IBM articles about Drupal CMS: Understanding the database layer
6th November 2006
As I previously mentioned, IBM uses Drupal to build a collaborative web-site, as a conscious choice of a solid CMS. They have a series of articles (Using open source software to design, develop, and deploy a collaborative Web site) describing in details the processes of considerations and actual implementation. About two weeks ago, a new article was added - Understanding the database layer:
Follow along in this series of articles as the the IBM® Internet Technology Group designs, develops, and deploys an extranet Web site for a fictitious company, International Business Council, using a suite of freely available software. In this installment, explore the Drupal database abstraction layer and learn how to use it effectively while developing a Web site. Discover best practices for module developers and details about using the Drupal database functions. You also learn to implement the necessary code to support a new database — IBM DB2® Express-C.
As you can see, not only the existing code was explored and explained, but also new code for DB2 support was added. Personally, I am not quite even sure what are main applicatios of DB2, but anyway it’s good to have one more option, probably for future extendibility or just more flexibility. There’s a discussion thread at drupal.org, you might want to comment.
Meanwhile, I have troubles installing the new Drupal 5.0 beta-1. I used to install Drupal 4.x without any problems, so I suspect that current 5-beta-1 might be more sensitive to server configuration or just somehow initially misconfigured… Need to see into this issue.