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By xenoxero on
I was told that Drupal is an easy to use, user friendly very open standard. I have a pretty solid knowledge of html concepts, a slow but good understanding of css, and I work in the internet industry, albeit not as a programmer. I have operated my own personal website for 9 years, and have helped many other make slight improvements to theirs.
It has been exceedingly hard just to create a simple website using Drupal. I have tried to follow so many different guides and I am never satisfied with what I get in return for my time. Its all but impossible to find a beginner's guide to Drupal. Almost any information you can find is provided by people who want your money. The Drupal site requires you to read mountains of pages to the extent that I feel I would be better off just reading php and css manuals.
Am I really the only one to experience this? Is there anyone who doesn't live in php and javascript all day that has found this not to be a good fit for them? I really wanted it to work, because I've been unable to find a platform that allows me to have the customization that I need, without needing to build a site from scratch, but in getting to know the Drupal platform, it feels like I would have to build the site from scratch anyway.
Comments
Easy?
Whoever told you Drupal was easy to use didn't know what they were talking about. :) Drupal is extremely powerful but it's not simple. It does take work and, usually, a lot of reading. If you want well written getting started guides, books such as Using Drupal are your best bet. No, they aren't free, but they are a small investment to get something that is professionally written that will guide you through each step.
Michelle
There are some affordable options
Hi,
Sorry you feel that way, but really there are several options. First stop reading and start doing by getting a test site set up and running. Things will come much easier when you do that. See the
Drupal Cookbook for that at http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/tutorials/beginners-cookbook.
Second, there are two services that make getting a drupal site up and running much easier. Both are paid services but affordable, especially the latter. The first is Acquia Drupal and the second is Drupal Garden.
Also see my post which will provide some insights on site building with Drupal. http://drupal.org/node/701698
Hope this helps
to many links on a help page
to many links on a help page can confuse newbies.
what happens is you start reading then there is a link then you start reading on that page and there is another 100 links and you read that page and your clicking another page and before its all said and done your a mess because you didnt understand how it was done.
HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE
page 1 NO LINKs
when you read page 1 then you go to page 2 NO LINKs
start from the beginning and work your way threw with out throwing some one off by posting links all over in a help file.
or have a help file with HIDE all links or SHOW all links
videos tutorials are 80 times better to under stand then a web page with links all over it
Agreed
I agree. In a recent talk I gave I mentioned that the handbooks are a wealth of information, but to not go read them all at once. You'll definitely get overloaded.
The best way to start is to pick a project, learn the terminology (glossary page), and ask questions while you're planning out your content.
I feel your pain and
I feel your pain and frustration. Drupal is a great framework to base your web presence upon but the learning curve is surely steep. Its however worth noting that the benefits that come with some mastery of the tool far outweigh the steep curve in acquiring the skills to use it.
I would recommend you start by checking out a few screencasts from http://www.lullabot.com/ . I woud also strongly recommend that you invest in a book called 'Using Drupal' from O'Reilly. Its one of the greatest books I have seen that targets people with a working knowledge of web technologies but not programmers per say.
I feel your pain as well
I am a newbie to Drupal and I have spent hours going back and forth trying to figure out how to do things. I think I got ahead of myself and got lost.
I have built sites in Joomla! and I like Drupal better. There are times when I want quit them all. I think the reward of learning Drupal will out-weigh the current frustration.
It seems to me that the easiest things in other programs like editing and placing content are unnecessarily difficult in Drupal.
=-=
editing content is difficult? Could you further elaborate, please? As I have to presume you mean something other than clicking on an edit tab in a piece of content.
placing content, again could you elaborate please? If you mean in lists, other than the default front page river of news type list, taxonomy generates lists of content based on terms. Therefore you choose a term and the content is placed in that list. Otherwise, more complex lists can be created with the views.module
Though, I've no idea if either of these is what your statement is meant to convey.
Editing Issues
Here is a good example of my frustration. I cannot find a simple way to load an image into my text. I used CKEditor and the image was there in the edit page but there was no image after it was saved.
Another thing that troubles me is below.
I keep getting this error
"The directory /tmp/image does not exist.
Import path: *
The directory to import image nodes from. Drupal will need to have write access to this directory so we can move the file.
Note: a path begining with a / indicates the path is relative to the server's root, one starting without specifies a path relative to Drupal's root. I.e. /tmp/image would be the temp directory off the root while tmp/image would be inside Drupal's directory."
The path exists relative to the root but I still get the error message. Any other program will allow a copy/paste function that is simple. I don't see that, or haven't found it, in Drupal. I like it but maybe I need a much greater depth of knowledge to use it. I have 14 websites to build and I keep getting stuck on the "little" things.
Can you recommend a book for beginners without programming experience?
Editing Plus
>> the image was there in the edit page but there was no image after it was saved.
It is likely that the node you are saving this does not support HTML. Look under the CKEditor window -- there is a twirl down for Input Format. Make sure it is Full HTML.
>> I keep getting this error...
Your Directory problem is probably a permissions issue. Not the internal Drupal permissions, but the server permissions on that folder. What are they set to?
>> Can you recommend a book for beginners
Using Drupal was good for me. No need to be a coder for that one. Pro Drupal Development is a bit higher end. Probably get great at CSS and PHP before reading that one.
>>I have 14 websites to build and I keep getting stuck on the "little" things.
If you have that many project in the pipeline, you should be in a position to hire someone to help you out. If you follow along on IRC you can find really smart, helpful people. There are also great people here on the board. Many of them are booked, but you can ask.
A list of some of the Drupal sites I have designed and/or developed can be viewed at motioncity.com
nothing is free
One way or another you have to "pay to play" in the form of time (i.e. experimenting, researching, figuring stuff out on your own, etc.) and/or out-of-pocket money expense (i.e. resources, consultants, etc.)
It all depends on your aptitude, time and budget.
A good book might be all you need, assuming you are already familiar with web site building concepts and just need some guidance on how to "do it with Drupal".
You might consider hiring a consultant to help you build a basic site and teach you how to configure everything.
If you need lots of hand-holding than Drupal is definitely NOT the CMS for you. You might consider a commercial CMS (like Expression Engine) that provides technical support.
It's like the saying goes, "It's not the wand, but the magician."
Or a combination of the above
As someone who has just crossed over the one-year mark of USING Drupal, I agree with everything that has been said. I had many, many close calls that left me wanting to walk away from the whole thing. But I am glad I stuck with it. The shift from Static HTML to creating a framework for dynamic content was HUGE (and painful). It took a lot of learning and my brain is still sore. And I realize I am still closer to basecamp than the summit.
The 'Using Drupal' book is an excellent recommendation. There are also many great screencasts around, and digging in and mucking around with your own site is a fantastic idea. I have also gotten good answers to specific questions both here and on IRC.
When I started, I was in a position where I was working on a paying project. So I had no choice but to learn it. Luckily there was enough money in the budget for me to hire a consultant to help me out. Thankfully he knew enough to get me through it and was patient enough to explain what he was doing. That was probably the biggest help. But make no mistake, if you just know some HTML and a bit of css and use Dreamweaver, the switch to Drupal will require about 200 hours of learning.
A list of some of the Drupal sites I have designed and/or developed can be viewed at motioncity.com
Totally agree, look into Drupal Gardens
if you can't make that commitment. See http://www.drupalgardens.com/
Thanks
That Drupal Gardens link is useful. It looks like building sites in D7 will be a whole lot easier.
A list of some of the Drupal sites I have designed and/or developed can be viewed at motioncity.com
I have the same knowledge as you
I read tones of documentation. At the same time I was DOING things, by installing drupal and ...testing it as a powerful platform it is.
I do not understand your problem. Seriously. And I do not understand why you said this
"Almost any information you can find is provided by people who want your money"
I have written documentation for drupal and I did not ask anybody to give me any money...
anyway. I think that the best thing for you to do, is to have someone help you (someone that you know in real life) with the installation and the explanation of the confusing parts of drupal CMS.
good luck!
and remember, nothing is worth feeling disappointed of :D cheer up!
Mmm... I don't see drupal to
Mmm... I don't see drupal to be hard or something it just have it's own flawe. Try Typo3 and you see whats hard :).
Anyways yes learning curve is a bit of overhelming, but you just have to get a good book and finish it up then start your project.
After that you will feel that you need something more or you can't handle your ideas. Go get next level book.
When i first arrived to drupal.org for my copy of drupal i just tought it would be easy as install and start your website, but ofcourse it was not like so :).
So i might say that everyone here has been trought the same as you and once you pass this condition you can make some pretty neat stuff.
Good luck with learning Drupal!
It's not the easiest thing to
It's not the easiest thing to learn but once you get the hang of it there is nothing better. Just stick with it...
It's worth it!
I whole heartedly identify with the way you are feeling. I felt the same for a good while. The learning curve is steep, but once it clicks, you'll never look back, the investment is so worthwhile...
I use Drupal for all my sites now.
Good luck!
Drupal Web Designers Surrey South East England www.lightflows.co.uk
Once you are used to Drupal
Once you are used to Drupal, it may become your favorite tool. It will take couple of days to learn basic of Drupal for a newbie. I took around 3 months to learn basic of Drupal.
Even many times I was disappointed with Drupal, whenever I stuck somewhere and fail to find a solution. I uninstalled Drupal and try other cms. I did it 30-40 times in last 3 months. But I always come back to Drupal. :-)
From the first day of learning Drupal, I was building my site from scratch (as I wanted my new Drupal website should have the same old HTML site design). It was my big mistake, as I know only basic of HTML.
My second mistake was installing many modules. Whenever I find a new module name, I installed immediately. I wasted a lot of my time to learn unwanted modules for my website. I could not concentrate to build my website. On a shared host with a limited memory size, my site was very slow in Drupal. I installed around more than 50 modules in my first week with Drupal.
My third mistake was not to select a right theme. I was always dreaming to build my old design in Drupal, without knowledge of Drupal theme designing, basic Drupal administration knowledge and PHP.
It is not hard to create a simple website using Drupal. Once you install Drupal, you have a simple website with you. You have in built security and powerful admin without writing a single code.
Before starting with Drupal or any other CMS, first learn about what is a CMS (Content Management System) and why we need it.
Please try Drupal once again with a right theme. Give one or two weeks for learning Druapl. Before designing your own design, please try 10-15 ready made Drupal themes and learn how these themes work in Drupal.
Good luck.
Nihonsei