Before you start

Hi.

I've downloaded Drupal 1.5 and am preparing to install it in the next week or so (no hurry) .. to see what this CMS is all about. I've done considerable research on choosing a CMS and Drupal has a reputation for being powerful, flexible, yet complicated. Obviously 'complicated' is a relative term .. meaning different things to different people.

Before jumping in, thought I'd ask the community if there are any TIPS that might help me in this endeavor.

Specifically, I thinking of 4 areas:

We're in process of designing/building website for a client, and they have requested a CMS that will likely be Drupal. Trying to figure out timing of this project.

In general, for a new Drupal installation (especially for a new user of Drupal) do you guys find it better to build a site out entirely first and then migrate it into Drupal? (The new site will be php-based regardless). Or is that inefficient, and it's better to build out the site "inside" Drupal?

Thanks

I have a potential deal on the table to create a web site with some associated tools using back-end database functionality. There are content pages plus some specific tools which will be subscription based. You don't get access to the tools unless you pay a subscription fee.

I need visitors to be able to sign-up on-line for a free trial period of a week or so then pay if they want to continue. If they take a trial and/or sign-up they get access to the tools and forums, if not they only have access to content (they shouldn't need to login to get access to this). I am happy with keeping two copies of content if necessary.

So the features I need are:

- Content management
- Forums
- Subscription sign-up and payments system
- Application specific tools

What is the difference between Drupal and a blog + forum?

Say, for example, you already use Movable Type:

http://www.movabletype.org/ (not open source but free for personal use)

.. which can publishing unlimited blogs to unlimited sites with unlimited authors,

and YaBB:

http://www.yabbforum.com/

which has been around several years, one of the better open source forums.

How would comapre & contrast the two.

A big project is potentially heading my way. I've burned myself trying to set up several sites with Drupal and wondered what more seasoned users would say about applying Drupal to this project.

I'd need to created a turnkey system for driving websites - largely pre-configured, with just a theme change and a logo upload. The customer's software package uploads daily a text file and photos of properties - each node is a house or flat to let - so I'd need to parse the info.

I am a new user of drupal. I have downloded the drupal version 5.1. it
is
in .tar.gz form. So i used 7z software to zip the downloaded file.
After
extractiong the file, it does not have any icon indocating the setup or
for
install. There are more zip files which cannot be extracted further. I
am
not able to install the drupal because of it. please help me in solving
this. Reply to my email : anil_6_1@yahoo.com
Hoping a quick reply.
Thank you.
Anil K Vezendla