By Rob_Feature on

Hey all...
Usually I build sites for organizations and small communities. However, I'm about to embark on a project that is a full blown city portal site.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any 'building a portal site with drupal' guides or posts out there. Here's what I'm looking to do:

1. It's gonna mostly be a ton of links in a ton of categories. So, I'll be implementing a crapload of taxonomy, obviously. But are there methods to keep in mind?

2. The site will have sections broken down by county, and then by city. Each city will have it's own page including news, stuff about the city, and also user created content (see next item)

3. Site visitors will be able to add content such as events (think about a user adding a garage sale, etc). These items will need to show up in all the proper places, such as on the appropriate city page. Is there a better way to do this than having the user pick a zillion taxonomy choices when they post?

4. Location module. It seems crucial, but I've never used it...any resources about using it for something like this?

5. Multiple Domain Module: The site will span a .com .org and .net, with each extension directing users to a particular part of the site. Any experience with this?

Ok, I know that's asking alot..but any advise would be soaked in and used.

Thanks everyone!

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

mrf’s picture

mrf commented

As far as #5 goes...

The functionality is built in to Drupal.

This post should help you get started.

I have yet to attempt mulitiple domains from a single Drupal install, but according to research I did a few weeks ago for an upcoming project it is definitely do-able.

Willdex’s picture

Willdex commented

It doesn't work...
--
Billy | Major: Accounting | CityTech@CUNY | Student Block.

mrf’s picture

mrf commented

Sorry about that. The link is:

http://drupal.org/node/107347

I also noticed a new module this morning that will give you even more specific control over how multiple domains are used.

http://drupal.org/project/multidomain

Hope this helps.

Rob_Feature’s picture

Rob_Feature commented

Yes, indeed...this multidomain module was what I was going to use. I want it to all be the same install (not doing multiple domains using the core drupal way) and have the domain names just direct to different parts of one site.

Anyone have any other thoughts on creating a portal site??? Mostly organizationally...

-Bob Christenson
Owner/Designer, Mustardseed Media, Inc.
MustardseedMedia.com

/**
  * Bob Christenson
  * Mustardseed Media
  * http://mustardseedmedia.com
  */
mrf’s picture

mrf commented

With #1, I would recommend having all of your taxonomy and vocabularies set in stone before the first piece of content is added. Having the taxonomy strictly defined will allow you to avoid the headache of jamming a new vocabulary into the site at a later date.

It seems to me that almost every piece of content will be using several different vocabularies (location, section, etc.) , so this will be especially important for your site.

Willdex’s picture

Willdex commented

I've added all the taxonomy values prior to adding the content, and now when I create nodes, I just select the category previously defined which is also connected to the proper taxonomy values, and everything falls into place.
--
Billy | Major: Accounting | CityTech@CUNY | Student Block.

Taiwan’s picture

Taiwan commented

I was curious how your project came along or is coming along and if you had any experience to throw my way.

I am hoping to make a country specific portal site that starts with the domain name, and then has categories like this

county(category)/
city(category)/
bar, restaurant, classified, or disco/
nodetitle

I have run into a problem. I have 3 separate taxonomies that a user selects to make a post. The problem is that if someone makes a post, then it gets posted 3 times, so I see 3 instances of it in the view I have defined. I have also been encountering problems using CCK content types becasue the user input form is just so ugly... and I had some odd error message when I thought it was fine.

I don't want users to see three lines of rows to enter the name of a city.

I will also need to be able to sort views by county, and several other variables...

I think ultimately I could just use CCK and create a field called city, with pathauto include bar or restaurant etc..

It is so strange. I am hitting roadblocks left and right. this is my first time making a Drupal site, and I have seriously spent about 50 hours the lasst week trying to figure things out. Any advice for doing this would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

John

Rob_Feature’s picture

Rob_Feature commented

Ok, so this reassures me that this entire site organization needs to be done using Taxonomy. I was wondering if there was a better way, but it seems like that will be good (I was hoping to avoid them choosing 10 different taxonomies when they create a piece of content).

Also, I'm looking into the Category module, as it's supposed to be more powerful than the core taxonomy. Any experience with this?

-Bob Christenson
Owner/Designer, Mustardseed Media, Inc.
MustardseedMedia.com

/**
  * Bob Christenson
  * Mustardseed Media
  * http://mustardseedmedia.com
  */
Willdex’s picture

Willdex commented

No experience w/ the Category module. However, now that you've mentioned it, I think I'll try it out.
--
Billy | Major: Accounting | CityTech@CUNY | Student Block.

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

Unless you have a lot of experience with Drupal, I would not start off with the contributed Category module. I would really suggest you see if a combination of taxonomy and views modules can get you there.

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

Rob_Feature’s picture

Rob_Feature commented

Hey Steven...
I do have a whole lot of drupal experience (I work with it 8 hours a day) however I'm not a programmer myself (but do have access to one on my team).

It sounds like you have a suggestion for more advanced drupal-ers, and I have a feeling that's the answer I'm looking for. If you didn't do it with category/taxonomy and views, how would you do it?

-Bob Christenson
Owner/Designer, Mustardseed Media, Inc.
MustardseedMedia.com

/**
  * Bob Christenson
  * Mustardseed Media
  * http://mustardseedmedia.com
  */
Michelle’s picture

Michelle
she/her
Primary language English
Location Wisconsin, USA
commented

I see this is an old post that got bumped up. How did it go? I looked at your site but didn't see a link that looked like a city portal.

Michelle

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