Up to now, we have discussed Page and Story content types. There is another content type installed with core modules in Drupal called the Book Module. This content type is used to break up and organize lengthy content much like chapters in an actual book. The collection of related nodes have navigation links at the bottom linking each Page. Let's go ahead and enable the Book Module.
We'll need to be logged into Drupal with an administrator account to enable new modules. On the navigation menu select Administer.
The Administer section is divided up into five major task categories; Content management, Site building, Site configuration, User management and reports. Within the Site building task category, we want to select Modules.
The Modules page will display two collapsible menus (Core - optional & Core - required) listing the available modules, version, description and whether or not they are currently enabled. Note: Later when we learn how to download and install more modules we will see this list grow with more collapsible menus.
Go ahead and enable the Book Module in the Core - optional section. All modules will always be in alphabetical order with the collapsible menu. Scroll to the bottom of the page and hit the Save configuration button.
If we select Create content in the main navigation bar we should see a new available content type listed, Book page. In actuality, all three content types now have a new collapsible menu option called Book outline. Go ahead and create a new Page content to see the new menu. Note: At this point all three content types are nearly identical with the exception of Page having comment settings disabled by default.
Within the collapsible menu Book outline there is a drop-down menu labeled Book which allows us to assign the Page or Story to an existing Book, or create a new Book. The Weight field is much like a page number with larger numbers given to later pages.
If we selected create new book and save the node we'll get the informative green text "Book page [Book Name] has been created". What's interesting is that the Book page content has some additional options on the bottom and top of the content. Along the bottom Add child page and Printer-friendly version have been added. Along the top Outline has been added.
If we select Add child page, we'll be prompted to create another Book page. Click on the collapsible menu Book outline. We'll see that the name of the Book page that will encapsulate all the related pages. The drop-down menu Parent item is the entry for the preceding page. Since this is the first Page being added to this Book, the two entries will be identical. Subsequent Pages added to this Book will have the preceding Page as the Parent item.
Go ahead and add some content to the child Page and save. A Book navigation menu will now be displayed on the bottom of the Page content. The Book navigation will allow us to flip through the Pages of the Book.
The Printer-friendly version option at the bottom of every Book page will collate the pages of the Book into an HTML formatted document starting with the current Page. To print the entire Book you must select
The Outline feature on the top of every Book page allows us to edit the Outline or sequential order of the Book, remove a page from the Book and view a listing of Books.
Within Outline another powerful feature reorder an entire book takes us to the URL "/admin/content/book". All existing Books are listed and available Operations.
Choosing edit order an titles brings us to a screen with a drag-and-drop hierarchy of pages in the Book. If changes were made they will be signified by a highlighted yellow line and orange asterisk; Save book pages must be clicked otherwise the changes will not be committed.
This concludes our overview on the Book Module.