Drupal is an open source content managent system which can be expanded, builded and custimized by developing modules and themes. CDM Dataportal module is a drupal module developed for supporting the front end or presentation layer of the EDIT CDM Server. It allows taxonomist to look up for taxa, search taxa and other features. Besides the CDM Dataportal module there are several drupal themes which personalized the layout (colours, images and others) of the CDM Dataportal module results.

On this basis, it can be possible, for example, to have two different taxonomy collections whith differents selected looks thanks to the different drupal themes (each one per collection). However both collections will have the same features (such taxa search) thanks to the CDM Dataportal module.

More documentation about the CDM (Common Data Library) where the CDM dataportal belongs could be found at the following locations:

Drupal module and theme activation

To activate the datataportal module go to Administer->Site building->Modules and at the CDM section select the modules CDM API, CDM Dataportal and CDM Taxon Tree. The other two modules are optional.

To change your default theme just navigate to Administer->Site building->Themes where you can select your default theme as well as configured it.

CDM Dataportal Settings

If you are using the CDM Dataportal module, you will need to configure it in order to make it run. Here you will find how to explore and configure the module.

First step to configure the module is making sure your user has access to the settings options of CDM Dataportal module. You can find the configurations options under Administer->Site Configuration->CDM Dataportal. Once you are in the configuration site you will see four different sections:

General

Drupal's CDM Dataportal module dialogues with the CDM Server asking for taxa data and classification of taxa. The first thing the CDM Dataportal module needs to know is where is the CDM Server located in order to access it. Such parameters are configurable via the general tag of the settings.

The general settings has enough documentation that explains itself. However the same documentation with some extra details is avaible a href="./?q=admin/help/cdm_dataportal_general" title="General"here/a as one html site. If you prefer to go directly to the general settings just click Administer->Site Configuration->CDM Dataportal to start the configuration click here.

Geo & Map

As with CDM Server, CDM Dataportal module also dialogues with a Map Server to generate all the maps displayed on your web site. Again the module needs to know where the map server is located and this parameter as well as others related with the maps appaerance like map legends, map size, map background ... are configurable via Geo & Map settings. This configuration site also explain all the configurable options itself. Same documentation with some extra details is avaible a href="./?q=admin/help/cdm_dataportal_geo" title="Geo & Map"here/a as one html site.

Layout

a target="_blank" href="./?q=admin/settings/cdm_dataportal/layout" Here/a you will find the settings for configuring the layout issues such pictures size or number of search results to show. Layout section itself contains three subsections; a target="_blank" href="./?q=admin/settings/cdm_dataportal/layout/taxon"Taxon Layout Settings/a, Administer->Site Configuration->CDM Dataportal->Layout->Search and Administer->Site Configuration->CDM Dataportal->Layout->Media. Each one of the listed links forward you to the settings configuration site where each site explains itself the different options.

A html site with more level of details is available a target="_blank" href="./?q=admin/settings/cdm_dataportal_layout"here/a.

Cache

It is possible to increase the portal time response when serving taxa sites. The mechanism is quite simple. It works caching all taxa sites available in your portal in a way that when a user wants to visit new taxa, the module will not create the new taxon site from scratch. Instead of that the taxon site will be loaded from the cache and therefore will be no dialogue with the CDM Server.

a href="./?q=admin/help/cdm_dataportal_cache.html" title="Cache"Here/a you can read the cache configuration help or much better go directly to the cache settings site.