Drupal Glossary

Ajax

A web technology used to exchange data with a server to dynamically update parts of a web page (for example, forms) without needing entire page reloads.

Alias

A user-friendly name to replace the internal path that the system assigns to a URL on the site. For example, you might assign an alias of /about to the About page on your site, to replace the internal path /node/5. This would give the page a URL of http://example.com/about instead of http://example.com/node/5.

Anonymous

A person (user) interacting with the site who is not logged in.

Authenticated

A person (user) interacting with the site who is logged in.

Block

A chunk of content (text, images, links, etc.) that can be displayed on a page of a site. Blocks are displayed in regions.

Breakpoint

Breakpoints are used to separate the height or width of browser screens, printers, and other media output types into steps. A responsive site adjusts its presentation at these breakpoints.

Bundle

Synonym for Entity subtype.

Cache

The site’s internal cache stores the output of time-consuming calculations, such as computing output for an HTML page request, and then retrieves them instead of recalculating the next time they are needed. External caching systems can also be used on the web server to speed up a site’s response.

Coding standards

Coding standards are the rules for programmers that define best practices, formatting, and various other rules, so that everyone uses the same conventions and has the same expectations when they see code.

Composer

The PHP dependency manager used by Drupal, Drush, the Symfony framework and others. It is the preferred means of installing Drupal projects.

CMS

Acronym for Content Management System.

Configuration

Information about your site that is not content, and is meant to be more permanent than state information, such as the name of your site, the content types and views you have defined, etc.

Content

Information meant to be displayed on your site, such as text, images, downloads, etc. See also Configuration and State.

Content item

An item of content that is typically meant to be displayed as the main content of a page on your site. This is an entity type.

Content Management System (CMS)

A collection of tools designed to allow the creation, modification, organization, search, retrieval and removal of information on a website.

Content type

An entity subtype for the content item entity type. Each content type is used for some particular purpose on the site, and each has its own fields. For example, a site for a farmers market might have a content type for simple pages, and another for a vendor listing page.

Contextual Filter (in a View)

Limits the data to be output in a view, based on the context of the view display, such as the full URL of the page.

Contextual link

A link to an administrative page for editing or configuring a feature of the site, shown in the context where that feature is displayed. Example: a link to configure a menu that is shown when you hover your mouse over the menu.

Contributed

Modules, themes, and distributions that are not part of the Drupal core download, and that can be downloaded separately from the Drupal.org website.

Cron

On some operating systems, cron is a command scheduler application that executes commands or scripts periodically. Your site defines periodic tasks, also known as cron tasks, that need to be triggered either by an operating system cron scheduler, or internally.

Cross Site Scripting

Security vulnerability typically found in websites. In a site that is not well protected, malicious users can enter script into web pages that are viewed by other users.

Devel

Module that helps with development tasks such as debugging and inspecting code, analyzing database queries, and generating dummy content.

Development site

Copy of the live website that is used for developing, updating, and testing the website.

Display (in a View)

Type of output of a view, for example a page, a block or a feed.

Distribution

A single download that provides a shortcut for setting up a specific type of site, such as a website for a club or for e-commerce. A distribution contains Drupal core, along with contributed modules and/or themes; many distributions also pre-configure the site or even create sample content upon installation.

Drupal Association

Non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the Drupal project and community.

Drupal core

The files, themes, profiles, and modules included with the standard project software download.

Drush

Command line shell and scripting interface for Drupal.

Editorial Workflow

Process to create, review, edit, and publish content. Multiple people in different roles (for example content creators and editors) can be part of the process.

Entity

An item of either content or configuration data, although in common usage, the term often refers to content entities. Examples include content items, custom blocks, taxonomy terms, and definitions of content types; the first three are content entities, and the last is a configuration entity. See also Entity type, Entity subtype, and Field.

Entity subtype

Within a content entity type, a grouping of entities that share the same fields. For example, within the content item entity type, a farmers market site might have subtypes (known as content types) for static pages and vendor pages, each with its own group of fields. You may also see the term bundle used (especially in programmer documentation) as a synonym of entity subtype.

Entity type

The overall type of an entity; in common usage, it is only applied to a content entity. Examples include content types, taxonomy terms, and custom blocks.

Field

Data of a certain type that is attached to a content entity. For instance, on a farmers market site’s vendor content type, you might have fields for an image, the vendor description, and a taxonomy term.

Field bundle

Synonym for Entity subtype.

Field formatter

Configuration that defines how the data in a field is displayed. For example, a text field could be displayed with a prefix and/or suffix, and it could have its HTML tags stripped out or limited. See also View mode and Field widget.

Field widget

Configuration that defines how someone can enter or edit data for a field on a data entry form. For example, a text field could use a single-line or multi-line entry box, and there could be a setting for the size of the box.

Filter (in a View)

Limits the data to be output in a view, based on criteria such as publication status, type of content, or field value.

Formatter

See Field formatter.

FOSS

Acronym for Free and Open Source Software, meaning software that is developed by a community of people and released under a non-commercial license.

Git

Version control system used by Drupal developers to coordinate their individual code changes. Git records everyone’s changes to a given project in a directory tree called a git repository.

GPL

Acronym for the GNU General Public License, a non-commercial software license. All software downloaded from the Drupal.org website is licensed under the "GNU General Public License, version 2".

Image style

A set of processing steps that transform a base image into a new image; typical processing includes scaling and cropping.

Installing

Preparing Drupal core or any contributed theme or module for usage. In the case of Drupal core this means downloading the necessary files, creating the database, configuring and running the installation script.

LAMP

Acronym for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP: the software on the web server that the scripts commonly run on (although it can use other operating systems, web servers, and databases).

Log

A list of recorded events on the site, such as usage data, performance data, errors, warnings, and operational information.

Menu

A set of links used for navigation on a site, which may be arranged in a hierarchy.

Module

Software (usually PHP, JavaScript, and/or CSS) that extends site features and adds functionality. The Drupal project distinguishes between core and contributed modules.

Path

The unique, last part of the internal URL that the system assigns to a page on the site, which can be a visitor-facing page or an administrative page. For example, the internal URL for the About page on your site might be http://example.com/node/5, and in this case, the path is node/5. See also Alias.

Permission

The ability to perform some action on the site, such as editing a particular type of content, or viewing user profiles. See also Role.

Reference field

A field that represents a relationship between an entity and one or more other entities, which may be the same entity type or a different type. For example, on a farmers market site, a recipe content item might have a reference field to the vendor (also a content item) that posted the recipe. Taxonomy term fields are also reference fields.

Region

A defined area of a page where content can be placed, such as the header, footer, main content area, left sidebar, etc. Regions are defined by themes, and the content displayed in each region is contained in blocks.

Relationship (in a View)

Expansion of the data that is displayed in a view, by relating the base content to other content entities.

Repository

Location where a version control system stores all the files and directories for a project.

Responsive

A site or theme is said to be responsive if it adjusts its presentation in response to the size of the browser screen, printer, or other media output type. See also Breakpoint.

Revision

A record of the past or present state of a content entity, as it is edited over time.

Role

A named set of permissions that can be applied to a user account.

Security update

An update that fixes a security-related bug, such as a hacking vulnerability.

Session

Information about individual site visitors' interactions with the site, such as whether they are logged in and their cookies.

Staging site

Copy of the live website that can be used for testing, or presenting the changes to the client for approval.

State

Information of a temporary nature about the current state of your site, such as the time when cron was last run, etc. See also Content and Configuration.

Taxonomy

The process of classifying content.

Taxonomy term

A term used to classify content, such as a tag or a category. See also Vocabulary.

Text format

Configuration that defines the processing that happens to user-entered text before it is shown in the browser. This might include stripping or limiting HTML tags, or turning URLs into links.

Theme

Software and asset files (images, CSS, PHP code, and/or templates) that determine the style and layout of the site. The Drupal project distinguishes between core and contributed themes.

UI

Acronym for User Interface.

Update

A newer version of your site’s software, either Drupal core or a module or theme. See also Security update.

URL

A web page’s unique address on the web. For example https://example.com/node/7.

User

A person interacting with the site, either logged-in or anonymous.

User interface

The text, styles, and images that are visible on a site, separated logically into the user interface for site visitors and the administrative user interface.

User one (User 1)

The initial user account that is created when you install the site (whose ID number is 1). It automatically has all permissions, even if it is not assigned an administrative role.

Version Control System

Software that keeps copies of files and revision history in a repository, and allows you to add, delete, and update files.

View

A formatted listing of data; typically, the data comes from content entities. For example, on a farmers market site, you might create a content item for each vendor. You could then make view that generates a listing page that shows a thumbnail image and short description of each vendor, linking to the full-page content item. Using the same data, you could also make a view that generates a new vendors block, which would show information from the most recently added vendors.

View mode

A set of field formatter configuration for all of the fields of a content entity, some of which may be hidden. Each entity subtype can have one or more view modes defined; for example, content types typically have Full and Teaser view modes, where the Teaser view mode displays fewer or trimmed-down fields.

Vocabulary

A group of taxonomy terms to choose from when classifying content in a particular way, such as the list of all of the vendor categories on a farmers market site. Technically, vocabularies are the entity subtype for the taxonomy term entity type.

Widget

Configuration that defines how someone can enter or edit data for a field on a data entry form. For example, a text field could use a single-line or multi-line entry box, and there could be a setting for the size of the box. See also Field formatter.

Wizard

A web form that allows you to fill in a few values, and creates something with sensible defaults based on the values you chose. For example, there are wizards for creating views of different types.

WYSIWYG

Acronym for What You See is What You Get, meaning a method for editing content where what you see on the editing screen closely resembles the final product.

Workflow

See Editorial Workflow.

XSS

Acronym for Cross Site Scripting.