The open source CMS of choice

Although Drupal is often described as a "content management system" (CMS) it is also a "content management framework" (CMF). In other words, unlike a typical CMS, it is geared more towards configurability and customization. Picture a range of measurement where one end of the scale is labeled “specific” and the other end “abstract”. On the “specific” end of the spectrum, you would have something whose form is very specialized because it’s meant for a specific purpose—like, say, a hammer. On the other end of the spectrum, you would have something much more abstracted, that is available to be configured any way you like, for a variety of purposes—like some wood and a chunk of steel. You could make a hammer, or any number of other things with the wood and steel.

Of course, while chunks of wood and steel are more “configurable” than a hammer, they aren’t terribly useful because few people have the specialized knowledge to work with such raw materials. Drupal’s purpose is to sit in the sweet spot between the two ends of the scale, and create a sort of “builder’s kit” made up of pre-designed components that can be used as-is or can be extensively reconfigured to suit your needs. Its design provides incredible flexibility while still allowing people who aren’t programmers to make powerful websites. This principle of manageable abstraction is important to understand, because it is a central concept to all things Drupal. When you understand why a measured amount of abstraction is valuable, you’ll begin to understand why this approach is such a strong argument for using Drupal.

If you would like to learn more about the Drupal CMS on your own visit the community website at drupal.org.

Drupal is an excellent choice for any of the following situations:

• You need a site that is flexible enough to evolve in any direction. For example, you might start with a blog but want the option of adding other features like a wiki, electronic commerce, forums etc.
• You need a site that can easily be configured to interact with other sites or with other technologies.
• You need a site that can easily handle complex forms and workflows.
• You need the ability to create your own content types. For example, you need to add a custom field to a page.
• You need the ability to quickly organize and display lists of information.
• One or more of the many contributed Drupal modules addresses your needs.
• You need to quickly develop custom functionality.

So what can you do with Drupal 6?  Here is a list of the core modules:

• Aggregator - Aggregates syndicated content (RSS, RDF, and Atom feeds).
• Blog - Enables keeping easily and regularly updated user web pages or blogs.
• Blog API - Allows users to post content using applications that support XML-RPC blog APIs.
• Book - Allows users to structure site pages in a hierarchy or outline.
• Comment - Allows users to comment on and discuss published content.
• Contact - Enables the use of both personal and site-wide contact forms.
• Content translation - Allows content to be translated into different languages.
• Forum - Enables threaded discussions about general topics.
• Menu - Allows administrators to customize the site navigation menu.
• OpenID - Allows users to log into your site using OpenID.
• Path - Allows users to rename URLs for improved SEO.
• Poll - Allows your site to capture votes on different topics in the form of multiple choice questions.
• Profile - Supports configurable user profiles.
• Search - Enables site-wide keyword searching.
• Statistics - Logs access statistics for your site.
• Taxonomy - Enables the categorization of content.
• Tracker - Enables tracking of recent posts for users.
• Trigger - Enables actions to be fired on certain system events, such as when new content is created.
• Upload - Allows users to upload and attach files to content.

Drupal can also be used to make very simple brochure type websites that don't require all the extensive funtionality yet still keep the ability to easily update and change any of the content.  We prefer to use this technique with every website we develop because although you may not need all those features now, you just might need them in the future and using Drupal keeps your site very scalable and can always be easily upgraded to the highest levels of fuctionality.  All this and Drupal sites are normally very standards compliant, accesible, and SEO friendly.