We are going to create our own social networking website, and to do that, we are going to use Drupal, an Open Source Content Management System (CMS). So, let's look at exactly what a CMS is, and what Drupal is.
Before we look into exactly what a CMS is, let us look at the problem with websites which lead to the need for content management solutions.
Most websites available on the Internet involve a degree of complexity, be it that they are large websites with a lot of content; they may deal with dynamic user interactions, or they may involve a number of different people updating different sections. Even small websites can be complicated to manage, particularly if the design needs changing, or a particular piece of information needs changing on every page.
One of the key features of a content management system is that it separates the design of a website, the content of a website, and the logic or features of the website, making it easy to change any aspect of the website independently without affecting the rest of the website.
The following diagram shows the separation of these key layers, and how, when a visitor to the website requests a page, the content management system takes the design template and takes the content from the database. It combines the two, along with any logic (such as checking to see if the visitor is logged in, in which case it may display a username too) and then sends the result to the visitor's web browser.
Generally, Content Management Systems have the ability for users to:
Create content
Edit, delete, and manage content
Provide and restrict access to content, and the ability to edit the content
Allow multiple users to easily edit and control different areas of a website simultaneously
Separate the design, content, and logic layers of the website
Collaborate effectively
Manage different versions or drafts of content (referred to as revisions in Drupal)
Drupal is a free open source content management system that allows individuals or a community of users to easily publish, manage, and organize a wide variety of content on a website.
The project was started by Dries Buytaert and is now assisted in development with a large community. One particular advantage with Drupal is its modular framework, which allows additional features to be plugged into it, in the form of modules. The Drupal website maintains an extensive list of modules and themes (custom designs) which can be used.
The Drupal website address is drupal.org, and it contains the core Drupal downloads, news and updates related to Drupal, discussion forums and information, and downloads for many of the user contributed modules and themes, which can be downloaded to enhance Drupal.