Over the last several years I have built a number of sites using Drupal for a professor, and they worked great for his university courses. He could post the latest info, remind students of upcoming deadlines, distribute the syllabus, etc... and the students could comment on the course work, blog, etc...
Now I am considering using Drupal for a number of websites that are not really community based. The types of sites that I would like to use Drupal for include:
Facility: For instance a concert venue, or a hotel where you want to show a lot of images (not thumbnails, but decent size images) with text descriptions. I'm also wanting to build a site to showcase a house for sale.
Portfolio: For a fine artist, to show visual work... paintings, pictures of ceramics, etc...
What I like about using Drupal for these sites is that I can provide the client with a site that they can maintain themselves. These are not community based sites, but the idea of providing dynamic sites not require outside support for minor changes or even page additions is very attractive. It puts the power to manage a website into the hands of the site owner, so they don't have to rely heavily on ongoing support from a web designer.
My problem is that I have yet to figure out a way to create page layouts which nicely display text and photographs, and are configureble (ie every page doesn't have to have an identical layout).
I am only a light coder, with no php experience. I can modify CSS and hack themes a bit, but I'm looking for a way to create nice layouts for photo intensive pages without doing significant coding if possible, ie with modules and configuration. My experience with drupal is super positive, but limited. I've found some site designs that I really like, but haven't really found any that resemble what I'm trying to do... If anyone has ideas, or knows of sites simillar to what I'm looking for I would very much appreciate the feedback. Thanks much!!!
Comments
Welcome to the club...
...of druplized designers :)
Well, design isn't the strongest part of Drupal, but I hope to eventually master the theming issues I'm facing for more than five weeks now. Maybe we can set up a "designer's corner" which lobbies some design issues into Drupal vs. 5.1? Anyway, I prefer Drupal (a.k.a. secure, reliable code, and a helpful community) over a super flexible cms which keeps me waiting for months to get even the simplest problems fixed. But without getting into (at least) knee-deep coding you can't get the looks you're for. There are a few (three or four) sites which are quite different from the drupal mainstream and it seems it took quite some to get there. But this is the silver line on the horizon, somehow it was possible. Which keeps me busy to understand the way Drupal works and to get my theming right without falling into "Drupal agony" and doing sites "as good as it could get".
OK, not that helpful, but maybe enough motivation to keep trying.
All the best,
Norbert
Norbert
-- form follows function
drupal + design
Hey Norbert,
thanks for the reply... yeah, there are some cool drupal designs out there and I assumed you probably have to get into the code to build on that level. I think that the CKK and Views modules may be one way to configure the kind of pages I'm trying to create but I haven't gotten there yet.
Having a "designer's corner" sounds like a good idea to me... Maybe somewhere that better consolidated info for a design based approach. I've been through a decent amount of stuff in the handbook, and am watching the screencasts at http://dudertown.com/howto_classes which so far seem helpful for theming but...
I'm still hoping someone will read this post that has figured out a straight foward way to create pages that are good for showcasing photos with text, using semi-adaptable layouts :-) anyone?????
Just in case...
...you haven't seen it yet: There are tons of contributed modules, and maybe some work for you? acidfree seems to be a favorite, and image*. Well, I made some progress solving my most urgent problems and I will be in gallery stuff soon as well :)
All the best,
Norbert
-- form follows function
Norbert
-- form follows function
Drupal is extremely designer friendly
Huy guys. I recently built a Drupal powered photo site for myself: http://andreys.info
You may find some how-to leads in this blog post: http://andreys.info/blog/2006-10-29/photoblog-on-drupal
But on a general note I would say that Drupal is extremely designer friendly. PHPTemplate theme engine is brilliant. The whole process of creating a site or site design (theme) is quite easy if you know some basic Drupal principles and some basic PHP and CSS coding. I'm not a coder myself as well.
So don't give up and try to do something. The result will worth it. Really.
Cheers,
Andrey
Drupal Sites Showcase. Add yours! | My Blog
What photo gallery?
Andrew, what photo gallery (photo management module) are you using at ur website?
It's image.module only and
It's image.module only and no galleries so ever. All gallery like functionality is based on my custom theme styles and taxonomy. It is not an out-of-the-box solution. But I like it.
Cheers,
Andrey
Drupal Sites Showcase. Add yours! | My Blog
Thanx. BTW site looks nice
Thanx. BTW site looks nice ;)
sandbagging
In rock-climbing, exaggerating the ease of a climb (for the entertainment of those that will watch the unknowing victim struggle and suffer) is known as "sandbagging".
Drupal is hardly what I would call designer-friendly. Drupal has a very big learning curve for designers. Even those coming from other CMS's, like TextPattern for instance, will find Drupal to be confusing and difficult to work with. To say that Drupal's theme system is "brilliant" is completely laughable.
Steven, you are right
Steven, you are right someway. Themeing for Drupal really involves some learning curve. It presumes you know how Drupal (PHPTemlpate) themes works and some PHP general knowledge is a plus. And if you succeed to learn the style / philosophy of Drupal themes they are easy. Themes will not go straight out of PhotoShop of course.
For example the theme for Drupal like TextPattern.org use could be made in less then an hour (how long would I spend).
But it's quite personal and a matter of choice. Especially for designers. When I first switched to Mac from PC it was a pain for a couple of month. But now I could not imagine a person to use PC for web design / development. (But I know there a lot of out there).
custom drupal themes | my photoblog
Cheers,
Andrey
Drupal Sites Showcase. Add yours! | My Blog