By vr1001 on

Hi,
I am new to Drupal. I just installed 4.7 (Fantastico auto install)

Now.... I want to use this as collaboration platform for multiple communities. For example, we have communities in all States. So, there will be a global portal that aggregates important information (news, events, special articles, forum posts, etc.) from individual community portals. Preferably I would like to have a single database to store all user data.

That means, if a user signs up in any portal, the information will be captured in a single location.

I guess I can summarize the features I want to implement using Drupal. Please let me know if I can do this; if so, how? any examples tutorials?

1. Multiple Drupal Sites with a single installation or multiple installations connected seamlessly to support a Global Portal, State level portals, City level Portal, and community level portals. Fundamental unit is Community portal. All others higher level portals show aggregate info from their sub portals.

2. Can we have custom fields added to initial site signup / Registration form?

3. Can we allow other users to own and maintain content (with suitable work flow - approval system)?
Can we have page level control or block level control?

4. Can we have web forms to collect different types of info? Can we make these just one record per user (like extended profile where each user can have multiple such profiles, like resume, volunteering skills, professional skills, etc.) How easy it is to create new forms?

5. Can we have event Registration linked with calendar, with event info capture, RSVP managemement, separate site for all members who register for an Event, etc.?

6. How does it compare to DotNetNuke portal ?

Thanks a lot for helping me understand these.
Vijay

⋅ Categories: Drupal 4.7.x

Comments

Muslim guy’s picture

Muslim guy commented

Go to Drupal handbook
http://drupal.org/handbooks

I'd recommend you use 4.7.2 instead. If the Fantastico still install 470, that means the webhost is lagging behind. Installing 4.7.2 is quite challenging but Drupal community is ready to help. Search for `install Drupal'

2. Can we have custom fields added to initial site signup / Registration form?

Yes, admin/settings/profile
It is up to you what fields of info you require or enable users to enter.

*I donno if it can be limited (the textarea is a big text box) and whether some morons would copy and paste some PHP or FrontPage codes which might wreak the site - just tell them not to do this

Example is http://drupal.org/user/register
(But the additional profiles and options are presented later since Drupal.org prefers that 1st time new users dont bother much about this)

My example:
http://drupalmalaysia.org/on/user/register

4. Can we have web forms to collect different types of info? Can we make these just one record per user (like extended profile where each user can have multiple such profiles, like resume, volunteering skills, professional skills, etc.) How easy it is to create new forms?

- WEBFORM module for 4.7.2
- Profile as said in .2 above

Webform is an indispensable tool for a community site - creating a complex survey, reservation form, is easy.

See example http://drupalmalaysia.org/on/Borang_lamanweb

6. How does it compare to DotNetNuke portal ?

I wont `provoke' something here by comparing Drupal with others - pretty much you will forget about the rest because Drupal is

Community Development Tool (CDT)
Community Management System (CMS) .....

Its up to your creativity and willingness - Google and Spreadfirefox use Drupal. I am not sure about Google but they some kind of coding programs for students going on, which shows that Drupal is respected by Google and many others like theonion.com.

**And you didnt ask about the TAXONOMY :) Assuming you understand the categorization system in Drupal which is called `taxonomy'. If not, see handbook on taxonomy

admin/taxonomy

takaakikato’s picture

takaakikato commented

I would suggest you not use Fantastico. You can learn a lot and understand better if you do everything on your hands.

Most of the questions you asked are covered by the Drupal Handbook. Read it to become a good webmaster/webdeveloper.

If you'd like information about Drupal and other systems, check out: http://www.opensourcecms.com/ .

Last of all, welcome aboard.

--
Samurai Coder : Learning Cocoa(Objective-C), AppleScript, PHP, Ajax and Rails

MacRonin’s picture

MacRonin commented

I am primarily commenting so I can see any good ideas mentioned here. I am also putting together a site which will have many sub communities who should each be able to control their own areas. And down the road maybe even have multiple languages with diff areas having diff defaults. Its' primarily USA based now but we are spreading international.

I will want a single global sign-on and seperate activation of each sub group.

so far Organic Groups (OG) looks like it will help with a lot of this.