CMS Drupal is a free site management system, an "engine" on the basis of which you can create your own online store, business card and other online project. The demo version allows you to test the capabilities of CMS Drupal, it works online. The full version can be downloaded and installed on your own server or hosting from the official Drupal website.

It can be a pure core - a system without additional components and extensions, or a ready-made assembly: an "engine" with a set of modules. What is Drupal, what opportunities this CMS opens up for developers, and why it is chosen by novice and professional webmasters - this will be discussed.

Functional capabilities
Drupal is chosen by many developers for its flexibility of settings and ease of use. The system has a clear interface, although the excess of functions can confuse a beginner. With almost no knowledge of programming, you can develop an online store or business card site for a company from a wide variety of fields of activity. Drupal has many ready-made templates, one of which you can take as a basis when developing your site.

After installing Drupal, a set of modules will be available to the developer to help manage the site:

"Content" — allows you to manage content, add new materials, files, multimedia;
"Structure" is one of the main blocks of CMS Drupal. The main site administration functions are concentrated here: contact forms, menu, block diagram. We will talk about the functionality of this section in more detail later, since it is the basis of Drupal;
"Design" - here you can choose and customize templates (site design);
"Extensions" is a block of applications, their list is extensive, you can add any, depending on needs and individual tasks: site search, shopping cart, the ability to comment on the site;
"Configuration" - the settings menu. Here you can manage your account, media, image styles, file system, work with content;
"Users" - this section allows you to manage all registered users, view their list and assign them the necessary roles: "Administrator", "Author", "Editor";
"Reports" - the block allows you to work with errors, view the latest log entries, popular searches;
"Help" is a detailed guide for new Drupal users.
Drupal CMS: what it is, functional overview, pros and cons

The main functionality of CMS Drupal is located in the top menu of the admin panel

Why do you need extensions?
Modules make up the core of the Drupal CMS. But their capabilities are not enough to develop a full-fledged online store or a multi-page site. Add-ons will help expand the functionality of the "engine" and customize the site for individual tasks. There are a lot of them, they allow you to implement almost any tasks and needs.

This is just a fraction of the possibilities that the add-on opens up:

• basket functionality (order form);
• user profile;
• online payment of the order;
• ban of certain IPs;
• commenting, discussion (a full-fledged forum can be implemented);
• product filters.
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Some Drupal extensions

The developer can choose the desired extensions or download a build with a standard set of additions. All modules work in connection with the extension, so you cannot do without them. For example, for convenient work with the visual editor, you need the ICME add-on (editing methods). To display the content correctly, you will need the Taxonomy extension.

So with all modules. The extension allows developers to do without problems and obstacles. By the way, they are written by the programmers themselves, for their own convenience. Plugins can be enabled, disabled, or deleted. They download them on third-party sites, CMS Drupal forums, but only safe and verified ones. Using extensions is absolutely free. They are updated in a timely manner.