Come together with the global Drupal community in Rotterdam, 28 Sept – 1 Oct 2026. Sessions, contribution, connection, and Early Bird savings until 8 June.
By DirtRider on
Well before I start using Drupal I would like to find out if it will work for what I have in mind, hope this is in the correct area. Anyway I need a web site that is going to be a bit multifunctional. It will need to be able to do the following.
1. Firstly I need members to be able to post articles in the different area I will have. They would also need to be able to attach files to said articles. Also images may need to be inserted into the articles. Comments also need to be posted to these articles.
2. I would also need a photo gallery that would be able to support members making sub categories to the main categories. they would also need to be able to mass upload images.
3. I would also need some type of a file vault that software and documents could be uploaded to for future downloading. This would need an easy search function as it would contain a huge volume of documentation. The same idea as the gallery where members could create sub categories if needed. Also if possible to have private areas in the file vault that would only be accessible by flagged members.
That would be my main features that I would need. Just a few other questions I need to ask.
Is Drupal compatible with IE and how is the support structure here if I need help if any bugs or problems occur.
My apologies for sounding like I am giving the 3rd degree here but I am sitting in rather a bad situation right now. I am at a point now where I should be launching the site next week using another software only to find that as I reach the final stages I am having huge issues with it using IE. So looks like I will need to start it all from scratch
Comments
Drupal can do everything you
Drupal can do everything you outline above. You will need several contributed modules to manage image handling, photo galleries, and file management, but the modules exist and are quite reliable.
As for IE, what are you referring to precisely?
_
First, let me say right from the start that though drupal can do all you require, the idea that you could have this running with drupal by next week is highly unlikely. Drupal has a learning curve, and though I don't believe anything you describe will require custom code, it's going to take more than a week starting from drupal ground 0.
Having said that, here are the answers to your questions:
1. all part of core, though at this point i would recommend using the http://drupal.org/project/filefield module rather than core's upload module (filefield has replaced upload for d7). Comments and categories (or 'areas') are all part of core.
2. For photo galleries I recommend the method described by http://www.lullabot.com/articles/photo-galleries-views-attach and implemented via the http://drupal.org/project/views_gallery module. It's by far the most flexible and future proof way of doing it. For mass uploads you'll want to use http://drupal.org/project/swfupload or http://drupal.org/project/image_fupload.
3. Use filefields to attach files to nodes and create various node listings and custom searches with the http://drupal.org/project/views module. Private files can be handled a couple of ways, I use the method described at http://drupal.org/node/189239 but there are a couple of modules in the modules area as well.
IE compatibility has very little to do with drupal-- it's more a function of the css of your chosen theme. Core drupal css and js (which is based on the excellent jquery js library) is cross browser compatible.
Wow guys thanks for all the
Wow guys thanks for all the input so far, I will start working on it tomorrow. Yeah I know my chances of now having it up by next week are out the window I will now need a few weeks just to get up to speed with Drupal. Only then would I know what would be the best way to configure what I need out of it. I am glad to hear all I really need is possible. The software I was ready to launch next week started having issue not displaying content correctly in IE but Firefox it worked 100%. The menus on the left would appear below the main window on the left. It also would not display full articles that were posted but just stop without any menus showing on the left. I tried to ask for help on the support forum but nothing at all came out of it. So I realized that I now need to just cut my losses and move one so here I am lol
I have done a lot of work using SMF to date so I have a good idea how things come together so hopefully I will be able to get going ASAP with this.
Once again guys thanks for the prompt response to me questions
More Advice
Here is some more unsolicited advice:
As you start your Dupal journey you will realize that there are many fantastic themes for Drupal. I would reccomend staying away from those at first. I'm not saying you have to use Garland, the Default theme, (Although that's not a bad idea). I'm saying it might be best to choose a theme from the first couple pages when sorted by usage and inspect the issue cue closely.
There are a lot of fancy themes that don't support every Drupal feature and that can confuse a first timer. It sounds like you had issues with CSS on your last site, so you might want to use the Zen theme, which documents the css pretty well.
One more thing. There are some recipes and videos that explain step-by-step precisely how to do what you want. You might also want to browse the installation profiles to see if there is something that has many of the features you want. For Drupal 6:
http://drupal.org/project/installation%20profiles?filters=drupal_core%3A...
Good Luck!
A list of some of the Drupal sites I have designed and/or developed can be viewed at motioncity.com
Ah thanks for that I normally
Ah thanks for that I normally always get my sites up and running on a default theme, except now when using SMF as I know what works and dose not. The worst thing is I was using the default theme on my last go with the other software. This is what disappointed me so that no help was forthcoming with my issues, except for a lashing by the one guy when I mentioned I was in a bit of a sticky situation and needed some help (and this was after a week of waiting before I bumped the topic) lol
So right now I am open to any advice you guys can send my way. Always easer to get a good solid start in these things and to know what to look out for.