My head is swimming with all the information I've tried to absorb over the last few days. I've looked at several CMS systems and even considered building something myself, but I figured that if I can at least get a pre-made "core," my time will be better spent customizing that core rather than coding from scratch.
I've ruled out just about every other CMS, due to them not being extensible/flexible enough. So far, Drupal is the only one I haven't been able to rule out immediately. But I'm not sure if it'll do what I need, with a reasonable amount of effort on my part.
I have a potential client who owns an entertainment agency, booking everything from clowns and magicians to comedians and stripping telegrams. Her web site has been built up slowly over the last 10 years, page by page, in HTML. She is well into the thousands of pages now, and has smartly decided to move to a database driven design.
Here are the basics:
We'll need to have about 7 different "levels" in the hierarchy, with a different template for each level.
- Main "Splash" page, an attractive, highly graphical front page with all our current promotions and specials, leading to...
- Master Category Page, with listing of all available categories and a clickable thumbnail image for each category, leading to...
- Each Category's Main Page, with listing of all the entertainers in that category and a clickable thumbnail image for each entertainer, leading to...
- Individual Entertainer's page (version 1), with all their stats and bio info, as well as 1-4 larger photos
For some, that will be the last page, but for others, there will instead be:
- Individual Entertainer's page (version 2), again with all their stats and bio info, but this one has several more clickable thumbnail photos showing all of the different characters they play, leading to...
- Individual "Persona" pages, one for each character
In certain rare cases, we will also need:
- A completely different template that looks a little more like a mini-web site within our own web site. For example, the fire performers and the trapeze artists each have their own little 4-5 page web site within our site, having their own menu buttons down the left side and the troupe's logo/header graphic across the top.
I know this is a lot to wrap your head around. Just trying to come up with some way to classify the different types of templates we'd need was mind-boggling. Trying to explain it sight unseen is even worse.
Anyway, my main concerns are whether:
1) We'll be able to accommodate all these different types of templates within Drupal
2) We'll be able to make extensive use of thumbnail images throughout the site, since pretty much EVERY menu item is going to have an (approx.) 70x90 px thumbnail graphic associated with it
3) We'll be able to insert 1-4 larger photos on each entertainer's profile page, or 5-10 clickable thumbnail images of their various personas
4) And this one's a big question - Whether we'll be able to make each entertainer a "member" of several different Categories, and have links back to all of those categories on his page (i.e.: an entertainer who is in the Clowns, Magicians, Singing Telegrams and Comedians categories will be in the database once, but will be accessible via all four categories, and have links back to all four categories on his profile page)
5) Last but not least, does Drupal output pages in a truly SEO friendly manner? She's got awesome SE rankings right now and wants to lose as little rank as possible.
From what I've read, it sounds like we may be able to use the "Profile" module and just add our own custom fields to store all the entertainers' stats and bio info... But then, is it possible to pull this information from the database and insert it into the templates I've described above, and to create categories that will display as I've mentioned here?
Any info would be greatly appreciated. Also, if there is a different module that will serve this purpose better than the Profile module, please let me know and I will look into it.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
-Veronica
Comments
* Last but not least, does
* Last but not least, does Drupal output pages in a truly SEO friendly manner? She's got awesome SE rankings right now and wants to lose as little rank as possible.*
There are possible ways
1. According to Drupal SEO expert, you use `URL alias / Path alias ' for legacy URLS which means that URLS from old HTML articles are created in Drupal
(But I donno if example /article.html can be made as an alias with the dot and html extension)
2. Install in a new folder instead of the main folder. Link from the existing index.html to pages and user profiles to Drupal sections
3. Redirect, from http://domain.com to http://domain.com/index.php or http://domain.com/drupal/ where /drupal is the name of your new Drupal system
(Can be any name)
4. Use `Error 404 Search page' module so that any page not found is taken care of by Drupal system - it searches for related or similar titles/path
*I'd say give about 2 weeks before Google found the Drupal system (pointed from index.html) and after that, wham, impressive, hopefully :)
There is BIO.module
There is BIO.module
Also MySpace kind of module (but for Drupal 4.6.x) you might want to take a look at - search Google for `Drupal MySpace module'
http://www.drupalution.com/
Drupal--the sophisticated engine that could
You might want to look at this site. It was recently a featured article on Drupal.org's front page.
http://www.mtv.co.uk
It is very graphics intensive and powered by Drupal
http://drupal.org/node/81898
The short answer is YES.
But it will take careful planning.
What's not clear is what you mean by Template.
If you mean multiple Themes, then that can be done, but requires expertise, (though I think only the minisites are Diff Themes, which isn't too bad)
If you mean that different types of pages have different info (eg Ind Ents V1 and V2) then that is simply a flexinode/CCK issue.
Categorisation is trivial - it's taxonomy and is how Drupal works. Use VIEWS and people can do "Find Clowns who are also Acrobats and live in Scotland" by simply choosing selection boxes.
Images - not a problem, though I suspect that their effective management may need some php work as manually inserting with image assist will probably not scale, and you'll be wanting to call images into pages (nodes) based on ownership and categories.
SEO - not sure, but if URLS are kept then I'd have thought that would be OK as the links stucture remains the same.
BTW - you can also embed video in DRupal pages as well, which might be useful.
Summary - def doable, but not a beginner project, and probably not quite doable with standard mods alone. I'd strongly advise professional help unless you are already good with PHP, CSS and MySQL, and thus able to teach yourself the bits you need OR you are willing to stick to standard mods and compromise if they hit limitations.
Note - if your entertainers can be given the authority to maintain their own pages, (inc looking after their own images), this will make it an easier project, mainly because the image management issue becomes owned by each member looking after their few, rather than a central owner having to track thousands.
Contact me if you'd like to explore further. I'm also going to be at the Belgium conference.
Ian Dickson - community specialist.
www.emint.org - Association of Online Community Professionals
Default Drupal SEO
Default Drupal SEO capabilities such that you can create CATEGORIES and leave it empty and Google will rank them high - believe us it did!
Try some category like `Clown from Antartica' and see who gets top after 3 days - but this experiment only works if you have run Drupal site and Google has indexed the Drupal system-content
But thats the idea - the moment the spider finds your site, it looks for categories
Use SITEMAP.module at the very least, no need NODEWORDS.module for now, maybe later
Enable Multiple categorization of content (if you know what is meant by Drupal taxonomy system)
final site
did you decide to go with Drupal in the end?
And if so what is the address so I can see the outcome!
Thanks
James