System requirements for Drupal 8

Browser requirements

Websites built using just Drupal 8 core are compatible with all modern browsers that support CSS and JavaScript.

Web Server

Drupal 8 works on any web server with PHP support.

Features of Drupal 7

Flexible content

Drupal 7 defines custom fields that can be used across content types, users, comments, terms and other entities. Store the data for these fields in SQL, NoSQL, or use remote storage.

 Theming

Control exactly what gets shown where on the screen with the new Render API and some truly radical alter hooks. The new RDF module provides semantic web markup .

Accessible

Administration screens are now far more accessible. Many front-end improvements make it easier for you to build highly accessible websites.

Images and files

Adding images to content is now built in. Generate different versions for thumbnails, previews and other image styles. Private file handling can now be used alongside public files.

Automated code testing

A new automated testing framework with over 30,000 built-in tests allows for continuous integration testing of all Drupal core patches and contributed modules.

Improved database support

A new database layer provides out-of-the-box support for SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB, and PostgreSQL. Install contributed modules to use MS SQL Server,Oracle, and more.

Better distribution support

Use installation profiles to distribute your custom Drupal product. A new API and exportable configurations let you capture more settings in code.

Extend

Thanks to a great community effort, over 800 modules are available or under active development for Drupal 7, including Views, Pathauto, and WYSIWYG, with more on the way every day

What is a node in Drupal

What is a node in Drupal ?

All content on a Drupal website is stored and treated as "nodes". A node is any piece of individual content, such as a page, poll, article, forum topic, or a blog entry. Comments are not stored as nodes but are always connected to one. Treating all content as nodes allows the flexibility to create new types of content.

How Drupal 8 is different from its previous versions

New Features of Drupal 8

Views :
Views is a contributed module in previous  versions. Now File structure has changed in Drupal 8, views is a core module in Drupal 8.

Object Oriented Programming :
Drupal 8 comes with Object Oriented Programming concepts for the most part of the system. Symfony framework used in Drupal 8. It has MVC architecture which makes the code easy to maintain, scale, and reuse.

Mobile friendly:
It is mobile friendly. The default themes uses responsive design. The purpose of responsive design is to change the layout based on the size and capabilities of the device. The new administration experience provides lightweight features.

Inline Editor :
The inline editor helps to edit the content of a page without going to the edit page. If you want to change some content in the body, then click edit and you can edit the content.

CKEditor : 
CkEditor is one of the core modules in Drupal 8. CKEditor is a visual html editor used for editing web pages. CKEditor is designed to bring common word processor features directly to the web pages which simplifies content creation.

Picture :
Picture Module is one of the new modules that have HTML5. It automatically resizes the image for different screens.

Multilingual:
Improved Multilingual functionality is another feature of Drupal 8. With Drupal 8 you can:

• Multi-Translate anything in the system with built-in user interfaces.
• Build web pages with Views language filtering and block visibility.
• Get software translation updates automatically from the Drupal community.

REST :
REST stands for Representational State Transfer. Rest is a web service. REST is used to interact with other applications.
These interactions are mainly for creating, reading, updating and deleting resources.

New Field types :

• Email Field : Email Field automatically validates the e-mail address and generates a 'mailto:' link when displayed.
• Telephone : Generates a 'tel:' link when displayed. Useful for telephony apps like Skype and other phone systems for making calls.

Drupal Installation Guide

Steps to install drupal

1. Download the installation file from Drupal's official site by choosing the latest stable version and clicking on the download link next to the package.
2. Upload it in the public_html folder of your account. You can do that through an FTP client like FileZilla or via cPanel -> File Manager -> Upload file(s). This way, after the installation is completed, the script will appear once your write something like http://yourdomainname.com in your web browser. Or you can create a subfolder there and upload the file in it. The Drupal installation will be available at: http://yourdomainname.com/subfolder.
3. Once you are in the File Manager, please navigate to the uploaded file and extract it by clicking on the Extract link. It will create a subfolder: drupal-x.x.x., where instead of x.x.x. is the current version. So you can move the files one level up in the desired directory. The other option is to extract the file in your computer and then to upload the content in the desired folder via FTP.
4. Once the files are extracted in the desired folder, you should create a MySQL database for Drupal. You can do that from cPanel -> MySQL Databases. There you should create a database and add a user to it - click here to learn how to create a MySQL database and user.
5. Navigate to the URL of your Drupal site and run the install.php file (for example http://yourdomainname.com/install.php). Pick the default profile option for your Drupal application.

How open source is taking over

The term "open source" refers to something people can modify and share because its design is publicly accessible.

Content management systems are wide and varied. There are tons of them on the market, some are proprietary but a very large amount are created under an open source license. The reason for this is simple; it allows a small team of developers to become a bigger team by opening up their code to a wider community of users who may wish to contribute or provide enhancements.

This is one of the greatest strengths that open source products have; the often large pools of available developers. Of course, like anything, there can be downsides as well but lately, we've seen more and more open source products become viable options for companies in search of stable, regularly updated platforms on which to run their businesses. Today, I'm going to share with you my thoughts on how open source CMS' are taking over the world.

WordPress vs. Drupal

The comparison between these platforms really comes down to two things: your skill level, and the complexity of your project. WordPress has a pretty massive following, and it’s easy to see why: it’s easy to learn and not hard to find your way around. For anything from simple marketing sites to bigger multi site installs, WordPress is technically easier to use and also very well engineered. Drupal is going to ask a bit more from you to make the most of its amazing features. It can rise to the occasion of the most complex of sites, and keeps security locked down.

There are a few questions that can help guide you to which platform is best for you, including:

• What are you building? Consider performance of your site if you’re planning on having thousands of pages and a high volume of traffic. Drupal can support super complex sites; WordPress can too, but watch for overhead on the server.
• What’s your budget? Depending on your site, development with Drupal can take longer than WordPress, which can get more expensive.
• How many users, contributors, or admins are you going to have? How many different users (and user permissions) will you need to have set up? WordPress makes it very easy to add a number of users with its standard roles and permissions.
• What are your template needs? How many types of content are you going to have, and how many require different templates? The more complex your site, the more you might want robust features that are available from Drupal.
• What are your security requirements? Are you enterprise level, needing comprehensive security measures?