Beginning Drupal®

Chapter 4. Administration — Configuration, Modules, and Reporting

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER:

• Configuring your site's title, e-mail address, and slogan

• Modifying the Page not found (404) and Access denied (403) error messages

• Adjusting the date/time formats and default server time

• Enabling Clean URLs

• Reviewing and adding text formats

• Setting your public and private file system preferences

• Maintenance mode (taking your site temporarily offline)

In the previous chapter you configured your new website in a rapid-fire fashion making the rounds to the most common administrative functions. Now it is time to get down and dirty exploring these administrative areas in depth over the next four chapters. In this chapter you will explore the foundation settings of your website that should be configured before you put your site into production to avoid any potential issues down the road. Although Drupal's defaults are sane, reviewing and understanding them will help you create a top notch website.

For example, your site's name is used when people bookmark your website or view your RSS feeds. If you decide to change the name later, those who have already bookmarked your website will not receive the update.

Drupal's administration is separated into six main sections: Content, Appearance, People, Structure, Configuration, Modules, and Reports. Additional modules you install will expand these sections with more settings. The following four chapters dissect each of these areas helping you to understand ...