Backdrop CMS is for the small to medium sized business, non-profits, educational institutions, and companies or organizations who are delivering comprehensive websites on a budget. This introductory training will cover the basics of creating and administering a website with Backdrop CMS.
Training Itinerary:
In the morning we'll do a meet-and-greet to get to know one another. Then we'll have a brief presentation on the philosophy of Backdrop CMS, followed by questions and answers.
For the rest of the day we'll build our own Portfolio website on Backdrop CMS, and in the process explore some of the similarities and differences from doing so with Drupal.
Hands-On Site Building:
- Exploring Pages & Posts: Content types & fields are almost the same in Backdrop CMS as they were in Drupal 7. As soon as you master some slight terminology changes you'll be cooking with gas!
- Creating and modifying Layouts: Backdrop CMS has a new top-level concept (like modules and themes): Layouts. Separating page layout from the look & feel of your site means lots of good things for your site-building experience. Let's play!
- Building lists of your content with Views: Views was the #1 downloaded contributed module for Drupal 7. It's been moved into core for Backdrop CMS just like in Drupal 8. Let's take it for a quick test drive so you can see that other than it's facelift, not much has changed.
- Extending your site with a Module: Modules for backdrop are very similar to modules for Drupal 7, but in Backdrop the can be installed quickly without needing to leave your own website. Let's use the project browser to install your favorite module.
- Deploying changes using Configuration Management: One of the time-saving features Backdrop includes is the ability to package and deploy configuration from one site to another. Let's practice deploying to a Pantheon site to see how quick and easy it can be.
- You will need to set up a free account on Pantheon.io. If you don't have one already, please use this link: https://dashboard.getpantheon.com/register
- Once you have a pantheon account, you can install Backdrop on Pantheon by using this link: https://dashboard.pantheon.io/products/backdrop/spinup
Jen Lampton:
Jennifer Lea Lampton has been building websites since 1997, and participating in open-source communities since 2006. After spending years developing course material and teaching hundreds of people how to use Drupal, Lampton's primary focus became making the software both easier to use ("usability") and easier to learn ("learnability").
In an attempt to make Drupal 8 easier to learn, Lampton spent almost 2 years as the Drupal core 'Twig' initiative lead. After Twig was committed to core, Lampton noticed the rest of Drupal continuing to shift away from the grasps of the average web developer, and decided to shift her attention to Backdrop CMS.
Nate Lampton:
Nate Lampton is a leader in Open Source, with over a decade of contributions to the Drupal project and is a founder of Backdrop CMS.
Nate has a wide skill set, ranging from front-end development to server-side performance optimization. Nate has brought his skills to many of the largest companies and websites in the world, including Sony Music, NBC, Turner Media, Harvard University, the Grammys, Tesla Motors, and many others. Nate provides services of architecture, development, performance analysis, and consulting.
Nate also co-authored the O'Reilly book, Using Drupal, and you can find many videos of him in the video tutorials at Drupalize.me.
