Hi everyone,
This is my 1st post and I am looking forward to getting started with Drupal but I'd also like to make known that I am also a fairly novice webmaster so I'll be armed with a nice array of questions over the coming months. ;)
First of all, I'm on a host known as "SBI" or AKA "Site Sell" and they have this host specific UGC program with very little customization options and I'm wanting to move my site to another host where this will no longer work and I need a replacement.
Here's what I've got: http://www.your-adrenaline-fix.com/user-maintenance.html#INV
Here come's the questions:
Is there something within Drupal that could replace this form's functionality? I've seen this: http://parenting.stackexchange.com/questions I like it very much and I'm looking forward to using this for this page of my site. but I was wondering if I can lay this functionality onto my existing site's pages and if there is something that may suit my visitors better.
If I'm going to be using Drupal, Had I better know my way around PHP Real Well, Pretty Well or it's not necessary?? (I know very little PHP and am working on trying to learn it)
I would be most appreciative if anyone could take the time to answer these questions as I am looking forward to getting started implementing Drupal's seemingly fantastic functionality on my site.
I Thank You All in Advance,
Stuart K
Comments
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First, beware that multiple links to the same page makes your post look like link spam-- i removed the unnecessary duplicate links.
Second, stackexchange is not based on drupal, though you can duplicate it's functionality (also see http://drupalize.me/videos/fantasy-site-stack-overflow-diwd-09). However, if that's all you want for the site, you might be better off just using SE if you have the required number of participants.
The form itself, as far as I
The form itself, as far as I can see, will be straightforward to implement using a custom content type (built into D7, module called CCK does it for D6).
As for the StackExchange-like listing, you can use Views to list your questions and sort them by, say, number of comments (or "answers", whatever you want to call them) but I'm not sure about any more advanced SE features like accepting answers and voting up.
As for knowing PHP, it definitely helps on occasion but for the most part you can get good results by configuring existing modules and then styling things yourself. Good luck!
Need to learn PHP? Not really.
- If I'm going to be using Drupal, Had I better know my way around PHP?
Not really. Drupal has thousands of contributed modules that just about do anything you want. If you are considering learning PHP just to make the most out of Drupal, you’d be much better off learning how to use the modules that apply to your needs and making thinks happen via the admin interface. These days you can create amazing websites with Drupal without ever looking at a single line of code.
If you intend on creating custom modules or anything else that adds to Drupal via code in a meaningful way, then you’d want to be pretty comfortable with PHP. When it comes to writing code for Drupal, the learning curve is pretty steep already without you also teaching yourself PHP along the way. Not to deter you on your journey - just a warning in regards to what to expect.