Was thread http://drupal.org/node/7246 : Is there a any tutorial somewhere?
I'm playing around with a test install, wondering if Drupal is the tool for me, and I noticed the need for a dictionary. I'd wonder what a theme was, search for it, and get 40 threads that mention themes. Finally asked if one existed and was pointed to http://drupal.org/node/937. It's a good start, but doesn't meet my needs.
So, here are my ideas written with my situation (which I doubt is unique) in mind.
1. Move the glossary to a higher level, visible directly from the Handbooks page, in the "About Drupal" section. Many of my questions started way back then. "Drupal is great because it allows modules / theme engines / roles / taxonomy..." So I looked up "module" and read about all sorts of modules and how to install and tune them.
1a. Is there a way to limit the Search feature to the handbooks or one section of the forums?
2. Remember readers like me will be reading the definitions. Non-programmer. Know some stuff about website management, but between PHP, Java, HTML, CSS, MySQL, and things unique to Drupal, suffering information overload. Not saying not to gear it to others, too; just keep "me" in mind.
3. Add the following (all things I either looked up or figured out for context or still don't understand).
page
story
category
vocabulary (and how category and vocabulary relate to taxonomy)
menu
page
link
anchor
role
database
CMS
PHP
MySQL
Denebian
Fantasico
skin (this definition might be as simple as "In Drupal, we call it a theme."
CSS
HTML
template (specifically, what's its purpose?)
(and the relationship between theme engine, theme, template, template engine, CSS, HTML)
border
XTemplate
PHPTemplate
URL
CleanURL
Base URL
When describing themes, engines, CSS, skins and templates, include their relationship to each other. (Or a link to where it does; I think I saw a partial description elsewhere.)
Also include an explanation (or pointer to one) of themes, engines, CSS, skins and templates.
I suspect some will think that, if you don't know what HTML is, you shouldn't be doing website design at all. I've included it for a few reasons: Even if the site administrator needs to know what it is, some of their contributors might not. Including stuff people already know builds their confidence: "I already know some of this stuff; this thing is friendly to people who know even less than I do."
The names of frequently referred to modules would also help. Just ten or twenty words saying what it does and if it's current / core / contributed (or a link to such a list). Yes, I could go to the module's page, but often I'd see a word, like "front-page" and not know if it was a module or a frequently-used variable or another program.
As I said, I'm not the person to write this section because I'd get most of them wrong, but I am a technical writer in my other life, specializing in manuals and procedures and testing them on unsuspecting end-users. I'd be more than willing to help someone who knows Drupal.
Cricket
Comments
I do not have much to suggest
I do not have much to suggest or recommend because this is my first post, but I agree and was at this very moment tempted to offer a similar suggestion.
I feel there's a lack of direction. I've spent my time reading over the Theme Developer's Guide frustrated at not knowing some of the terms (I eventually found a list of terms in another section). I feel the guides should point you towards a glossary -- as suggested by Cricket -- as a first step before you dive too heavily into the subject. I am not so much of a newbie that I do not know what HTML is. I am designer first and a developer... maybe a distant fourth.
Estevan Carlos Benson