Views are a massive part of Drupal and you can’t experience the power of Drupal without the Views module.  To get views up and running you need to install a couple of modules which can be found at the links below. You also need to know a little about custom content types. For more information on that check out Chris’s blog post listed below.

Important Links

Grab the Views module here
Grab the Chaos Tools Suite here
Get more information on custom content types

What are views?

Views are nothing more than a way to dynamically present your data.  Views are made of 3 main components: filter criteria (what type of content needs to be displayed), fields (of the nodes that were displayed what parts of the content or what content fields to want to display?), and finally the display itself (are you creating a page, block, or rss feed?). After creating a display with a set criteria and chosen content within that criteria you can begin to style and format that data just like you would any other page. 

Views are an enormous subject matter. The possibilities are limitless, but unfortunately my time and your attention span are limited so I try to keep this as short and to the point as possible. This video is only here to get you setup and on your way.  I will create some more advanced tutorials in the future, so if you have ideas please let me know and I’ll do my best to incorporate what you want to see in the next one!

The Essentials