---
title: "Learn D8 Free: Build Basic Site"
date: "2019-05-14T19:18:47+00:00"
summary:
image:
type: "article"
url: "/acquia-cloud-platform/help/89491-learn-d8-free-build-basic-site"
id: "4ca3bca6-3f67-4c74-b1c3-08933dc862aa"
---

When we last checked in with [Rod Martin](https://www.drupal.org/u/imrodmartin), below, in a [previous post](https://dev.acquia.com/blog/learn-drupal-8-for-free-introduction-to-drupal-8/22/11/2016/17236), he was touring the Drupal 8 interface.

![Bald man wearing glasses and a black shirt, smiling, with one hand on his chin against a plain white background.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/5cb56179-472e-4b67-9220-11837fbaed9f/web/url_fd63222896bff77c08264fb9cb858a8a.png)

In this course, [Building a Basic Site Using Drupal 8](https://community.acquiacademy.com/catalog/info/id:147), he shifts into tutorial mode, deliberately moving, step by step, through the creation of a fictional Drupal 8 site, Drupalville, which he describes as a site about all things Drupal.

![Welcome message for Drupal site with blue Drupal logo, links, and tags "welcome" and "drupal" at the bottom.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/079a0151-d904-4465-967f-93b1e98d91ae/web/url_d7504b8b564bf3c98a1126ff6c25f86d.png)

Sounds corny, but Drupalville is a good vehicle to explain a bunch of central Drupal concepts, like content types, which leads to a discussion of nodes.

Rod devotes a few segments to CKEditor, the text editor that's now in Drupal 8 core. Taxonomy is another focus of this course -- a pleasure to work with in Drupal 8, as in previous versions.

Rod also shows how to work with Devel, which can be used to accelerate the development of your site by quickly generating nodes, comments, terms, users, and more.

Segments on Displays lead, inevitably, to (drumroll please)... Views, which has moved from a contributed module into Drupal 8 core. Rod illustrates his Views discussion by creating block views and a photo gallery view.

![Drupal website interface showing a photo gallery section with blue-themed images, navigation menu, and event links.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/410925bc-1f98-4681-8c33-3b28ea3861a3/web/url_00ad6315c48732f326543a9f268d3e6e.png)

A photo gallery view, using Devel

Next up for Rod and Drupalville: Modules. Stay tuned.