By waddy on

say "thank you" to everyone on the forums?

My first drupal-enabled site went live this afternoon. I still have hair! :) I realize none of you knew I was picking your brains throughout this process, but that does not change the fact that my success is due, in large part, to all of you.

I still have an ungodly amount of static HTML content which needs to be cut/paste into the new site. I look forward into being more active in the forums once I come up for air. Until then: Thank you all very much for your help on the journey.

Comments

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

Welcome to the community. We look forward to your sticking around and helping others learn more as you do yourself.

-sp
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

waddy’s picture

waddy commented

It is probably pretty basic when compared to what others have done/are doing, but I'm still proud! http://cityofmarion.org

The site is based (very closely) on the friendselectric theme. I was thrilled to see a theme that already so closely matched the city's colors.

If anyone has suggestions and/or comments, I'd be happy to hear them.

Thanks again!

keith.stoddart’s picture

keith.stoddart commented

I have looked at your city of marion site and it loooks great. I wonder if you can help me. I am very very new to any sort of web programming and the only sites I have built have been what I call brochure sites (no interaction apart from a simple contact form).
Could you please give me some pointers on how to set up a forum site using the Drupal themes (which I assume are templates)?
I have downloaeded a couple form this site but when I open them in Dreamweaver MX they don't seem to do or show anything.
All help would be appreciated, even just a basic start would be great. Although it doesn't seem possible yet I do look forward to the day that I can give some of my epxeriences to this wonderful site and to the people at Drupal.
regards
Keith

waddy’s picture

waddy commented

Drupal = content management system (CMS)
Dreamweaver = content management system (CMS)
Although I could be completely wrong about this, I don't think the two were meant to be joined.

There is a module called "theme_editor" available for Drupal, it will allow you to see the various graphical theme pieces and upload altered versions. I found this module interesting, but not very effective in practice.

I don't think I'd call the drupal themes simple templates. They are much more like skins -- providing an overall environment for the content and interactivity. As such, themes can both expand and limit your options (showing/hiding mission statement - showing/hiding primary links - etc.)

I loaded about 10 themes onto the domain and then went through each one listing my likes and/or dislikes. I narrowed it down to two themes and began working on them both. One was a CSS theme and I began toying with it -- changing this, designing a new logo/header, nudging that. It was the same for the php-based theme I settled with.

Software types I used:
Text editor (for opening/editing php, txt, html, css)
Graphics Program (for creating/altering graphics for the site)
Telnet (for direct communication with the web server & DB)
FTP (to move new or changed graphics and files to the server)

That's it -- Putty, FTP, PhotoShop, Illustrator, Notepad
The rest was all accomplished in Drupal using its web-based system.

If you've never worked from the backend before, I'd suggest reading some CSS (cascading style sheet) tutorials and perhaps some advanced HTML coding tutorials. Those are good starting blocks. You could then load drupal on a test server and begin playing with CSS-based themes.

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

Very nicely organized.

You may wish to replace the favicon.ico Drupalicon with your ciies logo. Check out the event module as a replacemnet and to integrate your calander into the site.

For your city code, before you go to much further, you may wish to use the book module. The book module has the chapters, next/back features and the there are several enhancements for it in 4.7 that will aid in exporting the contents to other formats which will allow you to provide additional services in the future.

-sp
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

waddy’s picture

waddy commented

I moved the code over to the book module. That's really a better way to present the code & I can't wait to see how the next round of changes go... should make for a great history of the code as well.

Thanks!

I'll give the event module a look too. :)

boris mann’s picture

boris mann commented

We would love for you to add to our case studies by doing a write up of the process you went through -- what made you pick Drupal, what modules you used, how you did your theme design (some of that you answered in a comment already), and so on.

Congrats on your new site.