CONTENT TYPE CHECKLIST

Prevent Drupal Headaches!

1Wednesday, January 22, 14

training.acquia.com/events

2Wednesday, January 22, 14

Who is this for?• Moving from another

CMS

• You’re planning a new Drupal site

• You inherited a new Drupal site and sense there might be something wrong...

3Wednesday, January 22, 14

In this presentation...• The basics of content types• Beware the defaults!• The big problem: Content Architecture• A final check when you’re ready to go live

4Wednesday, January 22, 14

Not in this presentation...• Views display• File field• Image fields and WYSIWYG• Drupal 8 content modeling

• Improving content administration (very important!!)

5Wednesday, January 22, 14

Site Building Checklist• With Suzanne of Evolving Web• Site Building Checklist (slides)

6Wednesday, January 22, 14

Future friendly content• KAREN MCGRANE - Keynote, DrupalCon

portland2013.drupal.org/keynote/karen-mcgrane (24:20 mins in)

7Wednesday, January 22, 14

Content admins are important

• Slides: “Content Administrators are Users Too” Karen McGrane and Jeff Eatonslideshare.net/KMcGrane/baby-got-backend-content-administrators-are-users-too

8Wednesday, January 22, 14

The basics!

9Wednesday, January 22, 14

What is a content type?

A “node”A “content type”

10Wednesday, January 22, 14

Assembling• A typical Drupal “page” is made up of

assembling components from content types, fields, blocks, views, panels, etc!

listlist w/thumbnailthumbnail text w/picture

11Wednesday, January 22, 14

Content typesArticle

Content title

Instruction manual

Content title

Tips

Content title

Article content. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia.

tags tags tags

Tips content. This is a great way to use your new product.

This is a guide. The best place to start is here. Then you can go there and further.

DownloadThis is a file download

12Wednesday, January 22, 14

About content types• Content types have

basic settings. • Simple version

control (revisions). • Adding fields

extends and customized the content type

News article

Lead image

Topic

Event

Generic plus:

Topic

Date of event

Generic content type

Title

Author

Date published

Comments?

Menu option?

Generic plus:

13Wednesday, January 22, 14

Content types are not...• Content types are not page templates!• Other CMSs workflow is “container first”.• Define site map...• Create page templates...

• In Drupal: Panels, Page manager, etc. can be used.

14Wednesday, January 22, 14

Quick demo!• Super fast demo

filepaths.localhost:8082/admin/structure/types15Wednesday, January 22, 14

Typical Drupal workflowDrupal workflow just for content modelling

1. Add the content type

2. Configure default settings

3. Add fields

4. Manage display

5. Set permissions

6. Test adding content

16Wednesday, January 22, 14

What actually happens?Drupal workflow just for content modelling

1. Add the content type

2. Configure default settings

3. Add fields

4. Manage display

5. Set permissions

6. Test adding content

17Wednesday, January 22, 14

Beware the defaultsA quick checklist

18Wednesday, January 22, 14

Content type defaults

1

2

3

19Wednesday, January 22, 14

Submission form• Default title field label is “Title”. Does this suit

your content type?• Submission guideline is empty!

20Wednesday, January 22, 14

Better editing experience• Use meaningful field labels• Add help text

21Wednesday, January 22, 14

Revisions• Default: It’s disabled. • Enable revisions for most content types. This

helps editors greatly, especially when collaborating.

22Wednesday, January 22, 14

Promoted to front page?• Default: It’s enabled. • Disable if you don’t want content to go to

your front page and global RSS feed by default

23Wednesday, January 22, 14

Menu options• Default: New content types allow new nodes

to be added to the main menu.• Do you want users to be able to add this

particular item into your “Main menu”?

24Wednesday, January 22, 14

Comment settings• Though you can turn the default setting to

“closed” content admins can still “open” them.

• Configure your content settings, threading, number of comments, even for closed types!

25Wednesday, January 22, 14

Body field• Default field label is “Body”. Does that work

for your content type?• Default allows for an editable summary.

26Wednesday, January 22, 14

The big problem: Content architecture

Check your designs for these pitfalls

27Wednesday, January 22, 14

• Content Modelling: A Master Skill by RACHEL LOVINGER April 24, 2012

Drupal is different• CMSs have a bias. They’re often designed

around a certain “unit” of content and that’s what they’re optimized to create.... For most web content management tools a unit is a webpage, even though we’re more likely to be making dynamic sites that use (and reuse) content in a variety of configurations.

28Wednesday, January 22, 14

Org charts

• Content Modelling: A Master Skill by RACHEL LOVINGER April 24, 2012

29Wednesday, January 22, 14

Other CMSs - ouch!

https://blog.gathercontent.com/from-blobs-to-chunks-a-real-life-example30Wednesday, January 22, 14

The solution??

https://blog.gathercontent.com/from-blobs-to-chunks-a-real-life-example

Expression engine

31Wednesday, January 22, 14

Drupal could do it better!

https://blog.gathercontent.com/from-blobs-to-chunks-a-real-life-example32Wednesday, January 22, 14

Content separate from display

• Content types with presentational markup

http://karenmcgrane.com/2013/05/23/drupalcon-keynote-video-and-talk-notes/33Wednesday, January 22, 14

Structured content

In HTML:

Body textTags

LocationMedia (video,

images)

Title

Image upload

Title

Location

Tags

Body text

Compare

34Wednesday, January 22, 14

What to display?

Image

Title

Location

Tags

Body text

Author

Date

Googlehttp://domain.com

Web Page Title

Show 2 most recent.Image as square thumbnail. Body text up to 100 words

35Wednesday, January 22, 14

Show author and date?

Googlehttp://domain.com

Web Page Title

Image

Title

Location

Tags

Body text

Author

Date

Show 9 per page with pagination.Image as thumbnail. Author link to profile. Short date.

36Wednesday, January 22, 14

Display options• Limit your fields to only what you need to

reuse and display.

listlist w/thumbnailthumbnail text w/picture

37Wednesday, January 22, 14

Design choices• When to use multiple fields?

Example a. Example b. Example c.

38Wednesday, January 22, 14

• Depends on your needs

Design choices

Example a. Example b. Example c.

Single image field

Single image fieldmultiple values

Two image fieldsSingle values

39Wednesday, January 22, 14

Too many?• 42 content types which could be

consolidated• Consolidate: Content types with similar

purposes with names like “Page - front” and “Page - products”

40Wednesday, January 22, 14

Too few? • 2 or 3 complex content types with many

fields and references.• Divide: Limit fields to only necessary data

which suits the model for that type.

41Wednesday, January 22, 14

How many is too many?• Too many content types can be a burden on

overall performance. • The number of fields and references within a

content type will have a significant impact on performance.

• A large number of fields and complex forms also increase the chance for error and harm user experience.

42Wednesday, January 22, 14

Prevent at design stage!• Limit the number of content types • Limit unnecessary complexity • Limit unnecessary fields• Combine similar content types• Reuse shared fields for the same data (where

they have the same global settings)

43Wednesday, January 22, 14

Review as you develop

44Wednesday, January 22, 14

Field related modules

45Wednesday, January 22, 14

Module selection - FAQ v FAQ field?

drupal.org/project/faq drupal.org/project/faqfield46Wednesday, January 22, 14

• Simplify entity references functionality• Displayed within the content type. Can be

edited separately.• Can pose performance problems

Field collection

https://drupal.org/project/field_collection

Pet name select animal type

snakes

catsgoldfish

dogs

47Wednesday, January 22, 14

High performance• https://groups.drupal.org/high-performance

48Wednesday, January 22, 14

Pitfalls to avoid

4sitestudios.com/blog/oct-08-2013/8-pitfalls-avoid-when-developing-content-models-drupal

49Wednesday, January 22, 14

Final check!

50Wednesday, January 22, 14

Real content test drive• Test content types with real content and real

content editors. **• You will always be surprised!• Change order of content editing fields to

match user’s needs, even if different than display.

• ** Warn editors this content probably will be destroyed

51Wednesday, January 22, 14

Permissions!• Check permissions after you add each

content type. • Check permissions for untrusted user roles

on all contributed modules.

52Wednesday, January 22, 14

Pathauto patterns• Check your path auto patterns

53Wednesday, January 22, 14

Display configuration• Check all view modes• Don’t forget “Search results”

54Wednesday, January 22, 14

Module maintenance• Subscribe to the issue queues of any

modules you’re using on the site. • Apply security updates on-going

55Wednesday, January 22, 14

Tidy up!• Delete test content.

• Delete test content types. • Delete any content types not in use.• “Retire” old content types (which still have

content on display) by disabling editing permissions for content editing roles so they don’t see that content type in their Add content list.

56Wednesday, January 22, 14

Next week

acquia.com/resources/webinars/preventing-drupal-headaches-permissions-and-roles-checklist

57Wednesday, January 22, 14