Drupal is an open source] modular framework and Content Management System (CMS) written in PHP.] It is used as a "back end" system for many different types of websites, ranging from small personal blogs to large corporate and political sites.

The standard release of Drupal, known as "Drupal core", contains basic features common to most CMSs. These include the ability to register and maintain individual user accounts, administration menus, RSS-feeds, customizable layout, flexible account privileges, logging, a blogging system, an Internet forum, and options to create a classic "brochureware" website or an interactive community website.

Drupal was also designed to allow new features and custom behavior to be added by third parties. For this reason, Drupal is sometimes described as a "Content Management Framework". Although Drupal offers a sophisticated programming interface for developers, no programming skills are required for basic website installation and administration.

Drupal is much more than software, it is a global community. The community not only improves the Drupal software, but also provides support, documentation, translations and much more. One of the best ways to learn Drupal is to get involved with other people who use it and strive to make it better. There are many ways to get involved so don't feel like you need to be a ninja coder to jump in. This book covers everything from getting an account on Drupal.org to creating and submitting patches.