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Just posted this to drupal usability forum:
When I was first told of cms in early 2004, was told re Drupal: but
had a look at drupal, and couldn't make head nor tail of "nodes" etc,
and didn't see I could readily make site as I wished: chiefly with
articles with images.
I found Mambo, used this and successor Joomla.
Now having another look at Drupal - partly as I've been asked re
doing site that would involve info with various categories for
individual items.
A few thoughts here; ups and downs, some ideas. (and not useful to just
post and tell me I'm welcome to do the coding - I'm aware of that, but
dunno code I'm afraid)
Drupal has progressed, and can see that can indeed make belting sites, with images, videos, the works.
But oh dear, this main site.... (I'll post to documentation re this)
Install was easy.
Easy enough to create a basic page, choose from range of themes. And - presto! - a basic site.
But also a fair amount of hassle. Yes, a learning curve to be expected, but still not a cinch.
First, to get usability as I'd wish, need fair numbers of modules.
Some of these would seem fundamental - such as pathauto, the module for meta tags.
I installed fckeditor, had some troubles, but about ok.
But - alarming to add image with editor, and find it didn't show in
pages. Had to look around to find out about Filtered HTML, and fact
that (for some reason) this stripped out my images.
Seems I can't edit list of Filtered HTML tags.
Given - if users add content - potential security issues with Full HTML
- I wonder if editing tags list would be helpful (as was case w 4.7)
Tried the image assist fix: another module to install.
Wanted forum.
Here, too, needed more components.
And, as also noted on this site, could use more functionality for this
site. For instance, I post this, but won't learn of replies unless I
check back; emails are handy. Yes, seen there's group working on the
forum
So one thing that could help, I think, might be some packages of Drupal, such as:
Drupal for SEO - with pathauto, chance to add meta tags
Drupal for SEO, with forum.
Compared to Joomla, I think it's strong point there's built in
forum, working with search, and with URLs (tho so far, my forum URLs
not working out with keywords from titles: dunno why), plus w sitemenu
etc.
It was also great to install menalto gallery, and find it fits
nicely, with the gallery URLs working like a charm (unlike w Joomla).
I saw re changing the primary and navigation menus (not sure what the secondary menu is about).
But rather bamboozled by creating extra menus; with Joomla sites, I
have a few menus, most of which only appear in sections they apply to.
Yes, could easily make new menu; but then no list of menu items to
choose from - I'd hoped for something like the navigation menu.
Hunted for info - and found a couple of fairly nifty fixes, which are
kind of hidden away within modules re context and sitemenu (on quick
glance at info on these, not easy to notice they made blocks that can
be used as menus).
There clearly is power here.
For choices of where blocks appear, maybe would be possible to
select from a list of taxonomy terms. (Something else I'm used to w
Joomla)
Ah, taxonomy. Got me fairly baffled, as some other things in Drupal.
Learning to see the power in the taxonomy system, but not so sure re
how to implement.
Found recent change to taxonomy selecting (using checkboxes etc): but
yet to discover how to get it to appear on one of my pages.
Themes: good to see there are several varying themes to choose from.
Maybe drupal folks could do more hype re Garland theme, and being able
to select colours.
I'm yet to try changing themes more than this; seems quite an issue.
Even placing image across top of screen not so obvious to me just now.
Tried adding Chinese characters in v few places (I'm in Hong Kong,
don't know Chinese writing but some visitors will): worked easily.
Again, unlike my current Joomla sites - with one, had Chinese
displaying, but upgraded Joomla and the characters became garbled.
Right, those are my notions for now. Back to having look at the site
I'm working on while learning Drupal (not the one that needs the
various categories per item) - www.cheungchauhk.com - and Drupal.
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