Drupal® For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 10

Advanced Administration

In This Chapter

• Getting new themes and modules
• Updating Drupal
• Backing up and restoring your database
• Updating themes and modules
• Configuring your site

The Drupal community frequently comes out with updates. To make sure everything on your Drupal site runs smoothly, you need to keep your software up to date. In this chapter, we show you how to keep your site protected by upgrading when necessary. Also, there are many administrative features discussed in this chapter that extend your control over your site and allow you to monitor what visitors do when they come to your site, which can help you fine-tune your content.

Consider this chapter the next level in understanding how Drupal works.

Adding New Themes and Modules

One of the best things about Drupal is that developers are constantly contributing new themes and new modules. You can extend Drupal's functionality in incredible ways by adding new modules. You can create an extremely professional-looking site in minutes by finding the right theme.

With Drupal 7, there are now two ways to add modules and themes to your site. You may either download the file and install it manually, or tell Drupal where the file is on the web and make Drupal do most of the work. While it's easier to let Drupal do the heavy lifting, it's good to know how to do it yourself so you understand how it works. This section shows you both ways. We start with the big steps involved in automatically adding new modules and ...