1.
How do I access the
Drupal admin panel, when the login block is disabled?
Answer :-
This is really a common question among Drupal beginners; we need not
always want the login block to be displayed in our site. Since most of these
cases the login block will be turned off in the administration. In those cases,
we can access the login screen simply through the following URL.
|
http://sitename.com/?q=user
|
or if the clean
URL is enabled
Similarly if you
can’t access the logout link and need to logout, you can do so by using the URL
|
http://sitename.com/?q=logout
|
alternatively with
clean URLs enabled you can try
|
http://sitename.com/logout
|
|
|
2.
What is the
difference between Core and Contrib?
Answer:- The standard
release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features common to
content management systems. These include user account registration and
maintenance, menu management, RSS-feeds, page layout customization, and system
administration. The Drupal core installation can be used as a brochureware
website, a single- or multi-user blog, an Internet forum, or a community
website providing for user-generated content.
As of August 2011 there are more
than 11,000 free community-contributed addons, known as contrib modules,
available to alter and extend Drupal's core capabilities and add new features
or customize Drupal's behavior and appearance. Because of this plug-in
extensibility and modular design, Drupal is sometimes described as a content
management framework.[3][8] Drupal is also described as a web application
framework, as it meets the generally accepted feature requirements for such
frameworks.
3.
How does caching
work in Drupal?
Answer:-
One of the common (mostly unfounded) complaints about Drupal has been,
"Drupal is slow." You want to hire a developer who understands
Drupal's built in caching system, and what its limitations are. For example,
Drupal 6's block cache will not appreciably speed up the page if the user is
logged in.
Ask your candidate to recommend some additional
solutions to speed up Drupal's caching. These could include the Boost module,
Varnish, Squid, Memcache or Pressflow. Ask if they've ever run into issues with
Drupal's cache.
4.
How to make my
Drupal site offline to public, while it is under construction?
Answer: - You can set your Drupal site in off-line mode, while it
is being developed. Just click Administer » Site maintenance. There you can set
the status to off-line. If you wants, you can also set your own custom off-line
message. When set to Off-line, only users with the administer site
configuration permission will be able to access your site to perform
maintenance; all other visitors will see the site off-line message configured
there. Authorized users can log in during Off-line mode directly via the user
login page.
5.
How can I install a
new theme in Drupal?
Answer:- This is another common question among Drupal newbies all
time. After trying out all available themes under Drupals theme directory, we
may naturally want to try new themes. Installing a new theme is very simple and
straightforward. Follow the steps below.
Download a new theme package. Note that themes for different
Drupal versions are not compatible, version 5.x themes do not work with Drupal
6.x and reverse.
Read any README or INSTALL files in the package to find out if
there are any special steps needed for this theme.
Upload the contents of the theme
package to a new directory in the themes directory in your Drupal site. In
Drupal 5.x & 6.x, you place your themes in /sites/all/themes/yourThemeName
Click administer » themes and enable the new theme (Drupal will
auto-detect its presence).
Edit your user preferences and select the new theme. If you want
it to be the default theme for all users, check the default box in the themes
administration page.
6.
How to install a
new module in Drupal?
Answer:- After finding and downloading a module, the next step
would be to copy it the modules folder. Most people copy the file to the
default modules folder here http://sitename.com/drupal/modules this is where
all the modules that ship with Drupal are stored so it seems somewhat logical
to do this. But this folder is actually meant to store only Drupal’s default
modules. Instead you should go to http://sitename.com/drupal/sites/all folder,
there you will see a readme.txt file. This file will clearly tell you the
trick. You just need to create a new folder named modules here. Now copy the
modules folder here. That’s all, you have successfully installed the module.
Next step would be to enable the
module through the Admin interface. To do this navigate to Administer » Site
Building » Modules. Here you will see a list off all installed modules, and our
newly installed module will also be listed here. You just have to check the
enable check box against the new module and then click the Save Configuration
button. That’s all.
7.
How can I reset my
Drupal admin password
Answer:- In such a worst scenario, drupal admin password can easily
be reset from the Drupal database. The Drupal database can be accessed through
phpMyAdmin tool available with your web hosting account. Follow the below steps
to get your drupal admin password reset quickly:
·
Login to cPanel -> Databases box -> phpMyAdmin;
·
Select the Druapl database folder from the left
navigation bar. The page will refresh and and the Drupal database’s tables will
be displayed on it.
·
Click on the SQL tab.
·
In the text field write the following SQL query:
update users set
pass=md5(’NEWPASS’) where uid = 1; where “NEWPASS” is your new Drupal
administrative password.
Click the GO button to submit the
query. If the query is executed correctly and no errors are displayed then you
should be able to login with the new password.
8.
How can I change
the favicon in my Drupal Site?
Answer:- A favicon (short for favorites icon), also known as a
website icon or bookmark icon is a 16×16 pixel square icon that appears near
the address bar and in the bookmarks folder in a visitor’s browser. By default,
a drupal site shows that water drop kinda drupal logo as favicon. If you want
to make your site unique by all means, you can easily change the favicon to
your customized icon by following the steps below.
·
Create your own favicon.ico file using any graphic
tools or with the help of any online favicon generator tools like dnamicdrive.
·
Navigate to admin » site building » themes and click
the configure link next to your current theme. This will bring up the theme
configuration page.
·
Here you will see a section titled Shortcut icons
settings. You can either upload your favicon file or specify the path to your
customized icon file.
The changes may not appear
immediately in your browser, you need to clear your browser’s cache and reload
the page. If you have bookmarked your site, you may need to delete the bookmark
and then recreate it again so that the new favicon will appear in the bookmarks
menu.
9.
How can I enable
clean URLs in Drupal?
Answer:- Drupal’s default URL structure is like
“http://www.sitename.com/?q=node/10″ This URL format can be hard to read, and
can sometimes prevent search engines from indexing all your pages
properly. In this case you can eliminate this “?q=” and clean the URLs through
the following steps.
Navigate to Administer » Site
configuration » Clean URLs. By default, it will be disabled. Select enabled and
click the save configuration button. You are done.
You can make your URLs even more
cleaner with the help of path module.
Home » Administer » Site building
» Modules: enable the Path Module.
10.
How do I get my
site to have SEO-friendly URLs?
Answer:- The Pathauto module automatically generates URL/path
aliases for various kinds of content (nodes, taxonomy terms, users) without
requiring the user to manually specify the path alias. This allows you to have
URL aliases like /category/my-node-title instead of /node/123. The aliases are
based upon a "pattern" system that uses tokens which the
administrator can change
11.
How do I remove the
title ‘Navigation’ from the navigation block?
Answer:- To prevent the navigation block title or any other block
title from appearing in the pages, just do the following.
·
Navigate to Administer » Site building » Blocks and
click the configure link next to the Navigation block.
·
In the block configuration page, enter <none> in
the Block title filed. This will override the default title for the block and
remove the title.
12.
How can I translate
Drupal to my local language
Answer:- The interface text (like the “Log in” button and the “Add
new comment” text) is in English by default, but can be translated. For many
languages, there are completed or partly completed translations available. (See
the locale module on how to use them.)
All languages need more
translation contributions. Some have only incomplete versions of the text in core,
so that parts of the interface will show up in English. Others may be complete
but need corrections and improvements of the language. And no language has a
complete set of translations for all contributed modules
13.
How do I add images
to Drupal?
Answer:- Image module allows users with proper permissions to
upload images into Drupal. Thumbnails and additional sizes are created
automatically.
Images could be posted
individually to the front page, included in stories or grouped in galleries.
14.
How do I show different
Drupal themes on different pages?
Answer:- Yeah it’s possible! You can apply different themes to
different pages in your drupal site simply with the help of a cool module
called ‘Sections’.
15.
How do you handle
upgrades?
Answer:- It's a fact of life that you'll have to upgrade your
Drupal installation and contributed modules fairly frequently. Your candidate
should mention:
·
backing up the site,
·
putting it into maintenance mode
·
downloading the new version of the module
·
uncompressing it
·
running update.php
·
testing the site
·
taking the site out of maintenance mode
Ideally, your candidate would also
mention creating a development environment to minimize downtime. There is also
a big difference between upgrading a module (process described above) and a
Drupal minor version upgrade, which requires more careful patching. Drupal
major version upgrades, which happen every couple years, are another can of
worms entirely.
16.
How can I customize
my 404 – Page not found page?
Answer:- Create a new page with some extra information, so that
your visitors don’t ever plunge on to the default boring 404 – page not found
error page.
Once this page is created:
·
Remember its node ID,
·
Go to Administer > Site configuration > Error
reporting
·
Set Default 404 (not found) page to the node ID you
just created
·
Save your settings
You can also use the Search 404
module as an alternative.
17.
How can I add a new
Block In Drupal?
Answer:- Adding a new block is a simple process in drupal 6.
·
Go to Administer » Blocks and click on the Add Block
link (tab).
·
Fill in the form with the necessary PHP/HTML code in
the block body. And click the ‘Save Block’ button.
18.
What does Views do
and how do you use it?
Answer:- Views is a practical necessity for sites built on Drupal
6, and it's imperative that your developer understands how to take advantage of
it. Earl Miles has written a great summary on the Views project page.
19.
How can I create a
custom region in my Drupal template?
Answer:- Adding a new region in your drupal template is not a hard
thing, but its not as easy as adding a new block. It’s basically a two-step
process:
·
define the custom region in your theme’s .info file
·
insert some PHP in your theme’s page.tpl.php file
wherever you would like the new region to appear
20.
How can I add
custom PHP codes in my Drupal pages or blocks?
Answer:- By default, drupal will not allow inserting PHP code
directly inside a post or in a block. To do this, you need to activate a drupal
module called PHP filter via, Administer » Site building » Modules. Even though
this module ships with drupal, it remains disabled by default.
21.
How do I Remove
Breadcrumbs from my Drupal pages?
Answer:- Breadcrumbs or breadcrumb trail is a navigation aid used
in drupal interfaces. Normally it appears in between the top banner area and
the page title. It gives users a way to keep track of their location within
programs. Breadcrumbs are really useful in a comparatively bigger website with
plenty of sections and subsections. But when it comes to smaller websites, it
may found useless. In those cases you may either hide it using CSS (eg.
.breadcrumb {display: none;}) or in the page.tpl.php file remove the line that
says <?php if ($breadcrumb) print $breadcrumb; ?>
22.
How can I install
Drupal on a local WAMP server?
Answer:- Preparing your computer with a local installation of
Drupal with WampServer is comparatively a trouble-free process to follow. Since
WampServer will install an Apache-server, SQL, PHP and phpMySQL on your
computer, with those tools you can install and run Drupal locally even without
an internet connection.
23.
How do I move a
Drupal Site from One host/server to another?
Answer:- Migrating Drupal On
your OLD host:
1) Backup your whole home
directory from your ftp access using an ftp client like filezilla. Make a
folder on your local harddisk and download the complete directory to that local
folder.
2) Backup your mysql database on
your old host using phpadmin, select your mysql database, usually something
like "name_drpl1". Select all fields, click "export" and
save the database to your local harddisk. Leave default options enabled. You
will receive a file similar to "name_drpl1.sql".
This is your mysql database
On your NEW host:
1) Upload your folder with the
complete drupal installation to your home-directory.
2) Once done, go to phpadmin on
the new host, create a new mysql database, example "name_drpl1" and
create a new mysql user. Create a password for this new mysql user, click
"assign all privileges" to this user and assign the user to the new
database.
You now should have a new mysql
database on the new host with a mysql user, eg. "name_drpl1" as
database name and "name_username" as database user name.
3) Import (upload) the database
(which you exported from the old host earlier) with phpadmin to the new
database. This might take a minute.
4) If needed edit the file [drupal
home]/sites/default/settings.php and edit at the section where you enter the
database, location, username and password. You CAN enter the password either
encrypted or not encrypted there.
5) Chmod your "files"
folder so it is writeable using your ftp client (filezilla), chmod to 777
6) Double check your .htaccess and
[drupal home] /sites/default/settings.php and make changes in case they are
needed.
Change nameserves on your domain
host and let them point to your new host's nameservers.
Enter the new nameservers in your
control panel where your domain names are hosted, overwriting the old ones.
After some time (sometimes a day
or two) your domain should point to the new host and drupal should be up and
running on the new host.
24.
How to backup my
Drupal site?
Answer:- Backing up your Drupal site is now very easy, you just
need to download and install a module called Backup & Migrate. To install
the module click on the Administer » Modules check the Backup and Migrate
module and enable it and save the settings.
Then navigate to the Administer »
Content Management » Backup and Migrate then do the following settings.
·
Exclude the following tables altogether: select the
table which you dont want to take backup.
·
Give the backup file name.
·
There are also options to compress the file before
download, or add a datestamp.
·
And then click Backup Database.
Alternately you can take backups
using PhpMyAdmin.
25.
How to Customize my
Drupal Syndicate Feed Icon?
Answer:- For a recent project I needed to customize the feed icon
in the Drupal theme I was creating. This wasn’t as straight forward as I
thought it would be. Being the drupal newbie that I am I went looking for it in
the core templates and suggestions page only to come empty handed.
Previously I found the solution to
theming a search form by using the search-block-form.tpl.php template file and
thought there would be one for the feed icon too. I found the solution to this
in the function reference in the form of a theme hook.
theme_feed_icon($url, $title)
This function is internally called
by drupal to generate the feed icon in the Syndicate block. Our Job is to
override this function.
26.
How to interact
with Drupal search system?
Answer:- There are three ways to interact with the search system:
Specifically for searching nodes,
you can implement nodeapi (‘update index’) and nodeapi (‘search result’).
However, note that the search system already indexes all visible output of a
node, i.e. everything displayed normally by hook_view () and hook_nodeapi
(‘view’). This is usually sufficient. You should only use this mechanism if you
want additional, non-visible data to be indexed.
Implement hook_search (). This
will create a search tab for your module on the /search page with a simple
keyword search form. You may optionally implement hook_search_item () to
customize the display of your results.
Implement hook_update_index ().
This allows your module to use Drupal’s HTML indexing mechanism for searching
full text efficiently.
If your module needs to provide a
more complicated search form, then you need to implement it yourself without
hook_search (). In that case, you should define it as a local task (tab) under
the /search page (e.g. /search/mymodule) so that users can easily find it.
27.
Explain the menu
system in Drupal? Purpose of menus?
Answer:- Define the navigation menus, and route page requests to
code based on URLs.
The Drupal menu system drives both
the navigation system from a user perspective and the callback system that
Drupal uses to respond to URLs passed from the browser. For this reason, a good
understanding of the menu system is fundamental to the creation of complex
modules. Drupal’s menu system follows a
simple hierarchy defined by paths. Implementations of hook_menu () define menu
items and assign them to paths (which should be unique). The menu system
aggregates these items and determines the menu hierarchy from the paths. For
example, if the paths defined were a, a/b, e, a/b/c/d, f/g, and a/b/h, the menu
system would form the structure:
a
a/b
a/b/c/d
a/b/h
e
f/g
Note that the number of elements
in the path does not necessarily determine the depth of the menu item in the
tree.
When responding to a page request,
the menu system looks to see if the path requested by the browser is registered
as a menu item with a callback. If not, the system searches up the menu tree
for the most complete match with a callback it can find. If the path a/b/i is
requested in the tree above, the callback for a/b would be used.
The found callback function is
called with any arguments specified in the “page arguments” attribute of its
menu item. The attribute must be an array. After these arguments, any remaining
components of the path are appended as further arguments. In this way, the
callback for a/b above could respond to a request for a/b/i differently than a
request for a/b/j.
For an illustration of this
process, see page_example.module.
Access to the callback functions
is also protected by the menu system. The “access callback” with an optional
“access arguments” of each menu item is called before the page callback
proceeds. If this returns TRUE, then access is granted; if FALSE, then access
is denied. Menu items may omit this attribute to use the value provided by an
ancestor item.
In the default Drupal interface,
you will notice many links rendered as tabs. These are known in the menu system
as “local tasks”, and they are rendered as tabs by default, though other
presentations are possible. Local tasks function just as other menu items in
most respects. It is convention that the names of these tasks should be short
verbs if possible. In addition, a “default” local task should be provided for
each set. When visiting a local task’s parent menu item, the default local task
will be rendered as if it is selected; this provides for a normal tab user
experience. This default task is special in that it links not to its provided
path, but to its parent item’s path instead. The default task’s path is only
used to place it appropriately in the menu hierarchy.
Everything described so far is
stored in the menu_router table. The menu_links table holds the visible menu
links. By default these are derived from the same hook_menu definitions,
however you are free to add more with menu_link_save ().
28.
Explain the FCK
Editor?
Answer:- FCK Module
29.
Explain Roles, User
and Permissions?
Answer:- Roles –
Roles allow you to fine tune the
security and administration of Drupal. A role defines a group of users that
have certain privileges as defined in user permissions. Examples of roles
include: anonymous user, authenticated user, moderator, administrator and so
on. In this area you will define the role names of the various roles. To delete
a role choose "edit".
By default, Drupal comes with two
user roles:
·
Anonymous user: this role is used for users that don't
have a user account or that are not authenticated.
·
Authenticated user: this role is automatically granted
to all logged in users.
User-
Drupal allows users to register,
login, log out, maintain user profiles, etc. Users of the site may not use
their own names to post content until they have signed up for a user account.
Permissions-
Permissions let you control what
users can do on your site. Each user role (defined on the user roles page) has
its own set of permissions. For example, you could give users classified as
"Administrators" permission to "administer nodes" but deny
this power to ordinary, "authenticated" users. You can use
permissions to reveal new features to privileged users (those with subscriptions,
for example). Permissions also allow trusted users to share the administrative
burden of running a busy site.
30.
How develop custom
modules?
Answer:- Name your module
The first step in creating a
module is to choose a "short name" for it. This short name will be
used in all file and function names in your module, so it must start with a
letter and by Drupal convention it must contain only lower-case letters and
underscores. For this example, we'll choose "onthisdate" as the short
name. Important note: It is not just a convention that the short name is used
for both the module's file name and as a function prefix. When you implement
Drupal "hooks" (see later portions of tutorial), Drupal will only
recognize your hook implementation functions if they have the same function
name prefix as the name of the module file.
It's also important to make sure
your module does not have the same short name as any theme you will be using on
the site.
Create a folder and a module file
Given that our choice of short
name is "onthisdate", start the module by creating a folder in your
Drupal installation at the path: sites/all/modules/onthisdate. You may need to
create the sites/all/modules directory first. Create a PHP file and save it as
onthisdate.module in the directory sites/all/modules/onthisdate. As of Drupal
6.x, sites/all/modules is the preferred place for non-core modules (and
sites/all/themes for non-core themes), since this places all site-specific
files in the sites directory. This allows you to more easily update the core
files and modules without erasing your customizations. Alternatively, if you
have a multi-site Drupal installation and this module is for only one specific
site, you can put it in sites/your-site-folder/modules.
The module is not operational yet:
it hasn't been activated. We'll activate the module later in the tutorial.
Coding Standards
As per the Coding standards, omit
the closing ?> tag. Including the closing tag may cause strange runtime
issues on certain server setups. (Note that the examples in the handbook will
show the closing tag for formatting reasons only and you should not include it
in your real code.)
All functions in your module that
will be used by Drupal are named {modulename}_{hook}, where "hook" is
a pre-defined function name suffix. Drupal will call these functions to get
specific data, so having these well-defined names means Drupal knows where to
look. We will come to hooks in a while.
