Click to watch "Introduction to Drupal. What I Wish Someone Told Me in the Beginning"

It has been said that Drupal has a learning cliff. Yes, it is true that building a site with Drupal isn’t self-explanatory. However, there are a plethora of resources, if you know what questions to ask. And therein lies the problem. If you don’t know what you don’t know, Google doesn’t do you any good.

In this session, I am going to discuss some very important topics that -- learning about early on -- will make your site building experience smoother. This is not a step-by-step tutorial on how to build a site, however, you will hopefully come away form this session with a better understanding of where to start and more importantly where to find more information.

Having Conversations About Drupal

At some point, you will be talking to someone about your Drupal website. I use the word “talking” loosely since often conversations are in IRC or in a module’s issue queue. It is important to understand the Drupal jargon so that you can ask your questions in a manner that they are understood. Conversely, you need to understand the answers given. An example is knowing the difference between a node and a page. Once we cover the basics, I’ll share my favorite places to “have conversations”.

Finding Modules That Work

People new to Drupal are often overwhelmed by the number of contributed modules available. Honestly, so am I. There are strategies to make the process of finding the perfect fit easier.

I Don’t Want to Break My Site

The fear of clicking around on your production website is real. It is a scary prospect. I am going to explain how to mitigate this anxiety and also tell you that you need to learn some more advanced skills, but it will be soooo worth it!

The Drupal Community is a Beautiful Cliché

The axioms “paying it forward”, “karma” and “a give and take” are true in the Drupal World. There have been many sessions explaining how to get involved, and I will briefly talk about those ways. However, I will be focusing on why it is good for YOU to contribute to Drupal.

Google is Good; A Veteran is Better

As I mentioned before, Google doesn’t help if you don’t know what questions to ask. I will show you the places I go for help. There are resources out there; I can help you find the best ones.

Assumptions: You have started playing with Drupal, but maybe haven’t gotten farther than that.