Drupal for Humanists

Book excerpt: Drupal is a free and open-source content management framework. It is, like many web platforms, the “backbone” behind a website, invisible to front-end users but critical to the foundation, organization, and presentation of content. As more scholars and students seek to make their research available online—using the power of the web to find newer and richer ways of presenting large data sets—they are increasingly reaching the limits of what “old” platforms can accomplish. Author Quinn Dombrowski has taught numerous courses in Drupal programming for scholars in the humanities; the techniques here have been field tested. The majority of this book is centered around the creation of an example website, based on a fully functional website that is driven by Drupal. Drupal for Humanists is the first book on Drupal to be crafted specifically for non-technical users. This manual does not assume any prior experience with PHP, FTP, databases, CMS, or even HTML. If these acronyms are unfamiliar, Drupal for Humanists is the place to start.