description
I want to create a new content type, like page or story... it will be called how-to or step-by-step. I need help choosing which modules to start out with, and ideas you have to make my plan better or easier.
how a user creates the content
First I fill out a title, then a brief description that will be used as the teaser when shown on front page or category pages. Next I will have a textarea, image upload, and buttons to either add another step or finish. the image will be automatically associated with the text of this step. No need to insert the image within the text with a special tag or anything, it will be an automatic two column layout for each step (text on one side, image in the other). If "add another step is clicked", then the process continues.
features
I'm not entirely sure but I think I would need flexinode with one or more of the image modules. Or maybe I can just use a modified image gallery. On the finished page, i'd like each step to be zebra striped. Each image should be compressed and scaled down so it's not too wide, clicking will launch the full size image. Or do you think it would be better for each step to have it's own page? Either way I want it to be easy for the user to print. If each step had it's own page, a print function would need to launch a new window and combine all the steps into zebra anyway.
edit vs. static
I dunno how easy it would be for each how-to to be edited once created, it would need to know how many steps there were, create that many text fields populated with the data, delete or change image, and have the option to delete or add steps. I'm thinking it would be easier to not allow editing, and compile the how-to as a basic .html file. Then create a wrapper to include the correct html page when viewing an article of that content type. This would help keep the load off with lots of php and db calls. To edit the how-to, you'd start from scratch (since nothing is in the db but the title and node number), and the published will overwrite the old how-to html file.
too complicated?
Is my idea too complicated? Should I just have one textarea, 20 image upload fields, then use [img 1], [img 2], etc to insert an image? something like cardomain. I wanted the automatic method I described so that the layout would always be the same and theres no way to screw it up, but if I limit creation to me and only a few people with moderator user access, then maybe?
your methods
I'm sure some of you had the need to insert images into your pages, stories, etc. And maybe some of you wanted an automatic layout as well. What modules did you use, and what tips can you give me?
