Some Questions
Before I start...
I have searched the site for this information but am not finding all the information I need. I am trying to decide if Drupal is right for me and if so, which version. I was hoping I could get some feedback on some of the things I need for my particular site.
1. Speed -Is it me or are many Drupal sites a bit slow? Do all of the modules slow down the final product or the searches etc.?
2. Drop down menu -for my site I would like to give users the option of a dropdown box to select their categories or city of residence. I would like the user to be able to select the dropdown menu and navigate to Country / State / City but also if you choose to simply type the name of the city, perhaps it would fill in the menu tree for you underneath, showing that it is linking you to a database. For example, in the Location dropdown I would like for a person to be able to start typing "San Francisco" and underneath it you see that the menu of United States / California / San Francisco be filled out for you. Would something like this be possible?
3. Style -I would like a very simple interface for the front page that loads fast. Simple like Google. Most Drupal sites i've seen have a similar look. Is the style always locked down? Would it be difficult to make a front page that looks almost the same as Google but with an added Location dropdown? How much control do you have with the look in drupal?
4. Database comparrison -on each users account i'd like them to attach information about themself and then have the site cross reference the information to other users to find matches. Can this be done? If so what might be a good module?
I would really like to know what version of Drupal I should be using and maybe what modules I would need the most. If anyone can provide this info i'd really appreciate it. Thanks!
1. Speed is affected by the
1. Speed is affected by the number of database queries on a page and of course the server resources (memory etc). Some modules run big queries with many joins, or just many queries.
For profiling the pages (load time and memory) there is the devel module, which helps you find if some not quite necessary module is a hog or if you just need a better hosting plan.
A common cause of slow sites (except too much traffic for the server) is the "open buffet syndrome". Because of the hundreds of modules available people tend to install too many.
2. Generally what you are saying sounds familiar in Drupal (category selections, autocomplete boxes, the Location module -- still only for Drupal 5) but I can't be so specific. You will need to test it in practice.
3. There are many Drupal themes to choose, and depending on your technical skills you can make Drupal look any way you want.
http://drupal.org/project/Themes
http://drupal.org/theme-guide/5
http://drupal.org/theme-guide
4. Here is a related module I just found. I don't know much about it.
http://drupal.org/project/user_interests
You seem to be interesting in social networking, so Drupal 5 may be more suitable at the moment because of the many available modules for versatile user profiles, user relationships, user ratings etc. If you are careful to choose popular modules with active development, then upgrading to Drupal 6 in a few months may be easy (otherwise it won't).
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Check out the showcase forum http://drupal.org/forum/25 - a lot of examples of sites that look nothing alike. (It does take some work to make a site unique, though.)
Drupal 5 has more stable modules, but now many for six are popping up. You may want to start with 5 then upgrade.
As for modules, i'd go with Views, pathauto, scheduler (if you need to post content in the future). If you have a community-oriented side, check out the CAPTCHA module. And there are some WYSIWYG modules out there. But it's hard to say more without knowing what type of site you're building.
~silverwing
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