By hitmann on

I'm craving about wanting to be familiar with Drupal to create several non-specific sites, but the learning process is just stressing me! I'm stuck at the "Installing Modules" page of "Getting Started" with absolutely no idea where to start on the Modules page.

It would really help if a few screenshots of what the modules can do are posted by the developers, so we can have an idea instead of going through paragraphs of technical explanations.

Could you please give me, and my fellow novices, some advice about what to start with, to get some ideas about what the modules bring to Drupal in each category?

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

archard’s picture

archard commented

Don't worry, we've all been there. The Drupal learning curve is very tough but once you get the hang of it you'll never go back!

Just start off messing around with some of the core modules, like forum, upload, blog, taxonomy, etc. You really just have to experiment and get to know the system through trial and error (but reading tutorials on this site always helps).

amariotti’s picture

amariotti commented

Before going that far why not play with the modules that are already included in your Drupal installation?

Such as the "blog.module" or something similar to that. Go into administer > modules and check the box next to "Blog." Once you do that there should now be a menu item called Blog. Each user can create new posts and do things similar to what blogs do. If you can't see the "blog" link in your menu items then go to administer > user management > access control and scroll down til you find the "Blog" and make sure the checkbox is checked for the user privileges on the account that you are using.

Start with the simple stuff then work your way up.

tm’s picture

tm commented

in case you have not been there yet, give the handbook pages a chance. after having gone through the "projects and features" (the overview manual), maybe the "drupal cookbook (for beginners)" (under tutorials), and maybe the "videos and slides" section (sounds like you are looking for this one).

oh, and take your time! lots to absorb.

good luck!

hitmann’s picture

hitmann commented

Thanks a lot guys, that really helped!

joachim’s picture

joachim commented

I know what you mean...

Many custom modules are fairly technical beasts, and what they do will only make sense once you have a good grasp of how Drupal works -- eg things that do stuff to your taxonomy, or whatever.
Other modules simply have crummy descriptions. You could always file an issue for that module under 'Documentation' saying 'I don't understand what this module does' :)

mrbkonline’s picture

mrbkonline commented

If you're a programmer but just new to Drupal, then this book is excellent:
http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Drupal-Development-John-VanDyk/dp/1590597559/r...

hitmann’s picture

hitmann commented

Nice. Thanks again for your support guys! I really appreciate the fact that you are sharing what you have learned and encouraging us.

arien101’s picture

arien101 commented

Here are some other resources that help:

>> The Lullabot Podcast on Drupal projects mentions a lot of useful modules
http://www.lullabot.com/audiocast/drupal_podcast_no_40_top_40_projects

>> Geeks & God has a "modules" podcast where they explain all the core modules
http://geeksandgod.com/podcast?page=6

Apart from that there are two modules that give you a wide range of options:
- CCK Module (Content Construction Kit) for creating custom node types (you'll also need several plugins for different field types)
- Views Module for generating list views of nodes (pieces of content)
There's a lot of podcasts and video tutorials on how to use those two modules

Also: Since the short explanations on the modules pages are sometimes a little lacking it usually helps to download all modules that sound like they do what you want and just try them out. You'll oftentimes be able to tell if you like the module or not within minutes.