Drupal Administrative Perspective: An Insightful Overview

a) What is the Drupal admin menu ?

The toolbar module displays a management menu at the top or left side of the site, providing access to all administrative areas. Menu items vary depending on the situation. For users with full administrative rights, the menu includes active modules and permissions. Permissions and top-level entries are provided by the core standard installation profile.

• Content: Managing and listing existing content, as well as enabling the creation of new content.
• Structure: Provides a comprehensive list of links for managing site structure elements like blocks, content types, menus, and categories.
• Appearance: Managing theme- and appearance-related settings
• Extend: Managing the installation and uninstallation of management modules.
• Configuration: Provides links to settings pages for various site features.
• People: Manage users, roles, and permissions.
• Reports: Provides links to logs, update information, search information, and other website status details.
• Help: This list provides assistance with installed modules that offer these specific topics.

The arrow buttons on the far right of the second row of the toolbar can be used to toggle the menu’s appearance from horizontally at the top to vertically on the left. When viewed vertically, the menu transforms into an interactive tree, ensuring a smoother navigation experience.

b) What are Drupal contextual links ?

The core contextual links module allows users to access administrative and editing functions on the website through contextual links. These links are located near the relevant content on the site, eliminating the need to navigate the menu hierarchy and access the same pages.

To make contextual links visible, activate them using the default style of your website’s theme. A pencil icon will be used to indicate the link’s presence and activation, which can be accessed by clicking on it.

• The icon appears temporarily when hovering over an area with relevant contextual links in a browser using a mouse.
• The main pencil icon, located at the right end of the toolbar’s top bar, activates all contextual links on the current page and is only visible on pages with contextual links.