How to Suppress Teaser?

Hi David -

I think these things are probably a bit too big of a request for help on the specific details... it will take some solid Drupal knowledge, and possibly some custom programming and maybe some Flash development (particularly on item 1). Some of the items are as simple as installing the right module though. In a nutshell...

note: when I mention a module name, please go to this address and search for its name to find it... http://drupal.org/project/Modules/name

1) For a decent slideshow, check out the Views Slideshow module... it may not do exactly what you want, but it's the most solid non-flash slideshow module for Drupal I know of. With the animation of that sort you're probably going to need custom Flash animation, and if it has to be linked with dynamic data from Drupal, then there will be quite a learning curve. To be honest I would recommend against this, and especially recommend against sound effects, which are highly frown upon on websites these days. Maybe also check out the Gallerix module, or the SlideShowPro module (flash-based, not free, but has some animation effects).

2) Check out the Audio module, and for video there are options like Video module, and Flash Video, or various ways of embedding 3rd party video depending on your needs.

3) Event module or Views + CCK + Date + Calendar as mentioned in the other thread. For the mouseovers it doesn't do that by default, though if you learn some jQuery or find the right premade javascript you should be able to make it happen.

4) The simplest way would be to just include an image of the map and a link to the directions page on Google maps... you may be able to pre-supply the Google map with the destination - I haven't tried before.

5) Search the modules page for words like: subscribe, notify, subscription... or for a newsletter check SimpleNews.

As for the teasers question...
Search the modules page for "teaser" to find several options for modifying the behavior of teasers. You can also choose to show more characters, or even the whole node instead of teasers (not recommended) by adjusting settings at yoursite.com/admin/content/node-settings
Personally I prefer not to use automatic teasers, and instead use a CCK field I add as appropriate to my content types called "Summary" and write a short synopsis of the content there. You can see an example here: www.aguaviva.com

Anyhow, you may have overall better results getting support on all these things in the general support forums, or better learn about using IRC and you'll be able to log in and chat directly with people about your questions.

Good luck and God bless.

TEASERS:
If you just want to be able to have your default home page not be a teaser - the simplest solution would be to set the default home page to go directly to your page.

If you want to be able to see multiple pages - in full w/o teasers - the best bet is the Views module. I guarantee you WILL need to become acquainted with Views before long (you will need it to do your podcast)

GOOGLE MAPS
- It's pretty easy to get a map to embed. You can just find the location on google - add whatever locations you want - then click the 'Link to this map' at the top, and it will provide you with an HTML snippet that will do just what you want.

• Another idea would be to provide an input field where they can type in their address and click a button - and they get a page with a google map and directions to the church. Check http:/www.gracecommunity.ws/Directions for an example of this.

It sounds like you want the youth group image to act as a drop-down menu.

As far as I know, the only way to do that would be a Flash animation.

You could also do it in 3 parts.
1) flash/gif/?? image of multiple pictures rotating.
2) A menu that is normally hidden (CSS - display: none;)
3) A bit of CSS/javascript that will cause the hidden menu to become visible if #1 is hovered over.

Either way will be a bit of a learning curve.

On our Welcome page we have some simple jpg images that serve as links to other pages - so that may be a simpler way of accomplishing the same thing.

I just remembered this mouse-over drop down menu from an old
site I created (years ago): http://www.qsl.net/k1yp/BA/ba1.html

If I just used a single menu item, e.g. the Morrow item I might
get it to work - perhaps an invisible menu heading that the
mourse-over makes visible then executes the drop-down?

It may be part of the solution.

I'd prefer to avoid Flash as much as possible, it seems bloated
and frequently causes conflicts on some computers. (Is Java
better or worse re. resource demands and esp. availability on
handheld devices?)

Blessings to all from sunny Florida!
http://firstbaptistchurchsh.com
Pastor David

You seem pretty new to drupal. Several months ago we put out a podcast series walking though some of the stuff you are asking about....

http://geeksandgod.com/podcast-series/building-a-website-with-drupal-cms

Also, drupal has jquery built into core (for drupal 5 and up). This is a pretty powerful javascript library that should simplify your javascripting and make it cross browser compatible. Check out http://visualjquery.com/.

Matt Farina
www.innovatingtomorrow.net
www.geeksandgod.com
www.mattfarina.com

By Java I'm guessing you mean Javascript (they are very very different... despite the name they are completely unrelated). Javascript is what we are referring to whenever we are talking about Drupal... Java on the other hand "can" be used on the web (not often these days) but is used more as a programming language for making cross-platform desktop applications.

Anyhow... CSS should be compatible with most if not all mobile devices. Javascript on the other hand, is not necessarily (Javascript is something that is to be used to add helpful functionality to a site but should always "degrade gracefully" as it's called when Javascript isn't there, or the user has purposely chosen to turn it off - which they are able to do in their browser's preferences). What that means is that without Javascript, the site still needs to be completely functional and accessible (if not quite so nice looking and easy to use). So CSS and HTML that is written "semantically correct" and with accessibility in mind is what you should rely on in regard to mobile devices (check the Geeks and God podcasts, as they have full episodes dedicated to both of those items). You are also able to (and should) provide a special "mobile devices" version of your CSS file to present your site differently and more legibly to mobile devices. Flash also is not guaranteed available on mobile devices (though it is nearly "omnipresent" - hehe - on the web at this point... and should be fine to use so long as you know what you're doing - and remember to use it wisely and that some mobile devices won't be able to view it... for instance the iPhone currently does not support flash, though it may in the future).

I know it's hard if you've got motivation and momentum, or people bugging you to get the site done.... but I really strongly recommend you take a step back and take a few days (or even weeks) to really get to know Drupal and its related web technologies before trying to make a "real web site" with it, that has highly specific requirements that you're not sure yet whether Drupal can fulfill or not. Instead, install a wide variety of modules that seem interesting to you, and try them out to see what they do... listen to the Geeks and God and Lullabot podcasts, watch some screencasts and try to follow the guides/tutorials, learn about Drupal theming, and remember to have a look at my list of Drupal learning resources. After putting in some time like that, you'll be able to come back to your own website and have a clear perspective on what you can and can't do, and many better ideas on how to accomplish your goals with Drupal. It will be much easier for you to learn and work quickly if you do this with a local server environment like I mentioned in the other discussion. I would also recommend that you "initially" lower your plans and expectations and remove any "wizz bang" features (animation, sounds, javascript, flash and the like) and first get the site working as well as you can - get all the basics hammered out and working the way they need to -- then later you can "add some seasoning" with the fancier/trickier features.

Finally, if you don't have the latest version of Drupal, then definitely upgrade Drupal to version 5.5 immediately, as it is a critical security release. I believe you probably do have 5.5 though if you just began a few days ago - you would have had to go out of your way to get an older version (unless you are using something like Fantastico auto-installer to install Drupal, which I highly recommend against - as they "do" have outdated versions and you will very likely get hacked - I learned the hard way myself - not with Drupal, but with another script installed with Fantastico - a few weeks later there was some highly distasteful material on a children's website). Drupal is pretty easy to install, so if you are running it through Fantastico I recommend you remove that right away and start with a real installation before you get too much invested in it. If you need to, you can backup your current database and import it into a real Drupal install.

In regard to PHP... any version in 5.x is fine for now - that aspect is up to your host to take care of. By Drupal version 7 it will matter that you have at least PHP 5.2 or higher, but not yet.

Good luck and God bless :)

I have started to view my way through some of the resources that you and others
have kindly sent me - lots and lots to get through - and doing so in-between other
projects.

I tend to be a kinestetic learner -- I learn better by doing as I am learning rather
than just learning then just doing. The old terminology was "a hands-on guy".

I do not know if or how I could install Drupal 5.5 on my host's server. He upgraded
from 5.1 to 5.3 and I have notified him that 5.5 is a Security Release. He does
have everything under Fantastico within CPanel. Why doesn't Fantastico keep
things current?

So you are saying that I could have my own version of Drupal loaded and running
in my own space on the server and it wouldn't bother anyone else?

What about PHP and MySql?

I only have one Page created using some text and pictures - really easy to copy
and reload.

Blessings to all from sunny Florida!
http://firstbaptistchurchsh.com
Pastor David

Yes, you can (and should) install your own copy of Drupal within your web-space on your server. There is nothing your host can do to upgrade Drupal past the version supplied with Fantastico - which will inevitably be woefully out of date (they are always always out of date on everything, and by the time they catch up it is probably too late). Your host has to wait for Fantastico to release updates, and even then your host may not automatically offer them on time. Fantastico is a free service to get beginners up and running quickly with pre-installed scripts, but it is not worth it. I haven't tried but I have heard it can be problematic or impossible to upgrade a Fantastico-installed script manually, so you are at the mercy of whenever they get around to upgrading all of the scripts they offer. All of the scripts Fantastico has are independently installable on your own - Fantastico just automates that same process.

To get your own "real" copy of Drupal running, I would recommend you first backup and remove the Fantastico-installed version of Drupal, so it doesn't get mixed up with your real copy. To proceed, you will need to make a new MySQL user + password, a new MySQL database, and authorize that user to use the database. Once you have that, you just upload Drupal's files into the root of your website, and when you first access it, it will ask you to type in the MySQL user, password, and database name - you press OK and that's all there is to it.

So, it sounds tricky to make the MySQL stuff, but it's very simple in Cpanel:

1. Login to Cpanel, and click on the icon for "MySQL Databases".
2. The text may differ depending on the version of Cpanel, but there should be a box where you can type the name of a new database - enter a unique name for the database and press the "Create Database" button. It will tell you the name (usually with Cpanel this will be youraccount_databasename ... they include your primary account/login to the beginning of the name).
3. Go back to the main MySQL Databases page. There will be an area to enter a user name and password. Create a user/password and submit it. As with the database name, CPanel includes your account name as well as the user name, separated by an underscore _
4. Lastly, go back to the main MySQL Databases page, and there were be a place where you can "Add User To Database". Ensure that the appropriate user and database are showing the the drop-down boxes and submit it - if it asks, make sure the user has full access. Your new user now has the right to modify your new database.
5. Upload Drupal's files to your site (e.g. public_html) and go to the site. Drupal will now prompt you for the user, password, and database name. Just type them in, submit the form, and Drupal is installed. You will never have to do this again while upgrading - this is just a one time process.

When it comes time to upgrade Drupal in the future, all you will have to do is upload the new Drupal version's files over the old ones (or if you're like me, delete everything besides the "sites" and "files" directories first to make sure there are no stray old files... sites and files are the only places where your own files are, so everything else is usually safe to delete and re-upload) and then run yoursite.com/update.php ... that's it - all done :D

God bless :)

PHP, MySQL, Apache, etc are all programs that run on a web server, just like Word or Excel on your computer. However they are programs that start up when the server starts up, and run all the time, waiting to respond to requests to process web site data in whatever way necessary.

Generally the versions of these can be upgraded up to the most current version available from their respective organizations. However, when using a Control Panel on the server (especially CPanel), you cannot upgrade them to a different version than CPanel offers (CPanel highly controls those programs, so they are no longer just standard versions of the programs which you can upgrade as you please). You "can" upgrade quite a few things within CPanel (there are options to upgrade from PHP 4 to PHP 5, MySQL 4 to MySQL 5, etc), though your level of control is limited by Cpanel's offering. They usually release security upgrades which can be set to automatically install when available. One thing I believe CPanel still hasn't offered is Apache 2. If the server runs other websites besides your own, a web host will not likely make those upgrades for you, as they can cause pre-existing websites not made for PHP5 or MySQL 5 to break - some hosts are slowly rolling out the new versions, allowing the previous version to keep working for several months simultaneously to let people have time to upgrade their code.

So the answer is... no, you don't need a new server. If CPanel is out of date you can see if that can be upgraded, and the various software that is under its control will upgrade with it. PHP being up to date is the most important issue as far as Drupal is concerned for now... so long as MySQL and Apache have the latest security patches, then they will work fine for now at their lower versions.

I have been reading about and downloading Modules like crazy
from http://drupal.org/project/Modules/name

I was just reading this one: Node As Block

This module allows those with the appropriate permissions the right to create blocks for each node.
By default these blocks display the node title as the block title and the node teaser as the body.

Might this get the job done?

Blessings to all from sunny Florida!
http://firstbaptistchurchsh.com
Pastor David

No not that one. Perhaps it would be helpful if you explain (or show an example on another site) of what you mean by suppressing teasers.

• Do you mean you want to show the whole piece of content in the listing rather than part of it and a link to the full content? As before, I don't recommend this.
• Do you want to have a completely separate "summary" that is shown in listings or on your home page, and a link to the full page content with each? An example of this is what I have here on www.aguaviva.com - the text you see for each item on the home page is a separate "summary" field that is filled out when a new page is made, not a clipped section of the actual content. If this is what you want to do, then the easiest way is probably the CCK Teaser Field module (which I haven't tried since it's pretty new, but looks good). What I do personally is make a field for the content type called "summary" and include it in my Node and Views theming as necessary (this is more tricky but gives full control... the above module looks like it might allow you to use Drupal's standard "teaser" format but have the control of having the teaser manually written in a separate field instead of being dynamically generated by the first X number of characters on the page). You could also consider the Node Teaser module, which works similarly, but not via CCK (e.g. less control for you).
• Are you talking about making a custom home page for the site that is different than the default "list of teasers"? The easiest way is the Panels module... or you can make advanced home page layouts by theming views-generated blocks and regions.

Anyhow, please clarify and we'll try to get you all sorted out :D
God bless.

I'd like the Front/Home Page to display all of its content with no user
input at all (no "Read More" to see the Front/Home Page). Same as
your http://www.aguaviva.com/ page.

I also need to center the layout same as your page.

What I'd prefer to do is to use six or eight pictures (or even better,
a set of several for each that rotate in a slideshow) on the
Front/Home Page, each representing a portion of our ministries,
and perhaps one that represents a slide show of "News" and
"Calendar" links.

Each picture or picture-box containing a slide show would have
a label, e.g. Youth Ministries, Men's Ministries, News, Calendar,
etc.

The first user input would be to mouse-over the picture/picture-box
label area to reveal a hidden message e.g. "Your Passport to Youth -
Click Here for Entry".

WDYT?

Blessings to all from sunny Florida!
http://firstbaptistchurchsh.com
Pastor David