By Ron Chandy on

Hello everyone.

I am new to Drupal just about 3 days old. I am in a fix trying to understand if Drupal could be the right choice I am making ?? We are an organization that manufacturers medical equipment. In the site we have to have FAQ's , equipment discriptions, about the company, Testimonials, etc. Like in the FAQ's we have to have a link to a question on the same page - A visitor when he clicks on the "question" he reaches the "Answer" on the same page and then a "back button" he is taken to the question area of the same page. Is it possible to do that on Drupal 6.x. ? Also is Drupal the right choice for my type of an Industry ??

Thanks for any possible help.

Ron

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

Hello Ron, welcome to Drupal :)

Yes, Drupal is a good, solid choice for just about any industry. It is highly flexible and can do just about anything you can think of, particularly through powerful add-on modules like CCK and Views (which are some of the most powerful tools available in any open source CMS). Drupal is used on literally millions of websites of countless types.

For a FAQ as you describe, see the FAQ module.

Note that Drupal 6 is new and you may be better off going with Drupal 5 for now if the modules you need are not yet available for Drupal 6 (most will be within the next few months, but if you need certain modules now that aren't available, Drupal 5 is still a very solid option).

When looking to see if a certain functionality exists, my suggestion is to make your first stop the main modules listing - you can open this giant list, and using the Find feature of your web browser, locate anything you're looking for on the page.

Good luck with your site... Drupal does have a learning curve, but is an amazing tool once you get used to it.

-- David
absolutecross.com

Ron Chandy’s picture

Ron Chandy commented

Thanks very much for the reply. Just one more question how do I then update to a new version ? do I have to reload everything on the site or does it have an auto-update function ??

Thanks again
Ron

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

Upgrading Drupal is not "hard", but it's not something to take lightly either. There is no auto-update function (could be wrong, but I don't know of any CMS that has auto-update of the entire app... that would not really be an easy or even good thing to have for a web based application - even though you "shouldn't" if you can help it, Drupal can't know if you've made custom changes to any of its files, which would be permanently lost if auto-upgraded). There is auto-upgrade in a sense if you use something like Fantastico (part of CPanel), but using that is highly "not" recommended. The closest thing to auto update you could have is to manage your Drupal installation using CVS, so that you can "check out" or fetch the most recent copy of Drupal and/or contributed modules. Learning CVS is a different sort of task (look into it to see if it would be something you'd be comfortable with).

Here are the official steps for upgrading Drupal.
Also Drupal 6 comes with a light version of it, but if you use Drupal 5 or want the extra features left out in 6, get the Update Status module, which will inform you about all the available updates for Drupal and your installed modules the moment they are available.

 

My personal steps for upgrading Drupal are:

Backup first

  • First I test the upgrade on my local copy of the site on my development server - this will tell me ahead of time that things are likely to work without causing a catastrophe on my live site.
  • If it is a live site (not on my development server), I switch Drupal into Off-line mode so that visitors do not access the site while the upgrade is happening and encounter all kinds of errors, with the setting at admin/settings/site-maintenance.
  • I ensure that I am logged into the site as the main administrator account (you cannot run the update.php file near the end of the process unless you are logged in as this user).
  • Next I back up the full site, both the files as well as the database. Never upgrade without backing up. You can do this through your hosting control panel in most cases, though when you are more advanced and have SSH access, it is much faster and easier to do it via a quick command line:
    • First make a directory with today's date in your backup folder: mkdir /home/backups/yoursitename/07-10-08
    • Now backup the database (customize with your paths and info): mysqldump -u username -p drupal_database > /home/backups/yoursitename/07-10-08/yoursite_db.sql
    • Next backup your site's files (again, customize as needed): tar -czvf /home/yoursitename/backups/07-10-08/yoursite.tar.gz /home/yoursitename/public_html

Now to the upgrade

  • Assuming you use Drupal as intended and never hack the core files, and you store all of your personal data (e.g. modules and themes) within the /sites folder (and you may possibly also use the /files folder if yours isn't a sub-folder within /sites), then you can confidently erase all the rest of Drupal's files and directories besides those, and upload the latest copy in their place. Again I use SSH to save a lot of time, but all these steps can be done with FTP (and more time) if you prefer (SSH just speeds things up considerably compared to slow FTP file deleting and uploading... it also gets the site upgraded and back online that much faster, which is of course a good thing):
    • First I make a temporary folder to hold Drupal's old files/folders until I'm sure I've upgraded successfully (I do this extra step instead of deleting the old files right off since it makes it a snap to undo things back to normal if the upgrade fails for some reason, rather than bothering with extracting the whole backup... but since you'll already have a backup, you can skip this step if you like):
      mkdir /home/yoursitename/public_html/drupal-backup
    • Next I paste in a command (after I've navigated into my Drupal folder) that moves all of Drupal's folders, besides my personal ones, into the temporary backup folder (this leaves just my personal folders behind... I also leave the .htaccess file behind as mine is customized - if yours is not, add it to the list):
      mv cron.php includes index.php install.php misc modules profiles scripts themes update.php xmlrpc.php /home/yoursitename/public_html/drupal-backup
    • Now I simply fetch the latest copy of Drupal directly to my server (first be sure you've navigated into your Drupal folder), then:
      wget http://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-6.3.tar.gz (get the latest download link from Drupal's home page).
    • Then I decompress it on the server within a few seconds (much faster than uploading all the files separately): tar -xzvf drupal-6.3.tar.gz
      When you run this, Drupal will extract itself into a sub-folder called drupal-6.3
    • Go into the newly created sub-directory: cd drupal-6.3
    • Then I run this command to copy all of Drupal's files "except" for those I already kept (e.g. the sites and the files directories) into place where the old files used to be:
      mv cron.php includes index.php install.php misc modules profiles scripts themes update.php xmlrpc.php /home/yoursitename/public_html
    • If I had any extra files I had placed in Drupal, for instance jquery.js into the /misc folder in the case of having the jQuery Update module installed, I do this now. Very few modules ask you to put files outside of the modules directory, so this may never be a step you need to do.
    • Lastly, I run http://www.mysite.com/update.php and follow the instructions to update the database within a few clicks.
    • Now that the upgrade completed successfully, I go ahead and delete the drupal-backup folder I made.
    • When done, you can re-enable Drupal for the public again at admin/settings/site-maintenance.

Anyhow, hope this helps!

-- David
absolutecross.com

Ron Chandy’s picture

Ron Chandy commented

That was awsome. Thanks for that. I am learning a lot. I was trying to upload the fevicon.ico on my drupal site, Could you please tell me how to do that.

Thanks for everything

Ron

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

No problem :)

So far as your favicon.ico: All you need to do is include it in your theme directory (e.g. sites/all/themes/yourtheme), and ensure that your theme points to the correct file. If the theme you're using already has a "custom" favion.ico file there (different than the blue standard Drupal one), just overwrite it with your own.

As with regular HTML pages it's best to include the proper tags in the HEAD of your site (in the page.tpl.php file of your theme) to tell the browser about the favicon. If your theme already had a "custom" favicon, the code will already be there, but in many cases a lot of contributed themes just point to Drupal's "default" favicon file at misc/favicon.ico. You will want to check that line and adjust the path as shown below. If the tag does not yet exist, or your theme is completely custom, then you should copy/paste the tag into the HEAD area of page.tpl.php to add the favicon to your site:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="/sites/all/themes/yourtheme/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />

Note that I mentioned the sites/all/etc.. directory above... the themes and modules subdirectories inside sites/all need to be manually created. Placing modules and themes here keeps them cleanly separated from Drupal's core themes and modules (for upgrade purposes I mentioned in my last post) and the use of "all" makes them available to Drupal's multi-site capabilities (or you can put them in sites/default, or sites/sitename). Here's more info:
http://drupal.org/node/248776
http://drupal.org/node/176046

-- David
absolutecross.com

Ron Chandy’s picture

Ron Chandy commented

There is a little problem I had put the site in offline mode while I was working. I really do not know how but I logged out and now I am not able to log-in.. Please help How I go back.

Thanks for all this David.

Ron

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

Try to go directly to this address: http://www.yoursite.com/user
This should take you to the dedicated login page, if the current state of Drupal will load it.

Edit: forgot you might not have "clean urls" enabled since this is a new site. If that's the case you have to use Drupal's standard paths like so:
http://www.yoursite.com/?q=user

http://drupal.org/node/56995

-- David
absolutecross.com

Ron Chandy’s picture

Ron Chandy commented

I did it with www.site/?q=user. Thanks a ton. I have seen your site it's great. I 'll come for hosting.. Thanks again. I am building a site that would give free advice and possible free treatment possibilities to cardiology patients. I am a doctor. www.ecp-medical.com

Ron Chandy’s picture

Ron Chandy commented

I have made up all the FAQ's that I wanted but sadly I cannot upload any images to the answers. I tried to but did not find any links to start with. But after doing all the work the FAQ's don't display. The FAQ page is blank when you open. But I can search the questions and answers by search function. It is not entirely a "Blank white page of death" everything is displayed except the FAQ's. Please see www.ecp-medical.com/faq -- you will find the page not displaying the faq's . Type for example "Angina" in the search box and you will then see the FAQ's .. Please help

Thanks for any possible help
Ron

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

Hello Ron -

I'm not certain why your FAQ content would not be showing up... I tried it out on my test site, with all default settings and added a few FAQ items, and it displayed for me as expected. In this case I would first try this suggestion from the FAQ issue page, which may be related (namely, check the permissions to ensure people can view the FAQ content). You can search for additional relevant issues as well. If that doesn't work, then post a support request to the Issues for FAQ module.

The reason they show up in search is because each FAQ item is a separate Drupal node, all of which are indexed by the search engine.

So far as including images in the FAQ, my suggestion would be something like the IMCE module. With this you can upload images and include them within the content of any node (page). Since the core of how FAQ module works is to create a separate node for each question, you should be able to add images into the content in this way. Also be sure to add <img> to your allowed tags in the Filtered HTML Input Format (admin/settings/filters/1/configure).

Another option is to add an Imagefield into the FAQ content type (setting up a scaled and/or cropped version for display using the Imagecache module). Adding custom fields to module-generated content types can be dangerous though, as (since the module developer is unaware of these custom fields you add) there's always a chance that an upgrade of the module could break your custom fields.

Hope this helps :)

-- David
absolutecross.com

Ron Chandy’s picture

Ron Chandy commented

Thanks David.

talyia’s picture

talyia commented

I am just about to upgrade my own site for the very first time, so this is a HUGE help!!

ddlb’s picture

ddlb commented

Thank you for the time you have taken to spell out what is happening during upgrade!

I am also very new to Drupal and already I am very hooked, but at the same time the learning curve is still in straight to the sky mode. lol

I am looking forward to getting to know my way around 6.3. Might as well stick with the latest greatest.

Thanks again for your help...

Ron Chandy’s picture

Ron Chandy commented

Thanks david.
I have to say that I seem to understand Drupal a bit. Byt I still have a long way to go. This thread was for FAQ's . Well I have made a few but could not organise them. Like I wanted to make sections. For example for sales different faq's for service different faq's for general different faq's. so when a visitor comes to the site he can choose which faq's are most relevant to him. How can I do that ?

Thanks for any help comming
Ron

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

For that you'll need to use the taxonomy/categorization aspect of the FAQ module.

For starters, ensure you have the Taxonomy module that comes with Drupal enabled.
Then, have a look at the steps here: http://drupal.org/node/244486
And here is the "full" help page for categories in FAQ module: http://drupal.org/node/144219

So to make the taxonomy, you might make a vocabulary called "FAQ Categories" (all default settings are fine other than you must check the box next to the FAQ content type... you could also check "Required" to ensure every FAQ item gets a category, and if in Drupal 5 you could also check "disabled" for Hierarchy)... and then "Add terms", each of which is a different category for your FAQ. Now when you go to add a new FAQ item, you should be presented with an additional dropdown menu allowing you to choose a category.

Be sure to check the "Categorize questions" option in the FAQ module, and you may also like to choose one of the alternate options under "Categories layout", such as putting each category on a separate page.

-- David
absolutecross.com

Ron Chandy’s picture

Ron Chandy commented

Thanks david for the help. I could make categories but after making an FAQ in a particular catogory it does not show up. what could be the reason? I have unchecked as not to promote to front page. If you check you will find them not showing up even in the admin. Login.

Please help
Ron

sprugman’s picture

sprugman commented

In your list of files and folders that you're moving around, you've left out all of the .txt files. CHANGELOG.txt, MAINTAINERS.txt, etc. Presumably those should be dealt with, too.

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

Yes good point... for other's reference I'll add them to my guide (I'm going to post a Handbook page with this). I am in the habit of simply deleting these all immediately after extracting Drupal, so I forgot to mention it (especially changelog.txt, since that gives too quick and easy public reference to the version I have installed, which if I'm running a little behind on updates is not something I'd like to be made public). The other reason I delete them is because they add to the clutter of my root directory, distracting my eye when I want to rapidly click one of the folders and get somewhere fast.

-- David
absolutecross.com

Ron Chandy’s picture

Ron Chandy commented

Thanks for the views. I have done it and it works. But there is something that is troubling me. In FAQ's I have made vocubulary as FAQ's and then made two terms that would host the faq's for two different cetagories. But they don't go in respective terms. All faq's show up as if in one file. and all get mixed up. I do not understand this.
Please help
Ron

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

It appears that anonymous users do not have access to view the FAQs for some reason, so I can't have a look at what you're talking about. When you go to the /faq page are you seeing FAQ entries there? Try logging out of Drupal - do you still see them or not? If not then, be sure to check the permissions for the FAQ content. If I can see the FAQ I may have a better chance of helping you troubleshoot.

In my own testing of FAQ module I haven't been able yet to reproduce any kind of difficulties like you're describing... I installed the module, adjusted settings, made a taxonomy and terms like I outlined earlier, and made FAQ items and assigned them into categories. After that everything displayed as expected.

-- David
absolutecross.com

johdu’s picture

johdu commented

Thanks for that... I was dreading an upgrade (and almost put it off). Your guide meant my site was offline for about 10 minutes while I did the work where previous upgrades had taken all night.

Cheers.
John

prezbedard’s picture

prezbedard commented

I just followed your instructions fro upgrading drupal form 6.2 to 6.3 except I had to use ftp since I do not have access to the shell. Everything seemed to run fine but when it finished and I went to check it still says there is an update available. I'm really not sure what I could of done wrong. I was presented with no errors and it seemed to upgrade just fine.

Thanks.

7/17/2008 update: seems to fine now perhaps it took some time for it to refresh on the server.

ok I don't get it. The status is back to that is there an available update.

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

I'll try testing out an upgrade from Drupal 6.2 to 6.3 on my local server and see if I can learn anything to help. When I added 6.3 to my local server I just wiped my whole database and started fresh (since it was just a test install I had no data worth saving), so I didn't see the upgrade issues you're having. The one trouble I did have was with the new settings.php file, which Drupal now makes you create yourself from a copy of the sample one. Anyhow, I'll reinstall 6.2 from scratch and do a normal 6.3 upgrade to see what happens.

In my experience no minor "point" upgrade in Drupal has ever been a problem for me, not even a little hiccup, even on at least 5-6 completely different hosts/servers. So if there is a problem I believe it was introduced recently.

I'm also going to go over my earlier instructions with the Drupal 6 copy, as I have only used them in practice so far on Drupal 5 sites (as I don't have any 6 sites on public web servers yet)... can't see why it would be any different, but I'll check just the same.

-- David
absolutecross.com

prezbedard’s picture

prezbedard commented

It now seems to working normally. It registers both a drupal 6.3 in the status update page and when checking for updates. I did everything over just to be sure. So I'm guessing I did one of the steps wrong or in the wrong order. Thanks

usmankingo’s picture

usmankingo commented

Hi

i couldn't' understand about Drupal, What is it? Is it domain?

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

I can never understand these spammers. Seems their only goal is to post stupid questions and trick people into wasting time answering them. Happens on my sites too, same kind of mindless questions in broken english. How they benefit other than getting a laugh is a mystery.

Spammers, go away.

-- David
absolutecross.com