By CLamont on

We recently installed the stock Drupal 4.6.3 for testing. I must say
I'm impressed that the installation is only 1.85 MB, compared to the
stock 8.6 MB for Mambo!

We've been running a rather heavily customized Mambo-based site
for a couple of months, at www.wethethinking.com. We're not all
that satisfied with Mambo or the present site, so would like to con-
sider alternatives.

I've been studying the Drupal handbooks. It looks promising. But perhaps
the simplest way to decide whether to proceed is to outline our needs
(which we understand well) and see if Drupal (which Drupalians understand
well) seems a good fit for MOST or (dare we ask?) ALL our wishes.

www.wethethinking.com is a philosophical/science oriented magazine/forum. It's principal design criteria are:

  • Size: No page can exceed 800x600, i.e., no bottom scroll bars for 800x600 users.
  • Front page: Consists of header, left menu, and articles.
  • Articles: Articles (with pictures) laid out with MS Frontpage editor, then pasted as HTML by WTT staff. I see that full HTML is possible, but the automatic line and paragraph breaks are a problem. Any easy way to disable that and just allow straight HTML for magazine articles? A module available?
  • Articles: We make heavy use of photos in magazine articles. Would we simply upload them to the site and insert a standard short link in the article? Mambo uses an inserted "{mosimage}" in the story, and stores position, flyover caption, photo outline, caption, etc., in the database. I suppose we'd have to do that manually in the HTML with Drupal?
  • PMs: We're using a Personal Messaging setup customized to display on every page whether or not a member has PMs. Can that be easily managed with the Drupal?
  • Forums: On our present setup, when a member goes to the forums, the left menu disappears to make more room for forum messages and composing. I assume that's easily managed with Drupal.

    • Forums: We are using a FLAT MODEL for forums, where a member can start a new thread title under a particular forum classification, and all subsequent posts in response will (must) have the same title.

  • Forums: The Mambo forum component we're using will give a returning member an idea of unread posts, but the feature is erratic. Does the Drupal module have anything like this?
  • Forums: Is there a provision for using a member photo (some allow "avatars") with the forum module?
  • Migration: No chance in hell someone has written a Mambo to Drupal database migration script, is there? (OK, you can stop laughing now!)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions...

Curtis
www.wethethinking.com.

Comments

Johan A’s picture

Johan A commented

Size: No page can exceed 800x600, i.e., no bottom scroll bars for 800x600 users.

just a matter of applying the right theme or making your own.

Front page: Consists of header, left menu, and articles.

easy, default behaviour.

Articles: Articles (with pictures) laid out with MS Frontpage editor, then pasted as HTML by WTT staff. I see that full HTML is possible, but the automatic line and paragraph breaks are a problem. Any easy way to disable that and just allow straight HTML for magazine articles? A module available?

simple to configure the imput format. Just uncheck line break converter.

Articles: We make heavy use of photos in magazine articles. Would we simply upload them to the site and insert a standard short link in the article? Mambo uses an inserted "{mosimage}" in the story, and stores position, flyover caption, photo outline, caption, etc., in the database. I suppose we'd have to do that manually in the HTML with Drupal?

The img_assist module makes this a graphical point and click experience.

PMs: We're using a Personal Messaging setup customized to display on every page whether or not a member has PMs. Can that be easily managed with the Drupal?

not familiar with the PM module, can't answer this. Maybe someone who has used this can help you.

Forums: On our present setup, when a member goes to the forums, the left menu disappears to make more room for forum messages and composing. I assume that's easily managed with Drupal.

with the current cvs version (4.7) this is easy. Just disallow the left sidebar from showing up on the forums module.

Forums: We are using a FLAT MODEL for forums, where a member can start a new thread title under a particular forum classification, and all subsequent posts in response will (must) have the same title.

i think its done like this, though i may be wrong. For comments (used by the forum), set the default view style to flat, and disable the subject field.

Forums: The Mambo forum component we're using will give a returning member an idea of unread posts, but the feature is erratic. Does the Drupal module have anything like this?

I'm sorry, I can't help you here. Not familar with the forum module.

Forums: Is there a provision for using a member photo (some allow "avatars") with the forum module?

definitely, yes.

Migration: No chance in hell someone has written a Mambo to Drupal database migration script, is there? (OK, you can stop laughing now!)

a quick google came up with this.
http://forum.mamboserver.com/showthread.php?t=46227
may help you.

CLamont’s picture

CLamont commented

Thanks, grimmreaper. Most encouraging.

I'll have a look at the 4.7.

I appreciate the link--it's from Drupal to Mambo and makes use of a Java routine the guy wrote (in Spanish). Some of the text conversion things may prove of value, at least making me aware of issues.

Curtis

nevets’s picture

nevets commented

Regarding 'Size: No page can exceed 800x600, i.e., no bottom scroll bars for 800x600 users.' The previous comment is correct but there are some additional things you should be aware of. You will find that space can be limiting for some admin pages, you might want to consider a separate theme for the admin areas that does not have this restriction. Also to absolutly fix the page size the theme will need to size all pages to your maximum (there is noway in ccs to say I want this area no taller than X) and you will need to set overflow for the main content div to either hidden (slip the content), scroll (always show scroll bars) or auto (show scroll bars as needed).

CLamont’s picture

CLamont commented

Nevets said: "Also to absolutly fix the page size the theme will need to size all pages to your maximum (there is noway in ccs to say I want this area no taller than X) and you will need to set overflow for the main content div to either hidden (slip the content), scroll (always show scroll bars) or auto (show scroll bars as needed)."

My mistake. I only meant 800x600 resolution screen. The page cannot be over ~800 wide (whatever it takes NOT to create a horizontal scroll bar--I found I had to set my Mambo templates at about 780 to keep one from appearing), but it can be as tall as the content requires.

On the Admin theme, yes, I'd already gotten the impression that those pages might be a bit width-hungry. I would not mind a horizontal scroll bar so much for admin purposes, but for users horizontal scrolling is undesirable in my book.

When 800x600 goes the way of 640x480 in a few years, good riddance I suppose, but there still seem to be plenty using it for now. I don't care much for designs which require those users to H-scroll to see the righthand 40 pixels. But maybe that's just little old me.

Curtis