Drupal's main qualities are:
- Stability
- Modularity
- Flexibility
- Security
- Community support and contributions
- Standards compliance
Compared to other content management systems, the main distinguishing feature of Drupal is its internal design, specifically geared towards better knowledge management. The concepts of node (A node is a generalization of an information item: news item, event, project, product, etc.) and taxonomy (A taxonomy is a classification mechanism that attaches tags to nodes), central to Drupal, are not found in most other CMS systems. This design allows for disparate information items to be treated in a unified manner, making it easier to organize and retrieve information. On other points, Drupal fares favorably compared to other advanced systems, as can be seen at CMS Matrix.
Here are some of the most important features of Drupal:
- Powerful theming support for complete control over the look-and-feel
- Classification of content based on unlimited taxonomies
- Calendar of events
- Optional comment area for authorized users
- Discussion forums
- Multilingual support
- Content aggregation from external sources
- File attachments
- Full-text searching and indexing
- Role-based access control
- Subscription and notification mechanism
- Content import/export
- Advanced functionality:
- Creation of new content types with arbitrary fields
- Creation of arbitrary, filterable views for easy reporting
- Creation of relationships between nodes
- Creation of custom modules that extend the functionality of Drupal and allow it to integrate with virtually any other system