Hi,
I am super new to Drupal and just had a few queries...
-If I don't want a theme/template for a website I'm designing, is it possible to use my hand-coded HTML,CSS to create the look, layout etc. of the website? Or do I have to modify existing themes? How easy is it to create a theme to mimic my HTML,CSS website?
-Considering I could simply update/make any changes to the website in the HTML files I've written myself, all I really need the CMS for is to allow my clients (the owners, not the users of the website) to edit the content (e.g. News); is Drupal what I'm after or is there a simpler CMS?
For Example: If I made a website for a band, and they preferred if they could edit their own news, upcoming shows etc. without having to pay me to constantly update their website - is Drupal what I should be using?
-From what I've read, I'm fairly sure it is possible to put a link to a log-in for the client, where they and only they could log-in and edit their content. To do this would my client also need Drupal, mySQL, PHP etc. running on their computer? And would they require knowledge of these?
Any help would be much appreciated,
Adam
Comments
First, it seems you're a bit
First, it seems you're a bit unfamiliar with exactly how a CMS generally works. Drupal would BE the website. It's not an editor to edit a website, it IS the website itself. It sounds me to like you're thinking of it as a WYSIWYG type editor (ie, Dreamweaver/Frontpage) rather than a CMS.
You'll need to implement your hand-coded theme to be used within Drupal. Drupal comes with PHPTemplate, which is pretty handy once you get a grasp on it. This link http://drupaldojo.com/lesson/lightning-lesson-dmitrig01-turns-psd-drupal... might give you an idea, although it doesn't have any audio. Most people will start with an existing theme and modify it to their needs, the Zen theme is a good starting theme and have lots of explanations within it that might help you.
Drupal is what you should be using if you want someone to be able to edit their own news/upcoming shows, yes. The client does not need anything on their end, they would edit things by going to the actual website, logging in, and editing it there - similar to how things are done right here.
Take a look at the handbooks at http://drupal.org/handbooks - especially the "About Drupal" section. This may help you understand just what Drupal is.
...
Okay, well - it seems I'm completely in over my head. I realise that you need a web server, PHP and a database server like mySQL - but to be honest, I don't know where to start getting all of that stuff sussed. Can anyone point me in the right direction to explain all of the requirements for a complete newb?
So, say I download all of the system requirements, (like an ApacheFriends package with Apache, PHP and mySQL - or separately download them [best place to do that?]), then what's my next step from there? What do I do once I have these and Drupal installed on my system?
I'm really thinking of just not bothering, because I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing...
Any help? Or you can just agree and tell me to quit. Haha.
Thanks guys.
Adam
You just need a host
You just need a host somewhere, you don't need all this stuff on your own computer, although some people do develop locally. But that's more complicated. Any hosting company (pretty much) comes with the tools necessary. Take a look at the subforum for hosting providers here to give you an idea of a decent one to start with, as some are better at hosting Drupal than others.
If you DO want to develop locally (on your own computer), then yeah, using something like xampp is not a bad idea, but can be overwhelming.
One step at a time! Everyone has to start from somewhere.