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Drupal at UC Davis

How to learn Drupal

Posted April 13th, 2009 by Shawn DeArmond

Lately, my shameless evangelism of Drupal has brought me to the same question over and over again:

What are some good resources for learning Drupal?

The biggest problem with this question is the very wide variety of people asking, wishing to learn the very wide variety of topics that could possibly fall under the category "Drupal". Here's an example: A grad student recently asked me, "Shawn, how much does your own web site cost?" Me: "Uhh..." Where do I start? Probably not with CCK and Views. Probably not even with the concept of a CMS.

Another example: my brother is working with a professor on a site that archives, indexes, and tags CSPAN videos and transcripts... on a homegrown web system. EEK! Let's talk about this for a second.

For those who want to learn Drupal, the obvious direction in which to point is drupal.org; specifically, to the handbook pages. Even though Addison Berry has been doing a remarkable job with the documentation, I'm not sure I should point everybody to the main page... Not at first, anyway. I'm sure the drupal.org redesign will be an improvement, but there's just so much information it's easy to get lost. I'm going to do my best to compile some of the resources that have helped me, and hopefully will help you.

Let's start with the easy stuff:

What is Drupal?

  • About Drupal - This is really the nutshell version. Drupal is software. Drupal is a way to make web sites. Drupal is a programming framework. Drupal is a community of people. Drupal is so many things, it's up to you have the vision of what you want.
  • Drupal Overview - A very nice essay that really gets into depth about what the software does, and what it can do for you.
  • DrupalEasy's explanation - Short, sweet, and to the point.
  • Volacci's explanation - Covers all the important stuff.
  • Get Involved - Above I said that Drupal is a community. This cannot be understated. It's too important to overlook that Drupal is what it is because (I would say fundamentally because) of the people involved. Don't think that you cannot be involved because you're new. As we're learning over and over again, new people bring fresh perspective that's often lost once you become a code ninja. Get involved. Really. Please. Now.

Who uses Drupal?

  • According to the Drupal Project Statistics, there are about 150,000 active sites using Drupal. In reality, that number is artificially low because it's only looking at sites that phone home using the Update Status module.
  • Given the sheer volume of sites, there's no comprehensive list, of course, but several sites, including this one (more here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) have taken the task of assembling lists. They are by no means complete.
  • If you're wondering whether a specific site is built with Drupal, just run it through isthissitebuiltwithdrupal.com.

Time to get your hands dirty

  • Download Drupal - If you have a computer or server already configured with Apache, MySQL, and PHP, you can just download the Drupal code and install it. However, most people don't even know what those three things are, so fortunately, there's an easier way.
    • Acquia provides commercial support plans for Drupal, but they also provide an easy stack installer that just installs everything you need to get started with Drupal.
  • Beginner's Cookbook - This really gets into the parts and pieces that make Drupal work for you.
  • Screencasts and videos - The visual thing really works for me.
  • Lullabot's intro video - You gotta pay for this one.

Books - Yeah, those paper things...

Podcasts - Steady stream of ongoing knowledge. Be sure to listen to the past episodes.

  • Lullabot - Easily the most popular podcast about Drupal. Always good information in here.
  • DrupalEasy - Just getting started, but already some great stuff. Ryan's a nice guy too. I met him at Drupalcon DC
  • Acquia - This one is usually pretty advanced.

Training - Sometimes, you gotta pay someone to teach you something.

  • Lullabot - Yup, these guys are everywhere. They provide week-long workshops across the country. Usually, Portland, OR, and Providence, RI.
  • Do it with Drupal - Put on by Lullabot. The first one was last year (2008), and it was excellent! They'll probably do it again this year.
  • Drupalcon - Over 1400 people came in March, 2009 to Washington DC. Remarkable.
  • Bay Area Drupal Camp (BADCamp) - A two-day event in Berkeley. Highly recommended. Free, too!
  • Drupal Dojo - Pretty advanced training through the web. They do live screencasts with an IRC backchannel.

Local Community - The Drupal community is tens of thousands of people worldwide, with local groups meeting in every corner of the world... including ours.

Wanna start writing code?