blocks

In this second look at Drupal 7 Alpha I focus on new features related to the dashboard area, the shortcut menu and blocks.

Note: Click the 'full screen' icon (to the left of the volume control) in order to watch online at full 1280x720 resolution.

I'm far from a theme ninja when it comes to Drupal. But I do my best to do what I can to give my sites a distinct look and feel. One way to offer up that distinct look and feel is to sprinkle links on your sites with custom icons.

On this site I've got two areas where I'm serving up icons that are not part of the original theme. My subscribe block (pictured at left) contains images that highlight the links for RSS, site bookmarking and email subscription.

I also use these images in other blocks when I'm linking to pages. You can see this in action in the watch and listen blocks on the front page. This technique is a departure from the normal look and feel of the theme. It also helps certain links to catch the eye of the user a bit more easily.

Blocks are one of my favorite Drupal features. Here's what I like about Drupal blocks.

1. You can use blocks as a very simple way to customize the look of your site.
2. Blocks can contain lists of posts, widgets or even custom php code snippets.
3. Certain themes, like Artists C01, and modules, like panels, allow great control over the display of content.
4. You have a great amount of control over who sees a block and where they are placed.

There are several ways that you can put more blocks into action on your site.

• Many modules will add special blocks to your site. For example, the image module adds a random image block which I'm using on this site. When you install a new module check to see if it has added any blocks that you can use.
• You can create your own blocks by adding text, HTML (or even PHP) code. Just got to admin/build/block/add on your Drupal site. You can do just about anything you want here. You can display images or add widgets like Flash video players and image slideshows.
• More advanced site builders can utilize the views module to create dynamic blocks from content on their site.