i am new to drupal and have so many doubts. i couldn;t get the start yet and i am struggling. everywhere people are explaining high level things which puts me in more doubts. i was working in wordpress and which i learned in less than a week. this seems to be tougher. these are my doubts.

1. inside my theme folder there is page.tpl.php now how can i customize this page to arrange the contents according to my home page layout . the default code in that page has some regions and menus. which i was able to manipulate. i have created content types and uploaded content. this contents are appearing in the home page as a list with the title and a small part of the content with a readmore. how can i code in such a way that i can show the custom field values i gave while uploading the content. $node->$node->field_author[0]['value'] prints the value but how can i execute a query to get the results i want. i dont want all the content i upload to appear in home page. my home page has sections and each sections should show its on contents with the condition i give. is it possible? how? is there an option to execute database functions which we use in a normal phpscript like mysqli_query()? does that need to import any specific files?

2. i am using a theme named internet_jobs, i installed some modules and added some regions, edited the page.tpl.php to clean the sidebar. now i want to know if i can rename my theme folder name

3. how can i create inside pages for each content. by default is all has a same look when i click readmore. what are the steps.

4. the tinyMCE editor understand the style well in firefox but not in IE or google chrome browser, what could be the reason?

5. is there something similar to buddylist and avatar block for drupal 6.

6. is there some chat applications for drupal 6, i used bowob but it dont have the popups and private chat options. i used the 123flashchat but it is not working with drupal 6, even the development team dont have an answer for that. the module of 123chat for drupal 6 is trying to open system folders which fails.

people who can help me by providing the answers are going to get 10 choclates from me.... please help!!!

Thank you for your time.

Comments

dnewkerk’s picture

It's late so I cannot answer all of your questions right now. However, regarding your first question (and possibly #3 also), please see these articles I'm in the process of writing. They aren't fully complete, but offer quite a bit of info already:

Drupal home page creation techniques
(my personal favorite is Creating a home page using CCK)

Creating a CCK and Views powered Drupal site
(this very thoroughly explains CCK and Views module in a step by step manner, which are 2 of the most useful/powerful modules in Drupal)

I strongly recommend starting the lesson from the beginning, as it is meant to be done in order, however the section on theming should answer many questions about theming your custom fields.

When you want to "query" data from CCK nodes/content types, you use Views module (you can also write a custom module too if you prefer). You will see this principle in action if you follow my lesson. Views module is a kind of Drupal-integrated database query builder, which can output lists of nodes, fields out of nodes, users, etc, to your precise specifications.

#2 Yes you can rename the theme folder. I recommend you first switch to another theme, such as Garland. Then rename the folder, rename the .info file, and inside the .info file, customize the name there as well. When you reload the Themes page in Drupal, the theme will now have your custom name, and you can switch back to that theme.

#4 Try FCKeditor instead... I used to use TinyMCE for client websites but have grown to prefer FCKeditor. Personally I used BUEditor on my own sites. I would not expect solid Google Chrome support yet from TinyMCE (it runs on WebKit, same as Safari, which TinyMCE works "ok" with at best in my experience). FCKeditor has better Safari support in my tests, and so Google Chrome probably works similarly well. So far as IE... it "should" work, but who knows with IE. The older version on Drupal 5 I have on some client sites works fine in IE. Search the issue queue for TinyMCE and see if others are having issues with IE.

-- David
absolutecross.com
[new guide/lesson in progress: Creating a CCK and Views powered Drupal site - feedback welcome]

nandana’s picture

ur article was very good and too much,:) kidding. it really saved me. i wonder how i could miss such a wonderful information in these two weeks. i was able to create the node-home.tpl.php. now looking at ur page for views. thought of thanking you in between.

i will get back when i get stuck.

-Anti-’s picture

> i am new to drupal and have so many doubts
> i was working in wordpress and which i learned in less than a week.

Yes, I was a complete website beginner a couple of years ago when I tried e107, yet I made a custom, ported theme from scratch and had 30 pages of content less than one week after installing e107.

However, e107 couldn't scale up enough for the size of the school I built it for, and the technology/approach it uses is a bit old now. So I thought I'd try to switch to Drupal.

I've spent about 250+ hours with Drupal spread over two months, and all I've managed to do is:

· customise an existing theme
· learn and test about 20 modules (not views yet though) to find out what Drupal can do and how.
· fail to allow students and teachers to manage their own files and insert media into pages.
· fail to force users to use/re-use a small thumbnail in the teaser and float it top-right.
· fail to get duel-language to work in a stable, sensible way.
· fail to make the content creation pages neat, easy and understandable
· fail to make drupal accept registrations without requiring an email address.
· fail to solve dozens of other, smaller problems.

I've not done anything with taxonomy yet, or added content or forums, created menus, set-up registration, or learnt the important modules like views, domain access or organic groups. Plus I had to stop using and designing for Opera browser, because some key features are not opera compatible.

If it is any consolation, it sounds like you've got further in two weeks than I have in two months.

jwuk’s picture

I'm new to any CMS, though experienced with computers and looked around at several of the popular CMSs before choosing Drupal. OpensourceCMS.com is an excellent comparison site, by the way.

Drupal, in contrast with some systems, seems to be a set of scaffold poles with which you can build anything, or you can accept what it offers out of the box for something unambitious. So I rather like that. For my hobby site, which was previously hosted on a site where I had only static HTML (no server side includes even), this lets me evolve without constraints. Fortunately I have no deadlines to meet.

Anti and Nandana, I believe both of you are making the mistake of asking too many questions in a single post. If you only want reassurance that Drupal is a capable system, fine, there are high profile sites that are fantastic (but probably needed loads of custom work). If you want reassurance that you're not idiots, that there is indeed quite a learning curve in getting to grips with Drupal, well, being myself at the bottom of that curve and looking upwards, I can certainly agree -- I'm hoping the climb will be worth the view afterwards! But if you just want specific answers I think you'd best ask them one at a time.

Good luck guys! :)

deepti’s picture

hi i am new to drupal just 1 week back i am learning drupal. i have searched a lot but dint understand how to customise the pages(registration,login)in drupal. plz can you elaborate it clearly..

thanks in advance..

pawan choudhary’s picture

gggg

yelvington’s picture

Please read the theme developer's guide. It's long, and it tells you way more than you want to know about how the engine works under the hood, but stick with it anyway.

The really important things to understand are:

Pages are not generated by a single template but rather by a rich layered system of multiple templates that are deep in the system.

You don't change the appearance by editing the templates but rather by overriding the templates. Often the best way to override a template is to copy the default, and then make changes. But you should never edit a core file. Ever.

The page.tpl.php file governs the page layout, but not the detailed presentation of content elements. The $content variable is prepared in advance by the node.tpl.php template. Blocks come from block.tpl.php. And so on.

how can i execute a query to get the results i want. i dont want all the content i upload to appear in home page. my home page has sections and each sections should show its on contents with the condition i give. is it possible? how? is there an option to execute database functions which we use in a normal phpscript like mysqli_query()? does that need to import any specific files?

Be sure you have installed and understand the function of the following:

CCK (Content module and its various helpers)
Views (Query the database and generate lists, blocks, summaries, etc.)
Panels (Place components in complex layouts)

If you have these, you very, very rarely would need to think about writing PHP code, or SQL queries, directly, even when creating incredibly complex websites.

phpsharma’s picture

Good Info.

sharma chelluri