The Drupal CMS does not have a conventional 'administrative interface' or 'back end'. When you are logged on you see the website looking much the same as it did before apart from some new features: The Admin Toolbar, Editing Tabs, and context menus
The Admin Toolbar
The biggest change is the appearance of The Admin Toolbar a two row bar fixed at the top of the page. This image shows what the Menu looks like for Content Editors. It changes according to the role you have - the role allocates which permissions you have.
All the management of the site is done through this.
The top darker row controls what the second lighter row shows.
From left to right -
< Back to site
Does what it says! - takes you to the home page
Manage
- which should be selected by default, shows the management or Admin Menu as it is commonly known. The Admin Menu is where most of the work is done: just hover over a menu link for it to expand and reveal sub items. Remember when using links you can right click the link to open it in a new browser tab or window. In these pages I usually refer to a menu item like this Manage:Content >> Add content >> Page + where the >> takes you into a sub-menu.
Shortcuts
- reveals a 'shortcuts menu' which you can customise. You can place here any menu items you use a lot.
webman
(or whatever your username is) has links to allow you to view or edit your profile, or log out.
The Admin Toolbar quick search box
- allows you to search for an admin function if you forget where it is. This is much more useful for the administrators who have the joy of a much more extensive menu.
Rebuild Cache
- rebuilds the Drupal cache.
Drupal builds each web page from information held in a database. Once it has done that, it saves or caches a copy for re-use for a period of time. If you have edited a page then sometimes the edited version will not be published to an anonymous user for a few hours. Click Rebuild Cache to force Drupal to 'forget' the cached version once you have finished editing. But DO NOT use this unless you really need to as it slows the website down a little.
Do not forget that your browser also has a cache.
You can reload a page in your browser by clicking the reload button on the address bar but this may not actually fetch the page from the website but just repaint the screen from the copy it has already downloaded. To get round this for most browsers in linux and windows press Ctrl/F5, or Ctrl/Shift/R, or Shift and the refresh button will clear the browser's cache. On a Mac try ⇧ (Shift) and click the Reload button or ⌘ (Cmd) and ⇧ (Shift) and R.
Editing tabs
You will also see an additional set of editing tabs just below the title on some editable content. . . .
Context Menus
The Edit link on the right hand end of the Admin Toolbar, toggles the visibility of the context menus that are dotted about the web page - the circular button over 'Find a Church' in the image right.
If they are not visible, hovering over the areas they control will temporarily reveal them.
These menus offer shortcuts to edit the object they are attached to, often showing Edit, Delete, Customise.
Warning: Because on a web page 2 objects may be in the same space, you must be very careful using delete in a context menu as sometimes you may find yourself deleting the wrong object. It is far better to choose edit, and then delete from there because you will know exactly what you are deleting.
