the Drupal API documentation http://api.drupal.org you 
will notice that some functions start with hook_ and that some methods start 
with theme_ .  Functions that start with hook_ are hook functions, like 
hook_menu(), when Drupal bootstraps it will find all moduleName_menu() 
functions available in enabled modules and use this information to build the 
menu system.  This information is then cached so that it does not need to be 
done everytime a user requests a page.

Functions that start with theme_ are themable functions.  These functions, like 
theme template files, generate some of the markup for pages, for example 
theme_breadcrumb().  If you are building your own theme, or building a child, 
or sub-theme, you can override themable functions in the theme's template.php 
file.  This allows you to alter the default output for that specific component. 
 As an example, in Drupal 7 we added a hidden heading to be rendered before the 
breadcrumb that says "You are here:".  If you wanted to have this functionality 
in Drupal 6 you could override theme_breadcrumb() in your theme's template.php 
file and make the required changes to the markup generated by the function.



HTH,
Everett Zufelt
http://zufelt.ca

Follow me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/ezufelt

View my LinkedIn Profile
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ezufelt



On 2010-12-11, at 9:46 AM, RicksPlace wrote:

> Hi Everett: OK, man can't get much more from the horses mouth so too speak! 
> Your involvement with Drupal makes me really lean in that direction. As I 
> asked Ken, what development do you uuse when creating a new website with 
> several pages and dynamic, db driven content? I am running Windows XP so have 
> shyed away from all those Linux emulator thingys like xampp etc... to run 
> Apache and PHP. But... if you are a central figure in the Drupal arena then I 
> may have to reconsider using something like that and getting into all that 
> non MS stuff.
> Thanks for any pointers and it's great to know you are in the midst of making 
> one of the most popular software products out there totally accessible to 
> other blind folks.
> Let me know what you think the best development environment would be for me 
> running Windows XP, VVisual Studio with Sql Server Express. Note: I mention 
> sql server express as a couple of years ago I read of port conflicts with 
> MySql and Sql Server when one of those apache / php platforms were installed 
> on another fellow's Windows Machine. Anyway, thanks for your work on behalf 
> of the community!
> I am beginning to see why Ken and some of the other old timers do some of the 
> things they do.
> Rick USA
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: E.J. Zufelt
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Saturday, December 11, 2010 8:51 AM
> Subject: Re: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?
> 
> I considered proposing a CSUN session this year, but didn't find the time / 
> energy to do it.  I will likely be presenting on accessibility of custom UI 
> components using WAI-ARIA at Drupalcon Chicago in March.
> 
> Thanks,
> Everett Zufelt
> http://zufelt.ca
> 
> Follow me on Twitter
> http://twitter.com/ezufelt
> 
> View my LinkedIn Profile
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/ezufelt
> 
> 
> 
> On 2010-12-11, at 8:14 AM, Ken Perry wrote:
> 
>> Do you ever do a presentation at CSUN?  If you don’t you should.  We use 
>> droople at APH and love it but it would be nice to get some Drooplites to do 
>> some presentations.
>> Ken
>> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
>> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of E.J. Zufelt
>> Sent: Saturday, December 11, 2010 6:48 AM
>> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Subject: Re: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?
>> Good morning,
>> Thought I'd jump in here.  I am currently the Drupal 7 Core accessibility 
>> maintainer, which basically means I help to organize efforts around ensuring 
>> that Drupal is the most accessible CMS that it can be.  We are by no means 
>> perfect, but we have made some noticeable improvements over Drupal 6, and 
>> Drupal 6 wasn't all that bad.
>> Yes, Drupal powers Whitehouse.gov, along with many other government sites.  
>> It is a robust, secure and highly extensible CMS.  However, any 
>> accessibility problems you may notice on a site powered by Drupal has very 
>> little to do with Drupal itself, sometimes people who make custom themes for 
>> Drupal end up making their site less accessible than Drupal would be out of 
>> the box, because they know little if anything about accessibility.
>> Drupal is a more difficult to learn system than something like Wordpress.  
>> Generally speaking, Wordpress is designed for people who want to quickly 
>> throw up their own site, whereas Drupal is designed for site builders and 
>> developers as a platform that can be used to launch more complex web 
>> solutions.  With the recent release of Wordpress 3 and the soon to be 
>> released Drupal 7 (currently in RC1), this difference has been lessened, but 
>> definitely still exists.
>> Both Wordpress and Drupal have many contributed modules and themes, to 
>> extend functionality and to modify the look and feel (along with the markup) 
>> of your site.  Most anything you would ever want a Drupal site to do can be 
>> accomplished with existing contributed modules.  If you do need 
>> functionality that is currently not acheivable with contributed modules then 
>> you would need to create a module using the module API, modules are 
>> developed in PHP, as is all of Drupal.
>> HTH,
>> Everett Zufelt
>> http://zufelt.ca
>> Follow me on Twitter
>> http://twitter.com/ezufelt
>> 
>> View my LinkedIn Profile
>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/ezufelt
>> On 2010-12-11, at 5:46 AM, RicksPlace wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Hi Katherine: Well, don't give up on MS just yet. I have just started 
>> looking at how to develop Sharepoint solutions in Visual Studio and it 
>> sounds pretty clean and powerful as an integrated approach. I know I tried 
>> building a Local Website using Web Parts in VB.net 2008 and found the 
>> experience not screen reader friendly. Or, at least, not as friendly as 
>> using standard UI Controls in a regular old Website. When Windoweyes 8 comes 
>> out I might take a look at Vb.net 2010 to see what, if any, Sharepoint tools 
>> are included in the package and how accessible they are. In the meantime I 
>> have seen that various U.S. Government agencies and even the White House are 
>> supposedly using Drupal according to one Drupal Website Webpage. That means 
>> that it must be accessible and quite configurable since I would never have 
>> guessed those websites were CMS sites. They just look and perform like 
>> regular websites unlike many of the Drupal and other CMS sites I have 
>> visited recently. So, it seems Drupal can be used effectively if one knows 
>> what they are doing. My only reason for not jumping on it is that I like to 
>> develop on my local machine and to do that with Drupal I would have to 
>> either install something like xampp or whatever to get a simulated Linux 
>> Environment, set up a Duel Boot software disc somehow or implement the 
>> Microsoft IIS based Web Platform which is a huge mess to fix if anything 
>> goes wrong with any of it's many,, many modules installed. In fact, one 
>> problem would likely be port conflicts between my current Sql Server and the 
>> MySql server which would be automatically installed. Anyway, I don't like 
>> headaches so am just holding off on playing with Drupal even though it 
>> sounds pretty nice I am of the KISS school of thought - Keep It Simple Sir! 
>> (Note: you can substitute any word starting with "S" for the word "Sir" in 
>> the above phrase - grin. Oh Ya, I am not so sure that the thousand or so 
>> apps created by third party folks are designed to be accessible to screen 
>> readers so that is always a concern as well when working with an Open Source 
>> Project with no Accessibility standards for third party software plugs or 
>> apps.
>> Well, that's all I have this morning from
>> chilly Farmington Michigan and I am off to do a little more reading on 
>> Visual Studio 2010 and Sharepoint 2010 with any related offerings like 
>> Office or other modules and compare the development and maintenance process 
>> to that of Drupal. Right now I am not sure which way to fall - headaches 
>> with Linux on a Windows machine or working in Visual Studio and withthe 
>> built-in Sharepoint and other tools and the learning curve of WPF and 
>> Silverlight if necessary. I really will tend twoard the one that is the most 
>> stable over the next 5 years or so, has the easiest procedures for working 
>> with sites and offers the greatest flexibility. Oh ya, also add in a 
>> weighted factor based on the learning curve. I would like to work in the 
>> Linux environment mainly because so many of the old timers on this list work 
>> in it but I have had my doubts about how productive I might be in that 
>> environment compared to a comprehensive integrated IDE.
>> I must wait  for  Windoweyes 8 to see how accessible vb.net 2010 or other VS 
>> products will be with it since they use the new UIA Accessibility hooks.
>> Later Katherine and don't give up on MS Stuff just pick the right tool for 
>> the job - that is what the qualified professionals do:
>> Rick USA
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Katherine Moss" 
>> <plymouthroamer285@xxxxxxxxx>
>> To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Saturday, December 11, 2010 1:27 AM
>> Subject: RE: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Oh gosh, Jamal, thanks!  These anti-Microsoft folks are killing me!  And
>> whoever called Mojo Portal "Mojo thing that no one has heard of" better
>> think again.  I'm a volunteer on the project, and I don't appreciate
>> people's work being insulted.  And besides, that CMS works on Linux despite
>> it's coding.
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jamal Mazrui
>> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 12:27 PM
>> To: ProgrammingBlind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Subject: RE: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?
>> Hi Rick,
>> Here is the web site of an ASP.NET-based CMS:
>> DotNetNuke - The Leading Open Source Web Content Management Platform for
>> ASP.NET -
>> http://www.dotnetnuke.com/
>> Jamal
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of RicksPlace
>> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 9:43 AM
>> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Subject: Re: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?
>> Hi Gang: Jim, I don't know just yet. My preference would be to just learn
>> whatever Jamal is doing but I am now thinking of putting up some sites for
>> some blind folks so their sites are kept up to date and work well with
>> screen readers so I am not sure about the scope of my involvement. It might
>> be Drupal based or, more likely if really accessible, something in the
>> Microsoft venu since I am familiar with their DB stuff and coding websites
>> using various ASP Controls and Server Side coding technicals.
>> For development I might use one of the packages Jacques or Katherine
>> mentioned but I can start reading up on them to get some color on what this
>> stuff is all about.
>> Hay, Jacques, are you French? If so, are you from across the pond?
>> Later and thanks for the ideas to explore.
>> Rick Farmington Michigan USA
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Katherine Moss <mailto:plymouthroamer285@xxxxxxxxx>
>> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 9:19 AM
>> Subject: RE: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?
>> Look at both Umbraco and Mojo Portal.
>> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of RicksPlace
>> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 8:01 AM
>> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Subject: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?
>> Hi: I know very little about CMS. As a result of Jamal using it, I
>> have looked at some of the Drupal docs by googling but am having trouble
>> wrapping my head around exactly how it all works since I am an old
>> Microsoft user. I am trying to figure out a similar option in the
>> Microsoft World. So far I think that Sharepoint and Open Office, both 2010
>> versionws with accessibility, sound like they are the Microsoft
>> counterpart to Drupal. does this sound about right? Since they support
>> ARIA and the other new Web Standards, or at least some articles say they
>> do, has anyone tried them out? If there is another Microsoft thingy where
>> it looks or works sort of a CMS with DB storage and perhaps Media support
>> could you mention it so I can do a little more digging?
>> It looks like allot of blind folks are trying to use various CMS
>> Websites and most of them are pretty bad. They also sound almost as
>> complex to create and maintain as a standard Website developed in
>> something like VWD. Anyway, thanks for any input you provide on CMS,
>> Drupal or any Microsoft counterpart products that I can research a little
>> more.
>> Again, the Microsoft 2010 versions of the Open Office and
>> Sharepoint are suppose to be accessible where the older versions were not
>> very accessible if that helps.
>> Rick USA
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