Appendix A -
Drupal Terminology

Drupal has a lot of “Drupal-isms” that define key concepts or features. This terminology is fairly niche. Understanding this terminology is critical for ongoing success building Drupal applications. It can be as simple as being able to understand documentation to being able to effectively file issues in project issue queues. Terminology is commonly used on project pages and builders can rapidly evaluate what a module does simply by reading the description and understanding the problems solved.

Drupal leverages common words or phrases that have specific meaning in the community. Understanding this terminology is a significant enabler for those wanting to learn Drupal. Site builders who know the terminology can more rapidly evaluate community projects. Developers who read documentation can more effectively create custom modules. And, any community member up to speed on “Drupal-isms” will be far more prepared to collaborate...

Terminology

• Drupal: An open source digital experience application and framework.
• Core: The basic features and framework required for any Drupal application.
• Project: A feature or capability that builds upon Drupal’s framework
• Module: A project that changes or enhances Drupal’s backend behavior or functionality
• Theme: A project that changes the look and feel of Drupal’s rendering or administrative area
• Site Building: An activity that installs and configures projects within a Drupal application without hands-on coding
• Theming: An activity that creates Drupal themes that includes CSS, JavaScript, templates, and metadata
• Templates: Markup and variables represented as Twig that get converted to rendered content during the render pipeline
• Issue: A specific bug, feature request, or help request filed into a project’s issue queue by a community member with a status, comments, relevant project version, and other metadata.
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