Basics: Understanding Drupal's Block System

Matt Petrowsky — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:56:30 +0000

Drupal's Blocks System is the partner to your site's content. Of everyting you see on a Drupal page, it's either content or something from a block. With the introduction of Views, you can pretty much say most every Drupal page is Content (nodes) and Blocks or a View (which is content itself) with - again - blocks.

What may be confusing is the "Blocks" area of Drupal is actually the management of the available blocks within the defined Regions (Drupal 6 or Drupal 5) of the current Theme.

Quite simply, it goes like this.

Theme > Regions > Blocks > Content

Where content can come from a Module, an Embedded View or your own custom content.

You get to control which blocks show, who gets to see them and on which pages. Knowing the difference between blocks supplied by modules, and what you can do with your own blocks is one of the keys to making your Drupal site do what you want it to do.

Quick Tip: Allowing JavaScript in Blocks

Matt Petrowsky — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:52:02 +0000

There are those few times when you want or need JavaScript to be allowed within blocks or nodes. The trick is simply to create a new Input Filter which does not use the HTML Filter.

Designate the filter for use by specific roles, and you're ready to rock and roll!

You just want to make sure only trusted users can use this input format. Most of the time, only the Admin user will be able to use it.

NOTE: the default Full HTML filter does allow you to post JavaScript. Creating your own additional filter with a unique name is simply be nice way to clearly identify what that filter does.

GotDrupal.com | Drupal Tutorial Site - blocks

Basics: Understanding Drupal's Block System

Quick Tip: Allowing JavaScript in Blocks