Drupal Site Structures

Damien McKenna

Mc-Kenna.com & Bluespark Labs
Twitter: DamienMcKenna

Site Architecture

• Taken for granted
• Not just the site's main menu
• Content classification
• Controlling content classification

"What's it all about, Alfie?"

• "Taxonomy"
• "The practice and science of classification"
• i.e. "categories"

Drupal's Taxonomy System

• Vocabulary = bucket
• Term = category
• No practical limits
• Users - one interface
• Developers - one API

Vocabularies System

• Arbitrary content types
• Pre-defined vs "tags"
• Multi-select
• Required
• Description

Terms System

• Hierarchal
• Multiple parents
• Synonyms
• Related terms

Taxonomy Uses

• Main site category
  
  
• Keywords / tags
  

More Taxonomy Uses

• Forums (core Drupal module)
• Geo-location - regions, states, etc
• Product categories
• Product attributes
• Brand names

Presentation #1: Drupal Default

• taxonomy/term/123
• Simple content list
• Pagination
• Tip: PathAuto,
  nicer URLs, e.g.
  products/green

Presentation #2: Views

• admin/build/views
• taxonomy_term view
• Internally replaces taxonomy/term/123
• Still use PathAuto
• Customizable, it's just a View
• Can only have one output

Presentation #2: Views continued

Presentation #3: Taxonomy_Redirect

• Customizable internal path
• taxonomy/term/123
• vs category/123
• vs scuba-resources/ dive-deals/ caribbean-and-atlantic
• Create multiple views to control output

Presentation #4: Panels

• Control page output as a panel
• Create
• Override per vocabulary
• Override per term
• You're welcome :)

Presentation #4: More Panels

• Add pieces to the page
• Nodes list
• Child terms list
• Sibling terms list
• Views - pass in arguments

Presentation #4: Panels + Views

• Build a View
• Argument - term ID
• Or term name

More metadata?

• Display term description
• Module to add images
• Module to add coordinates
• Modules to add more metadata
• Smart Nodequeues..
• Uh, but that's a node?

Presentation #5: Taxonomy_Node

• Attach a node to each term
• Different vocab = different content type
• Easier editorial control

Tools

• PathAuto
• Views
• Taxonomy_Redirect
• Panels
• Taxonomy_Node
• Taxonomy_Manager

Tips & Tricks

• Don't trust keyword generators
• Be careful with large vocabs
• Be careful with "Term with depth" View argument
• Don't kill your server!

TTFN