By toshiro-1 on

I've managed to install Drupal 4.4.0 in Debian sid, but whenever I try to setup a site I got pretty lost very quickly :) ; the documentation in drupal.org is inappropriate to learn the product; anybody knows if there is a tutorial that explains step by step how to setup a simple site?

Thank you,
Toshiro.

Comments

carl ditzler’s picture

carl ditzler commented

Administrator's guide to Drupal

gundee’s picture

gundee commented

I think they were looking for something more concise.

robert castelo’s picture

robert castelo commented

If you have specific questions, post them to the forum, someone will usually be able to help.

Your questions will eventually shape the documentation.

------------------------------------------
Drupal Specialists: Consulting, Development & Training

Robert Castelo, CTO
Code Positive
London, United Kingdom
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toshiro-1’s picture

toshiro-1 commented

The problem is that I don't know where to start, I've wandered over the different administrator's options trying to define a simple site and I don't really know how each part of the stuff I define relate to each other, the result look very confusing to me; maybe if I follow a tutorial I could see the way it should be used. To summarize: I don't see the whole picture :)

To give you an example:
I've noticed I can define pages and nodes, how do they relate? Also, I can define vocabulary, what's the relation between vocabulary items and pages? Can I define a vocabulary as a secondary link? If yes, how?

Regards,
Toshiro.

carlmcdade’s picture

carlmcdade commented

The end-user manual at www.fireorb.org explains a few things like vocabulary and some other items. But it really needs to be complimented.
---------------------------
www.hivemindz.com (running PHP5)
www.fireorb.org (documentation and hacks)
__________________________
Carl McDade
Information Technology Consult
Team Macromedia

Cricket-1’s picture

Cricket-1 commented

A dictionary containing at least the following words would be a big help to me, and probably other new users. Yes, it's quite a mix of basic and general and specific terms.

node
page
story
taxonomy
category
vocabulary
block
module
menu
page
link
anchor
role
database
CMS
PHP
MySQL
Denebian
Fantasico
template
engine
theme
skin
CSS
HTML
border
XTemplate
PHPTemplate
URL
CleanURL
Base URL
core
contributed

I suspect some will think that, if you don't know what HTML is, you shouldn't be doing website design at all. I've included it for a few reasons: Even if the site administrator needs to know what it is, some of their contributors might not. Including stuff people already know builds their confidence; I already know some of this stuff; this thing is friendly to people who know even less than I do.

The names of frequently referred to modules would also help. Just ten or twenty words saying what it does and if it's current. Yes, it's possible to use the search feature every time I have a quick "what is" question, but that brings up lots of forum threads and all sorts of other stuff that distracts from what I was reading in the first place.

Also, a way to limit the search to the "short" answers or the main manuals would be useful. When I look up "taxonomy", I usually want a description, not twenty threads that contain the word.

Cricket

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

Please start a new thread.
http://drupal.org/node/21951

-sp
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

toshiro-1’s picture

toshiro-1 commented

I completely agree with you gundee!
I couldn't have answered any better ;)

ixie01’s picture

ixie01 commented

Sometimes it is really difficult to take those first few steps in the dark. We need a step by step simple tutorial just to get us started.

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

Before you install or what to do after you install Drupal?

-sp
---------
Test site...always start with a test site.

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

ixie01’s picture

ixie01 commented

Installation was pretty straight forward, but now I'm lost because I just don't know where to start. The terminology is all foreign to me (node, taxonomy, and so on). True, I can find the definition of these things but it does not help me get started. I really believe a very simple 3 or 4 page tutorial illustrating step by step how to create a ficticious site would keep a lot of people from becoming frustrated and moving on to another cms. Moreover, the more people that use Drupal the better for everyone, even the guys wanting donations for the product. It is hard to believe that anyone would risk losing so many potential users just because nobody will write a simple tutorial to at least demonstrate the core installation and get people on the right path. I realize this is an inherent problem with open source but it is a shame to let what appears to be a very good application go to waste. I vow that if I figure this thing out before I get frustrated and move on that I will write such a tutorial and make it available to the community. Now I'm going to the "new Site Check List" as posted here and give that a try.

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

Well, I will try to write a 'quick start' now what guide this weekend for the handbook. I have been meaning to do this for some time in any case.

-sp
---------
Test site...always start with a test site.

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

boris mann’s picture

boris mann commented

Check our new site checklist as well as the admin guide.

ixie01’s picture

ixie01 commented

I haven't completed studying your site completely but it is the best information I've come accross yet. I highly reccomend that others finding themselves confused about "where to start" to visit your site. Thanks for the time and effort you have put into it.

cel4145’s picture

cel4145 commented

It has a config wizard that will do most of the work for you. Then, take a look at this configuration documentation that I co-developed to go along with it (note this site is temporary, so if you find it useful, you might want to use the printerfriendly version link on this page to save a copy of it).

crunch42’s picture

crunch42 commented

Here's a really good tutorial I found online on setting up a simple Drupal site. This is a large Shockwave file. This tutorial emphasizes Drupal as a news-feed type of site more than as a corporate type site with static pages, but even if you're needing to set up a static page type site it's still very useful for covering the basics. http://www.benslade.com/drupal/

failure’s picture

failure commented

NO

There is no walkthrough that goes past the very basics. I checked out http://support.bryght.com/adminguide/new-site-checklist hoping to find something comprehensive but, alas, when it gets to taxonomy it's as vague as all the other documentation. I think the focus is obviously 'community' orientied. For those that don't have the need for blog, forum, RSS, interactive story, and commenting, these 'features' just get in the way. All I've been trying to do is set up the front page with an events list and a small menu to some other static pages, and after wresting with the events and article modules for hours I still didn't get anything workable. Although I need a SERIOUSLY generic site, apparently that is too specific for Drupal. With total lack of coherent documentation, I don't see how anyone gets off the ground with this thing. I, personally, don't have time to go back and forth in a forum asking every question I get. The whole point of me moving to CMS is to get some of the web authoring burden off myself and let other staff be able to publish. If I can't figure this out I don't see how my users can.

infin8’s picture

infin8 commented

I agree that many users could benefit from a quickstart guide of some sort. Being new to drupal myself, I found it quite difficult to get a simple site started, even as an experienced mambo/joomla user as well as various opensource forum systems. I'm still in the process of making my forum act like a forum (phpbb, smf, etc) rather than a blog/comment system.

Furthermore, even after reading the entire help section (and Bryght's guide) over taxonomy, I am still in the dark about the whole concept. It's starting to make sense, but I need to spend more time with trial and error. I'd like to compile a tutorial myself, once I have a better understanding of the system.

Earths Daughter’s picture

Earths Daughter commented

Try here:

http://drupal.org/node/31896#comment-55747





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