Hostys offers cheap Drupal hosting packages with servers that come pre-installed with the Drupal core software. From there, it’s up to you and your team to build upon that using the Drupal architecture and any number of additional website development tools. Many of those software tools come readily available on our managed servers.
The Drupal Server Architecture
Building a Drupal website involves the use of five modular layers in addition to the Drupal Core layer initially installed on the servers. Any combination of these layers can be used to create forums, intranets, e-commerce sites, corporate sites, social networking sites, and just about any other type of website that you can imagine. Hostys fully supports the use of all of these layers and the sites that they can be used to create. Our trained technicians can even help you with choosing and building these layers if needed.
The first layer is the theme layer. Here, a theme engine uses a combination of JavaScript and JQuery code to create specific visual elements for the page. The theme layer is responsible for controlling the UI of the entire website. Other modules used in the design of the site should allow themselves to be overwritten by the theme layer if necessary.
Next is the user permissions layer. Simply put, this controls what visitors to the website can or cannot do. Each person who visits your website is assigned a layer of user permission that restricts their access to certain content or functions on each page. Website users are often categorized according to certain groups, such as global users, anonymous users, or private groups with access to specific functions.
The third is the blocks module layer. Blocks are small sections of content that are displayed in specific regions of the page. This can include elements like menus, footers, or unique widgets. Common examples include navigation menus, “Who’s online” counters, and user login sections. Each page tends to include multiple blocks.
Fourth is the modules layer. Modules are typically only interacted with by the developers of the website. They are needed to add specific functions to the base Drupal core. PHP functions are known as “Hooks” and are used to ensure that the designed modules can work properly with the existing core layer.
Content represents the final layer of the Drupal architecture. All content on the site is labelled as a node. This can include an entire web page, a blog, a newsletter, or any other content type. Each node is heavily influenced by all of the preceding Drupal modules. For examples, themes and blocks can overwrite the initial design of a node.
The support staff at Hostys is well-versed with the Drupal architecture and offer around-the-clock assistance. We are more than willing to help if you encounter problems while trying to build your Drupal website using our servers.
