By stuartgoff on

This is my first Drupal Project!

I have been testing and developing theses sites for more than 3 months and I feel confident to let other Drupalers review and/or comment on these sites.

A little info - I have built three sites (Multisite w/ 4.7) that are used to promote SW Colorado and allow people to make reservations, book activities (skiing, train rides, rafting) and packaging etc. The sites also give information about the area and local events. These three sites share many nodes as there are shared resources between the different brands.

Some of the notable modules used.
Taxonomy (Used to define which node are visable on which sites also views)
Nice Menus (Messes up on Firefox but works on IE which to my boss is most important. Will be fixed for the Summer)
Events and Views
Forms API
Webforms
Gmap
Path

Coming for this Summer's site
Improved layout and menu-ing
More with Gmap - Want to show locations of lodging and activities
Ratings of Lodging

Please take a look and take into consideration my newbie-ish status. But I would also like to know what you think.

www.gatewayreservations.com
www.durangoreservations.org
www.silvertonreservations.com

Stuart

⋅ Categories: Drupal 4.7.x

Comments

derekwebb1’s picture

derekwebb1 commented

Hey those sites are pretty nice. I notice they all have a similar layout and design though. I presume that is how you wanted it. I like your site style though... very compact looking.

The only thing that i noticed that wasn't so nice was the darkness of the background color on your primary links (specifically the drop down menus - its a tad hard to read the text).

All in all, if you did that in (3 sites with a good style and layout) in 3 months and you are a newbie, i would say your are doing really well. Really well.
It took my brother and I over 4-5 months to put together the two sites that my brother and I have been working on. One's an eCommerce site that sells eCommerce software made with Drupal, and the other is the demo of the software.

Really good job though. I think that integration of a resort ratings system would be a nice addition too.

Best regards, Derek
http://makefunds.com
eCommerce made easy

derekwebb1’s picture

derekwebb1 commented

Sorry about the double post. For some reason I had the edit screen open and I forgot that I had already posted.
Derek

newdru’s picture

newdru commented

A couple of questions:

1) How did you get the weather to display? which service are you pulling that from and do you need an account to do that or is it a free service?

2) What did you use Forms API for specifically?

3) How did you create the functionality for the 'plan your trip' block? is that drupal or just embedded code that uses a gateway to some other sites, etc?

thanks

jmarkantes’s picture

jmarkantes commented

Looks like it's the weather module.
J

newdru’s picture

newdru commented

I've used the weather module in teh past and it was mostly text based (e.g. no images) unless it's changed

stuartgoff’s picture

stuartgoff commented

1) This was a script I found ( http://53x11.com/?articleno=5 ) but will change to the weather module for the next revision. The module has added graphics.
2) I used the Forms api for the Ski Rental form which needed more functionality than webform afforded
3) The Plan your trip is through a third party software supplier that works specifically with Lodging and activity reservations. ( Inntopia.com )

newdru’s picture

newdru commented

1) fyi, that weather module doesn't seem to put out the prettiest output.. you may want to stick with what you have

2) regarding FORMS API... did you create a full blown module for that, a mini module to simply extend webform or did you hack another modules code directly.

If you feel like sharing, i'd love to see what you did..

3) I checked their website. I couldn't find pricing info. how much does it cost to use/lease that.. and roughly how much commission (percent) would one get if someone booked through you using this system?

thanks for the input

stuartgoff’s picture

stuartgoff commented

1) I was planning on modifing the output to make it fit a little better. And pretty it up.

2) I did a full blown module - I will think about posting. It's kind of thrown together and not the cleanest code, but the forms API has a tough learning curve so I will probably post it to give newbies another resource.

3) I can't reveal to many details but to say they take a small percentage of each reservation and it was a hefty outlay of cash. We negotiate with each of the local businesses that we sign on to receive a commission. FYI this is not just for online but also our call center solution and has portals for all of our suppliers to keep rates and inventory up to date.

newdru’s picture

newdru commented

the module that uses the FAPI.. i've been trying to get a handle on that and the documentation isn't so clear..

thanks

Muslim guy’s picture

Muslim guy commented

The menu - is that custom made or is it one of Drupal menu (like Nice Menu)

I'd love to see videos (put in on front page! :) especially outdoor sports that are the specialties of Colorado (like videos and images of whitewater rapids and snowboarding)

The Flash Slideshow is cool.....is that Drupal Flash Gallery or not

I have Flash slideshow generated from Dreamweaver 8 which has nice transition effects if you want, it is here

http://almuslimin.org/?q=node/58/print

You will need http://almuslimin.org/imageviewer2.swf and thats it,

congrats for your sites

summit’s picture

summit commented

Hi,

I am very interested in your "Plan your trip block"
Is this from an external site, is it a drupal module?

Please respond.
Great sites by the way!!

Greetings,
Martijn

stuartgoff’s picture

stuartgoff commented

Martijn,

The plan your trip is a company we contract with to supply our reservations (Call center and Web) Software.

Stu

summit’s picture

summit commented

Hi,

Thanks for your reply Stu.
Which module you use for reservations?

greetings,
Martijn

stuartgoff’s picture

stuartgoff commented

It's not a module - it's a third party software solution

Snow Valley Consulting’s picture

Snow Valley Consulting commented

it looks like inntopia to me. its kind of a piece of crap. We are working on releasing a drupal core reservation module soon. It is in action at the site below.

---
Fernie Accommodation information and reservations

Cory M’s picture

Cory M commented

According to me these sites look good, and especially with the knowledge that you are a newbie in mind. I like the colours, and that the sites are easy to overview. You've done a good work with them!

Cory, Web Designer currently working on the herbal sleeping pills project.