Drupal Explained Simply

This documentation is not intended to explain technical information but to express Drupal in simple terms to to build a basic understanding of Drupal. What you will find here is over simplification to create clarity. If you need to understand the actual process and mechanics of Drupal this is not the documentation to read. See further Drupal Handbooks . You want more details about drupal, Click here Drupal

Drupal provides a engine to show content and a way to hold that content.

How the content is held is based on tables, which are part of a database. When content is created the pieces are put into tables inside this database.

Data is actually contained in various tables and cross applied creating a complex database in which to query from. (This database is actually created separately as part of your Drupal installation.)

How the content is viewed is based on the Theme Engine, which takes the data out of the database and puts it on the screen. The Theme Engine is not the same as a Theme e.g, Garland, although the Theme used will affect how the site looks.

The Theme Engine is a complex set of scripts & functions which queries the data base, and creates the display of the content. The display of content can be affected in other ways too, it is possible to override the functions of the default Theme Engine.

Information can be retrieved out of this table in a number of ways including:
Content Type (Page, story, blog, book), Content Title (Title given when it’s created), & Taxonomy (Category>Vocabulary>Term).

Having different content types allows for groupings and retrieval by each type. Allowing for individual theming (a way to effect the appearance) and setting privileges (deciding who can see or add content). It gives the theme engine, a way to retrieve the data, tell it how it should be laid out, and who can see it.

Titles & Taxonomy allow for the same.

Nothing exists anywhere as a page of information, like in a book, or on a static web site, but is created as a page by the theme engine.

For simplicity this is a basic idea of what is happening.

Heading:
Content Type - Content Title - Taxonomy - Content
Items in bold can be pulled from to create the view

Data:
Story - Mary had a little Lamb - Child, lamb - Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow.
Story - Jack and the Bean Stalk - Child, beans - There once was a boy named Jack…
Page - What you need to know about beans - Information, beans - Beans can be a great source of protein, but you need to know the type…

The theme engine can be told to display all Content Types, or Titles, or Taxonomy Terms as links to the data. These links are something like a search where you search based on one of those Headings and the theme engine presents you with the data that includes the type you clicked on, retrieving it from the table (database) showing you what exists in that row (what data fits the query).

If you were looking for what types of content existed, the theme engine based on the question (query) would be able to present:
Story
Page
These would be links because they are main data types that can be retrieved and queried.

When you click on an individual link presented in that search or query the theme engine then is directed to show only the data that exists for that specific heading type. Displayed again how it was told to theme or display it.
Stories:
Mary had a little Lamb
Jack and the Bean Stalk

And then the theme engine could be told how to display a single view of a single story:

Mary had a little Lamb(title) Child Lamb (terms)
Mary had a little lamb who’s fleece was white as snow (content)

Without the theme engine the content wouldn’t have design or meaning, without the database there wouldn’t be a way to organize, retrieve or find the information in a multitude of ways. Together they give you the ability to effect both what you see and how it looks.

What does that mean to you & why would you want to use it?
Drupal gives you many possibilities for viewing the information you enter once, then show to the end user in multiple ways, as well as organize the data (content) in a variety of ways. Drupal is expandable & dynamic, i.e., you can add to what it can do & what it shows is based on how it was asked.

Many websites are static meaning the content doesn’t change. You create a Home page and you put that file into your directory tree as index.html your create an Article and put that file into your directory tree as article1.html. Then you add a link to your home page for people to access the Article. For someone to find the article they will need to be on a page that you have created a link to that article to find the article. The only links to that article will be ones you create. How your content looks is created with HTML or CSS, each difference must either be hard coded into the content file or linked to an individual CSS sheet.

On Drupal, which is dynamic, meaning the information presented is based on what is asked for, you won’t have these individual files. If you looked in your directory there won’t be any index.html or article1.html files, everything is contained in the database. You can create a static Home page, or make only a portion of the Home page static (sticky), or have the Home page change as often as you add content. You type the information once, and then have possibilities on how you want it to look, and where and when someone will or won’t see it.

If we typed up our Article page in Drupal using a content type, taxonomy, and title right away Drupal would provide you will multiple ways to view the content. You as the webmaster don’t have to add the link code anywhere. (You can create custom menu’s so the Article could be a defined linked). How the content looks is set by the Theme (e.g., Garland) used, or can be changed based on how it’s viewed (e.g., content type, taxonomy) or again a variety of ways with PHP, HTML & CSS, again giving you options.

When someone types www.example.com on a static website what they are going to see is what is in the file index.html, it will never change until someone physically changes the file itself. On Drupal, when someone types www.example.com, they are actually preforming a query and will get to see what has been set up by the Administrator to display. Typically the last 10 nodes (content) added to the site, as well as anything else that Drupal has been set up to show. This can be constantly changing with no additional work by a maintainer (webmaster) needed. Each URL or address typed into a Drupal site is actually a query (search) of the database and not an address of a file.

Suggested Reading:
General concepts
Terminology

*Posted to drupal.org

Original Post: http://docs.drupaldojo.org/drupal-explained-simply