Design and Prototyping for Drupal

Step 2: Create the Event Content Type

Creating a content type starts the same as creating a taxonomy vocabulary. This time, you’ll select Structure→Content Types from the admin menu and click the Add content type link.

When creating a content type in Drupal 7, it’s important to remember each of the steps involved in creating them:

• Set up the field’s default settings, then click the Save and Add Fields button to add fields.

• Add any fields you need in your content type, then click the Manage Fields tab to manage how fields are displayed.

• Use the Manage Display area to set up how fields are displayed in different contexts (for example, “teaser” content vs. a single page entry).

This last bit about Manage Display is the one that can trip you up if you aren’t careful. Because Drupal depends on content, and the structure of that content can change during site implementation—more fields are added or removed, new categories are decided on, etc.—you may find yourself periodically going back and forth and adjusting the content types you’ve created on your site. This is especially true of complex implementations, but it can happen just as easily on a small corporate site. A helpful way to remember it is this: Manage Fields controls where fields show up when you’re creating new content, while Manage Display controls how they show up when that content is displayed.

Figure 12-5 shows what the Manage Fields screen looks like after setting up the Event content type.

Figure 12-5. Our Manage Fields configuration ...