Drupal for Newbies [#1053484]

I think the Drupal documentation would be enhanced by the inclusion of a Drupal for Newbies section. The aim of this section would be to provide a learning pathway so that newcomers can gain an understanding of how to acquire the knowledge they need to become productive as quick as possible. There is often talk of the steep learning curve involved in mastering Drupal, something which is confirmed by my own experience. Too many documents and Forum answers provide a superficial answer ("this is how you do it"), but fail to provide links to where one can read up on the issue or understand why the answer is what the answer is, if you get my drift. I am a newbie, and have spent three solid months so far getting to know Drupal, with the result that I get more excited with each passing day. But I also get annoyed when I see Forum questions that are answered with nonsense answers that are only going to lead newbies up the garden path, and that don't do anything to assist them with acquiring the requisite knowledge to address the issue themself. So, the question is, is it possible to set up such a section, and how would I go about it?

Comments

Comment #1

arianek commented 7 February 2011 at 19:40

Hi Bagz -

There is such a section already, the "Drupal Cookbook" http://drupal.org/documentation/customization/tutorials/beginners-cookbook - this section needs updating and refining though (there's an issue earmarking this work, but it hasn't been started in earnest - http://drupal.org/node/1011470).

If you want to help improve the Cookbook, then please do follow up on that issue, we'd love your help!

Feel free to ping me on IRC #drupal-docs if you need additional help getting started.

Comment #2

Bagz commented 7 February 2011 at 22:29

Sounds like a plan, but I am still baffled by how I can contribute. I have looked at the cookbook, and looked at the issue, which has many valid points, but now what? I don't see an edit button anywhere that lets me change the content perhaps for review, no collaboration tools, or any hint as to how one actually changes anything. I am keen to help out but do not have the foggiest how. Please enlighten me!

Comment #3

arianek commented 8 February 2011 at 06:10

Only the first landing page (and any other pages that have images) will lack the edit tab. The rest should have it if you are logged in, and you can simply click edit and edit the content.

Useful things to look for are any sections that are unclear (or missing), or anything that needs to be updated with Drupal 7 information.

As for collaboration tools - we have this issue queue, the Docs Team group http://groups.drupal.org/documentation-team, the IRC #drupal-docs channel, and also I suppose the revisioning system on all of the pages.

You might want to read through the Contributing to Docs section for some general info http://drupal.org/contribute/documentation

Comment #4

Bagz commented 8 February 2011 at 07:01

Excellent. I will make sure I am au fait with the guidelines before diving in.

Next question, how does one then edit pages with images, and similarly, create pages with images, or add images to an existing page? And are we limited to only one image per page?

As they say, a picture tells a thousand words, and pages of text can be rather unappealing without at least some eye candy.

Comment #5

arianek commented 9 February 2011 at 04:10

Ah, so at present you have to have the "docs admin" role to work with images - this is just so that "trusted" community members are managing images so nothing bad gets added, and also because the "docs" input format that you get access to allows some other html tags.

Basically once you've done a little bit of docs work, you can file a new issue with the component "apply to be docs admin" and then I'll just do a quick review of your profile and work, and if you have a reasonably reputable history, then I can assign you the role.

If you get to a point where you need images, then you can either do that or file an issue with the images that need uploading and an existing docs admin will add them for you.