When you are destined to use technology to build a career out of it, you ought to know everything about it. Suppose you are offering a house interior designing service but aren’t aware of the tools, raw materials, design elements, and other such aspects required to provide the best output. In that case, you won’t be the best at what you do!
The same goes for Drupal web development services! With Drupal, you can create mesmerising websites for your clients and let them reap the benefits of high performance and responsiveness. But what if you step into using this technology solution for developing websites but aren’t aware of what the basic terms imply in it? You will lag on efficiency, won’t you?
Beginning with Drupal as the development framework for your chosen career is the right thriving pick. But let’s not give the complex terminology of it a chance to slow down your career growth. So, here is a short glossary of 15 important Drupal terms that every developer should know. Check it out!
What are the 15 Important Terms Associated with Drupal Development?
For beginners, before getting started with explaining the terms, you must know Drupal is a CMS platform with open-source code. It enables you to develop scalable and powerful web solutions with its modular architecture and high-end security features. Moreover, it also has an active community! All of it and more is what has made Drupal quite popular among developers.
Now, assuming that you are aware of the technicalities associated with Drupal development, let’s get started on decoding the crucial terms:
1. Entity Types
Entity type in Drupal consists of the various base fields or attributes required to create an item. The Entity API system is considered the most powerful or strongest tool in Drupal. Some of the types that Drupal offers include Media, Blocks, Users, Node, and others.
2. Node
Node is defined as a single content piece, such as a web form, basic page, or blog post. For instance, a web page you access can be called a node, but the comments on it aren’t.
3. Content Type
Content type is defined as the collection of all similar data types that comprise several fields, defining the character of each type of content. Using it, the editors will be able to add different versions of the content easily. Zoho development services also offer a seamless content management system for your brand.
4. View
View is accountable as the information listing terminology on a Drupal website. If you are running a Drupal web development company, this is one term you would come across very often. It manages the views UI module and display, which enables you to create and edit the site UI.
5. Path
Path is defined as the final part of an internal URL address assigned to that of a particular page. It can be used either for users or administrators.
6. Taxonomy
Taxonomy represents the approach of categorizing information within the sites. For instance, if you are making a blog website, you can implement a taxonomy for categorizing the different genres of content over it.
7. Module
Module is among the basic concepts of Drupal web development services, which acts as a substitute for WordPress plugins. The modules are the add-on to existing functionalities or features of Drupal for the site development.
8. Vocabulary
Vocabulary is the section that will give you a vivid explanation of the common taxonomy terms within Drupal. For instance, in an eCommerce store, the list of brands is called the vocabulary.
9. Term
All the elements of taxonomy are called terms. For instance, the blog categories on the site are called the taxonomy terms.
10. Field
Data types included in the content types are called fields. For instance, a taxonomy term, vendor description, product details, pricing details, features, specifications, and other such data in the content type are implied as fields.
11. Region
Region is defined as a specific area where one can publish content. In Drupal development, the regions are sidebar, header, footer, and others. The layout of the region is specified with respect to the theme.
12. Block
Block is the word that represents a set of content pieces being placed across various positions in a site. Blocks will be displayed in specific regions, such as the footer or sidebar. With the Drupal 8 update, developers can now use the custom blocks function for personalizing the creation.
13. Theme
It is the most common term in almost all development strategies. Theme is understood as the predefined layout that one must integrate into the site to implement style, appeal, and functionality. It curates the complete appearance of the website. Developers can use internal, third-party, or contributed themes for the purpose.
14. Hooks
Hooks are your coding assistants who help orchestrate the core modules and sub-system of Drupal. They work as the communication channel between the multiple coding components within Drupal. This allows you to change the core’s or a module’s functionality when required without changing anything to the overall code.
15. Role
Role is better known as the set of permissions that get assigned to any specific account of the user. With this option, the site administrator will be able to decide who should have access to their website resources and who shouldn’t! The roles assigned to a Drupal site include administrator, moderator, authenticated user, and anonymous user.
Parting Words
These are just the basic terms that you will come across while you seek to offer your clients Drupal web development services. Having a detailed understanding of these terms will help you better understand this CMS and its ecosystem.
In fact, this glossary can be a great start for you to step into the arena of Drupal development. It will deepen your knowledge of the basics and will help you speed up your development workflow without halting it to decode the meaning of any important term.
If these 15 Drupal terms helped you understand Drupal a bit better, you can always use it as your cheat sheet to never get stuck at projects during your initial journey.
