Long story, lots of questions...

Hi,

I'm looking for altenatives how to implement following functionality to Drupal. Ps. I'm eager to try and test different possibilities, but would really appriciate and need a push towards the right direction.

Ps. The implementation is my personal project. I've just started with Drupal a month ago and dispite the long nights and lots of reading the full picture is still quite a mess to me. The message is long, hope you have time to read it through.

Site Overview:

The Drupal site I'm developing is basically a place where Admin_users can announce upcoming Events and End_users can register on them. More detailed requirements are listed below:

Admin_user "requirements":

REQ_1) (A) Events happen in certain (B) Event Location. As several (A) Events are held in same (B) Location, Admin_user should be able to link the (B) Location to (A) Event without entering the location data manually each time when new event is created - E.g. when Admin_user creates (A) new Event he/she could link the (B) Location to the (A) Event e.g. from a predefined drop down list (derived from "master data" list).

REQ_2) When a new (B) Location is needed, Admin_user can add it on the "master data" list.

End_user "requirements":

REQ_3) End_user should be able to to search (A) Events according to (B) Locations. The search accuracy could differ, End_user could e.g. focus the search to certain COUNTY / CITY / SUBURB / ADDRESS.

REQ_4) When End_user previews the certain (A) Event, the (B) Location information could be shown in the same page, or as a link to another page.

Implementation principles to requirements REQ_1 & REQ_2:

With CCK I can define desired (B) Location content type with the needed attributes. E.g. postal (B-1) postal code, (B-2) city, (B-3) street address, etc. I can further define a custom field (A-1) location_reference to (A) Event content type, which is of type Node reference. At this point everything would be fine, but my headache starts with REQ_3.

Implementation principles to requirements REQ_3:

I understand the Location module is intended for promiximity searches, but it requires filling up the postal code database. I have not found a postal code database "dump" for Finland (where I'm located). Further on I'm not 100% sure whether the postal code search is suitable for "non experienced" users? Perhaps it actually is the best method. Just wondering where I could find a "trusted" seller / source for that data? What could be reasonable price? As this is a personal project, the price may become an issue.

In any case I'd like to implement an alternative search, which would be based on hierarchical "location classification", in drupal this would obviously mean hierarchical "taxonomy". Do you know whether this kind of method is reasonable from the user perspective? E.g. user would have some kind of "hierarchical tree", where he/she could select the desired COUNTY / CITY / SUBURB / ADDRESS and limit the search accordingly. What could be suitable tools for implementing this? Is there e.g. GUI tools / taxonomy modules etc. that I could start with? Is there someking of "location taxonomy" data for available (for different countries), that I wouldn't have to fill it all manually?

Another problem arises from the REQ_1 and REQ_2. In case the location data is in (B) Location content type and in different node, how can search (A) Events based on that data? Should the location data be replicated somehow to (A) Events when user has filled all the desired fields? The replication wouldn't actually cause any problems if it could be automated. The main issue is that Admin_users could just avoid filling up the location data every time manually to new (A) Events (see REQ_1). Just wondering how to implement this? I'm not an expert with php, but if required will try that.

Is there some reason, why I should add the needed attributes to (B) Location content type from the predefined location module fields? As I've installed the location module, I can see that CCK provides a attribute group "locative information", e.g. with fields "city" and "street"? In case I'd decide not to use Latitude & Longitude fields (which enable the proximity search), would the use of location module fields cause any benefits?

Implementation principles to requirements REQ_4:

Probably not an issue. I've not tested this, but could imagine as a standard functionality. Of course all advice is wellcome on this issue.

Thanks for reaching this point!

Best regards, Harri