By joshmbuck on

Hello,

I am starting to build a new personal website. I've been running a personal blog for several years on Wordpress, but I want this site to have a little more going on, so I thought I'd use Drupal for it.

I see the new site having 4 pieces that will essentially be separate sections: a blog, a photoblog, the main page (and a few below), and an elaborate "about" page (with resume and some other features). While I'd like there to be a unified look, I'd also like each to have its own theme and feel.

As such, I'm not sure if it's best to run different software for each (which would defeat the point of installing Drupal), running each section as a an independent site through multisites, or if I can do it all through the themes.

I'm am not really a computer savvy person, and while I understand the basics, I'm not very knowledgeable on php or css....but I'm interested in learning.

Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions.

Josh

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

john.kenney’s picture

john.kenney commented

these forums seem to work best if you ask fairly direct questions.

perhaps try to rephrase.

would these be different urls? same url?

'unified look' and 'own theme and feel' sound sort of opposite to me so hard to visualize what you have in mind.

functionally drupal can do the things you want - blog, etc.

as a small bit of advice, i'd go simpler first and then get complicated, especially if you aren't computer savvy. meaning get them all working with one look and feel, then add the design bells and whistles.

reason for going simple is that drupal is a fairly complicated thing to learn and better to achieve something simple and then build from that than to try for something too complex and never get it working.

given how flexible and modular drupal is, once you get something working then you can tweak and refine and change to your heart's content.

especially since the 'functionality' and the 'look and feel' are controlled, in some sense, by two reasonably different parts of drupal - i.e., core/modules for functionality, themes/css for look and feel.

joshmbuck’s picture

joshmbuck commented

Thanks for the response. Right now I envision them all being the same url and using subfolders...but I'm not opposed to unique URLs. The problem is that I can't find a free URL I like for the photoblog.

The thing is, I have found the themes that I want to use for each section, I'm just not sure how to put them all together. Again, if it's multisites, then I need to figure out how to get them working...if it's multi themes, then I need to figure how to get Drupal to read different themes for different sections, and if it's multi installs, then I need to get a bigger hosting account.

I don't think they are necessarily opposite...you can have an overall design concept and still have different elements (for instance, you could have the same colors and accent colors running throughout, or you could have the same icons across the different sections).

I know that Drupal can do all the things I want to do -- that is why I want to use it -- I'm just not sure how best to do it...if that makes sense.

No, I'm definitely not a programmer, but I think I may have sold myself short a bit. I've been running several other sites for several years now, and have taught myself how to get them moving the way I want.

And that may address why I want to go with the harder things...I like to learn new stuff...I like the challenge, but I still need help and guidance, which is why I'm posting here :)

Thanks again for the response.

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

Probably the easiest way to do this would be to use the core taxonomy module and set up a "sections" vocabulary with 4 terms (one for each "subsite"), then use http://drupal.org/project/pathauto and/or http://drupal.org/project/subdomain to create different urls for each "subsite", and use http://drupal.org/project/sections to give each section it's own theme.

It doesn't really sound like you need to worry about the complexities of a multisite install-- you basically just want a different look. You don't mention authenticated users-- with the setup above, users just have to register once for all the sites. If you want different users to have access to different parts of the site, you can use the http://drupal.org/project/taxonomy_access module. If you want to have completely separate users/registrations, then you probably want to go the multisite route.

===
"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

joshmbuck’s picture

joshmbuck commented

thanks for the comment. You are right...I'm not looking to have different users have different access...and I'm definitely not looking to give write access to anyone...this is purely a visit and read what I post website.

I will have a look at the links you sent and get back.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

Josh