By mattsmith on

I'm completely new to web development. I've been looking around for a couple of months, and drupal seems to be the best cms that I can find. In fact, it looks amazing! I've found a very reasonable looking hosting plan with siteground. (I'm checking for feedback and tips if anyone has any)

I actually have a couple of questions:

1) I've been developing site templates for a band I'm involved with through Photoshop (CS3). How hard would it be to apply those to drupal, or to create my own theme? I can do very little html and really nothing else. Should I just look into having someone else do that for me? Is there some kind of application that would facilitate the process for me? Or maybe I could just adapt the ideas I have and add in the images that I've created....

2) I would like to have custom data reports. Specifically, I'd like to view a page where I can see a numbered list of users who logged in. Not just how many times they logged in, but an actual numbered list. For example, let's say I have a user called "Pete". Pete logged in as the 1, 32, and 64 user today. So, this list is also able to generate itself from a 24 hour span, say from midnight to midnight. Is this possible and how do I do it?

3) Does drupal come with a music player? If not, I've found some free and low cost flash players where I could build a library and have a nice looking skin to put on the site. Again, how hard... how do I...?

I'd like to thank anyone who would tackle these questions in advance. Thank You!

Comments

rernst’s picture

rernst commented

1) Drupal templates require quite a bit of CSS and XHTML knowledge, as well as some PHP. Perhaps you're better off getting someone else to do it for you.

2) I think the simplest way would be to implement hook_user
( http://api.drupal.org/api/function/hook_user/5 ) to fire when someone logs in, and then count. It'd be a bit of tricky PHP but it wouldn't be much work.

3) try this: http://drupal.org/project/audio

mattsmith’s picture

mattsmith commented

thank you for the responses, but there are a few problems:

the hook_user function looks like programming to me. I don't know how to do that.

the audio project says that it requires a the views module, which has a big notice on the top that says not to download unless you are a developer. again, this looks like some coding issues that I don't have the ability to get involved with...

STL_Realtor’s picture

STL_Realtor commented

I feel bad for you matt, because like me you have a desire to make drupal work for you, but you are far too green in programming to make anything you want to happen, actually happen. Dont worry, we will figure it out!

Interactive Realtor

mattsmith’s picture

mattsmith commented

thanks for the support... I've be at it for only two days now... but I'm gaining some headway and I've figured a few things out!

vm’s picture

vm commented

you glassed over the message at the top of the views project page.

so let's paste it here and read it together, shall we : )

Important: Unless you are actively helping to develop Views 2, do not try to install Views 2 at this time. If you do and it has unexpected consequences, I reserve the right to soundly mock you for ignoring this warning.

It states that for views 2 which means you should download and use views 1

Documentation on using the views.module can be found in the hanbooks -> contributed modules -> views section

What I can tell you at this stage. Drupal has a learning curve, as do all CMS's but Drupal's can seem daunting because of the power and flexibility that drupal offers. That being said, If you have no desire to shed a little blood, sweat and tears and are hoping to snap your fingers and pull off what you want, I can tell you it won't be that "easy".

Best of luck with your endeavors.

_____________________________________________________________________
My posts & comments are usually dripping with sarcasm.
If you ask nicely I'll give you a towel : )

mattsmith’s picture

mattsmith commented

thanks for the help! I actually went back through everything over and over until I actually saw that a few hours ago! The ad module is working now, and I found something called CCK that I'm exploring as well! I'm sure it is frustrating to see guys like me running into the battlefield armed with little more than a small rock and a blindfold, but I can't tell you enough how much I really appreciate the help and support.

mattsmith’s picture

mattsmith commented

one more note... I'm in post instillation now.