By djbfan on

Hello all,

I just successfully installed Drupal-4.4.2 and enabled some core modules on my personal website. I also read the Drupal Handbook to get some information about how Drupal works and how to use it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to read the information I need on how to properly administer (and customize) my Drupal setup. The handbook is not that informative as what I expected. The administration section is also not that newbie friendly like any other Open Source CMS projects like XOOPS, *Nukes, Tiki-Wiki, etc. I am not a PHP developer and I'm hoping that someone could help me with my problems and here they are:

[1] I noticed that the "Navigation" block is published by default. How can I remove it or maybe replace it with the word "MAIN MENU"?

[2] How can I add a MAIN MENU block that contains several topics/categories like for example:

MAIN MENU

About Us
Downloads
Gallery
Calendar
Bookmarks
Contact Us

[3] In XOOPS, I can make a module's name not to appear in my MAIN MENU block if the module has it's own block already that appeared like for example the News Aggregator. How can I do it in Drupal?

[4] I'm using xTemplate and Push Button as a theme. Does anybody know where I can download a cool theme for my Drupal setup for free? That's one of the reason why I tried Drupal because most of the Drupal based sites I visited their themes are so cool and very artistic. For now, I like the themes from http://www.terminus1525.ca/index.php?l=en , http://www.urlgreyhot.com/drupal/ and http://www.wooblelab.com/ sites.

Thanks in advance and hoping for a favorable response.

Comments

Prometheus6’s picture

Prometheus6 commented

http://cyberdash.com/node/view/310

djbfan’s picture

djbfan commented

Hello,

Thanks for the themes and they're cool! Good work! :)

By the way, do you have any idea of the first three (3) questions I asked in my previous post?

Thanks again.

cel4145’s picture

cel4145 commented

you probably don't want to remove the navigation block as that is the block which provides links to login, my account, administration, etc., once you are logged in. but if you are sure, you just turn it off in the block configuration section. which is where you create your custom block, (question 2) that is assuming you don't plan on just using the primary or secondary links available with xtemplate.

djbfan’s picture

djbfan commented

Hello,

Assuming I want to leave the "Navigation" block in my block configuration section, how can I edit or delete the links that appeared under the Navigation block? Like for example the "news aggregator" that already has it's own block, I want to delete that link so that I don't have a redundant links. Or, I want to change the links' name to other name or change the case.

Thanks again.

cel4145’s picture

cel4145 commented

i believe you'd have to edit the individual module file code to prevent that menu link from appearing in the block or to change the label.

djbfan’s picture

djbfan commented

Hhhmmmmm.. IMHO, this isn't a good idea especially to those who administer sites that doen't know about PHP programming. Since this is a CMS, I believe it would be better to add a feature that some links or names can be edited using the administrator's section instead of hardcoding it to the affected files.

AFAIK, the objective of a CMS is to eliminate hardcoded administration and configurations can be done through web. This feature is very useful to the web administrators that doesn't have a shell access to the server but with full access and privileges to the CMS.

Thanks again.

djbfan’s picture

djbfan commented

Ooops, sorry for my duplicate reply.

a.reinwarth’s picture

a.reinwarth commented

ad [1]:

On my private homepage I also wanted to remove the navigation block and after some searching I found the following solution:

At first I added an additional block with the following (PHP-) content:

global $user;

if ($user->uid) {
if ($menu = menu_tree()) {
return $menu ;
}
}

If you activate this block it will only be displayed for logged in users (which in my case is only myself).

Additionally I removed the login and the original navigation block and use the direct URL (http://site.com/?q=user/login) to log into drupal.

ad [2]:

Have a look at the menus.module, if I understand you correctly, this should be what you are searching for.

Hope that helps,

Alexander

djbfan’s picture

djbfan commented

Hello Alexander,

I'll try them later because I already don't have a shell access to the server and I have to ask an access again.

Thanks for your ideas.