Drupal is a freely distributed, database-independent, platform-independent and open source software project that integrates numerous powerful features of content management systems, collaborative tools, discussion boards and weblogs into a single, easy-to-use package.
Features at a glance
Key features include collaborative book, SEO-friendly URLs, a role-based permission system, built-in search functionality, user authentication, threaded comments, support for multiple languages, permalinks support, discussion forums, page layout customization, comprehensive online documentation, caching, logging and reporting.
In addition, the application comes with a news aggregator component, content syndication capabilities, Blogger API support, polls, statistics, tracking and analysis. It offers version control support, a powerful templating system for those who want to create beautiful and attractive skins, as well as support for modules that can be used to expand its default functionality.
Create platform-independent websites
With Drupal, anyone can create platform-independent website in minutes and with minimum effort, which will look and act the same across all of your devices, including desktop computer, portable laptop, netbook, tablet or mobile phone. Initially developed by Dries Buytaert, the software is now used as a knowledge management system, business collaboration platform, personal website or blog.
Who uses Drupal?
Similar to WordPress, Drupal is used by some of the most powerful institutions in the world, including the The White House, The Economist, Examiner.com, Edukame, Tech Coast Angels, The BMJ, Viraland, Chatham House, MIT List Visual Arts Center, University of Oxford, Newstica, Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, and many others.
Under the hood
A quick look under the hood will show us that the project is written entirely in the PHP server-side scripting language. It supports a wide range of web servers, including Apache, nginx, Lighttpd, Cherokee, Hiawatha and IIS, and database servers, such as MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, SQLite or Microsoft SQL Server. It works best on GNU/Linux systems.
