In this chapter we're going to go through a launch checklist to make sure we have a few things all set up before we actually put our site out there. We discuss:

• error reporting settings
• 403 and 404 pages
• performance optimization and caching
• reviewing the status reports
• disabling unnecessary modules

In this chapter Joe covers two really important tools for most sites: cron and search. We start by explaining what cron is, and how core provides us with a basic cron tool. We also walk through how to set up your own custom cron if the core settings don't suit you. Next we look at Drupal's core search and the various ways you can configure that.

In this chapter, we look at the Drupal file system configuration, and we set up our site to give us private file storage. We'll talk about what that means, and the benefits and drawbacks to Drupal's private files.

In this chapter we talk about the powerful and flexible user system in Drupal. We'll create new users and roles, and walk through how the permissions work with them.

In this chapter we take a look at some of the most popular contributed modules to get a sense of what is possible with Drupal and which modules many sites are currently using. We'll take a quick look at:

• Views
• Token
• Pathauto
• Backup and Migrate
• Date
• Calendar
• Webform

This screencast gives miscellaneous tips when writing Rules plugins, such as:

• Some words on declaring new data types for Rules
• How to restrict access to plugins
• How to form alter plugin configuration forms
• How to provide additional form validation
• How to use the "base" property to provide a non-default callback function
• How to invoke events programmatically with all arguments in a single array
• How to use drupal_static() to share variables/values with other parts of Drupal

This screencast shows how to:

• Invoke a Rules event
• Send parameter data to a Rules event

This is shown by an event triggered every time a view is being rendered, sending the name of the view as a parameter.

This screencast shows how to:

• Declare a Rules event
• Declare the data provided by the event
• Use that data in a rule

The example used creates an event "View is being rendered", passing along information about which view is being used.

This screencast shows how to create a condition plugin for Rules:

• How to declare new conditions for Rules
• How to provide the condition callbacks with parameters to act on
• The big similarities and the few differences between actions and conditions

In the example, a condition is built to check which view type a provided view has.

This screencast shows:

• How to declare that an action provides new data objects to Rules
• How to actually send the created data to Rules
• How to save parameters that are manipulated by the action (but not created by it)

The example used creates an action that returns the number of hits in a selected view.

In this chapter, we talk all about changing the look and feel of your site with themes. We start by reviewing the settings that come with our default core theme, Bartik. Then we go to Drupal.org to look at available contributed themes, how to look for themes, and discuss what a base theme is. We'll finish up by actually installing a new contributed theme, Zero Point, and making some configuration changes.

In this chapter Michelle will explain what blocks are and how we can use them on our site. We'll look at the demo regions where we can place our blocks, and move some things around. We'll also look at creating our own simple custom block, along with covering the ways that we can change the visibility settings.

In this video Joe Shindelar goes over some important information about giving hugs. He walks through the various facets of hugs, giving some demonstrations throughout on:

• Defining a hug
• Types of hugs
• Cautions
• Technique

As Joe admonishes in the video, don't forget to practice your hugging after watching the video. Practice makes perfect!

This screencast shows how to:

• Use text as an input parameter for an action
• Provide your action configuration with a customized select list
• Restrict input for a parameter to "direct input" (and not data selection)

This screencast shows how to add parameters to your actions, for example to allow site builders to select which user object an action should work with.

This chapter shows how to create a basic Rules action. It covers:

• The role of the module.rules.inc file
• Using hook_rules_action_info
• Writing action callbacks

This series covers the basics and some more of how to write your own plugins to extend the Rules module. It includes:

• A conceptual overview of the Rules modules
• Writing action plugins
• Managing rules data as parameters for Rules plugins
• Writing conditions
• Writing and invoking Rules events

This intro chapter contains a quick presentation of the Rules module from a conceptual perspective. It includes:

• Actions, conditions, events
• Data types: the importance of entities, relationships and tokens
• Lists and loops
• Components and parameters
• Some words about the Rules user interface

If you would like to see more about configuring Rules before continuing this series on writing code to integrate with the Rules module, you can watch the Learning the Rules Framework series. Note that Johan is using the Module filter module to provide the tabs and filter box on his module administration page.