Preface

Integrating images, video, and audio content on a Drupal site requires knowledge of appropriate community modules, and an understanding of how to configure and connect them properly. With the power of up-to-date technologies such as HTML5, responsive web design, and the best modules available in Drupal's ecosystem, we can create the best Drupal 7 media website.

Drupal 7 Media is a practical, hands-on guide that will introduce you to the basic structure of a Drupal site and guide you through the integration of images, videos, and audio content. Learn to leverage the most suitable community modules and up-to-date technology such as HTML5 to offer a great user experience through rich media content.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Drupal's Building Blocks, serves as an introduction to the building blocks of Drupal's node structure. Starting with a bit of Drupal's history, we move on to Drupal's very basic and prominent node structure. You will be introduced to Drupal's administrator user interface, which will help you create your own Memo content type.

Chapter 2, Views, Blocks, and Themes, shows how to display content with the use of the Views module user interface, which enables us to create content listing quite easily. We then move on to the presentation layer of Drupal and learn how to create and position content elements (blocks) in the various positions (regions).

Chapter 3, Working with Images, dives into deep water and helps in creating our very own content type for a food recipe website. We learn about the prominent Media module and its extensive support for media resources such as providing a media library, and key integration with other modules such as the Media Gallery. We also discover the concept of text format profiles and the use of WYSIWYG editors.

Chapter 4, HTML5 in Drupal, covers the HTML5 spec, why the Web needs it, and how to make use of the spec to create cross-browser-compliant HTML code in Drupal. We also learn about the canvas feature of HTML5, and create a signature management web application.

Chapter 5, Video Capabilities, explores the myriad of options available to add videos media to our website. We will learn about integrating with third-party video hosting websites such as YouTube, and create a YouTube-like video sharing platform.

Chapter 6, Audio Capabilities, covers different ways of working with audio content. You will learn how to customize an audio presentation, utilize the abundance of metadata that is potentially stored in audio media, and tie it up with Drupal's content structure.

Chapter 7, Leveraging Other HTML5 Features, starts off by showing you how to enable RDF support in our Drupal's website. We also learn how to implement a graphical chart with the help of the Views user interface and custom code. We also touch upon advanced theming and responsive web design.

Chapter 8, Enhancing Media Content, reviews Drupal's media configuration and tools, which aid a site builder in enhancing media-related content. You will learn how to apply image manipulations and how to build your own effects. You will explore the use of Colorbox and Plupload modules. Finally, you will learn about the rating module that adds voting capabilities.

Chapter 9, Drupal 8 and Beyond, reviews the upcoming Drupal 8 release and the changes it is introducing. Many of these changes are architecture and software design related changes, such as configuration management, core framework refactoring, better layout, and general mobile-ready with built-in support for HTML5.

What you need for this book

Drupal 7 requires PHP 5.2.5 or higher to run the Drupal code. You will also need one of the following databases to run Drupal 7:

• MySQL version 5.0.15 or 5.1.30 or higher

• PostgreSQL 8.3 or later

• SQLite 3.4.2 or later

You can use Apache HTTP, Nginx, or Microsoft IIS for the web server.

We recommend you to use a GNU/Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP setup, also known as LAMP, for best performance and community support.

Who this book is for

If you are a Drupal site builder and you wish to spice up your web applications with rich media content, then this book is for you. A basic understanding of HTML, JavaScript, and basic PHP module development in Drupal would be helpful, but is not necessary.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "To make sure we understand this style when we use it in other places we will name it grayscale_thumbnail."

A block of code is set as follows:

name = "Image Effect - Sepia"
description = "Adds a Sepia image effect to image styles"
core = 7.x
files[] = image_effect_sepia.module

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

<h1
  property="dc:title"  class="node-title" rel="nofollow">
  Live school show
</h1>

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "For the display format, aside from the interactive icons option, the Rating and Percentage options are pretty straightforward."

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Reader feedback

Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.

To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <[e-mail]>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.

If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.

Customer support

Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.

Downloading the example code

You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

Errata

Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the errata submission form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded on our website, or added to any list of existing errata, under the Errata section of that title. Any existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.

Piracy

Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works, in any form, on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.

Please contact us at <[e-mail]> with a link to the suspected pirated material.

We appreciate your help in protecting our authors, and our ability to bring you valuable content.

Questions

You can contact us at <[e-mail]> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.