By zomal on

Hi,

I am new to drupal and just have a basic idea of it. I want to know that how can I clone a website using drupal. I searched on Google but couldn't find anything useful. So if someone can please give me a guideline or suggest a good tutorial for it...

Thanks

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

By cloning, I take it you mean you want to reproduce your current website using Drupal instead of whatever is currently powering it?
Is your current website made with static HTML files, or is it powered by a different CMS (e.g. Joomla, etc)?

If it is static HTML, then yes you can reproduce it similarly if not exactly using Drupal in most cases. Depending on the complexity of your site, this will require you to learn about a few key tools such as CCK, Views, and Drupal's theming system - see "Theming Guides" (also see this free PDF chapter on Drupal 5.x theming). Additionally you can make use of the Panels 2 module if you need it. You'll want to learn the basics of Drupal's Taxonomy system to help you categorize and/or tag your content (essentially taxonomy is just a fancy word for categories, however Drupal's categories can be much more versatile than most), as well as the Menu system, which you can use to set up a hierarchy of your pages as you're most likely accustomed to with your current site. There are many add-on modules as well to help you create whatever form of navigation you prefer. You might find the Import HTML module useful as well, to get your content into Drupal.

If you are trying to reproduce specific functionality from another CMS that currently powers your site... it is likely that Drupal can do whatever the other CMS could do, however you will need to specify exactly what features in order for us to recommend any solutions.

In either case, the best thing is to open up the full listing of Drupal's modules in your browser and perform some searches on the page with your browser for keywords. For instance if you're looking for CCK, search for CCK and you'll be able to tab through all of the many modules that have to do with CCK, etc. You can also use Drupal.org's search form to help you find things. Just go to this link, and be sure to filter the page by the version of Drupal you are using (e.g. 5.x or 6.x):
http://drupal.org/project/Modules/name
There are also a variety of pre-selected categories for modules in case you'd like to browse them and see what may be of use to you.

Good luck, and hope you enjoy Drupal! :)

- David

zomal’s picture

zomal commented

Yes, Thanks it is useful.
Now if I want to clone a dynamic site then what will I need?

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

You're welcome :)
To help you with that, you will need to be specific about what CMS you are converting from, as well as precisely what special features you need to reproduce. Or if it is a custom CMS that we can't refer to, then showing the current site might help recommend some modules to reproduce the visible functionality/layout, etc.

There are also "converter modules" and/or standalone scripts and guides for importing a variety of other popular CMS's into Drupal, such as Wordpress and Joomla. See: http://drupal.org/handbook/migrating as well as use Drupal.org's search if needed to find the name of your CMS, which should lead you to converter modules or instructions if available.