Posted by abiconsulting on January 28, 2013 at 6:32pm
I'm setting up what will be a rather large site. I've never used Drupal, but used Joomla/Mambo a few years ago and recently started using WordPress more regularly. So, I'm capable. I can read and edit CSS, a tiny bit of PHP, and learn very quickly. I'd appreciate advice on where to start, what modules I will need, and anything else that might be helpful. I also need to make this as easy as possible as another person will take this over once complete and she'll do all updates and maintenance.
I should run v7, right?
Here are my specific needs.
- Hundreds of pages
- two stores
- Slideshows (one at store page, one on homepage, and probably a couple more)
- Good document handling
- Many of my pages will use the same template. For instance, I'll have instruction pages that are the same template with links to technical data, images, schedules, etc.
- Retail locator by zip code with map. I need to be able to list all my retailer locations and allow a customer to plug in their zip code and see nearby retailers.
- Great search and sitemap
- Simple but powerful menus
- Fast loading
- Calendar that looks better than but that syncs with Google calendar)
- Great mobile version of the site. I'd prefer responsive, but a mobile/desktop site would be acceptable.
- Ability to print a page well-formatted, without navigation through a print button on the page.
I've read a bit about Commerce Kickstart and it looks like that may be a great place for me to start. Agree? What else will I need?
Thanks
Dan J.
Comments
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yes
googlefu
1. are you aware of how many nodes are contained in the already existing large drupal sites?
2. completely separate stores?
3 views_slideshow.module
4. define good? Drupal can handle document management yes.
5. display suite.module
6. googlefu drupal proximity searches
7. drupal has a core search and a there are contribs that can be added on. What does great mean?
8. simple and powerful? what defines either of these?
9. can't say how fast drupal would be in your environment as speed is not solely dependent on software but also hardware.
10. calendar.module and full calendar module are two options How they look is dependent on how well you style them.
11. There are responsive themes in contrib
12 printer friendly module
all the subjective adjectives aside, you can do what you want with Drupal. How well it turns out is dependent on your skillset, ability to utilize docs, and google.
Thanks
Those are some good leads. Any experience with Commerce Kickstarter? Would that be a good foundation?
1. Yes, just want everyone to know where I'm heading.
2. They probably will be separate stores. One is for customers; one for retailers. There may even be a third store for producers.
3. On my list.
4. Any specific modules I should look at? The customer is deciding as we go, but may have a bunch of PDFs of instructions as well as MSDS data we need to keep organized and tagged so we can easily identify and update one of 100 documents called "MSDS".
5. On my list.
6. There we go. "Proximity search." That gets me underway.
7. Search in general is getting pretty good. If there's one built-in that's good, I'll see if it's good enough. Answered for now.
8. The user will learn, but something that doesn't have too steep a learning curve. I can't be too specific, but assume if someone's handed over more than a few sites to clients they know what those clients like/don't like. Looking for suggestions to research myself. Warnings are good too.
9. I understand that, but want to make that a requirement. If certain modules are known to be sluggish my hope is this requirement would keep people from suggesting them.
10. On my list.
11. Being new to Drupal and knowing my requirements, any stand out?
12. Perfect. On my list.
I'm not trying to have someone build my site, but am hoping to get specific suggestions so I can research. My goal with this post was to get a good feel for what to try and what to avoid before I install and test everything available only to find I've cluttered my install. Thanks for taking the time to reply. I especially appreciate the specific recommendations.
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4. core in D7 deals with field fields and upload files into those fields. I'd use a custom content type (also in core).
5. If completely separate (sharing nothing between sites) then yes. If sharing data between sites, it's a whole nother animal.
8. I suggest installing drupal and looking at administer -> menus
9. I've nothing left to add
11. they all stand out and which one you choose to use tends to boil down to personal preference. Zen, framework, adaptivetheme, motherhship, omega and more. I suggest installing each to find out which one you are more comfortable with using to build your sites subtheme.
Many, many thanks. The client
Many, many thanks. The client wants me to work with their person to get this going (very strange project and arrangement) and they're not really sure what they want to do about separate stores or similar with different categories. We'll see. If I can force someone to log in to view retail items, we may be able to do one store. But, they want a different feel and voice in the retailer store, so it could mean two stores.
Surprised more people didn't chime in. Is this the most active Drupal forum?
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I wouldn't have usually chimed in either. The post indicates you've done little research on your own, haven't read the forum posting rules, and asking a dozen questions in a single post doesn't get any one excited to aid. They can help 12 people or you. the other 12 tend to win against posts such as yours. not to mention the double/cross posting: http://drupal.org/node/1897206
RTFM first. Many of us have been around long enough to know when someone has used little to no google before posting.
You're more correct than I realized
Lesson learned. I appreciate your time and patience.