With such a wide user base made up of individuals of all levels it is critical to provide training in installing and configuring Drupal from the bottom up. We discuss installation requirements, web hosting practices, data management, configuration, and a tour of fully functioning base features. This component is most effective for new users, especially when taken with a healthy dose of core system and modules training and is always included in all of our therapies.

Building an understanding of Drupal's advanced features requires that you wrap your head around its basic foundation. This component covers the first building blocks in a Drupal website by looking at the systems that make Drupal so powerful.

• Users, roles and access control system
• The node and field system
• Basic content management and content types
• Information design with blocks and menus
• Categorization and Tagging
• File Uploads and Management
• RSS Aggregation and Syndication

This component is the foundation of our work in any of our therapies.

Contributed modules extend the functionality of Drupal and our Contributed Modules components will teach you how to use the most versatile and flexible tools offered on top of Drupal. This component starts with a discussion on identifying, researching and selecting contributed modules for use on your site.

Content Construction Kit (CCK)
CCK is a way to create types of content, like dated nodes and events, image and media nodes, user forms and more. CCK meets the needs of developers building specialized sites in which the standard story, blog, page and forum topic will not suffice. CCK trainings can be extended with any of the 100+ sub modules built for CCK, including Imagefield, Videofield, Embedded Media Field, Date and a whole lot more.

Views
As the module description says, Views is "a flexible method for Drupal site designers to control how lists of content are presented." Views presents a complicated array of options for filtering, sorting and displaying content based on content type, tag, date, and more. This module seems to present a very high percentage of solutions for special site design needs, and many of the later modules discussed will hook into Views as well.

Panels
In some cases, carving up a single page to contain multiple sections of data is very desireable and the Blocks system just sometimes doesn't cut it. The Panels module is where it's at. Without complicated Theme development you can create any size, shape or number of interior content areas in which to place different kinds of content.

Understanding how these few contributed modules can extend the functionality of Drupal is invaluable.

Themes are what set your new Drupal website aside from all the other Drupal users in the world, and there is greater and greater demand for sites that not only function excellently by look as diverse and unique as the groups that run them. No Drupal training should exclude a solid discussion and presentation on how to brand and stylize your site to distinguish it from the rest.

The compontent would include:

• Simple themeing without writing code
• Selecting and editing contributed themes
• Understanding the theme engine
• Transforming HTML templates into Drupal themes
• Custom themes for nodes, blocks, content types, views and more
• Theme stunt driving: whacked out PHP theme tricks

This component covers the life span of your Drupal website development from conceptualizing the project to maintaining and upgrading the project after launch.

Site Requirements and Initial Development
Clients may have concieved the requirements for their website, now it is up to you the developer to make these requirements into a reality. This is a discussion of the best practices that will set your site development on the right course from the beginning. We'll discuss project management and development environments.

Finding and Hiring Drupal Talent
How do you find Drupal developers, especially good ones? Who within your business or organization already has some development skill? And how do you measure the depth and quality of either? We discuss some practice and technique for fishing for Drupal developers.

Custom Development
New demands are made on Drupal projects on a daily basis, and while Drupal makes site development more accessible for site operators, there are still times when you'll need to approach the Drupal development community with special needs. This is a discussion of how to work with open source developers and how to identify and reach them in the best possible way.

Upgrading your Drupal site
This is a discussion of best practices for deciding when it is time to upgrade, how to research for replacement contributed modules, backing up your site, updating database schema, and testing your new production site.

We've been training for a long time and we've met loads of individuals and groups who need specialized Drupal trainings for lots of different reasons. In some cases a business contracted for a Drupal developer but did not arrange for training in their new web application, and in other cases some individuals want to learn specific skills in order to develop their own website implementations. We've even run trainings for bosses on what the heck Drupal is.

Chances are you are looking for specialized or scaled training to meet your web development goals, and chances are we and our partners can put together a meaningful training curriculum that works for you.

To facilitate this, be prepared to articulate what gaps in knowledge you or your company is seeking to fill. Does this relate to a specific website development or product? Do you need to learn a specific method or module to reach your goals. Then contact us so we can build a good training plan together.