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By adrianrodriguez on
Hi guys. I know you probably get sick of hearing this from other users, but I am completely new to Drupal. The main reason that I am wanting to get started on learning Drupal is because their are many clients that want some sort of cms for their website and unfortunately I have been losing them, because I have had nothing to offer.
I have heard that Drupal has an amazing community and being that I am just a web designer who knows only Xhtml and CSS I think having a community that I can get advice/help from would be the best direction for me to go in.
I start by asking the main question. What is the best place for me to start (from scratch) in learning Drupal? Some things to consider. I am in the process of learning php, but not enough to do anything with it. As of now I only know how to code Xhtml and CSS.
Thanks ahead of time guys.
Comments
Start in the Handbooks
http://drupal.org/handbooks
Install a local server (XAMMP or MAMP) and read all the beginner guides
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And watch lots of very good screencasts: http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/videocasts
Learn fast
Since you're losing clients, you may want to invest just a bit to learn your way in Drupal faster than average. For that I recommend purchasing Lullabot's video courses. There's one to get you up to speed on all the terminology and basics, and two to introduce and train you in the 2 most important modules in Drupal, CCK and Views. There's also a video course on Drupal on www.lynda.com
I can personally recommend http://www.doitwithdrupal.com/schedule/videos as well... worth the cost, as it gets you some great info direct from top developers who work on major Drupal sites.
There's also a lot of free videos, though you will have to sort through what you should watch, and may not learn things quite in the order or speed you require. Some places include:
http://learnbythedrop.com
http://gotdrupal.com
http://mustardseedmedia.com/podcast
http://drupaldojo.com
http://www.lullabot.com/videocast
There's also a variety of good books: http://drupal.org/books (you might like to start with "Using Drupal")
Yeah I'm fairly new to Drupal
Yeah I'm fairly new to Drupal too and have watched the free Lullabot videos along with the podcast. Very good for new learners. I try to listen to podcasts right before I go to bed, some of them put me to sleep faster than others, but when I'm actually listening, i'm learning something.
Hi Adrian, welcome to the
Hi Adrian, welcome to the community.
Speaking for myself: no, I don't get sick of people who are new to Drupal. The community should be very worried if there wouldn't be new developers coming in.
It's good that you're learning php. Some people like to think that you don't need to know any php to build a drupal site, but the truth is, the moment you need php will come sooner or later. I often recommend tizag.com for tutorials: http://www.tizag.com/phpT/. Note that you don't have to be a php expert before you start working with Drupal. Once you know the basics, you can expand your php skills on-the-fly.
Don't worry about asking questions on the forum or on irc; the community is here to help you. Just make sure that you search before you ask; lots of questions have already been answered. See http://drupal.org/forum-posting for more forum posting tips.
A local webserver like XAMPP is a good way to start. It will give you quick access to the files that make your drupal installation, so you can easily change things and see what happens. You'll learn a lot by reading books and watching video's, but I think it's just as important to get your hands dirty and play with a test site.
You can add functionality to your site by installing modules. Modules can be found on http://drupal.org/project/modules, but many people find www.drupalmodules.com an easier way to find the module you need.
Thanks for all the replies
Thanks for all the replies and help guys. I luckily have lynda.com access and found the Drupal videos on there. I have some experience installing content management systems locally. I was able to install Drupal thanks to the help of some friends and you guys.
I planned on dipping my hands into Drupal immediately especially trying to turn a design from just psd to xhtml/css and bring it into drupal.
Thanks for all your help so far and I will be pretty active on this forum, researching and getting some advice, feedback, and help from you guys. Thanks again.
Workflow
You're welcome.
Pesonally, I prefer a different workflow. The Drupal core and the modules generate html output which is, in general, good and useable code with lots of classes and id's. I consider it inefficient to turn psd into html+css myself, because I would also have to spend lots of time to make Drupal output exactly that html. Many drupal developers prefer to build a functional site first and do the theming afterwards. You just re-use the default html, override it when necessary and add your own css and images.
Awesome. Thanks for the tip.
Awesome. Thanks for the tip. I think that is what I meant to say. That I would be taking a design, turning it into Xhtml/css and then turn it into a theme for drupal. Thanks again for the help.
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For a good quick (10 mins i think) intro on how to turn a standard html/css theme (like the kind available on oswd) into a drupal theme see: http://www.mustardseedmedia.com/podcast/episode24
WOW...seriously, wow, thank you!
Just like the original poster, I am in the exact same situation. Experience with XHTML, CSS and some Javascript. I can look at PHP and can read a few tidbits. Casted variables, that's about it. Otherwise I can skim it and get a general idea of whats going on; what is being done with the data in a very elementary sense. Okay, babbling, sorry...
I gave Wordpress and Joomla! a go and it just didn't hit me right. It wasn't difficult to learn, but it was just not the way I wanted to work. First thing i read up on was how to create your own visual layout (theme, template, whatever) in Drupal. I was sold at that point. Then I went on to read the About pages and by the third paragraph my brain exploded not understanding what the heck was being said. After that I went ahead and got it up and running on my laptop with WAMP and started poking around. The verdict? Awsome Blossom with extra Awsome. I haven't been this excited since I started understanding how to use Jquery.
Just wanted to thank all the posters with the great links. Big confidence booster!
Mike, welcome to the
Mike, welcome to the community. Thank you for the feedback, it's nice to see someone as thrilled as I was myself when I started discovering Drupal. In fact, I still get impressed by awsome new features and nifty functions I didn't know yet. Happy drupalling.