Thomas - Learn Drupal in 30 Days: Tackling Drupal Day by Day

So you are thinking of building a website and heard of this thing called Drupal. Afterdoing some research you are probably feeling like pulling your hair out (whats left ofit anyway) and no closer to launching your first Drupal website. Does this soundfamiliar?

I have heard this story over and over again, and, to be honest, it happened to me too. I stillremember my first Drupal website, 6 years ago sitting in my basement. Back then, I didntknow the difference between a theme template file and a module file, but now I do, and I wantto teach you what I have learned over the years.

I have found that while there are great resources available for learning Drupal, they are spreadout and often disorganized. This is my attempt to pull it all together for you, so you dont haveto do all the research.

You might be wondering how this works? Well, over the course of the next 30 days you will beable to learn the basics of Drupal. You will start at the very beginning and develop the coreskills required to build your very own Drupal 7 website. So get ready to learn and in 30 daysyou will have your first Drupal website ready to launch and you will be one step closerto sipping Mai Tais on a remote beach somewhere (or whatever your idea of funis).

You might be wondering who this is designed for? This series will help you if you fall into anyof the below categories:

• You have never built a Drupal website but need to build a website and either have decided on Drupal or are evaluating Drupal
• You know the basics of Drupal but are looking to get a deeper understanding of how it all works
• You are a developer or designer coming from another CMS or framework and are trying to learn how Drupal really works

This series is broken down into days and organized using common conventions. Breaking thingsdown into days allows you to digest things in manageable chunks without gettingoverwhelmed. Each day should take you between 10 and 30 minutes to read through (orwatch) and complete. You can, of course, go at your own pace if you are feeling likeoverachieving.

Each day is broken down into the following sections:

• Intro - A short personal story or intro to the main material
• Objectives - Each day starts with clear objectives letting you know what you will learn
• Why its important - A brief summary of why these skills are important and how it ties into learning to build a Drupal website
• Main resource - A link to videos, guides, or articles that will help you accomplish the daily objectives
• Drupal Theory - A little bit of information to help you gain an understanding of Drupal terms or possibly what is really happening in the background. This will help you become a better rounded Drupal site builder, developer, or designer.
• Additional Resources - Provides additional helpful links or reference material so you can continue learning about the topic(s) for the day.

You will notice that this guide will often link out to other resources. This means you may begetting references to materials on CodeKarate.com, or perhaps other well known Drupalresources. The idea behind this is that there is already a ton of great Drupal learning materialavailable, but its not well organized or easily accessible. By curating the best of what isalready out there, you will be able to learn from tried and true resources without having to goout and find it on your own.

In certain places throughout this guide, I will link out to resources using an affiliate link. This means if you do like what they have to offer, and buy something from them, I will get somemoney in return... sort of like a tip jar.

To be as transparent as possible, I have labeled all of the affiliate links in this guide so youknow. After the link, I also provide an alternative non-affiliate link you can use instead to stillget to the material. I do it this way just in case you want to avoid the affiliate links but stillget the benefits of the linked material. I wouldnt link to the material unless I thought it was ahelpful resource.

So who am I? I am Shane Thomas. I am the founder of Code Karate and have been buildingDrupal websites since 2009. I have worked on Drupal websites of all shapes and sizesand share my experiences in text and video form on CodeKarate.com. I, like manyothers involved with Drupal, came to Drupal for the technology but stayed for thecommunity.

You can contact me directly through email at shane@codekarate.com or find me on twitter@smthomas3.

As you progress through this guide, feel free to let me know what you think (love it,hate it, etc). I am always looking for ways to improve so go ahead and give it to mestraight.

One last thing before you officially get started. Over in Code Karate land, we work our freakintails off to bring you the best Drupal resources we know how. If you do like what weare doing, we would really appreciate it if you shared it with others that might beinterested.

One last quick note before we get started. This is not one of those courses, books, or guidesthat is going to hand hold you every single step of the way to build a simplified, predeterminedproject. This is a guide that is going to provide all the resources and materials ineasy to manage chunks that follow a natural Drupal learning progression. However,and this is the important part, you will need to take the initiative to learn theseskills.

You are probably coming here with a specific project in mind. Because of that, this guideprovides the resources and skills you will need to create basic Drupal websites. Your task is totake the skills you learn throughout the next 30 days, and determine how (and if) they applyto your project. You can then go forward with building out your Drupal project. You may decide to build your Drupal project as you go through the next 30 days, or you may decide tofocus just on learning for the next 30 days and go back to your project at the end. The choiceis completely up to you.

Im glad you are here and I hope you are as excited to learn Drupal as I am to teach it to you.Let the fun begin!

I hope you have a cup of coffee, tea, soda or your favorite adult beverage because its about toget real. If this is your first Drupal website, take a mental note of where you are at right now.This is the first step on your Drupal journey and will likely be a memorable one. Any goodDrupal journey starts with a fresh install.

• Learn about the different methods for installing a Drupal 7 website
• Learn how to get a Drupal website installed

When trying to learn how to develop a Drupal website, starting with getting one installed isthe logical first step. Once you are able to see your Drupal 7 website up and running, you willbe able to start experimenting on your own. Sometimes your own curiosity is thebest way to learn, so feel free to experiment on your own while going through thisseries.

There are many different ways to install Drupal. These different ways depend on how you wantto develop your site and what type of computer you are using. The first question you need toask yourself is if you want to develop your Drupal website locally (directly on your computer)or if you want to use a third party service for developing your Drupal site. You will learn abouteach of these different options.