How to use this website

This website is built using a Content Management System (CMS) called Drupal. CMSs enable the content of a site to be managed simply through a web browser without needing any technical knowledge such as HTML or CSS.

Adding/Editing Content

Drupal Forms

Whatever content you are adding or editing you will be faced with a Drupal form. Most of the fields that you will be presented with are hopefully self-explanatory, for instance, simply type the title of the content in the "Title" field. However, for some content types, and especially more so for users with extra site privileges, there are some fields that require a little more explanation.

The WYSIWYG editor

But firstly it is important to understand the WYSWIG text editor that is presented in every single form regardless of user privileges. WYSWIG stands for, What You See Is What You Get, which (in theory) means that however the words and images appear in the editor is exactly how they will appear in the final web page. There are many formatting buttons provided, on the whole they function in exactly the same way as Word Processor's buttons would, therefore to make text italic for example, one highlights the required text, then clicks the button with the leaning "I" on it. Please note that some buttons only become active once a portion of text is actually highlighted. If the mouse cursor is hovered over a button then a helpful tip appears describing the functionality of that button.

Of particular use is the hyperlink button which allows text to be turned into a hyperlink, it works in much the same way as other buttons except theat once you click the hyperlink button (which looks like a segment of chain) you are presented with a little pop-up window that asks you to enter the URL to which the link should point. It also asks for other details, such as Title (a tip to be displayed when hovering over the link), Target (whether the link should load the URL in a new window or the curent window) and Style (the format of the link, currently ony 'Admin Note' is available, which puts text in a notable box) -- however it is usual to just leaves these extra fields at their defaults.

Also worth mentioning is the method for inserting images into the editor. To insert an image you will need to first have the image stored locally on your computer, then place the cursor where you would like the image to appear and then click the Image button which looks like a small, blue camera. You will then be invited to either, upload a new image or click on a thumbnail of an existing image. Once you have either uploaded a new image or chosen an existing image you will be asked, at what size you want the image to be and what alignment you would like it to have -- you can experiment with different settings before you submit the page to get the look you desire, to delete an image from the editor treat it like any other letter by placing the cursor near it and either pressing the DELETE or BACKSPACE keys.

If you find the WYSWIG editor too complicated or just want to enter plain text then the editor can be simply disabled by clciking the "disable rich-text" below the editor.

Other Fields

Depending on the content type and your level of site access you may be presented with other fields, most of the time these can be left to their default values.

  • Input Format. This is useful if you want to enter HTML or PHP directly into the page, with the default input format all HTML and PHP is stripped, so to prevent this first disable the rich-text editor and change the input format accordingly.
  • Log message. This is useful for noting the changes made to a page when editing exisiting content.
  • Comment Settings. Choose whether users are allowed to comment on this page.
  • Menu Settings. This is only really applicable to Pages and Manual Pages. It dictates where the page should appear in the main menu system, which is done by indicating the menu item to which the page is a child of.
  • File Attachments. Many content types allow the upload and inclusion of files.
  • URL Path Settings. Allows a unique URL address to be given to the page.
  • Authoring Information. This is useful if you want assign the authorship of the page to another user or even more usefully if you want to give the content a differnt creation date -- for instance when adding an old Official Release and you don't want it to appear at the top of the lists or on the forn page as the most recent release the creation date field can be changed to any date in recent history! Simply click on the calendar image to change the creation date, you must have javascript enabled to do this.
  • Publishing Information. The only real use of this field is to change whether new revisions of the page are stored automaticall or not each time the page is edited or updated.

Content Types

Here are all the content types that can currently be managed through the site;

  • Blog Entry. Anybody can maintain a blog through the site. To add an entry you first need to be registered and logged in, then by clicking on your username at the top of the page you will be taken to your own User Profile area. From here you can view your recent blog entries and add blog entries by clicking on "Add Blog Entry". The 4 most recent blog entries from all users are displayed on the home page. Archives of all blog activity is located at Community->Blogs.
  • Localization Page. Anyone can create or edit the "Puppy Site" pages linked to by the flags at the top of every page. Click here to add a new Language Page. Each Localization Page should offer an introduction to Puppy in different languages. For
    those Puppy enthusiasts that use Puppy in a language other than English
    these pages are a place to summarise and point to all the relevant
    resources available in that language. There is also the Google
    Translate function but it simply does not offer the same quality as a
    human-translated page dedicated to getting someone started in
    Puppy-land.
  • Manual Page. The Manual is maintained by, and is the project of, Oli -- to contribute to this part of the website you will need to contact him. If you notice any mistakes or typos then you can leave a comment on that page, message him from this site (if you are registered) or contact the website team. If you want to contribute a page to the site you might want to consider using the WiKi which all registered users are privileged to use.
  • Official Release. To request the privileges to add/edit an Official Release please contact the website team. To add a new Official Release navigate to Downloads->Official Releases and then click Add Official Release. The most recent Official release will be used to display the front page's main screenshot and title in the "Download Latest Version" link. This is done automatically.
  • Page. To request the privileges to add/edit a Page please contact the website team. Here is a link to add a page. Or if you are editing a page, first navigate to that page then clcik on the "Edit" tab that appears to the top-right of the content area on that page. If you want to contribute a page to the site you might want to consider using the WiKi which all registered users are privileged to use.
  • Puplet. Anyone can add a Puplet to the site's collection -- to do so simply browse to Downloads->Puplets and then click Add Puplet.
  • Screenshot. Anyone can add a Screenshot to the site's collection -- to do so simply browse to Home->Screenshots and then click Add Screenshot.
  • User Profile. All registered users can update their User Profile. To do so you must first be logged in, then click on your username at the top of the page, from there click on the "Edit" tab that appears in the top-right of the content area of the page. The resulting form allows you to edit/update your Account Settngs, including your profile picture. To edit your profile you need to click on the "About Me" tab which appears at the top-left of the content area.
  • WiKi Entry. As one would suspect with a WiKi, anybody can add/edit these pages (though you do need to be registered) -- to do so simply browse to Wiki and then click Add WiKi Entry. Please remember to specify which category (or categories) you would like your entry to belong to, when adding/editing a page -- this will determine where the entry appears in the sidebar menu.

Drupal Help and Guides

There is a wealth of support and advice on the internet regarding Drupal, some skillful googling will get you a long way. Here are some more general introductions to using and developing with Drupal...