Installing Drupal

If this is not the right place for my post please direct to where I should be posting.

I am working with a non-profit organization and they are expanding their clubs. Their Drupal site (www.icantriclub.com) handles registrations, donations, volunteer applications, newsletters and merchandise. What they are wanting to do is start local clubs which have an identical site with the exception of merchandise. The also do not want to allow the local clubs to change the site other than text on pages. We are currently using Ubercart for merchandise and registrations. There are five local clubs that need websites now but there may be over 100 in the future. The website is currently being hosted on godaddy.com. The hosting account can have unlimited databases.

I would like to know is would the best way to replicate their site for all local clubs be to have a multi-site install through one hosting account? I thought that this may be better when modules/configurations need to be changed. If this is the best choice should each local club have a new domain name, be a subdomain or a have a subfolder as the base url (www.domain.com/chapter1) ? If this is not the best choice what would be the best alternative that ensures that the site is essentially identical in theme, functionality and doesn't allow the local chapters to make significant changes to the new site?

I have a client that wants to use their windows server to host their new Drupal website. I have never used a Windows Severs for a Drupal website and ran into two problems that I haven't been able to trouble shoot. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated:

1. File System Settings - How do you change the permissions on a windows server. It will not allow me to make this directory writable.

2. Clean Url's - I can not get clean Urls working.

The server is Windows Server 2008 Standard. Thanks for the suggestions and help.

Mike Woodward

I just installed Drupal, got a little content up and found a couple of themes to try.

First I tried an admin theme:
Tao and Rubik for my admin theme.

That never worked and it messed up my admin so I would only see an error or blank page. I had to clean the cache tables and reset the theme via database to get the site back up and running again to see the UI.

So I tried a frontend theme:
Corolla

I get this error on the front page:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function render() in /themes/corolla/node.tpl.php on line 82

I have a site I built for my best friend and church. It was a subdomain off my host so we decided it was time to move it to his own host. I backed up the PHP database through PHP admin and file structure. Logged in and copied it to the new host and setup the db. Now what I think I might have done wrong is I used Simple Scripts to do the intial install then copied over the top of it. I think maybe that could have screwed it up.

Here is my dilemma.

-I have a domain (example.me) registered with godaddy.
-I have server space with bluehost.
-I want to run multiple sites off the same code base on bluehost. (multi-site)
-I'd like to set up multi-site normally. (public_html/sites/example.me, example.com1, example.net2)
-I have my add-on domain (example.me) pointed to bluehost.
-but , it cannot point to a folder within a folder in public_html, for example it cannot point to /public_html/sites/example.me.
-it also cannot point to a symbolic link within /public_html.

Good day all,

I am a new Drupal convert, but an old sole developer. I would like to take advantage of Drupal for a concept that I have but I am bit confused regarding some of the more discreet architectural approaches one would use for doing certain things.

As stated, I have done development "back in the day" of the internet boom. I built a legacy based Information System that was originally a dial-up...and was converted to an internet site...but it was long ago. I have been out of this world for a long time but can't seem to stay away, and everything has matured and seem so very interesting!

Sorry to be so wordy, I have a concept that I would like to develop, I have done a bunch of research on this site and many others regarding frameworks, Zend, Joomla....they seem to go on and on. I like Drupal and I want to get on with "things" so I hope it is appropriate to ask some questions.

My questions are generally "is this possible", "does this take a ton of customization" and "wow...you are old and your ideas are all 'old'". Please feel free to point me to research if there are areas that I should consult and if this is completely inappropriate here, my apologies to the community.