Drupal for a Download Portal Project

Posted by albertocastillo2001 on January 13, 2013 at 2:44pm

Hello

I've just installed Drupal, seen the videos and read some documentation about it but I haven't started playing with it yet.
I plan to do a download portal similar to Softonic, Download.com that will hold products, videos related to the product, extra information such as language, license, operative system.. etc.

I've been testing Joomla! and now Wordpress and I want to try this one too and see if it suits my needs.
I really liked Joomla and its way to do things, but with Joomla I couldn't, since the Download plugins such as Phoca Download and Docman didn't have an option for extra fields to add extra information about the download.

In Wordpress I came across WP Download Manager Pro, which seems a good tool (allows extra fields, has a lazy download plugin which allows to redirect the user to a wait page before the download starts) althought I am having some trouble setting it up and I am concerned about if Wordpress is the best kind of tool to run a download portal.

Now I would like to test Drupal and would like to know if there are modules that can satify my needs with little to none custom development

Probably adding extra custom fields to the downloads, videos, comments and rating, social features and displaying most rated and top downloads software in the front page would be ok.

Is this possible with Drupal and the extra modules?

Thank you.

Comments

_

Posted by WorldFallz on January 14, 2013 at 1:17pm

Probably adding extra custom fields to the downloads, videos, comments and rating, social features and displaying most rated and top downloads software in the front page would be ok.

Yep!

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Drupal is the best choice for

Posted by technonow on January 14, 2013 at 4:33pm

Drupal is the best choice for you and will do exactly what you want.

I've used WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, and Drupal is by far the most customisable out of the box.

Changing fields and creating downloads are quite simple (everything is once you know how!).

I would recommend installing Drupal and Ubercart (which would allow you to provide paid for or free downloads), and then simply customising the fields or add new fields to your product displays.

Drupal Manuals

Hello Thank you both What

Posted by albertocastillo2001 on January 16, 2013 at 6:18pm

Hello

Thank you both

What about a "we are preparing your download" webpage with ads and make the user wait a few seconds before getting to download the product

Is that possible too?

Thanks

You can of course do

Posted by technonow on January 17, 2013 at 6:54pm

You can of course do everything manually and send the files yourself (in which case you wouldn't need Ubercart at all just a buy-now button.

However, if someone has paid and their payment has been verified, which Ubercart can be set up to do, then why would you want them to wait? You've got your money - they will want their file!

If you set up Ubercart to allow users to pay via PayPal for example, you can set it up to allow downloads at different stages, on order or on payment. It would be usual to set it up to only allow the download once PayPal have confirmed to Ubercart that payment has been received in your account. This usually occurs straight away, so with this setting Ubercart will usually allow files to be downloaded straight away.

Drupal Manuals

HelloBy waiting I meant

Posted by albertocastillo2001 on January 18, 2013 at 1:05pm

Hello

By waiting I meant another thing
Well, that's not exactly what I want to do.

I want it to be quite similar to a common download portal such as ZDNET, Softonic or Download.com

To show you a few photos
http://www.mediafire.com/?j6ff60i9lt38o

CropperCapture1 = Top downloaded files
CropperCapture2 = Category listing of products
CropperCapture3 = Menu at the left of the site to select product categories
CropperCapture4 = Product description
CropperCapture5 = Wait page to trigger the download that shows ads

Something like that

You can display blocks (and

Posted by technonow on January 18, 2013 at 7:07pm

You can display blocks (and therefore adverts) on the download page itself, and you can create rules for the actual download.

Drupal Manuals

Hello Thanks With Ubercart? I

Posted by albertocastillo2001 on January 18, 2013 at 10:27pm

Hello

Thanks

With Ubercart? I feel Ubercart is way more advanced than for what I want to do, isn't there something which looks similar towhat I want to do? Or will Ubercart handle all what I want to do?

Thanks

Hello Can you also please let

Posted by albertocastillo2001 on January 24, 2013 at 8:36pm

Hello

Can you also please let me know if Ubercart, or Drupal itself will allow me to show downloads as the same way as a Download Portal would do, what about the category listing showing icon, small description, number of downloads.. extra info.

Would it let me to add top downloads and new added products as well?

I would like to know if Drupal can really fulfill my needs in terms of the project.

Here are the limitations I found in Joomla while attempting to do this project.
http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=615&t=787827

Thank you.

Not a hundred percent sure of

Posted by technonow on January 26, 2013 at 12:45pm

Not a hundred percent sure of exactly what you want but I am 99% sure that Drupal 7 and Ubercart will fulfil your requirements.

New fields, can be added to any Drupal content type.

The number of page visits can be shown by default.

Ubercart can handle all your downloads and will keep various records including the total number of downloads for each individual file and the number of downloads by each user.

The 'Views' module can be set up to create a view that includes any field, so you could create a view to show how many files have been downloaded and you can publicly display that view in a block.

Drupal Manuals