A Complete Guide To Make Your Drupal Website User Friendly

Drupal is one of the best website building platforms. Moreover, as a business, it makes for an ideal choice for building your site as:

• It is scalable, making it easy for you to expand the content of your site as your business grows.
• Offers a wide range of modules, enabling you to make your site feature-rich and make it multi-functional as and when your business matures. For instance, you can create an e-store on your basic site by deploying an e-commerce module in the future.
• It is SEO friendly and also offers a variety of SEO modules, enabling you to get your site in top search engine rankings.
• Drupal has got great accessibility standards in its core, allowing even your disabled customers and clients to find you and know about you.
• It has a dedicated security team, which gives your site safety against hackers.

Now, while these features make Drupal an excellent platform for creating a website for your business, it is important to note one thing: choosing a great platform doesn’t automatically make your site user-friendly, a vital feature for your site’s success. A non-user friendly website quickly turns site visitors away. So, before you make your site, it is important for you to know what attributes make a site user-friendly. Knowing these will help you make sure that the perfect website is made.

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3 Tips Which Can Help You Keep Your Drupal Site Secure

Using the Drupal platform for website development comes with many advantages. The platform offers scalability, an extensive range of functionalities, flexibility, and security. Most of these advantages can be tapped with expertise by a professional Drupal Development Team. However, it is important to note that the platform’s prime advantage of security can only be tapped if the website owner stays alert and takes relevant measures. Let us look at the significant safety measures a site owner must implement:

Subscribe To The Security Newsletter

Being updated about vital security news is the first step towards protection. Subscribing to

Drupal’s security newsletters will keep you regularly updated about security updates, any recently found vulnerabilities and risks, and patch releases. The newsletter can be subscribed in the my newsletter tab.

Pay Attention To Security Releases

Security releases are software releases which play a critical role in maintaining site safety. Thus, whenever there is a security release of the Drupal core, modules or theme, website owners must pay attention and hire a Drupal Developer to install and configure the software release. It is important to note that availability of security updates of modules and theme can be found in the ‘available update’ report, which can be accessed in the reports tab of the admin dashboard.

Regularly Check If Website Components Have Been Hacked

Keeping a check if any of your website components have been meddled with is also an effective measure of safety maintenance. The Hacked module checks if your website’s theme and core or contributed modules have been changed. Additionally, it indicates the exact lines which have been changed. While the module is a good tool to check if your website components have been hacked or not, it cannot be used for a production (live) website. For a production site, the File Integrity Check module must be deployed. It reports potential backdoors, modified files, and files which have been removed from the site. These detections can be used by a Drupal Programmer to make necessary changes to your site’s code and thus, make your site safe again.

How To Make An Ideal UX for the blind using Drupal?

Today, governments across the world are working towards making their websites and e-services easily accessible to one of the most largely ignored sections of society, the blind or the visually impaired. Considering the role of governments to be easily available to all their citizens, the goal is an important one. Implementing the goal, however, calls for using an appropriate web development platform. A platform can be called appropriate for making an accessible website if:

1)The platform’s core features conform with the accessibility guidelines given by the world wide web consortium.

2)The platform offers a sufficient number of modules that adhere to accessibility principles 

One such platform which satisfies the above-mentioned conditions is Drupal. It is, however, important to note that to make sure that a Drupal website renders an optimum user-experience for the visually impaired, one must abide by a few important Drupal web design guidelines for accessibility which are as follows:

1)Make The Text Of Your Website Disabled-friendly

Choose fonts that score high on readability. Examples include Verdana, Tahoma, Helvetica, and Trebuchet. Additionally, choose a font colour that contrasts well with the website background. Drupal’s official website recommends a colour contrast of 3:1 for large-sized texts and a colour contrast of 4.5:1 for regular-sized texts.

2)Make Images & Media Accessible

Use ALT text for every image. So, whenever a user hovers the cursor over an image, this text shows up. Just make sure you write an optimum and relevant image description as alternative (ALT) text for every image. For videos, make sure they display textual description and transcripts.

3)Use Accessible Contributed Modules

There is a variety of Drupal contributed modules that have been created with accessibility in mind and can be easily configured on a website by a Drupal Website Development Company. While every accessible module comes with a D7AX hashtag, some of the most popular accessibility rendering modules are:

• High contrast: The module lets site visitors to switch between an active theme and a high contrast version of the theme
• Text Size: This allows users to increase or decrease a website’s text size
• Accessible Forms: The module provides accessible forms that can be easily filled in by visually impaired users
• Readability Analyzer: The module checks to what extent the website text is readable

4)Finally, validate your website’s accessibility using free tools such as functional accessibility evaluation tool and web accessibility evaluation tool. Note the result and hire an experienced team rendering Drupal website development services to make necessary amends.

It is worthy to note that rendering an ideal user-experience to the visually impaired can not only help governments achieve their goal but also help businesses to create a wide user-base. Therefore, making note of the above-mentioned guidelines can prove useful to businesses and governments, both.

The Three-Step Process For Hiring Drupal Developers

Drupal as a content management system has acquired great reputation for building customized and unique ecommerce websites. Drupal e-commerce development is lately at its prime, mainly because of the platform’s extensive modules and distribution packages. It is however worthy to note that building and maintaining a Drupal website requires considerable expertise and therefore, hiring expert developers for your e-commerce project is very important. Let us look at the steps that you must take when you are hiring an individual developer or a team of developers:

Ascertain Your E-commerce Needs:

What kind of functionalities do you want in your e-commerce website? Do you want it to be a simple product display and shopping cart ecommerce website? Or do you have advanced features such as personalization in mind? What kind of a checkout process do you want? Would your project require Drupal Customization Services?

After ascertaining your project requirements in detail, you can convey these to developers perfectly. Moreover, at a later stage while shortlisting a developer, you can see if he has been able to accomplish a project with requirements similar to yours.

Find Suitable Developers:

You can find suitable Drupal e-commerce developers by using freelancing portals, social media platforms, hiring an agency or even manually shortlist by digging through search engine results. Using freelancing portals, social media platforms or an agency for the hiring process would require you to post your project requirements. On the other hand, digging through search engine results would require you to find out the services rendered by a development company, taking a look at their online portfolio, and accordingly send queries of your project requirements.

Shortlist:

After developers or/and development companies get back to you, you can shortlist them on the following basis:

Experience: Check their experience. Have they worked on e-commerce websites before? If yes, have they worked on projects similar to yours? For how long have they been rendering Drupal development services? And what Drupal versions have they worked upon? 

Answers to these questions will help you gauge a developer/team’s experience and their ability to fulfil your project requirements. Moreover, an experienced developer is more likely to deliver your project with success and within your favorable deadline.

Client Reviews: Check what their clients have to say about the work delivered to them. Did they meet their expectations? Did they find them cost-effective? Did they receive their project on time? If possible, talk to their clients directly and check their satisfaction level.

Portfolio: Check the quality of work they have delivered in the past. They are more likely to continue working in the same style and deliver similar quality in the future too.

Price: Finally, put your money on a team/developer who can provide the most cost-effective solution for your project. 

With the execution of the above-mentioned three-step process, you can find the right developer(s) for the accomplishment of your e-commerce website project.

How To Enhance The Loading Speed Of Drupal Website?

A slow loading website is recipe for user dissatisfaction and its consequent failure. So even if you have a feature-rich website built on Drupal, which is one of the most robust platforms available, it is necessary for you to optimize its page loading time. Let us look at the ways by which we can keep the loading speed of a Drupal website at an optimum low.

Enable Cache Modules

Caching a website is the most popular way of reducing its loading speed. By deploying various caching modules, a Drupal website can be cached and optimized for speed. For instance, by deploying the Block cache module, blocks of website content will be cached for all users, whether they are registered or not, and by deploying the views content cache module, the content inside the views module gets cached.

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Your Stagewise Guide Towards Drupal Website Development

Drupal is a content management system that allows the building of websites meant for purposes as wide ranging as e-commerce to not-for-profits. After you have singled out on the Drupal platform for building your website, you need to follow three stages of website development. The first stage involves questioning your website’s goals and gathering suitable content. The second stage involves the design and development part and the third stage involves website testing and delivery. Accomplishing the first stage is easy if you have answered purposeful questions and have prepared the appropriate content. 

Starting with the second stage of design and development, you may need to hire professional Drupal website developer. The aspects of design and functionality of a website, work together to weave a website’s user experience. In order to cater to both these aspects, you should consider availing the following Drupal Development Services:

PSD Conversion Service: Such a service allows you to think beyond the available Drupal themes and envision a unique design for your website, which can be further converted into a Drupal theme. The conversion process includes the following steps: 1) First, write down the list of features which you wish to include on your website. 2) Write down the modules which render these features. 3) Write down the page elements of the features you wish to include. 4) Create wireframes which include these features 5) Convert the page elements of these wireframes into HTML & CSS code. The above steps of a PSD to Drupal Theme Conversion can be actualized by a team of skilled designers and developers with success.

Module Development: A module renders a functionality to a website. Every Drupal version comes with some core functionalities such as system administration, RSS Feeds, and etc. Most often. These core modules are not adept enough to make a website fully functional. Thus, a developer, often, makes use of modules which have been contributed and tested by the community of Drupal developers. If a website needs a functionality that is not met by the existing contributed modules, custom drupal module development can deliver the needed functionalities.

After your website is built with a suitable design and set of features, you need to focus on the third stage of a website’s development process, which is the testing phase. This involves testing if your website’s code meets current web development standards. This ensures compatibility of your website with different browsers. After appropriate testing, the website needs to be delivered to the server by using a File Transfer Protocol. Most often, a company that delivers PSD conversion and module development services, also delivers testing and delivery services for a website. 

Thus, with the employment of suitable services, one can facilitate the development of their Drupal website to completion.

Drupal is a preferred content management system for websites serving a wide range of purposes. Any website development process includes three stages, namely, content gathering, design and development, and testing and delivery. By employing suitable services, you can put these three stages into action, and thus, have your site built to completion.

Interesting Facts About Drupal eCommerce Development

There is no doubt that Drupal has become the most popular and widely used open source CMS in the market. Actually Drupal got introduced at the right time when developers and users for looking some eCommerce solution that could be more improvised, easy to develop and use and with all required features. Drupal has all these things and so it got popular in very short time.

Let us discuss few things about Drupal CMS platform that made it so popular.

Customized Design

The old day trend has gone when people like to use the themes offered by the platform today with rise in competition and unique business idea, there are many websites that need different designs and that is usually not available through themes.

PSD to drupal conversion is the best method using which any website owner can get the website designed in PSD format as per the requirement and then convert it into platform theme. This customization feature has made it favorite among the organizations.

Social Media Integration

Today social networking sites have become the best place for online business marketing as people from round the globe access the networking sites and advertisements tends to yield more results than any other form.

Now if you can integrate social networking site buttons on your website then it would be the best strategy that can do miracles for your online business. Drupal platform has the solution for this in the form of extensions for social networking sites that can be integrated to your website in no time.

Mobile Websites

Today most of the websites are accessed through smartphones and this has created huge demand for mobile based online shopping websites. These websites should have all the functions as a normal website but it should work flawlessly on smartphones. Seems difficult right? But nothing to worry all you have to do is hire drupal developer who has good experience and using amazing features of the platform your mobile website would be ready within short period.

Search Engine Optimization

If you want to draw more traffic to your online stores then it is vital for your store to perform excellently on search pages returned by the search engines. Search engine optimization or SEO is the term that is used for the process that helps in the better performance of the websites in search pages.

Earlier companies were forced to invest good chunk of amount in SEO, so that they can get more viewers to their websites, but today with Drupal like platforms, SEO has become fun. Drupal has the feature to take care of SEO by itself.

Reliable

Drupal has offered the liberty to the developers to customize every function or feature from the scratch and that has made Drupal the most strong and reliable platform for the development of eCommerce solutions.

Above mentioned points are some of the unique features of functions that Drupal is offering to its user, if you go in deep then you would find that it has numerous such benefits.

From the time of its launch Drupal is getting popular day by day, today most of the eCommerce n CMS related websites are developed using Drupal platform only and that is because it has so many unique features and functions for both Drupal developers and website owners.

Drupal Website Development Tools That Make It Best Content Management System

Lately Drupal website development has become very popular among the developers and website owners as various tools provided by the platform is making the whole concept of content management system swift and flawless. These latest tools are developed for the people who have very little or no technical knowledge, so that these people can manage the contents of their site without any assistance.

Let us discuss how the content management system is simplified:

• Latest tools for content management allow user to modify the contents and images of every page with just few clicks, this includes the home page also.

• Website owners of online shopping portals are most benefitted because they have the options to directly upload images from their computers without writing any codes. This property is very much useful during festive seasons and also help in SEO.

• Now there is no need of waiting for Drupal professionals to check the links or to edit links because that part is automatically taken care by the platform.

• If there is anything new to incorporate and if it is simple then there is no need of any professional help. Website owners can do the job by visiting admin panels. If the work is highly technical then it is recommended to hire Drupal developer.

• Installations of Drupal website tools are very simple and do not require any technical knowledge. Once installed the changes to contents can be made just through few clicks, before applying any changes that you have made there are options to preview it to get the feel of what visitors will experience and if you are satisfied then you can finalize it or you can just undo it.

• If the website owner has the knowledge of technical terms like header page, footer page, title and other terms like that then latest Drupal tools provide options to add new page to the website with contents without any coding.

• Website owners can manage the listing or publishing of the comments on their website, this helps in getting good performances during search engine results and also help in finding spam comments.

These above mentioned features of the Drupal platform have made it very popular and today most of the websites are built on this platform. The best part of the platform is that if you don’t like the themes in the collections of Drupal then you can always use psd to drupal conversion process to have unique, customized and attractive design.

Drupal Modules That Should Not be Missed in Your Website

When you are developing websites for business needs then it is necessary to utilize many features and functions that can deliver fully functional and robust website. As per the data available around 80 percent of the business websites are developed using Drupal technology and it is because of many business friendly features Drupal offers to its customer.

The best part of the modules provided by Drupal is that they are plug n play, which means developers don’t have to sweat too much in writing long codes. Very simple codes can integrate amazing modules in the website. Strong content management and strong marketing tools provided by Drupal platform is the major reason for its popularity among business organizations.

Below given are some of the modules that should not be missed in any of the business websites:

Captcha Security

When you have business website, there are very high chances of getting spam responses or inquiries as internet is very open source. Captcha entry is the best security method to avoid spam responses. It is considered as the simplest yet effective spam protection method that should be implemented in every new business websites and most of the Drupal development services Indian companies are using this method now.

Admin Menu

Latest Version of Drupal has this method called admin that can be used to monitor and manage your website efficiently without much of stress. This allows the developers or users to add or remove functionalities just through few clicks and you don’t need to have very deep technical knowledge to use this module.

User-Friendly Text Editor

You may have one of the most wonderful and beautiful website but that does not mean that you have the technical knowledge to edit HTML codes. Suppose you get some great ideas about formatting the texts in your website then it becomes difficult if you don’t have HTML knowledge, but with new editor you can edit texts normally and then add it in HTML.

It provides normal word processor where formatting and editing can be done very easily. This tool is very useful when psd to Drupal conversion process is used to design the website.

Visitor Tracking

This is the best module for any websites that gives real time data about the number of visitors to your websites. This helps to know if you are getting traffic to your website or you need to change strategy to draw more traffic and make your website a success.

When Will be Drupal Completely Ready For The Customers Between Releases

Drupal 8 has arrived with much hype, it was not long before when Drupal 7 was launched creating a buzz in the market. There is no doubt about the fact that each new version of Drupal has lot of improvements and has taken care of drawbacks of earlier versions. However, with these many releases certain uncertainties also grow up.

Most of the developers are still in a dilemma to use the old version on which they have worked and know the limitations and performance or to use the latest version that promises to be better but they have not experienced it. As per the press release the latest version has lot of features to develop a robust website, but there are segment of people who opt to wait till this new version gets matured and then build the portal using it.

Read more: http://drupalindia.co.in/blog/when-will-be-drupal-completely-ready-for-the-customers-between-releases

Drupal Customizations To Add Amazing Functionality to Your Website

Gone are the days when websites were meant only for organizations, today individuals are also having their websites and blogs that they use to keep in touch with other like-minded people or to sell their services. This has increased the demand of technology that can deliver amazing websites and Drupal is considered as the strongest content management system and a tough competitor to WordPress.

Drupal development has emerged to such a level that today you can create feature-rich, reliable, robust and efficient websites effortlessly without much technical knowledge. Actually, today the era has changed and there are many open source website building platforms that give the luxury of creating websites to their users without having technical knowledge. If you want to create dynamic and interactive websites then Drupal is the best choice for it.

Today website is the source or platform from where people can know about the owner of it and it helps the owners if they have the intention of selling products or services. So, the website should be simple, attractive, user-friendly and should have latest functions. All these can be achieved using Drupal platform effortlessly.

There are many companies that are involved in Drupal module development to help developers in creating more efficient websites with amazing functionalities. This is the main reason today Drupal is capturing the market share in a good pace. You can observe various sites developed using different platforms and will find that only Drupal based websites have the most appealing interface.

Customization is another segment of Drupal development that has attracted many developers towards it. It is the feature that every developer wants in every platform so that they can develop the website as per their client’s requirement. Every customer will have different requirement and there are no chance of having functions for all those requirements, so limitless Drupal customization is needed, which is finely provided by Drupal.

Why Drupal Commerce is Best Solution For Online Store Development

Drupal is the latest trend in the industry for the development of online stores and is giving very tough competition to the giants in the industry. Today content management system has got the priority over other marketing techniques with regards to search engine performances and this has given lot of opportunities for the platforms with strong content management system to grow.

Today people look for the platform that has both robust content management system and ecommerce framework together, so that they don’t have to look for other solutions separately and this has increased the popularity of Drupal eCommerce development.

Read more: http://www.sooperarticles.com/internet-articles/web-development-articles/why-drupal-commerce-best-solution-online-store-development-1475793.html

5 Features that Will Get You All Excited About Drupal CMS

Enterprises are the key to the development of the economical condition of a nation. By diversifying the private sector and creating a wide range of product and services for the common man, business transforms the destiny of a country. Every business can thrive long in the world if it smartly blends power with latest technology. Drupal CMS is one such platform that allows business to unleash their creativity and strengthen their technical strength at the same time.

5 Features About Drupal Cms That Will Excite You Are As Follows: -

Website Monitoring and Controlling from Phone -

Most websites can be administered better from computers and not mobiles due to many functionalities of them not being supported by a mobile platform. Drupal website development with its mobile version was launched as an initiative to allow individuals control, monitor and modify their websites right from the smartphones or tablet devices. Being responsive in their characteristic, the website themes will adapt itself to the kind of screen used thus giving every user a great user experience.

Read more: http://www.sooperarticles.com/internet-articles/web-development-articles/5-features-will-get-you-all-excited-about-drupal-cms-1472635.html

End of The Life for Drupal 6 and Now its Official

According to the official sources now the time has come for Drupal 6 to take rest and it will be on February 24th 2016 when it will reach the end. It was earlier announced in the Drupal 6 extended support policy that was released 3 months later the release of Drupal 8.

What is the meaning of End of Life for Drupal 6

• The first step will be stop of support for Drupal 6, the users will not see any new projects or support to fix the bugs in the running projects and will not find any kind of documentations also.
• The users of Drupal 6 will not find any kind of security support and suggestions for Drupal 6.
• The projects that have been created using Drupal 6 will be reported as not supported.
• The users will not find any kind of updates and the plug-ins may stop working for Drupal 6.

Read More: http://drupalindia.co.in/blog/end-of-the-life-for-drupal-6-and-now-its-official