This page covers terminology that will be used throughout this guide.
- Absolute Link
- A hyperlink containing a full URL which includes everything needed to find a particular site. For example, http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/iits/documentation/drupal-user-guide/terminology is the absolute link to this page.
- Block
- The boxes visible in the various regions of the site. Many blocks appear much as a "widget" would in other systems. Blocks are sorted by weight.
- Content
- In Drupal, you create more than just web pages, you create content. You will see that it is possible to re-envision how to share your content with others by thinking beyond traditional static standalone webpages.
- Content Type
- In Drupal, Content is classified into types. A Content Type defines various default settings for content of that type and what fields are associated with the respective content type. For example, a News content type will have a Date field and an Author field, whereas a Faculty/Staff Profile will have a Position/Title field and an Email field.
- Node
- Each item of content is called a node. Each node has a unique ID number which is used to build the URL of your page. You may occasionally see URLs like http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/[SITENAME]/node/123. There are means in place to create friendlier URLs, which you will see as you continue with this guide.
- Module
- Software that extends the capabilities of Drupal.
- Region
- An area defined by the theme in which content is placed. For example: Main Content, Left Sidebar, Right Sidebar, Footer, Header, etc. Content is assigned to regions as blocks.
- Relative Link
- This is a link to a page that is relative to the root of your site or current location. For example, if you have a site that is http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/example/ and you have a page with the absolute URL of http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/example/path/to/my/page the relative path of the page is
path/to/my/page. - Terms
- An organizational keyword, known in other systems as categories or metadata. A term is a label that can be applied to a node. They are also known as tags.
- Theme
- The theme is what defines the look and feel of your website. As part of the layout definition, the theme defines the regions that blocks can be placed.
- Vocabulary
- A vocabulary is a collection of terms.
- Weight
- A numerical value assigned to each block, generally between -50 and 50. Blocks are sorted by this weight from lowest number to highest. If two items have the same weight they are sorted alphabetically by their title. It may help to think of this like bubbles. The 'lighter' the bubble (the closer to -50) the faster it rises to the top while heavier items (closer to 50) sink to the bottom.