Hey guys (and gals), I'm going to share my site idea with you guys and then I need you guys to give me feedback about how I should go about developing it (because I'm new to drupal). "Home" page: - Main view is a table of products that is updated dynamically via "reviews" page (although not initially). - Button to purchase product - Under table is blocks for recent posts on "blog" section and recent comments "Reviews" page: - List of same products as table on "home" page, but with the latest review to the right. - Button to write your own review or be the first to write a review - Button to purchase product "Blog" page: - Looks just like a typical blog with the latest post at the top, comments, tag cloud, etc. Misc: - Reviews will be based on thumbs up or thumbs down and a short write-up. - Table on home page will show %up/%down for score and highest %up will be #1 and so forth. Any ideas? I'm watching TONS of videos about drupal trying to figure it out. It's powerful, but complex.
Many ways to skin a cat with Drupal Modules you absolutely 100% want to have, learn, play with, and use CCK - will allow you to create custom content types with custom fields Views - will allow you to create custom output, especially with your front page of a table with products, views will come in handy Path (part of core) and Pathauto - for urls and SEO Blog (part of core) - although if you're just setting up one blog it may be easier to set up a custom content type for blog posts, but if you're having multi-user blogs definitely enable the Blog module There are several ratings and reviews modules, as well as ubercart for ecommerce. Hope this gives you some ideas to get started. CCK and Views will be your best friends
Yeah, I've got all those modules installed and i've got my theme I want, but it's just a matter of getting the pages like I want them with the content I want. Like I said - Drupal is very powerful and great, but very confusing. I really need to know: - How in the world do I create menus that actually link to a page like "site.com/review" - How do I make the home page just a large table (that looks nice) and have the 3 blocks below it - How do I set up the blog correctly? I've worked with WP which makes it easy for blogging, but it's a whole new world in drupal.
Menus are created dynamically when you create the document/page/post. Right above the content editing area there's a Menu settings tab, click on it to expand it and enter the title you want to appear as well as what menu you want it in. By default you have <Primary Links>, <Secondary Links>, and <Navigation> available. You can also create your own menus under Admin->Site Building -> Menus and have them appear in the list so you can place pages in them. Then you decide where on the page your menu will appear by assigning it to a region in Admin->Site Building->Blocks. Enable clean urls and use the Path and Pathauto modules to format your urls the way you want them (mod_rewrite has to be enabled on your server for this to work). To make the home page a nice large table that looks nice use Views and format the CSS accordingly. There are lots of video tuts on using views out there. Depends on what you mean by setting up the blog correctly. Create blocks to show what you want and assign these blocks to show only on blog pages. Then assign them to the regions where you want them. Experiment and then ask specific questions on where you get stuck.
Ok - Lets just start with the homepage: - Just a large table with products (that probably won't change soon) - The table is a comparison of these products based on different aspects - One aspect is the Thumbs Up vs. Thumbs Down percentage (based on users reviews); however, from the beginning they will be just put in order manually - Below the table, a writeup (short article about products in general) - Below the writeup, 2 blocks to show "recent posts" from blog, "recent reviews" from page 2 "Reviews" Lets start with that page and get to the other pages later. So where do I even start? :-/
I'm assuming your products are all going to be individual nodes so that users can review them right? Then go ahead and first create that content type for the products with all the fields you want. Then use views to create the page view with the table, using the Grid or Table view (I believe that's what it's called). You have to start with the individual nodes and then build the views out of that. You have to set this page view as your home page and make sure your other nodes don't publish to the front page. You set this under Content types. The story node automatically posts to the front page so this is the one you want to pay particular attention to. Make sure the theme you're using supports multiple regions to place your content blocks in then it's just a matter of creating them and dropping them in place.
So do I create the content type of say "product comparison" and create fields such as "image", "name", "point 1", "point 2", "point 3", etc.? OR do I create content types for each product? like "product 1" with fields "image", "name", "point 1", "url"? This table also needs a link for the user to write their own review for the product. It also needs to redirect user to the products page if they click the image or buy now button.
Better to create a product content type with fields that apply to all products. I recommend you spend some time first working through building a basic site with Drupal, actually build the site and create some content types and views, and then once you have a good grasp on that, plan your site out on paper before you start building it. Without a basic understanding of how blocks, menus, content types and views work you will end up in a messy situation that might be hard to fix. Drupal is powerful and complex, so get a good grasp of the basics by actually building something simple, even if it's part of your site, but a simple part of it. Get the basics down first, then plan your site, then build.
Ok - So i've created the custom content type for "Product Table" and configured the appropriate fields such as "rank", "name", "price", "opt1", "opt2", etc. A few questions: - So now how do I make that table? - How do I make it so that if the user clicks the name, picture, or buy now button to redirect them to page? Thanks for all the help - I'm slowly learning. I had someone who develops drupal sites sort of show me how but I only spent a few hours with him and it was kinda confusing. I learn better by doing anyway
AWESOME!! Keep going, the more you work on it and struggle with it the more you'll learn. Drupal is amazingly complex and powerful so don't give up on it
Ok - how do I display the view on the homepage? I can put it in a block but the page view gives me a path error.
Ok - how do I display the view on the homepage? I can put it in a block but the page view gives me a path error.
Administer -> Site configuration -> Site information in the Drupal administrator menu. Enter the page view url in the Default front page text box.
Sorry for the double post (was posting from iPhone at the time). Do I need to create a page instance of the custom view to show it on home page? Also, where do I find the URL for page view? I don't remember having to specify one or seeing one anywhere...
Ok - I put a random name in the path field of the page view and change the site information to that path - worked. So my homepage is almost done - now to add the 3 blocks below the custom page view. Any tips?
Well, now that I've created a custom page view and set it to show on home page, I can't show any blocks below it (or ANYTHING else on the page for that matter) except for sidebars...
That's why I said before to make sure your theme supports a region below the main region, like a large footer section, where you can add the blocks. It should be possible. Did you try to add those blocks to the footer section?
Well, it won't show up because I set the home page to be that specific page view. I guess I should find a theme with a content top that i can stick the table block into (instead of page view). and use the bottom content for the other... Any ideas? How would I customize the areas of a theme anyway?