Beginning Drupal®

Chapter 10. Triggers, Actions, Workflow, and Rules

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER:

• Use triggers and actions in such a way that you are notified when a new user signs up on the site

• Create an editorial review and approval workflow for your site's content

• Automatically promote content to the frontpage when a select group of users create or comment on it

• Automatically demote content from the frontpage after a set amount of time has passed

Warning

At the time of writing Workflow and Rules were not updated to Drupal 7. This chapter was written against Drupal 6. The concepts and exercise should still remain valid with minor changes when the Drupal 7 versions are released.

Bring out the robots! In this chapter, you'll learn how to automate the administration and upkeep of your website. Imagine being notified every time a user signs up, when new content is added, or when a post is promoted to the frontpage. The core Trigger module and actions (affectionately referred to as Drupal's robots) can do this for you and much more. The contributed module Workflow then utilizes these robots to walk your content through a series of stages. For example, a story can be tracked from its initial creation through peer review and editorial review until it is published. Each step is logged and documented, so you're never left wondering who did the review and publishing.

This chapter also introduces the ultimate Mr. Roboto: Rules. The contributed Rules module unleashes intelligent robots that can automate nearly ...