Using Drupal as a Portfolio Platform

This screencast describes how to use Drupal to create a presentation portfolio within a class blogging platform. The portfolio functionality we describe here can be replicated in just about any Drupal site. While this screencast focuses on one user, this structure will work equally well for 10, 100, 1000, or 10,000 users. At the risk of stating the obvious, you will have different design needs at each of these levels, but the core structure will scale upwards as needed.

Note: For the full (and easier to see) video, download the original -- all 72M of it.

In setting up the portfolio, we look at these main areas:

Adding Content

Using this model, people in the site are doing their daily work, and adding content as they go. As people add content into the site (aka, blog) they create a body of information. Within this site, people can either upload content directly into the site, or embed content from external sources. The screencast provides more detail on this area.

Creating the Portfolio

In this section, we describe how to add pages into the portfolio, and how to organize content that has been added into the site.

Next Steps

These steps are not covered in the screencast, but are worthy of mention. The portfolio system shown in this screencast is a starting point. The Technical Notes section gives an overview describing how to build this tool, but the functionality described here can be added into any Drupal site. It will work with various types of Access control, and you can also set up a Workflow to create a feedback mechanism on portfolios. In short, the tools shown here provide a starting point for a broader range of functionality.

TechnicalNotes

Key modules used for the portfolio functionality:

• CCK: http://drupal.org/project/cck
• Link: http://drupal.org/project/link
• Filefield: http://drupal.org/project/filefield
• jQuery Media: http://drupal.org/project/jquery_media
• Embedded Media Field: http://drupal.org/project/emfield
• ImageCache: http://drupal.org/project/imagecache
• Imagefield: http://drupal.org/project/imagefield
• ImageAPI: http://drupal.org/project/imageapi
• Book Manager: http://drupal.org/project/book_manager
• Views: http://drupal.org/project/views

Tutorial on using Filefield and jQuery Media, from Sean Effel.
Theming tip on Filefield and jQuery Media, from Aaron Winborn.

The theme used in the screencast is the Pixture theme.

Screenshot of all modules used on the site (swf file, with download links).

Screenshot of permissions for the Book and Book Manager modules for users who are creating portfolios.

And, for those who just feel the need to download large files, feel free to grab the original video -- all 72M of it.