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By graeme smith on
If I may, let me preface this post with some statements/ comments.
1:
I’m an idiot
2:
I know very little/ nothing/ something/ less than I think about Drupal
3:
I have ( so far):
Done an install of Drupal on my hosting service
Realised I put it in the wrong place
Removed Drupal from my hosting service
Installed it somewhere else
Installed it again in a different folder
Located and installed some modules
Gone into configure and enabled some modules
Wondered why the modules weren’t there
Gone into configure and enabled some modules and _saved_updates_ :-)
Located and installed some themes
Gone into configure and enabled some themes
Wondered why the themes weren’t there
Gone into configure and enabled some themes and _saved_updates_ :-)
Modified a theme
Wondered why the result looked so truly ugly/ non-functional/ unchanged
Removed the theme
Re-installed the theme
Modified the theme
Repeated the prvious 9 lines till I got a front page I actually wanted :-)
4:
Oh… did I mention I’m an idiot? :-).
There is a site/ concept I have in my head. It has a real world purpose, but of course I have no budget for it. So the alternative is to acquire a nervous breakdown doing it badly myself :-). Oh, well…. Sanity is over-rated anyway.
My overall question is, as is no doubt common in this forum, is Drupal a good/ potentially practical/ totally impractical tool for the purpose?
Ignoring my total lack of ability, experience, skill and intelligence, the overall concept/ structure would look something like that below. I now throw myself open to flames, outright laughter and words of wisdom! :-) :-).
SITE:
www.xyz.com
Site overview:
Desirable: Common look and feel/ theme throughout, with local variance to establish identity ( such as modified images/ banners/ logos)
Showcase author site
Two people ( AU1 and AU2) who write together, and sometimes as individuals.
Overall structure:
www.xyz.com
Front page. Hook text and image.
Second page : Who/ what they are.
Links:
AU1 and AU2 – writing together
AU1 – solo
AU2 - solo
In AU1 and AU2 together:
Front page. Hook text and image.
Links:
( No user personal fora or blogs)
Contact
Joint public Blog
Joint public discussion forum – anon can read, not post
Joint visible samples
Joint ‘ Work in Progress’ review/ comment section – login access required
Specific Work in Progress – per Book
Associated comments/ forum for users/ reviewers authorised for that Book
Blog for that Book
Joint event calendar
In AU1:
Front page. Hook text and image.
Links:
( No user personal fora or blogs)
Contact
Public Blog
Public discussion forum – anon can read, not post
Visible samples
‘ Work in Progress’ review/ comment section – login access required
Specific Work in Progress – per Book
Associated comments/ forum for users/ reviewers authorised for that Book
Blog for that Book
Event calendar
In AU2:
Front page. Hook text and image.
Links:
( No user personal fora or blogs)
Contact
Public Blog
Public discussion forum – anon can read, not post
Visible samples
‘ Work in Progress’ review/ comment section – login access required
Specific Work in Progress – per Book
Associated comments/ forum for users/ reviewers authorised for that Book
Blog for that Book
Event calendar
Possible structure:
www.xyz.com: Drupal install
www.xyz.com/AU1-AU2: Drupal install
www.xyz.com/AU1: Drupal install
www.xyz.com/AU2: Drupal install
All have the same theme locally installed, but all can have independent data
Local install to www.xyz.com is likely overkill, but keeps the technology consistent
Comments
> My overall question is, as
> My overall question is, as is no doubt common in this forum, is Drupal a good/ potentially practical/ totally impractical tool for the purpose?
Yes, I think it is a good tool for this purpose. I'm not sure your structure idea is necessary, but overall, I think Drupal is a good choice. But there certainly is a steep learning curve to figure out how to get it to do what you want. :)
Structure...
My thanks for the response :-).
The structure was/ is, in essence, likely a product of the combination of my laziness and also lack of experience/ skill/ talent/ good looks... OK. Scrap the good looks thing. It's true I lack them, but that lack lacks relevance to the need :-)).
In essence, the site would be three things, or three incarnations of one thing. Both of us as a writing team, and each of us as solo writers. But I'm both lazy and boring. We would maintain the same theme throughout, but with different content. Thus, if ( being lazy) I went and got hold of theme Artichoke, that theme might well have a Banner, where we could display a suitably dramatic image. But likely we would want a different image, though releated, for ' both of us' versus ' one of us' and ' the other of us'. Consistent theme, varied content such as Banners, Logos etc.
Additionally, there would be Administration to consider. The people we granted permission to look at ' both of us' work in progress might be different from the people we wanted to look at ' one of us', which might be different again for ' the other of us'. And while the differences might be achievable through ACLs within a single structure, it might well be that the Administrator for all ' one of us' stuff might be different from the Administrator for all ' the other of us' stuff. That was why I considered three installations. Content could then be similar but different, role holders ( such as admin account holder) could then be different.
Of course, the approach has its own issues :-). Issues like:
If someone registers in one zone ( ' both of us', ' one of us', ' the other of us') can we, at our option, let that registration appear in other zones?
Can we arrange for a single login that transparently passes through other zones?
Other issues. Issues such as:
I have no idea how to do it. Yet.
I have no budget to _pay_ someone to do it, or to show me how.
Oh... and:
I'm an idiot :-).
But again, my thanks for the response, and the tolerance it displays for one with a habit of reaching beyond his ( current) grasp! :-).
---
The Idiot
or
Jack's shadow
or
Charlie's Driver
CCK, Taxonomy, Views, A Profile Module, Display Suite or Panels
Inorder to get the structure that you want, I would use taxonomy. Make it multi-select. Only one install that way. Then you can have each author associated with each work that they worked on. You might need node reference or user reference to link things to the author
Makes hurried notes....
Of:
Taxonomy
Multi-select
Node reference
User reference
... and adds them as map marks for his next footprints along the old, weathered trail sign-posted ' Drupal Learning Curve' :-).
My thanks indeed. I shall add those to my ' look for stuff on these' lists.
I'd figured I'd have to understand taxonomy... even if I didn't know _exactly_ what Drupal intrended by it yet. Everybody has their own Cheshire Cat, and Drupal is no different ( apologies for the Alice reference :-) ).
Certainly only needing one install would be of use.. though I still don't as yet see how I can have a theme with multiple banners or logos. Though that might be either the theme I'm test-playing with or simply my own poor and lacking wit.
---
The Idiot
or
Jack's shadow
or
Charlie's Driver
You can
make logos change by placing the logo in a block and setting the path for when it is visible.
Header images can be done with the following module.
http://drupal.org/project/headerimage
> My overall question is.....
> My overall question is, as is no doubt common in this forum, is Drupal a good/ potentially practical/ totally impractical tool for the purpose?
Many people, (with little or no CMS knowledge/experience) who hit upon drupal, jump in thinking getting a website 'out there', is simple.
True, there are a lot more resources available now, that will make the setup process easy for you, but be prepared to set some time aside, as initially drupal is a 'learning curve', like all CMS applications.
The first thing i would ask anyone wanting to build a website from scratch is:
Do the client requirements merit using a CMS such as drupal?
Don't get me wrong! nowadays drupal is used even as a simple blogging site, but if you want to showcase a clients work and have time constraint issues for the website going live, yet don’t have time yourself to learn the basics of drupal, then be prepared for a rough ride.
But once you weather the storm, getting to grips with drupal is not difficult at all. (When i started drupal, i had no knowledge of CSS or PHP, and that was only a year ago!). Crazy as it may sound, you actually begin to love drupal.
Just don’t expect the visual results of drupal themes and modules to dazzle you! The reason why some websites in drupal look good is because a lot of time and effort went into the look and functionality of the site.
My advice would be:
Installing Drupal On a Localhost
http://learnbythedrop.com/drop/95
Installing Drupal on your domain
http://help.justhost.com/video/drupal/drupal52_install.htm
Have fun!
On advantages... and otherwise :-)
Ridwan
Your points are well made and apt. I do, however, have some small advantages :-).
First, there is no deadline. It helps to be one of the writers concerned.
Second, the choice sequence was pretty much:
1:
Would a showcase site be an idea?
A: Yup, it would be an idea.
2:
Would it be a _good_ idea?
A: that depends on the site, whether we had anything to showcase, many factors.
3:
How could we get it quick?
A: By spending money.
4:
Would we get what we wanted?
A: If we spent a little money, likely not. If we spent a medium amount of money, probably not. If we spent a _lot_ of money... maybe.
5:
Er.. do we have a lot of money?
A: Nope.
6:
Hmmmm. Is one of us a masochist who messes around with things just because they're there and has a real problem quitting on anything?
A: Oh, what the heck.... :-).
At the moment, the concept is real, the exercise is more a matter of ' I wish I was better at resisting challenges'.
Do I expect to be able to do this quickly? Nope. Do I expect to be able to do this? For some vlaue of ' this'... sure! Will it ever be ' real' and live? Well... that depends on the vlaue of ' this'. The easy bits are easy, the hard bits are... whatever bits you haven't found easy yet and done :-).
I went in one weekend from never having heard of Drupal to a test front page. Yes, its just a front page. It's not the writer site, its just a skunk test site. Not valid... but its a start :-).
Do I love Drupal? Not yet. Do I like it? To no small degree, yes. The rest? We shall see....
As ever, my thanks indeed for your comments and words.
---
The Idiot
or
Jack's shadow
or
Charlie's Driver