Chapter 1

Welcome to a
New Paradigm

Content Management Systems ent levels of permission for editing content. Furthermore,
since adding content doesn't involve editing the code of

L
ibraries are ahout content: acquiring it, storing it, the Web site, it becomes much easier to make more fre-
indexing it, retrieving it, and presenting it. Content quent updates. In the following chapters, you will learn
management systems (CMS) help libraries accomplish how Drupal, an open-source content management system,
these tasks on the Weh hy providing a back-end structure makes use of the separation of content and formating to
for a Web site so that the authors can focus on content. let you create a powerful, dynamic library Web site.
Unlike a traditional Web site, where HTML defined both
the content and the formatting in a single document, a
CMS uses databases and newer Web languages to store
content and define formatting separately. This means that Benefits of a CMS
instead of using this:
Content management systems can be defined by three
common attributes beyond the separation of content and
<Hl>This i s the Title</Hl> formatting:
a CMS might use this:
• They provide a framework for creating, managing,
and publishing Web-based content 3
<div s t y l e = " t i t l e " > $ s i t e _ t i t l e < / d i v > 0_
• They provide a secure environment with managed o
(•
><
So why should you care? The real power of a CMS is user roles.
IS
that when you separate content from formatting, you can • They provide extensions for enhanced capabilities.
more easily change either without having to recode your
entire Web site. Though small library Web sites may have only a few
Instead of storing the text in the code for the page, a pages, larger sites can run to hundreds or thousands of
CMS instead uses a reference to a variable stored in a data- pages. CMS sites are based on dynamically generated
base. Similarly, the formating for the title in this example chunks of content that can be more easily displayed for
is defined in a style file instead of within the page code. online management (see the sidebar HTML vs. PHP). This
So why is this so important? This separation of content is especially important given the ease with which new con-
and formatting is the base technology that makes possible tent can be created in a WYSIWYG environment by users g
everything discussed herein. When content is approached who may not have been able to participate in a code- and
in this separated fashion, it can be presented for editing in file-based system. With a CMS, work can be distributed
a graphical WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) across multiple authors without sacrificing site security:
environment. If the content is edited and stored outside a department head can publish news updates directly to
of the Web site itself, you can assign different users differ- her or his page, while another staff member can write con-
 tent that has to be approved before it is displayed. Finally,
most of the available CMS applications can be extended to Open Source CMS
accomplish new tasks or provide new data types through http://opensourcecms.com
small plug-in modules that meet a specific need.

Why Drupal?
HTML vs. PHP
A traditional HTML-based Web site is buiit trom many Drupal, the hammer that makes all your Web
tiies, one for each page to be dispiayed. Files iike i n d e x endeavors look like nails.
.html, hours.html, contacts.html, and SO
on are stored in directories, in a CiVlS, tiie separation ot To call Drupal a CMS might undersell it a little bit. The
content into a database means that our exampie pages have Drupal community often refers to Drupal as a content
changed trom static tiies stored on a drive into dynamicaiiy management framework. This is intended to convey the
generated views that are buiit from a database at the point idea that Drupal is not a fixed system but a framework on
of need. What was h o u r s . h t m l , a fiie that held both which you can build your own systems. When we started
the intormation about the hours the library is open and using Drupal, we were looking for a CMS, so we were
looking at products like WordPress and Mamba. Other
a page iayout definition, is now replaced by a generai
groups approach Drupal as an alternative to rapid Web
template fiie such as p a g e t e m p i a t e . php and a content development tools like Ruby on Rails or CakePHP, nei-
chuni< about the hours of service. The .php extension here ther of which would be considered a CMS. Drupal offers
refers to the PHP programming ianguage on which many a nice learning curve as you move from using it as a CMS
CMS appiications are buiit. PHP is a recursive acronym to using to using it to develop your own Web applications.
that stands for "PHP Hypertext Preprocessor": iiteraiiy, a You can use it out of the box as a very nice, dynamic Web
site. As you learn more about configuring it from the Web
language that does things to hypertext Web content before
interfaces, though, it becomes very fiexible. Then when
it is processed by the browser. This means that when your you are ready to start writing your own code, it provides
browser encounters a PHP fiie, it interprets the code stored you a powerful set of internal APIs (Application Protocol
within and dynamicaiiy renders the hypertext code to be Interfaces) to streamline your coding.
displayed. If you view the source of a PHP-based page, With the continued threat of legislation that would
you wili see the resuiting HTML code and not the PHP that ban social Web sites from schools and libraries, we wanted
preprocessed the HTML. to find a way to continue to provide access to social Web
applications in an educational setting.^ There is no dearth
rM
01
of open-source projects looking to duplicate popular Web
services like del.icio.us, Flickr, and the like. But we were
Most modern Web applications are really just highly
also looking for a Web application to help us manage our
specialized versions of this basic CMS definition. For
projects and track issues and problems. The fear was that
example, a blog is a CMS that is focused on making it
we would end up with a huge number of applications to
O
easier to add content frequently, while a wiki is more
download, install, and maintain on our servers.
concerned with keeping track of users and their edits.
We had already been using Drupal for a number
General CMS applications, often called portals, strike a
of tasks, including our public Web site, extranet, and a
balance between the three attributes listed above to cre-
shared electronic resources purchasing system. As we con-
ate programs designed to help you manage a large Web
tinued to work with the system, it became obvious that we
site. As with any other type of software, there are many
could use Drupal for almost anything we needed: shared
different possibilities available from which you can select
department calendars, project management, bookmarks,
the best CMS for your situation. While choice is nice, the
knowledge base, and more. With a staff of three librarians,
prospect of downloading and installing multiple systems to
01 our system cannot become experts on many different Web
test them probably sounds a bit daunting. Do not despair:
applications. Drupal provides a stable and fiexible platform
Open Source CMS has collected dozens of systems and
upon which we can base our Web development.
g provides full administrative access to each so that you
The major project that we have been working on in
can try out all of them in one place. Three years ago, we
Drupal is a next^eneration library portal called Fish4Info. This
evaluated the portals available and selected Drupal as the
site features a library catalog built in Drupal along with book
2 CMS with the best balance of usability and power.
JQ reviews, pathfinders, an events calendar, and much more.
Who Is Drupal? Notes
As with most successful open-source projects, Drupal's 1 Andy Carvin, "New Federal Legislation Would Ban Online
greatest asset is its community. Drupal was created by School Networks in Schools & Libraries," www.pbs.org/
Dries Buytaert as a Web board on a shared dorm Internet teachers/learning.now/2006/05/new_federal_legislation
connection, developed into the Web site drop.org, and _would_Lhtml (accessed Feb. 15, 2008).
finally distributed as an open-source Web platform.^ 2. Drupal, "History," http://drupal.org/node/769 (accessed
Through the development of Drupal 5 and much of Drupal Feb. 15, 2008).
6, Dries continued his studies full-time as a PhD student 3. Lullabot, "Drupal Podcast No. 32: Dries Buytaert," www
in computer science, spending his days working on Java .lullabot.com/audiocast/drupal_podcast_no_32_dries
and his nights guiding the development of Drupal.^ Since _buytaert (accessed Feb. 15, 2008).
graduation. Dries has found venture-capital funding and 4. Dries Buytaert, "A Drupal Startup," http://acquia.com/
has formed Acquia to provide commercial support to the node/8 (accessed Feb. 15, 2008).
Drupal community, much as Red Hat provides support for 5. Jeff Robbins, "How Drupal Will Save the World," www
Linux users.'' .lullabot.com/articles/how_drupal_will_save_world
Unlike the larger-than-life personalities that domi- (accessed Feb. 15, 2008).
nate some open-source projects. Dries has acted more as 6. Chad Fennell, "Drupal Partners with U of M Libraries-
a guide than a dictator. He spends much of his time offer- Formal Lab Usability Testing of D6, http://drupal.org/
ing guidance, reviewing patches, and helping to settle node/204667 (accessed Feb. 15, 2008).
debates. Perhaps this is because of the open nature of
the Drupal community that Dries has fostered, but the
success of Drupal is mostly due to the number of talented
developers who contribute their work to help move the
project forward. Most of the active developers in the
Drupal project work as Web site developers and have a
real stake in the growth of the project. By developing and
sharing code, they make each other's work that much eas-
ier. But much of the development is done with a "scratch
your own itch" mentality: projects are most often done
when they are going to be used by the developers coding
them. In addition, many of the new and cool features that
get put into Drupal end up being invisible to the lay user
and can be appreciated only by users who are themselves
building Web sites.
To counter the developer-centric current within the 3
Drupal community, Jeff Robbins of Lullabot started the
meme "Drupal Will Save the World," which seeks to put
3
an idealistic spin on Drupal development-the thought O_
o
being that Drupal can provide a powerful activist platform IO
><
for the disadvantaged.^ Drupal proved its worth as a com- 3)
ID
munity tool in 2004, when staffers in the Howard Dean 1
campaign used Drupal to create DeanSpace, later named
CivicSpace, which is widely used in the political realm
for campaign sites. But to really save the world, Drupal
needs to be more accessible to disadvantaged communi-
ties who do not have the technical background to build 9-
these Web sites. Along these same lines, the University of
Minnesota Libraries stepped in to do formal usability test-
ing on Drupal 6, seeking to greatly improve the usability
of its interfaces.^
The result of the pairing of a strong development
community with a focus on usability is a powerful frame-
work that comes with a usable front-end CMS.
o