How to Make My Website Look Like Internet Center Theme?
dealmaker - October 2, 2006 - 05:17
Hi,
I installed Drupal, modules and Internet Center theme. I want to make my front page looks like the one in the Internet Center theme with all those blocks and login, etc. But I just don't know how to start! I clicked on "Create Content", and then "Page". But it has nothing there except entering title and static text. What should I do next? I thought that all those themes include the layout of the page too...
Thanks.
first steps in Drupal
Servus.
Well, themes got all the layout on board, but it's still hidden until you start filling in the forms. To get a good start, you should think about the goal of your website. I.e. topics, menu structure, whatever. I'd suggest you start playing with what you have already, becoming familiar what Drupal does "out of the box" and what else would be needed. Once you know, look up the "downloads" "modules" section and pick your candidates for add-ons. With that list, do a good research here -- for me it works best to just enter the module's name in the search field and to check what I get. Are there lots of complaints, incompatibilities with other modules on your list, pending issues, slowly responding maintainers? Depending on your PHP skills, you may avoid modules which seem to attract trouble for starters.
Once you picked a module, install it, get it to work. But only one module at a time. May seem too slow, but there's a lot to learn and you won't overwhelm yourself, right? My learning of Drupal was 6 weeks of 14/7 fooling around with the system on three different computers and various sites. By the end of that time I had one "working" site running and one more in the make. Now I'm about to finish the second site to step back to the first site to apply there what I've learned in the meantime.
The best suggestion in my opinion: by patient with yourself. Launching a website feels like stepping into the limelight for some, but after years in this business it's just the same story every time:
Set up the "has to be" "should be" and "would be great if..." list for your site first, then fill in the blanks, and test the results whenever you change something. And be prepared to learn new tricks every day. Sounds pretty much like real life, right?
Hope this helps,
Norbert
-- form follows function