This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

The First Practical, Complete Guide to Customizing Drupal Sites with Behaviors, Themes, and Templates

Drupal is now the world’s #1 open source content management system: Thousands of individuals and organizations are using it to build and update Web sites of virtually every kind. As Web designers and developers adopt Drupal, they need ways to quickly customize the visuals and interactivity of the sites it creates. Drupal offers powerful tools for doing so, but little guidance on using them effectively. Front End Drupal is the solution. In this book, two expert Drupal developers cover everything you need to know to create great visual designs and state-of-the-art interactivity with Drupal’s behaviors, themes, and templates.

While other Drupal books focus on module development, Front End Drupal is 100% focused on issues of site design, behavior, usability, and management. The authors show how to style Drupal sites, make the most of Drupal’s powerful templating system, build sophisticated community sites, streamline site management, and build more portable, flexible themes. You’ll also gain hands-on experience through several case studies that walk you through site creation and customization from start to finish.

• Prepare and organize content so it’s easier to integrate into Drupal Web sites

• Structure Drupal page layouts that are easy for users to work with

• Implement an efficient workflow for all your site contributors

• Configure Drupal with the modules and browser tools you need to customize your site

• Utilize Drupal’s Starter Themes, as well as themes converted from WordPress, Joomla!™, and Drupal 5.x

• Adapt Drupal page templates to control the entire site or individual sections

• Customize site content, including individual nodes and teaser summaries

• Maximize the power and usability of Drupal’s content editing forms

• Build great community sites with user profiles, comments, and user-generated content

• Use JavaScript to make your themes more powerful, portable, and flexible

• Create powerful animations and AJAX callbacks with Drupal’s jQuery library

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 10 Ratings

Not Recomended - 2009-05-31
Reviewer Rating:
I'm very disappointed of this book, went through 1/3 of it and can't understand a thing, this book cover all the subjects in a very shallow way and has more references to places online than actual instructions on what it's supposed to teach me. they didn't bother to include even one tutorial to show you how the pieces are coming together. will not suggest it to anyone I still can't understand how they managed to fill over 400 pages without actually saying a thing.

Excellent book, wide topic coverage, well written... - 2009-06-04
Reviewer Rating:
As a "backend" developer and site builder, I approached this book with some scepticism - expecting it to be of limited value, given the type of Drupal work that I usually do. However, I was pleasantly surprised : the book is chock full of useful hints and tips, and I couldn't put it down. Although I've used Drupal for a number of years, I still found something useful in every chapter, especially in the back half of the book.

I found the section on javascript and jquery especially informative, and couldn't wait to start trying out some of the ideas proposed there on my own site. Also the chapter on theming content-editing forms (Chapter 6) was great, and the section on customizing the administration section (Chapter 8) was something that never occurred to me.

Overall, a great book, and a worthwhile addition to your Drupal library.

So far, so good. - 2009-08-01
Reviewer Rating:
I've made it through the first four chapters and am very happy with this purchase. The case studies are easy to follow and the examples are based on a foundation of best practices. So far I've just covered the basics, but from what I've skipped ahead and read this book makes subjects that I considered over my head easy to understand. This book is proving to be an excellent addition to my reference library.

A winning pick for any web programmer's library - 2009-07-19
Reviewer Rating:
Web developers and libraries catering to them will find FRONT END DRUPAL a winning pick: it provides a complete guide to customizing Drupal sites with templates, themes and more, and focuses on issues of site design, usability and management. From organizing content to blend into Drupal web sites to structuring easy templates, this is a winning pick for any web programmer's library.

highly recommended - 2009-06-07
Reviewer Rating:
exactly what i needed when i had some designing problems in drupal. this newly published book provides much insight and tips on designing and theming in drupal. a rare kind of book. :)

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