List of questions? | drupal.org

Posted by LCN2007 on March 11, 2009 at 3:47pm

Ok I im a drupal neewbie so i figure ill just throw one thread out to get all my newb questions out of the way or the first batch anyways.

Can someone explain "Node" better i looked in the arcronym/vocab area and only found nod.

I like the way Drupal.org has the top of the home page with three modules, can someone help me and tell me which modules they are using? I figure they are using panels to seperate the areas but what are the three modules inside there?

Is there a easier to understand Panels Document? I cant figure it out. I have it all installed just confused on how to use it.

How do i apply panels to my front page or homepage?

These are the questions that i have so far any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

~ Xen ~

Comments

Another noob!

Posted by allanmayberry on March 11, 2009 at 3:57pm

But i'll give it a go explaining what I understand to try and clear things up for you here (if you get more confused then I do apologise!)

Think of a node as a "page" if it makes it easier, you will notice that if you create a new Page/Story etc then it gets a default URL of mysite.com/node/1 (<-- the number will increment with each new node) These nodes can be give 'user friendly' URL's so you node/1 could become "about" or "links" etc.

Being new myself i don't know exactly how the drupal.org site is built, I don't want to explain what I think has been done and then get told im wrong :p

You may find Drupal a wee bit daunting at first but I urge you to persevere for the first week or so, you WILL start to get things and understand how things work, and this forum is a fantastic place to get any questions answered, and requset help with any issues you may have!

Hope I've been some help XD

Allan

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I wouldn't call a node a page...

Posted by Drupalace on March 12, 2009 at 4:01pm

With all due respect, and with appreciation for the friendly reply to the poster, I myself would caution a newbie to not think of a node as a page. I think making a clear distinction between the two is important for grasping Drupal!

I call a node "a piece of content". A story, article, review, poll, maybe something more exotic... but a piece of content, defined in the database with sensible fields (title, body, creation date, etc.).

A page, in turn, is created by Drupal from pieces like a header, footer, blocks, and - almost certainly - one or more nodes. There's one of the important differences between node and page: a node is created by a user as a unique entity with its own presence in the database, and doesn't change (unless further changed by a user, of course). A page is created on the fly by Drupal; unlike old-fashioned web pages, it doesn't exist as a file, or as anything in a database. Nodes are static and pages are dynamic. (I'm riffing here and could be going off track. Corrections welcome!)

FYI, some efforts of my own to define terminology:
http://www.drupalace.com/EDAM/terminology

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Your right....

Posted by allanmayberry on March 12, 2009 at 4:08pm

the only reason i said "page" specifically is because of a background with pure html (no cms etc) and generally everything created was a 'page' whether it be html/php/asp etc... I understand what you are saying though, and when I think about it your absolutely right, but this is how I first got my head around the term 'node', probably as I started by using them in their most basic forms i.e page, story etc.

apologies if I have caused any confusion here!

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Documentation

Posted by yelvington on March 11, 2009 at 4:01pm

Node: http://drupal.org/getting-started/before/terminology#node

Modules: http://drupal.org/getting-started/before/terminology#module

Blocks: http://drupal.org/getting-started/before/terminology#block

You can create custom blocks containing any arbitrary HTML. The Panels module also lets you create custom panes containing any arbitrary HTML.

Drupal lets you redefine the homepage. The default is /node, which lists all the nodes with "promoted" status. With Panels, you can create a new custom page with any layout you like, containing any content you like, then you can tell Drupal to use that as your front page.

If you want to create new blocks or panels that contain lists or other content automatically updated from the universe of nodes, comments, and users, you should install the Views module, which builds database queries without requiring you to learn any coding.

Thank you.

Posted by LCN2007 on March 11, 2009 at 8:58pm

Thanks Guys,

I appreciate not ripping me a new one for being new, im a quick learner though.

Im going to give it a go and let you guys know how I make out.

Thanks again.

USMC Veteran
" Freedom Has A Taste The Free Will Never Know. "

No problem

Posted by allanmayberry on March 12, 2009 at 12:49pm

If you have any more problems search the forums here, thats how I tend to figure anything out.

Allan

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http://www.totalholidayexperience.com
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