Considering Drupal
I need to use Drupal to design a site and customize along the lines of this http://www.aboutourkids.org/ implementation. Tare there any resources available on how to customize Drupal to that extent? I have only seen a few books on Drupal, none go into detail on how to modify a theme or create your own in detail. Any suggestions are welcome.
I am planning at the moment and have installed both 5 and 6 for testing purposes. Our needs will include:
- Main navigation in the form of dropdowns
- multiple author collaboration
- multi language content (English, Spanish, French)
- Google type chat client for members
- A highly customized homepage
From looking at the site above, I see they use drop down menus for their main navigation, and at this point I haven't seen a module or easy way to customize the theme to allow for this to happen quickly. What I want is ensure new pages added through the admin tool, appear automatically as part of the correct drop downs. Is that available as a module or does it need to be coded manually?
Tare there any resources
There is quite literally TONS of info on this-- that's basically what drupal.org is. But if you're looking for a detailed step by step on how to build every single feature from scratch starting with Drupal core and ending up with the site you mention, I don't think so. There are very good case studies at http://drupal.org/cases as well as some great articles like http://drupal.org/node/242993 and http://drupal.org/node/241344.
There are some themes that have this built-in (ie. http://demo.roopletheme.com/tapestry, http://drupal.org/project/newsflash ) and there is a module as well (http://drupal.org/project/nice_menus).
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"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz
Great starting points
Great suggestions thanks. I am probably going to download some of those themes you mention and try to see how they integrate with the multilingual test site I have setup. That will give me a great starting point for the custom theme I need.
Strong Theming Resources needed
So it seems, based on my testing so far, that 5.7 is the way to go for the time being. Version 6 is giving fata erros when searching for tems that are found and so far I have not seen a fix for this.
Now my only concern is that it seems I will have to develop my own theme for the project as we don't want it to look like anything out there and also because the potential of running into another site with the same theme would probably get me fired (maybe).
So that said, I need strong theming tutorials or books. I think the amount of books on the subject are limited or incomplete. I have seen http://drupal.org/node/22803 which looks to me like a good starting point. Are there any books you recommend or author as part of this community that you can recommend for theme design?
You definitely want to watch
You definitely want to watch the Lesson 28: Theming like a pro video over at the dojo. Also, there's a link on that page for a free copy of the Theming chapter from the "Pro Drupal Development" book that's a must read. That's the only drupal book i've purchased, and it was well worth it.
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"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz
Zen
A method of theming that I've seen done is to take an already established theme and alter it. One theme seems especially open to this method, boasting about the documentation within it on the main page.
http://drupal.org/project/zen
Process of development
If I want to develop my Drupal site in a folder within my existing domain files, will it be easy later to move the finished site to the root? Is that a documented process? I have been looking for info on the process unsuccessfully. My immediate concern is path to images on posts etc. I am able to create the separate Drupal dB and even sub domains. I am wondering if a hidden sub-domain would be a better solution. What have you guys done in the past when migrating an existing site?
I use my local flash drive
I use my local flash drive for developing, and when I'm ready to deploy my site, I make use of this module: http://drupal.org/project/backup_migrate
If you have a fresh install of drupal where ever you're moving the site to, this will take all the files and whatnot for a site to operate and compress it down / open it up. The only time I've had a problem with this is when the database access information is different than what the site you're replacing is using, or when there's a prefix. These settings are in the sites/default/settings.php file (if using the default site), and not that difficult to find.
Besides that, I have had problems with the server settings not being ideal where I am putting the site, but since you are just relocating a site on a single server, that shouldn't be an issue.
If the site you're going to be replacing is already built off of Drupal, I would suggest installing another site in the Drupal multisite manner so you can make improvements, and if you mess something up, it's within that sites directories, so it won't effect the other site.
This lessens repeated files on the server and makes it so when you have to perform an update, it is easier to manage, and should a patch for core be released, you'll only have to apply it once.
But for instance, if I build
But for instance, if I build the new site inside a subfolder of a non-drupal site. Will there be a problem moving it to the root of that site. I mean with urls and file locations? I am planning to build the new site on a protected folder inside our current domain and then move the files to the root once the content is there. That shouldn't be a problem right?
I don't believe it would be
I don't believe it would be a problem at all, (I'm not positive on as to the exact reasons why but I suspect...) Drurpal draws html from the database, not normal files, so if you move the install, as long as you move all the attached files (ie move everything within the Drupal protected folder) it should work fine.
= Edit =
On reading up some more about it, there's a module to fix the problem already made (at least its in the Beta anyway)
http://drupal.org/project/pathologic
This is only for if you're linking to pages in the content area on pages, which I frankly don't see much of a use for, but should you be doing that, then I would suggest you look into this module.
Created new topic instead.
Created new topic instead.