Drupal Development Course

Lesson 1 • What Is a Content Management System

Defines CMS concepts and compares Drupal to competing platforms. Establishes the vocabulary used throughout the course.

Lesson 2 • Setting Up a Local Development Environment

Guides learners through installing a local stack and Drupal core. Produces a working local site used in every subsequent chapter.

Lesson 3 • Navigating the Drupal Admin Interface

Orients learners to the administrative toolbar, menus, and dashboard. Reduces friction when completing hands-on exercises in later chapters.

Lesson 1 • Taxonomy and Classification Systems

Explains vocabularies and terms as a classification layer. Connects taxonomy to content types via entity reference fields.

Lesson 2 • Content Modeling Best Practices

Applies data-modeling principles to plan content architecture before building. Prevents costly restructuring later in a project.

Lesson 3 • Creating and Configuring Content Types

Walks through building custom content types with appropriate settings. Directly applies entity concepts to practical site-building tasks.

Lesson 4 • Adding and Managing Fields

Covers all core field types and their configuration options. Learners attach fields to content types to capture structured data.

Lesson 1 • Essential Contributed Modules

Configures high-value modules used on nearly every Drupal project. Builds a toolkit learners apply in advanced chapters.

Lesson 2 • Updating and Removing Modules

Covers safe update procedures and clean module removal. Prevents data loss and configuration drift during module lifecycle changes.

Lesson 3 • Media and File Management Modules

Extends Drupal's media system with contributed tools for asset management. Learners build a media library suitable for editorial teams.

Lesson 4 • Installing Modules with Composer

Teaches Composer-based module installation as the standard workflow. Connects dependency management to site stability and update processes.

Lesson 1 • Twig Templates and Variables

Teaches Twig syntax and how Drupal passes variables to templates. Learners override core templates to change markup output.

Lesson 2 • Drupal Theme System Fundamentals

Explains the theme layer, theme engines, and the role of base themes. Sets the foundation for all template and CSS customisation work.

Lesson 3 • Display Modes and View Modes

Explains how display modes control field rendering per context. Learners configure teaser, full, and custom view modes for content types.

Lesson 4 • Creating a Custom Sub-Theme

Guides learners through scaffolding a sub-theme from a base theme. Produces a reusable starting point for client projects.

Lesson 1 • Placing and Configuring Blocks

Covers placing blocks in regions and setting visibility conditions. Learners control which blocks appear on which pages and for which roles.

Lesson 2 • Layout Builder Introduction

Introduces Drupal's Layout Builder for per-page and per-content-type layouts. Learners create flexible layouts without custom code.

Lesson 3 • Understanding the Block System

Explains blocks, block types, and the block layout UI. Connects the block system to regions defined in the active theme.

Lesson 1 • Creating Your First View

Walks through the Views wizard to produce a basic content listing. Learners immediately see query results rendered on a page.

Lesson 2 • Relationships and Contextual Filters

Teaches joining related entities and passing URL arguments into views. Enables advanced listings like author pages and taxonomy archives.

Lesson 3 • Views Module Concepts

Explains what Views does and how it queries Drupal's entity system. Establishes the conceptual model before learners touch the UI.

Lesson 4 • Filters, Sorts, and Exposed Controls

Covers static and exposed filters that let users refine listings. Connects to taxonomy and field data configured in earlier chapters.

Lesson 1 • Drupal User System Overview

Explains anonymous, authenticated, and administrator user types. Provides the access-control foundation for all permission configuration.

Lesson 2 • Creating and Managing Roles

Covers creating custom roles and assigning them to users. Roles become the containers for granular permission sets.

Lesson 3 • Workflows and Content Moderation

Configures Drupal's Content Moderation module for editorial states. Learners build draft-to-published workflows with role-based transitions.

Lesson 4 • Content Access and Node Grants

Introduces node access grants for per-node visibility control. Extends basic role permissions to handle complex editorial workflows.

Lesson 1 • Exporting and Importing Configuration

Walks through full and partial config export and import via Drush and UI. Learners move configuration changes from development to staging.

Lesson 2 • Configuration Management Concepts

Explains how Drupal stores configuration as YAML and syncs it across environments. Establishes the mental model for all export and import operations.

Lesson 3 • Configuration Overrides and Environment Settings

Uses settings.php overrides to vary configuration per environment. Prevents sensitive credentials from entering the config YAML files.

Lesson 4 • Version Control for Configuration

Integrates exported YAML files into a Git repository for change tracking. Connects configuration management to team collaboration workflows.