By himagarwal on

I'm new to drupal.

I added some content to the main page from Create Content >> Page >> but the thing that I got was a title with hyperlink and content text. I want to get remove this hyperlink because I'm designing my website frontpage.

And secondly, I was only able to rename/remove the "Big Navigation Text" through Site Building >> Blocks. But I wanted to add other main navigation Like "Catalog", etc. to be shown at sidebar but I was unable to do it in Site Building >> Menus.

Is there any module for these things?

I was using it for the first time and tried my best to find the solution but I just couldn't get it after hours of struggling. I think this can be the simplest of answers for all of you guys over here. Help would really be appreciated. :-)

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

lunk rat’s picture

lunk rat commented

Your first question:

When you are submitting a page, look under "Publishing Options" and tick the "promote to front page" checkbox.

If you want general information to appear on the front page, try adding text or HTML to your site's Mission Statement under Administer > Site Configuration > Site information. Make sure that the Mission Statement is enabled for your theme at Administer > Site Building > Themes > yourtheme > Configure.

If you want tighter control over how the frontpage displays posts, install and read documentation for these modules:

Views
Panels

You can create a panel and set it to be the frontpage under Administer > Site Configuration > Site information.

I made this frontpage with Views/Panels and set it to be the front under Administer > Site Configuration > Site information:

http://www.fgmi.net

Hope this helps. Post more here for more info on this. Good luck with Drupal!

lunk_rat is Acquia Certified Grand Master

himagarwal’s picture

himagarwal commented

Thanks for such a quick reply. I was not expecting such a super fast reply.

The mission worked for the frontpage. I think I have design my frontpage withing the mission using html tags.

From where Can I get the panels/views documentation. I tried searching in drupal but couldn't found anything useful. I couldn't get it when you say" create a panel". I can't find anything for creating a panel under Administer > Site Configuration > Site Information.

Your website is very well balanced and it never looks like if you're using drupal. How did u made this design? Is it tough to get such design implemented in drupal theme?

Thanks linkovitch for your reply and help.

lunk rat’s picture

lunk rat commented

First let me clarify what I meant about Panels. To get a front page panel such as the example I gave:

1. Download Panels and place it in > sites > default > modules (create this directory if it does not exist). Enable the panels module in Administer > Site building > Modules.

2. Go to Administer > Site building > Panels and create a panel with a layout of your liking. Panels are powerful; the sky is the limit.

3. Go to Administer > Site Configuration > Site Information and set the "frontpage url" to your panel. The mission statement will now appear on your panel, and the main domain URL will point to that panel.

Thanks for the kind words about my theme. I actually got it from http://drupal.org/project/affaires and modified it using GIMP, CSS, and the HTML page.tpl.php found within the theme. There are more sites using drupal than you may think. Check out http://www.rakemag.com/ - a site that has just converted completely to Drupal!

There is a good book on Drupal theming: http://www.packtpub.com/drupal-5-themes/book/mid/121207qvb0pa

Happy building!

lunk_rat is Acquia Certified Grand Master

himagarwal’s picture

himagarwal commented

Thanks again Sir, for such a nice reply. You people are very helpful even though you don't get anything, just appraisals.

I'll try to do the panel stuff. If I'm really getting scared using it then I'll think to buy the book you mentioned, but purchasing without a dime of knowledge will be useless. So I'll post back as soon as try out!

Thanks linkovitch

himagarwal’s picture

himagarwal commented

Its great tool. I can now organize my main page content very effectively with this module. Thanks to you and to module maker.

But I had some doubt regarding changing the Default front page in Administer > Site Configuration > Site Information.

The problem is that now when I create a new page from content and select it to show in the front page, it just doesn't comes up in the panel-front page as the actual front page is /node itself and not the one that I created in panel. I'm confused what to use for front page design? Panel or Just Mission (yes, in mission I have to do all the html tags and layouts by myself), but in long run when I require some information to be shown in my main front page it will not show then......

I think panel is best for inner pages and not for front page? What do you say? Is there a way in which even panel that I set for the front page can show new pages that I create?

One question: In URL aliases, is it fine if I use "alias as service.html"?

modul’s picture

modul commented

Hi Himagarwal, I recognize the many many many questons which come when you just start working with Drupal. It's a mighty powerful system, but it takes quite some time to get things just the way you want. The amazing feature of Drupal is that you can. Its flexibility is enormous.

Here are just a few things which may be helpful. They may not solve your immediate problems, but they will get you going.
- The basic script which operates on all your pages, is in your /themes/your_theme folder. It is called "page.tpl.php". Just insert a 

echo "Hello world!!";

somewhere, and it will show up on all your pages.
- Try experimenting with content types and with designing your own. Every content type can be "themed" (Drupal uses quite a bit of its own lingo...) through a file which you make in your /themes/your_theme folder. Suppose you have a content type "cover_stories". Then you make a file called "node-cover_stories.tpl.php" in your_theme folder, and from now on all cover_stories will comply with the logic (layout, conditions, ...) which you program in that node-cover_stories.tpl.php.
- Any node (another Drupal word; for the time being just think of it as "some text") can be used as your front page. In your admin section under http://yoursite.com/?q=admin/settings/site-information
you can fill in the node number which you want as your front page. Just fill in "node/1234" or whatever node number you want as your front page.
- Extra modules you probably cannot do without are Views (to create queries) and Content Creation Tookit or CCK (to add extra fields to your content types).
- Also study the Taxonomy system, which is used to organize your content and your navigation. Especially when your site has a good supply of nodes, you will want to implement a decent taxonomy system.
- Get a good idea of how Drupal works. A good starting point would be the "Handbooks" tab on this forum, esp. the "Cookbook" (http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/tutorials/beginners-cookbook).
- Regularly visit this forum. Many of the questions and replies found here will be of no direct interest, but you can always learn from them.
- And don't give up. Drupal has a relatively steep learning, esp. when you want to change things which don't come right out of the box. But once you get the basics, you'll be amazed how much you can do without coding. And then you'll be happy for a number of weeks/months, until you realize that you can combine that wonderful strength which Drupal has "by nature" and your own additionally coded stuff. But then you're already on the next level :-)

Good luck!!

himagarwal’s picture

himagarwal commented

Amazing. Thanks modul.

You seems an experienced coder and future-planer. Great! Thanks for motivating.

I have a simple paypal website which I had coded all in notepad both css and XTHML Strict. It was getting tougher and tougher even just to update/change one single thing. Until I found drupal and ubercart.com

You guys are really talented with these stuffs.....anyway

I will try more experiments with drupal in coming time. Thanks Modul(es)

lunk rat’s picture

lunk rat commented

If you set a panel as the frontpage, you can add a "basic frontpage view" to your panel. Then, every post that you "Promote to Front Page" will appear in your panel.

Hope this helps,

Link

lunk_rat is Acquia Certified Grand Master

arvind5lib’s picture

arvind5lib commented

My aim is to give a customize look for the homepage as well as other pages. I seen your above comments and hoping to work for me. It is very inconvenient to put html coding with tables & images in the page.

So I tried as explained above. Then why the panel check box is disabled? In site building, panels doesn't appear instead Views is displayed where there is option of Frontpage to add.

I suppose the panels option in site building is necessary?

arastooadam’s picture

arastooadam commented

hello every one... i have an issue..that the site building is not wound in my administration menu..can any one tell me where did i find it .or is there any module to add the site building???