My name is Claudio, I am a Web Design student and am designing a website for a school as for my thesis project ( I haven't started yet). I am very new to Drupal as to webdesign and I wondered if anyone can help me choose the right modules as this is my first time.
So, the website will serve as a tool to rise funding as it is a charity School so it will take Donations
on top of being a standard school website.
The website will have these functionalities:
Donation
Forum
Blog
A portal - (Learning Management System or whatever to Track students, deliver
learning material and perform simple tasks) ... maybe Moodle?
News letter
Online Application Form.
Also I will take care of the look and feel of the site so I wanted to
use my own design. Can I still do this customising themes?
Also on top of the Card Transactions for Donations, people will have to be able to apply to courses and pay enrollment fees online. Is there a module that would suit me for both purposes? I have seen that most of them use Paypal for donating is there an alternative? I wanted people to stay on my site rather than being directed to the gateaways' sites for making the payment is this possible using the modules? Would I need a Internet Merchant Account and a Payment Service Provider if I use the pre-built modules?
Thanks
Hope to hear from you soon
Claudio
Comments
Modules
I'm not sure how much experience you have with Drupal itself, however if you are totally new to it I'd suggest you read
Using Drupal - http://www.amazon.com/Using-Drupal-Angela-Byron/dp/0596515804/ref=sr_1_1... (I think that's for Drupal 6. I believe the Drupal 7 version is about to be published.)
Drupal 7 Themes - http://www.amazon.com/Drupal-7-Themes-Ric-Shreves/dp/1849512760/ref=sr_1...
It's possible to find free resources but these two books will save you a lot of time.
For help finding modules - http://drupalmodules.com/
Tutorials
Mustard Seed Media - http://mustardseedmedia.com/podcast
Learn by the Drop - http://learnbythedrop.com/
Blog - Drupal core
Forum - Drupal core
Newsletter - http://drupal.org/project/simplenews
Online Application Form - http://drupal.org/project/webform also check out Form API
Theme - http://drupal.org/documentation/theme I would buy the Theming book I listed above, it's really good and will guide you through most of what you need to know.
http://www.webbfx.net/
School Website with Donation
Hey Wfx,
Thanks a lot for replying. I don't have any experience at all with Drupal Im completely new to it...and
Wow that's loads of stuff.. I will have a look at those and see if i can get those books as well...it's so great you got back to me thanks a lot. Also is this page gonna expire or I can go back to it whenever I want? better saving everything. Take care
All the best
Claudio
CiviCRM
You might also have a look at CiviCRM (http://civicrm.org/ ) There's also a module for integrating CiviCRM with Drupal, unfortunately only for D6 (http://drupal.org/project/civicrm ).
hth
Frank
Frank
My LinkedIn profile
Scope?
I'm not exactly sure about the scope / timing of your project but I advice lots of student projects (Drupal and other wise) and I'd say depending on the timeline, you have defined something that's going to take a lot of time (even for an experienced Drupaler). As I say to almost every student, cut it by 80%. You can always work on more at the end but missing the main thing through distraction on sideparts
My advise is to focus only on Drupal (leave out Moodle and Civicrm, sorry Frank Ralf :). These each have their own ecosystem and approach around them. Stick with Drupal...
I'd also advise you to focus on the main task: donation connection. Build a simple presentational site with Drupal 6 or 7. I'd push you towards Drupal 7, then figure out how you can collect donations and what are the requirements for donating.
Buy Me A Beer Module (don't fear the label, it's just a simple donation collection with PayPal) works in a clear and simple way: http://drupal.org/project/buymeabeer. Otherwise, you'll want to consider a bigger solution via one of Drupal's two main ecommerce system Ubercart (mostly for Drupal 6) or Drupal Commerce (Drupal 7).
Best of luck...
Absolutely
Markwk is completely right - LIMIT THE SCOPE. It's so easy to get bogged down and get nothing done. ANd CRM is too big to start with, I agree there, too. ANd use Drupal 7 - it's not too early.
CiviCRM
HI Frank,
Thanks for replying... you are the Second person who suggested CivicCRM.. But What is it exactly? As far as I have understood it's a Database that works with Drupal, and I was thinking to use mySQL but maybe civicCRM fits better? and could I use both? In this case, would civiCRM sort me out of the donation or the portal?
Thanks
Claudio
CiviCRM
CiviCRM is a separate system.
http://civicrm.org
But Mark is right, better stick to only one system for the beginning.
There's also a Fundraising module, but only for D6.
Frank
My LinkedIn profile
Scope?
Hi Mark,
Thanks for replying, the scope: it is a thesis project, the website I am designing is for a client, the client is a school ( study support centre ) that serves out of hours learning and study support to young people and GCSE plus A level retake to adults. The school is a charity registered business so its main revenue model is grants and funding. However this is not enough to keep the centre running so some fees apply to students on enrollment.
In view of the school to evolve implementing new courses and for the school to return to be a free centre the main problem is funding. The website will therefore serve as a mean of promotion but also as a tool to raise the extra money through donations. In other words I wanted to combine a traditional school website - traditional in its features - with the option of making donations online. (similar to a non for profit organisation's website)
The main functions I need at the initial stage would be the forum, the blog, the online application form plus an online card payment solution both for taking cards payments towards enrollment fees plus to allow people to make donations.
As for the portal, I meant a private area for students and stuff to log in and access learning material or to get in touch with each other... maybe another forum??chat?? However, I will look at this at a second stage if I have enough time. The time I have is from now till May. So the main thing really is to figure out the right solution for the card payments which needs to comply to a set of legal requirements for data security.
Thanks for getting back to me,
All the best
Claudio
"portal" in Drupal
The portal bit is easy in Drupal - in the sense that it is just permissions that determines who can see what. So for a forum for instance, you might decide to let everyone read the posts, but that you have to be logged in to comment. And you can decide whether anyone can log in, or just members based on whether you require administrative approval to create a new account. And you could easily add a tag to articles or other content marking items as "public" or "private" so that the public viewers only see certain types of articles. In Drupal there are always multiple ways to do things, but the heart of Drupal is Taxonomy and Views. If you label things correctly (Taxonomy) by making sure you think ahead of time about what you need to do and show and then set your Views and Permissions appropriately - you'll get a private and public face very easily.
But I highly recommend, as another reader mentioned, the book Using Drupal. Go here to get the Drupal 7 edition as its being written: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920010890.do
Elearning management System
You might also look at ELMS,Which is a complete Drupal installation
http://drupal.org/project/elms
I find CiviCRM to be completely focused on donation campaigns and staying in touch with donors.
Sorry for the absence
Hello everyone thanks a lot for your suggestions, and sorry for getting back so late.... I will take everything you said into account ...
Thanks
Claudio