Trying to create a front/home page my way

Posted by rocknlnx on October 14, 2008 at 7:46am

Hi all:

My name is Bob and I am new member of Dojo and new to Drupal. I have been trying to figure Drupal out on my own now for a couple of months. I read as much as I can, but a lot of the posts I read assume that you have knowledge of what they are talking about. I don't have any programming training and only now am beginning to understand HTML somewhat along with CSS(very little). Unfortunately I have tried to use the Drupal.org forums with disappointing results. I really don't understand why they close threads with no solutions. I have followed some threads that ended nowhere. I know that there is a group working on redesigning the drupal.org site and I really hope they get right. I looked at the early demos and it looks 100% better.

In any case I am not here to complain I hope that I learn enough about building a site with Drupal that one day I'll be able to help other newcomers. In the meantime I really need some help.

I have a vision for a site and I am having a hard time designing it. From what I have read it seems that the Panels module and the Views module are the ones that I need to accomplish this. What I would like to have is this: I want a front/home page that is broken down into 6 areas (Panes?) that each contain teasers, in other words the beginnings to an article or other content with a read more link to take the reader to another page with the full article and other content relating to that article. And possibly more than one teaser per area. To get a better idea of what I want to do you can take a look at http://msn.com. The way that they have their categories separated and broken down with multiple links in each. Now the key is (as I see it) is that when the content/articles are created we would have a choice as to where they are to automatically appear. Just as if I was working on the msn.com site and writing a sports article, that I would have the option to automatically publish it under Fox Sports heading.

Well I hope I gave enough info and at the same time I hope not too much. I have seen since joining this group that people are eager to help which gives me hope for a change.

Comments

Hi rocknlnx, What you try to

Posted by g.idema (not verified) on October 14, 2008 at 10:10am

Hi rocknlnx,

What you try to achieve shouldn't be to difficult. Here's what you can do:

Activate the core-taxonomy module if you haven't already done so.
In content/taxonomy Create at least one new vocabulary, say 'subject', and activate it for the Story content type, or your own content type
Create taxonomy terms in this vocabulary. For example shopping, money, entertainment
Create new content and select the appropriate term from your vocabulary
For starters create one view (for example money)
- activate both page and block view.
- For the page view set the view type to 'teaser list'
- For the block view set the view type to 'list view'
- In the fields section add at least the 'Node title' field
- In the filter section add 'Taxonomy: terms for subject', and set the value to 'one of | money'
- Save your view
In your panel add the block view for you money view

This should give you a base setup. Once you've got this up and running and played around a bit with the parameters, you can adapt it to your wishes. Here are some options.

Use arguments in your view to prevent having to create a view for each subject/taxonomy term
Use CCK to add specific fields to you content like teaser images
Use the taxonomy_image module to attach images to your taxonomy terms.

I hope this gets you started. Good luck.
Gertjan Idema

Trying to follow

Posted by rocknlnx on October 15, 2008 at 5:48am

Hi and thank you for responding quickly:

I really appreciate you helping me, but I got stuck on creating the view part of your howto. I don't see any options for "View Type".
The only thing that I see that comes close to that is 'Style' and under style the options are Grid, List, Table and unformatted.
And under the Fields Section I don't have 'Node title' as an option, what I do have is Taxonomy options, Term, Term ID, Term Description,
Vocabulary name and Weight. Am I missing a step somewhere. Also there are a number of other settings that I don't know what to do with.

Relationships, Sort Criteria, Arguments, Filters. What do I do with these?

As I said I am really new at this and Drupal is the single hardest piece of software I have ever come across. I usually pick things up very quickly, but in this case I am really frustrated. I don't fully understand the processes and terminology that Drupal uses. For instance, when creating content, I want to create articles or stories relevant to the theme of the site. If it makes things any clearer the site is going to be an informational site on GNU/Linux, Programming Some Windows content, News, Howto's, Downloads. So a good part of the content(Articles) will be changing on a daily/weekly/monthly basis and of course some things will be static or very seldom changed. So I see things as A. You create the pages, B. You configure the pages to have a particular look and C. You write articles to publish. Is this wrong?

I did start working with Joomla at first but a couple of the guys that are going to be contributing content said I should switch to Drupal. And I do see the benefits of Drupal (once configured) but in Joomla it made more sense to me. Joomla has a Sections/Categories/Articles system that is really simple to follow. You create the Sections then the Categories within those Sections and finally you write the Articles.
And please don't recommend that I go back to Joomla, I have invested too much time and effort already and I am determined to understand Drupal.

Bob Waltman a.k.a RocknLnX - "I have seen the light"
Operating system of choice - GNU/Linux Ubuntu 8.04.1
"Free Software is more than just a price tag, it is a philosophy"
Free Software and Open Source Software, gives us freedom, choice and quality

Drupal taxonomy/views

Posted by Z2222 on October 15, 2008 at 6:55am

Are you using Drupal 6 with Views 2?

I wrote a Drupal taxonomy tutorial that goes through taxonomy for a simple news site. (written for Drupal 5, but probably not much different from Drupal 6).

The arguments section is where you can setup Drupal to automatically build pages (views) based on URL arguments. So example.com/section/x would load views based on taxonomy term x. If the taxonomy term doesn't exist it would send a 404 error.

There's a good tutorial that explains view arguments here:
http://www.lullabot.com/articles/how_to_build_flickr_in_drupal

Filters are where you limit the content that gets displayed. You might want to only show "published" posts of the content type "news_article" or "story". If you don't set a filter for a view, it will show every node on the entire site whether unpublished or published.

Sort criteria would probably be by published date, descending (newest posts first).

--
My Drupal Tutorials

Thanks for the links because

Posted by harrisben on October 15, 2008 at 7:43am

Thanks for the links because I'm trying to do something similar to this, but unfortunately Views 2 is different from the original views and I'm not able to follow the important parts of your tutorial. I think anyone who would need to consult your tutorial would not be capable of translating your instructions to Views 2, at least I'm not.

tutorials

Posted by Z2222 on October 15, 2008 at 5:57pm

I only wrote the taxonomy tutorial -- the views/flickr tutorial is by Lullabot. It should be similar for Views 2 though.

I'm busy today, but I'll try to write a tutorial for Views 2 that includes arguments later this week.

--
My Drupal Tutorials

Can't really folow the Taxonomy...

Posted by rocknlnx on October 16, 2008 at 3:44am

Hi J.Cohen

Thank you for the Taxonomy tutorial but I can't really follow it because I don't have the same options that are given in the tutorial. I was actually excited about reading it because news is a very similar type of site. But unfortunately my search continues for the right tutorial on Taxonomy:-(

Drupal taxonomy/views

Posted by Z2222 on October 16, 2008 at 6:12am

Sorry about that - it was written for Drupal 5. I'll try to update it for Drupal 6 by the weekend.

--
My Drupal Tutorials

Advanced Help

Posted by heather on October 15, 2008 at 8:06am

hello harrisben :)

have you got advanced help for views 2 installed? i recently collaborated on a new step-by-step to make an RSS feed. if you're not using the latest version i also posted it here: http://drupal.org/node/314097 there are other step by steps in the advanced help for views 2.

while that isn't your direct aim (a user feed), the goal of the views tutorials is to help you get familiar with the interface. one of the aspects of the user RSS tutorial is the arguments.

i might have some time to write out a taxonomy step by step, based on the tutorial above. i'd still recommend trying out the 3 views 2 activities, just as a way of training.

and now you've given me the idea of video-fying the step by steps. but i don't think i can get to it this week!

~ h

Thanks Heather, I did see

Posted by harrisben on October 15, 2008 at 8:43am

Thanks Heather,

I did see the tutorial and now that I now it is a good guide on arguments I'll check it out.

Cheers

Ben

I now understand arguments

Posted by harrisben on October 16, 2008 at 7:01am

Thanks for pointing me to the tutorials included with views2, the first one was a nice easy example of using an argument and thanks to that I now 'get it'.

Thank you

Posted by rocknlnx on October 15, 2008 at 8:52pm

Hi Heather and thank you for your tutorial:

I know that it was a reply to harrisben but I think it is one of, if not the best tutorial that I have read on any subject in Drupal. You don't leave any steps out and you cover each and every step thoroughly. This is what a tutorial should be like. Bravo!

It even helped me understand a little better the previous post by g.idema. I'm going to go and try to finish that one now. If you have any advise on creating the kind of front page that I want I would appreciate it. (original post) http://groups.drupal.org/node/15844

Also what do you mean by "I'd still recommend trying out the 3 views 2 activities".
I take it that it is another tutorial? Where can I find it?

Again, thanks very much,

In hindsight maybe...

Posted by rocknlnx on October 16, 2008 at 3:50am

To all who want to help:

In hindsight maybe I am not asking the right questions to get the right answers. I appreciate everyone who posted an answer in reply to my original post but I need information that I am not getting and I realize its because I did not ask the question properly. As a matter of fact I have a post on a forum site that I have that explains how to ask a question the right way so I guess I better take my own advice:-).

So here goes, In designing a site in Drupal what would be the correct steps to take? I have the following modules installed and enabled:
These modules I installed because I thought they would help me design the site the way that I want.
Almost all of the Core Options are enabled. All modules within a given module category are enabled

Front Page
CCK
Category
Filters
Custom Page
Panels
Views

Other modules that I added to expand the site but I am not concerned about at the moment
Image, Shadowbox, Dash Player, Filters, Piclens, Voting
And of course I have others having to do with admin navigation and stuff like that. So I am focusing on the first set of modules here.

Is Taxonomy one of, if not the first steps to take in designing the site. In taxonomy I create the "Categories"(Terms) "Sections"(Containers?) that my "Articles"(content)will go into. Is this correct? And at what point do I start configuring the Content Types? How do Content Types and Taxonomy work together?

This is where I am stuck. In what order do I configure the modules? There have been some tutorials that I tried to follow, but could not because I had no content yet. And I still don't, I am assuming that I should configure everything before writing any articles.
Once I understand the order of configuring everything I think that I will be able to understand things a lot better. Right now I think that I am trying to configure things in the wrong order and when I try to follow a tutorial I get stuck because it assumes that other parts have already been configured. Its like trying to install an operating system by installing the programs first.

If Taxonomy is used to create categories and sub-categories, do I need the Categories module? And if I can use it, how would it help me? Also concerning the Front Page module, if I Configure Panels properly do I need this module? Again, if so how can I use it?

Also at what point do I enable and configure Blocks?

I am also attaching screenshots of my menus to maybe help you help me. Maybe you'll see something that I neglected to mention.
I surely hope that I am not asking too many questions, but I can't seem to find the information on my own. As I said before I think that once I understand the order of things then I'll start understanding the concepts better.

Bob Waltman a.k.a RocknLnX - "I have seen the light"
Operating system of choice - GNU/Linux Ubuntu 8.04.1
"Free Software is more than just a price tag, it is a philosophy"
Free Software and Open Source Software, gives us freedom, choice and quality

glad to hear you both got

Posted by heather on October 16, 2008 at 8:02am

glad to hear you both got alot out of those tutorials. i can't take full credit for them. they've been looked at and collaborated on by a few people. "3 views 2 tutorials" meaning, install advanced help, and make sure to go through the three tutorials on 'views 2':

advanced help is great, offering in-context help links, but if you're still not sold, you can see them online... merlinofchaos keeps a version of the advanced help files here: http://views-help.doc.logrus.com/help/views
the three tutorials are at the bottom of this page, which the first page of the getting started guide.

http://views-help.doc.logrus.com/help/views/getting-started

Just some general tips:

Start with a test site. You need a place to play, make mistakes and scrap, revert and undo.
Don't worry about content at first. Just use dummy text (generate some i love the hillbilly text option here, it's so funny) , and add meaningful titles to help. note: the Devel module can help make dummy nodes for your use during a design phase.
Check out the best practices handbook pages: http://drupal.org/best-practices

I don't know, in terms of development workflow if there is a "right way". Maybe others have opinions. I think that you can safely say with 6, Drupal will stop or halt you if you're going in the wrong direction.

For example: you won't be able to place blocks from Views if you haven't created them yet. You can't make the menu items (in Views 6) for pages that don't exist because it will check if the path exists and throw up an error first. You can't make views of your custom content types until you create the content types, and you won't be able to test them until you have at least some dummy content in them.

If I can say anything that should go last: images... just hold off entirely on images until the end. Any file uploading in fact. Just keep it till the end. Things like pic lens and other bells and whistles, you're right intuitively to leave to the end.

Not sure about the taxonomy versus content types you're explaining.

Content types have structure, special fields to describe a content type. The module helps you build a table in the database.
Taxonomy describes the content type with a classification. It exists outside content types, content types can be classified in several ways; and several content types can be under the same term...
Therefore when you use Views you can show all nodes of various types & vocabularies. You can restrict to certain types and certain vocabularies.

Does that make sense or help at all?

-h

Thanks for your advice

Posted by rocknlnx on October 19, 2008 at 5:49pm

But I am a little surprised at your answer pertaining to the order of things. I know that Drupal will stop you from do9ing something if something else has to be done first. But there has to be an order to the process. And since posting my last question I have gotten a little more confused. Can someone please explain to me the terminology that coincides with the following:
This is how my site is going to designed/broken down

Category - News
Section - Site news
Section - Software news
Section - Hardware news
Section - Business news (as it pertains to computing)

Category - Software
Section - Reviews
Section - Howto
Section - Customization
Section - Miscellaneous

Category - Hardware
Section - Reviews
Section - Howto
Section - Installation

Category - GNU/Linux
Section - General information
Section - Installation
Section - Distro news
Section - Advice/Howto/Customization

Category - Windows
Section - General informatio
Section - Software
Section - Howto/Tricks&Tips/Customization

There will probably be other categories and sections as subjects come up. Now can someone please explain to me, do I use Taxonomy to create these categories and sections? I realize that the articles themselves will be the content that I create. But as I am writing these articles I want to have an option on the create content page that puts the article in the proper Category/section.

Also if I am using Taxonomy where does the Category module come in? Because so far it has been explained to me that Taxonomy is where I create this stuff. Vocabulary/Term? Category/Container? Content Type? Its the terminology that I am having a problem with.
I guess I don't understand what Drupal means by 'container' 'category' 'term' 'vocabulary' 'page' 'story'. Without understanding these terms I can't possibly begin to design my site.

Hi rocknlnx

Posted by arunks007 on October 2, 2009 at 6:00am

Hi,

I read your your post, I think that you are going no where because of the terminolgy used and not getting the hang of drupal.
I am very new to Drupal, only two weeks old. I got hang of Drupal after reading an e-book on drupal, after that you can build on those and also understand exactly what other people mean in their post.
So I advise to spend a week maybe to go through, then your done, this inturn will save a lot of time in the future too. Its worth putting the effort.Mail me to arunks007@gmail.com, i will send a copy to you if required.

Arun

Trying to create a front/home page my way

Comments

Hi rocknlnx, What you try to

Trying to follow

Drupal taxonomy/views

Thanks for the links because

tutorials

Can't really folow the Taxonomy...

Drupal taxonomy/views

Advanced Help

Thanks Heather, I did see

I now understand arguments

Thank you

In hindsight maybe...

glad to hear you both got

Thanks for your advice

Hi rocknlnx

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