drupal.org - Before you start

STICKY: Before you start - README

sepeck — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 04:35:27 +0000

Greetings and welcome to the Before you start forum.

Drupal is a flexible and powerful Content Management System / Content Management Framework that allows a number of people of varying levels to build websites. That said, there is a learning curve. How steep depends on your starting skills and your end goal. Despite the learning curve, Drupal is not rocket science and with a reasonable amount of work most anyone can learn to use and build sites.

As Drupal is a CMS with a built in forum system our community contributed documentation resides in the handbooks which is built with the Book module. These can be reached through the Documentation tab at the top of the page.

The Drupal community has never been overly concerned with marketing, as a result the install base is largely invisible unless you know what to look for. For a sampling of Drupal sites check out these links.

Module or How-To Nudge-- Magazine-style portal?

antagonia — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:11:48 +0000

Hi!

I just installed a test install of Drupal to play around with, and it seems to be just what I need, but there is one thing I am a little confused about how to do.

I would like a magazine-style portal for my site where there will be three or four blogs and the main page of the site will always show the single most recent article in each of those blogs, always in the same area of the pain page.

So, for example, when you come onto my site, it would look like this:

HEADER
A B
nav nav
C D
FOOTER

where A, B, C, and D are the most recent posts in each blog. Then, if the author of Blog A decides to update, the section labeled A would get updated with the new content, but the rest of the site would remain the same. Does that make sense, and what should I be looking at to get this working correctly? I've gone through the cookbook and rifled through modules but I'm afraid I may still be having trouble with the Drupal-specific vocabulary.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Building an invoice system

keiichito — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:06:31 +0000

Hi ppl,

I want to make a quick question. I'm just learning drupal and so far I'm very impressed with this nice framework.

Is Drupal suitable to build an Invoice system?

If so, please give me some directions, articles, modules etc...

Thanks in advance

Can I use Drupal for this?

bobisguilty — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:42:55 +0000

I'm very new to Drupal and I finally got it installed, THEN I started asking if it was really what I needed (I was told it was by someone who's used it once, but I wanted to make sure). I went through the cookbook for beginners and other documentation, but didn't really see anything pertaining to my query directly. I have a website that I want to setup a member's area with a login, I understand that I can setup users in Drupal and restrict their access to certain things. I made the website outside of Drupal and not sure if I can set it all up inside Drupal how I want it (how it looks now) so my question is: Can I use Drupal, as sort of a man in the middle, when users login to go from my site, login and authenticate through Drupal, and then have access to the member's area on the website outside of Drupal? Or, would it be easier to just have the member's area setup inside Drupal so they login through Drupal and stay in the restricted area? If there's a tutorial on how to do this, I would LOVE it, I haven't been able to find one that addresses this directly. Thank you.

DRUPAL SUCKS!!!!

grtroup — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:42:35 +0000

I've been blundered with the job of administering a Drupal website and it's absolutely horrendus software to try and use, the user community is terrible for helping people, i've been trying for 5 weeks to get help on a simple problem involving changing user fields using a php script. This is why the idea ofopen source and free software will never beat what you have to pay for, because for all the talk of how free and great it is when someone needs help you turn a blind eye! i dont care what responses this gets, there is no waydrupal will ever get big while people cant get the assistance they really need. you cant even organise the forums into relevant subjects!

[Edit by admin: Unproductive thread locked. If you need help with specific modules, the issue queues are the best place to ask.]

Drupal and SocialGo

dunklea — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:33:16 +0000

Has anyone had any experience or knowledge of incorporating Drupal with a SocialGO network? (or similar network) Is this possible? Sites out there that already do this? Thanks

Trojans and Backdoor detected in 6.13?

manic hook — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:10:37 +0000

Just downloaded Drupal 6.13

When I extracted the files from the tar.gz file, my Trend Micro anti-virus alerted that 3 files are infected.

modules/color/color.install - BKDR_IRCBOT.BZQ
modules/profile/profile-wrapper.tpl.php - TROJ_SWIZZOR.KXV
modules/translation/translation.module - TROJ_FRAUDLO.LL

Is it a false positive or there's something wrong with the download?

Is drupal the right choice for my requirements?

brookman — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:08:06 +0000

Hello everybody

My job is to migrate an existing php/mysql company website to a cms. I have already tested drupal 6 for some hours now and it looks promising. I am aware of the fact that it will take a lot of time and I am ready to implement my own modules if necessary.

Below I will post my short analysis about the requirements. The current existing page is available at www.mfkk.hu. It is a mix of a forum software and custom php scripts.

In general the requirements are: Security, session management, advanced access rights management, multi language support, project (sub) pages, upload function, document management, forums, online surveys, newsletters, news sections.

I would be thankful if you could read the following and give me some hints about feasibility and the potential use of certain modules.
Useful modules I have already tried out are: content translation, forum, upload, advanced forum, views/ui.

Here is the first analysis of the job:

"Static" sites:
• Home
• About us
o Our team
o Jobs
• Contact
• News

Users:
Users can login and access different functions like viewing/changing projects, depending on the group they are in. Users can be members of a partner company.

Partners:
Partner companies are engaged in projects. Partners can be associated with several projects.

Projects:

Photo.net Forums

dunklea — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:49:07 +0000

Hey guys, quick question here. I am developing a new site in Drupal and an important part of it will be forums. I am not happy with the stock forums that ship with Drupal and want to develop something new. I am a big fan of the forums at photo.net.. can anyone take a look and see if a similar system can be setup in Drupal? Advice on how this would be accomplished and modules need etc. I am also open to the idea of hiring a developer to create a custom forum if needed..

Thanks!

Creating a sports league management service that supports multiple leagues where leagues sign up online

Duderino — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:10:53 +0000

Hello!

I'm interested in creating a sports league management service with Drupal. Individual leagues should be able to maintain team divisions, team rosters, team schedules, and broadcast news messages. Each league should be able to set-up users accounts so that team managers can maintain team blogs for sharing information.

Most importantly, leagues should be able to sign up for this service online. It is my desire to have each league segregated via sub-domains and share a common template for each.

For example, the sites would be separated as follows:

http://league1.somesite.com
http://league2.somesite.com
http://league3.somesite.com

Therefore, at run-time, the sub-domain would be created and set-up when a league signs up for the service. There would be a single administrator account who will set-up the league and also set-up users for coaches to maintain their team blogs.

Is this functionality possible with Drupal? Which modules would I utilize? Would I need to create custom modules to achieve some of this functionality? Specifically, can a league subscribing to the service have there site set up at run-time and segregated by a sub domain as shown above?

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.

How to use drupal

gezza — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:19:34 +0000

How use drupal as a beginner?

how to test and learn :)

yizzie82 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:21:25 +0000

I have very limited experience in webpages, but i would like to make a web page now since i've been planning it for so long. Needless to say i know it will take me ALOT of time to get anything working since of my newbieness and sorta limited time i have to use on the project. So i was thinking what is the best way to learn and play around with drupal?

Should i get the hosting deal and just install drupal there and play around...that sounds kinda waste of money :)

or should i install it on my own PC? I have currently windows 7 RC installed

I thank you all in advance for your advices & opinions :)

A question regarding high traffic and Drupal

caaqayuush — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:36:05 +0000

Hi all,

First time poster. I've been looking at CMS options for the organization I work for. I've used Drupal for other sites in the past for sites that get maybe 2,000-3,000 thousand page hits per month, but this time we're looking at a site that gets, on average over the past year, 300,000 page hits per month.

What I was wondering, is once I get to this sort of usage with Drupal, can I expect to run into any problems? Are there any sort of prevantative measures I can take now to ensure I don't run into problems down the road?

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Existing Site -- Drupal HELP!

adamstorr — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:51:35 +0000

Hi everyone,

I want to use Drupal to manage all of the content on my existing site (www.adamstorr.com) which is completely dynamic and written in PHP.

Do I have to recreate my pages or can I just connect Drupal to my existing MySQL database and have all of my current posts show up in the Admin panel?

Thanks for all of the help!

Using Drupal to share user specific files?

anthony522 — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:08:08 +0000

I am going to be creating a small site that needs only some basic functionality. Drupal seems to have me covered in most of those areas but there is one piece that I was hoping somebody could give me some insight on as to whether Drupal (or even another system) would be appropriate.

Basically, when users log into the site I want them to have access to files that only they can see. They would not add any files to this "virtual directory" but instead I would be putting files into the directory and they would be able to log into the site and download the files whenever they want.

How hard would this be to implement in Drupal? Apologies if this is basic functionality, like I said I found most of what I was looking for except for this one bit.

Many thanks in advance.

Planning on doing an ESL site, what modules should I use?

joemer — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:05:58 +0000

Hi, I am planning on making an ESL site where a teacher can post lessons and quizzes and some parts are only accessible by paid students. Payment maybe on a monthly basis. Should I use drupal for this? And what modules should I used? Thanks.

Need a module nudge

cubran — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:40:27 +0000

Hi guys and gals,

I need some help determining which modules would be best for what I am trying to do.

It's more or less an affiliate style site with two user types - Advertisers and Publishers:

Advertiser

Must create membership account
At signup Advertiser will input company name, website, and other information and will describe themselves via a checkbox into an appropriate Category (e.g., a dmoz.org-style directory category such as Health > Fitness > Men's Fitness ) or Categories
Account will only be truly activated with a payment via a paid a subscription (annual or monthly) by credit card or PayPal

What can an Advertiser do?

With a paid, active account an Advertiser can create content via forms - mostly text but can include images
This content will sit in that Category's container, and will remain accessible to Publishers
Content, when created, can be distributed immediately by email/feed, every 24 hours, weekly, or can be scheduled to be distributed to Publishers on a certain date in the future

Publisher

Must create membership account
Account creation is free
Account creation details will include basic information about company, pivoting around the email address given

What can a Publisher do?

Internationalization

seanray — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:48:44 +0000

hi,
I want to use Drupal to build a site which is fully internationalized.

Below are what I plan:
1. Site can be displayed in different language, such as English, Japanese, Chinese, etc
2. Visitors can select their country, and language. And only the content with that lauguage and that country will be display for the given users.

I know to display different language, I can use module Content translation, and locale.

But for requirement, what module I can use, I have checkout CountryCode, and Internationalization module, but looks like they are in development phase now. Any other choice I can make and any guide?

Thanks,
Ray.

Can Drupal power a bracket?

nick123pig — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:33:24 +0000

Hi there

I'm wondering if drupal can power a bracket system (like that of the NCAA Basketball Tournament)

Basically, the user enters teams, and choose which ones win, and that outputs a "bracket"

Similar to Bracketmaker.com

If not, what do you suggest?

Nick

Slashdot / Digg / Reddit-style news aggregator?

Tachyon — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:32:23 +0000

Like it says on the package! Can Drupal be used to create a user-submitted and -moderated news/story site? If so, what modules will be needed? And what are the advantages / disadvantages of using this approach, if anyone knows! Many thanks!

Can Drupal do what I need it to?

wcmosports — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:07:51 +0000

I'm looking to develop a consulting site that uses survey software to make recommendations based on the users' response.

Basically I need users to be able to sign up and be able to answer a set of specific questions for their business. Based on their responses, I would like to display a chart/graph with recommendations. After the initial preview survey, I'd like users to be able to pay for additional surveys that drill down further into their business that have similar functionality as the first survey.

I will also need to be able to host webinars and messageboards on the website and membership levels. I know this part is doable with drupal but I didn't know if there was built in modules for the survey portion of it. Or perhaps it wouldn't be as hard to develop as I think? Any advice is much appreciated.

Can I use Drupal to manage a HS Football League?

narin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:24:26 +0000

Hi! I've taken on a web project for the summer that requires me to update a site that keeps track of the high school football standings in my state. The current site (http://www.gridironnewjersey.com) has a very poor design which I've redesigned, and a custom backend that is coded in C#.

The client would like me to add a blog section to the main page as well as make the management area easier to use. I know that Drupal would work well for the blog area, but I was curious to see if there would be any way to customize it to handle the league aspect of the site.

The way it currently works is that the admin updates scores weekly, and from the results, the site calculates the standings based on a pretty simple formula. Is there an easy way to customize Drupal to handle this type of functionality?

Any thoughts/suggestions would be great. Thanks!

Mr and Mrs Smith?

adman101 — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:46:45 +0000

Hello Drupal Community!

I'm hitting this site now as I seem to have hit a brick wall with Joomla! Not that it isn't a good CMS I'm just not sure it is capable of doing what I want it to do. Having said that I'm not sure that Drupal can either - but it looks like it should be able to.

Essentially I need to make a site like mrandmrssmith.com or travelintelligence.com. In particular I would like to be able to make pages like:

http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/luxury-hotels/new-zealand/auckland/the-boat...

where each tab is a link to a custom content type (reviews, photo gallery, guestbook, offers etc) but only show those links where appropriate for a particular hotel. The category heirarchy will be similar (country > region > hotel) and the collections seem to be handled by simple tagging...?

I suppose what I am looking for is a yes/no answer. Some ideas on how to do this would also be appreciated as I am bit of a noob to Drupal (but I need to get cracking with this....!) - any help much appreciated (truly).

Search Module Doubt

codeman1234 — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:36:18 +0000

Hello,

I got a doubt with the search module, I am doing a motorbikes classifieds site, and I will like to know how to do an advance search with this module,

for example if I am an user and I want to search a bike with this fields

Brand(Honda) Color (Black) Year (2002)

How can I use the search module to search using those motorbikes fields??

Regards + Thanks,

Codeman1234

Upload Large files

arjunkr — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:41:01 +0000

Hi all ,

i need some suggestion , i am setting up a website for videos.
Users will be uploading huge media files say around 1 mb size to 2 gb.
What i am looking is If connection is broken while uploading a file size of 2gb , how to setup a option like when User starts again , the data uploading should start from where it was broken earlier.