Content Management

The core of any website should be a flexible and simple-to-use content management system or CMS that enables the site administrators to create, edit and manage the content without the need for technical knowledge or programming skills.

We use the Drupal CMS.

Drupal is open source software that is free to use, it has a huge development community to support it and has powerful publishing and workflow tools that can be configured and expanded to meet specific requirements.

Managing the Content

The Drupal CMS enables the owners of a website to update content using a simple editing interface that provides tools to do the following:

• Add new pages and sections to the website
• Edit the page content
• Upload images, documents, sound and video files
• Add internal or external links
• Create and edit features and sidebar blocks
• Add news and events
• Manage the site members and editors
  

Graphical Flexibility

Drupal allows extremely granular control over look and layout and can support pretty much any graphic design possible using standard scripting languages.

Designed for accessibility, with easy navigation, clear headings and logical page structure, Drupal's presentation layer allows highly usable, interactive experiences that engage users and increase traffic.

Views modules enable different types of lists, such as a calendar, user directory, or lists of 'popular ' content.

User Roles and Workflow Administration

Drupal has a detailed system for user-roles and permissions.

Your site managers can define administrative and content access rights, with tight control over who can create, view, administer, and interact with the content. There is also the ability to leave content private and publish it only when it's ready.

Organize and Find

Drupal comes with tools to help you organize, structure, and re-use your content.

You can categorize your content with taxonomy, create menus and ‘featured items’ to highlight important information, create human- readable URLs, and reference specific site content.

There are several ways to find content in Drupal, including breadcrumbs, menus, and Drupal core search, which can include a faceted search engine.

Community/Web 2.0 Functionality

Drupal was designed to be a community platform, offering profiles, blogs and comments out of the box and with enhancements available through add-on modules.

Social Networking integration is also widely supported in Drupal with modules like the Facebook Connect module, Twitter module and ShareThis module to expand your network and make your product or message more engaging to a wider audience.

Connecting

Drupal makes it easy to connect your website to other sites and services across the web. You can publish site content via RSS feeds and create content on your site from external feeds. Data can also be shared between a Drupal site and a non-Drupal site or with remote applications.

References

Drupal sites include The Economist, The White House, and many museums and archives use Drupal.