Glossary of Drupal and Web Terms

Absolute URL - An absolute URL is a full web path. A relative URL is a link that is formatted with a partial web path and points to specific content on your site.

Accessibility – Ensuring content is easily understood and used by people with disabilities.

AWS - Amazon Web Services (AWS). Digital Commons' website hosting solution is AWS, a secure cloud services platform. It is secure, reliable, efficient, operationally sound, and cost-effective. FAQ about Digital Commons hosting.

Blocks – Blocks are content elements in landing pages or on the sidebar regions of your website. They can be cards, such as call-to-action cards (CTA cards, which are colorful cards with icons) or article cards (containing an image above the link). Quick links can be displayed in a block. Sidebar menus are in blocks, and a Twitter feed is often displayed in a block on a landing page or footer.

Carousel, Slider, Banner  – These three names are used interchangeably for a full width image block created using the "carousel" block type. A slider and a carousel have multiple slides. A banner is just a carousel that only has one image. 

Content Type - In Drupal, each item of content is called a node (see below), and each node belongs to a single content type. Most of the time different content types have different data fields, layouts and work flows associated with that content type.

CMS - Content Management System (CMS), is a system designed to manage the content of a website, enabling non-technical users to manage site content in an efficient and user-friendly manner. The NC Digital Commons platform is built using Drupal.

Digital Commons platform – Managed by DIT's Digital Solutions Team, this enterprise-level Drupal platform is customized for government agencies.

Digital Service – A service delivered via the internet, or an electronic network. Supply is essentially automated or involves only minimal human intervention. It is impossible to ensure in the absence of information technology.

Drupal - Drupal is free, open source software that can be used by individuals or groups of users — even those lacking technical skills — to easily create and manage many types of Web sites. The application includes a content management platform and a development framework.

HTTPS - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted.

Landing Page - A content type in the Digital Commons sites, used for home pages and often for the first page in a section of content. Landing pages have more flexibility than other content types. They contain a combination of various blocks, cards, bands and banners linking site visitors to deeper content.

Modules – Drupal is powered by thousands of software projects called modules. The Digital Commons platform integrates proven and reliable modules to provide enhanced functionality and security.

Node – The node is your core unit of storing content. If you're inputting and saving content, you're probably saving it as a node. A page is a node. A block is a node.

Production Site – live, public-facing site.

Right Rail - Many content types in Digital Commons sites have a sidebar menu in the right. We call that the right rail. 

Staging Site - A replica of your production site, but not public-facing.

Taxonomy - A taxonomy is a collection of organizational keywords known in other systems as categories, tags, or metadata. It allows you to connect, relate and classify your website’s content. It can help a "view" to function (see below).

Text Editor/WYSIWYG - "What You See Is What You Get". The part of a Drupal form where the user can enter text using paragraphs, bullets, and tables. Imagery can also be added.

User Experience (UX) - The overall experience of a person using a product like a website, especially in terms of how easy it is to use.

Views - A list that is created dynamically. When you enter a new press release using the Press Release content type, it is automatically entered into your Press Release page. That page with all the press releases is a view. When you use the "event" content type, your calendar will be fed automatically; that is another view. Documents are often in views as well. Views often rely on taxonomy.