Drupal, One of the Many Things I'm Thankful for

Not only is Drupal a fabulous content management system to build websites on, it's also changed the course of my life. It's provided me a way to do a job I love, work for Mediacurrent remotely (and move to Florida!), and meet a lot of fantastic, giving, and intelligent people along the way. And I'm not ashamed to say that it also provides some excellent job security. And in times like these, that's nothing to shake a turkey leg at.

If you are interested in web development or web design, there is a high demand for developers, designers, trainers, and project managers withing the Drupal community. Drupal is one of the top web platforms out there, and pretty much every company out there needs a website, so there's always work to do!

So what is Drupal exactly? "Drupal is an open source content management platform powering millions of websites and applications. It’s built, used, and supported by an active and diverse community of people around the world." - Drupal.org

The advantage of building your website on Drupal is that it allows users to compose and present website content such as articles, photos, and other content types from within the site itself. There's no software to install, no technical language to learn. Anyone can manage their content on Drupal. And best of all, Drupal is a "dynamic" system; rather than forcing users to specify a fixed, pre-declared arrangement of content, Drupal takes care of the details of how information is arranged and presented, and lets users focus on the actual content to be displayed.

It's built on PHP and HTML, and there's also a theming layer which uses PHP and CSS. That's what I do, I'm primarily a front-end developer and designer. If you are interested in heavy coding, you can dive right into installing Drupal and start playing around with it on your computer. 

If you want to know more about the front-end configuration and how it works as a content management system, sign up for a free account at www.drupalgardens.com and create a website there. Here's some documentation for Drupal Gardens specifically. Drupal Gardens is a service built on top of the Drupal 7 platform. Here you can't hack at the code itself (only the CSS and front-end configuration), but it gives you a taste of what Drupal is before you commit to installing the database and code on your computer.

The @Thememaster and me, @starryeyez024 at Drupalcamp Atlanta. Photo by @tmgstudio.

Besides being a really great platform, the Drupal community is a lot of fun too. I've been to several Drupal conferences and camps which are a blast, and very enlightening. Definitely a good place to get your feet wet and see what Drupal is all about. There's also lots of Drupal user groups around the world that meet about once a month. 

I went to Eastern and got a degree in Communication Technology and Graphic Design which helped put me on this path, but I learned a lot of what I know about Drupal & the web at the jobs I had and online through the Drupal community. There is so much free documentation online it's crazy:

• http://drupal.org/documentation

• http://drupaleasy.com/

• http://www.lullabot.com/ideas/videos

• http://drupaltherapy.com/curriculum

• http://www.gotdrupal.com/

• http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/drupal-tutorial/

There are also plenty of forums, IRCs, and Drupal gurus on Twitter out there who are happy to lend advice or a hand. Just don't forget to return the favor someday.

If you are seeking out a new career, or something fun to dive into on the side, I hope this has been useful. For me, Drupal has been a life-changing thing, and I'm so thankful. Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and thanks Dries!