A central encyclopedia, with many blogs?

Nivelles - September 4, 2009 - 11:01

I know nothing about Drupal, except from reading a little on this website, and from checking around a little. I'm a total drupal noob. However, I've administered web forums, vBulletin and phpBB for years, so I do know some things about administering a website.

I'm planning a project that will need -

A central encyclopedia-type reference, with mostly static pages, which will be edited by registered users. I don't need the full fledged encyclopedia capabilities of MediaWiki, but I do need something that's pretty capable for building a multipage reference, with text, images, links, etc, and good organization. The encyclopedia reference size might possibly reach a thousand pages, but probably not much more than that, if it ever even gets that big. Initially, I plan on about 200 pages of reference material. It wouldn't be a general encyclopedia, but a specialized subject.

Then also, blog-type pages for individual registered users, or user groups, that link off of the central reference.

Also, some modest forum capabilities.

Maybe an example will help explain it.

Say if it concerned cars (which it doesn't, but that'll do for an example.) There would be the central encyclopedia of cars. A page for the Ford Mustang, a page for the Chevy Camaro, a page for Porsche, etc etc. Text and pics. Same thing as you'd expect for any encyclopedia. A few hundred pages of reference articles.

Then, linking off the Camaro reference page, let's say, I'd want a blog for the Camaro group (and group permissions for that.) Also then, individual blogs, such as "Joe's Camaro," if the individual user Joe wants to post some pics of his own particular car and talk about it on his own page (and individual permissions for individual blogs.)

So, again, I hope I'm explaining this well enough for people to understand what I need -

A central multi-page reference. Registered user permission to edit and add pages. No anonymous editing. Once created, the reference pages would be largely static, with some occasional editing.

Linking off the reference pages, some group blogs, needing group permissions. Could be dozens of blogs, or blog-type pages. Publicly viewable.

Linking either off the reference pages, or off the group blogs, individual blogs (or blog-type pages) with individual editing permissions. Need dozens of these. It'd be good if the individual, himself, could decide if his blog page will be public or private.

Then, as mentioned, some modest forum capabilities for discussion. It wouldn't need all the bells and whistles of vBulletin.

Also, an easy way to incorporate advertising would be nice, too, to pay the bill.

Another way to think of it, for what I need, consider an Invision or vBulletin board with the blog add-on, but in place of the forums at the center of it all, substitute a wiki instead.

So, can Drupal do that?

Short answer is yes. You need

kaakuu - September 4, 2009 - 12:13

Short answer is yes.

You need to download Drupal and do a test run, by activating the modules that come out of the box like Book, Blog etc.

The Book offers nice wiki like feature with some contrib modules like Diff, Talk etc.

I believe what all you say can be more or less done very easily. You have to download Drupal and the modules you need. Your requirements perfectly fit Drupal, and perhaps Drupal is the BEST solution as far as I can ubderstand tour needs.

Helpful links -
http://cwgordon.com/how-to-create-a-wiki-with-drupal
http://civicactions.com/blog/modules_for_building_drupal_wikis
http://groups.drupal.org/wiki

Yes

yelvington - September 4, 2009 - 12:17

Everything you describe is pretty straightforward and can be accomplished with core Drupal, without any additional modules, although you might want to add some enhancements from the contrib world, such as:

http://drupal.org/project/wikitools
http://drupal.org/project/diff
http://drupal.org/project/revision_moderation
http://drupal.org/project/talk
http://drupal.org/project/freelinking

etc.

_

WorldFallz - September 4, 2009 - 15:28

I agree with the other posters, I would just add that depending on the level of group functionality you need, you might want to also consider the http://drupal.org/project/og module.

_
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Ok, Thanks!

Nivelles - September 4, 2009 - 17:02

Thank you, and everyone for the quick replies, and the links.

I'll download Drupal and check it out. :)

 
 

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