Drupal
The technology behind Wagaya sites
A better kind of site: content management systems
You may be familiar with the traditional style of web site creation: individual pages that must each be created separately and in entirety, even if all pages share much of the same information. Despite software tools to ease the process, creating and maintaining such a site – where one key change in design or content may require hand-tweaking every page – can be a huge undertaking.
A more modern tool to create and maintain sites is a content management system (CMS). This builds upon a database that holds all content – stories, product listings, blog entries, contact information, anything – which the CMS then shapes into pages on the fly. Menu items may call upon one item in the database (say, your company's background) to display a simple page, or may dig up any number of specified items (such as all sports-related product descriptions) to create a complex page from multiple pieces of information. It's up to you.
read more »Welcome, Drupal 5!
Wagaya is now using Drupal 5, the new version of the content management system that site publishers are talking about (and adopting!) everywhere.
What does that mean for clients? Some new features you'll appreciate are:
- A new, easy-to-use Administration page, with links to all administration functions
- More log reports, including a list of "page not found" hits
- A status report page, showing tech info – and any potential problems – for your site
- A nifty new theme called Garland, with colors you can change any time
- More flexibility than ever in creating custom content types
- The ability to change block visibility by user role
- Improved cacheing and other improvements for better performance
- Many other improvements
Wagaya's already made the upgrade for your site. New features for Drupal 5 are appearing all the time; look forward to non-stop improvements.
Drupal Website Features
Tons of features
Start with dozens of initial features that Drupal makes possible, and add any of dozens more. Wagaya is working to add new features all the time.
Built-in features
Start with this list right from the get-go:
| feature | notes |
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| Multiple users and roles | Control access, content, etc. by user role. | |
| Content queues | Top editors can choose whether to review other users' posts, comments, etc. before they appear online. |
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| Search | A must-have for any web site. Your site is automatically indexed regularly. | |
| Content blocks | "Blocks" on the sides of your site with useful lists, links, and other features. You control which blocks appear where. |
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| Blogs | Built-in blogging for as many users as you like. |
|
| File downloads | Files you upload appear with simple download links. |
|
| Easy text entry | Create your content with easy, word processor-style input. | |
| Keyword tagging | Tag your content with keywords for easy search and organization. |
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| Page forwarding | Readers can easily forward pages by email. |
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| Contact form | Visitors can easily contact the mail address of your choice right from your site. | |
| Easy addresses | Your pages have easy-to-use URLs, which not only aids users but also boosts search engine recognition. |
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| Anti-spamming | Automatic "masking" of email addresses from spam robots, plus blocking of spam comments. |
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| Auto-linking | URLs and mail addresses you put into your content automatically become links. | |
| Print pages | One-click generation of easy-to-print versions of your pages. | |
| Logs | Logs to track visitors, referrers, user access, and more. |
|
| Recent content |
Automatically-generated lists of new content, new comments, popular content, etc. |
