Before you start

I would like a more functional, detailed explanation of how Drupal works, which files do what? What is theirs purpose? What is the relationship between the files?

(Here is an example of what I mean: You call index.php, which is the first page containing x nr of scripts, where script nr 1 calls module x1, script nr 2 calls module x2. Module x1 gets xdata from database and uses template.css to create an .html page and return it to user. Module x2 gets specific xdata from DB and displays it according to template.ccs. In other words, explain what the code does in words.)

I want to create a list of web links that can be rated, commented on, and sorted by rating. Does drupal come with or have a module capable of this? Also i need to be able to customize the template of this link page...

I spent the last 2 days setting up postnuke only to find that the template cannot be changed. so i figured id ask here before i devoted the time setting up a drupal site.

I manage an investment blog that is currently using WordPress. However, I am starting to get frustrated with the limitations of WordPress. I wanted to learn whether Drupal might help me enhance my site and handle some of the tasks that I can't currently do in WordPress.

A few months ago I created a "premium" content section on my site for paying members. I use Registered Only plugin in WordPress right now to restrict access. It looks like Drupal has a built in system for this feature. Is this true? Is there anything that can help me keep track of when users' subscriptions are expiring?

The main feature of the premium content section of my site is a listing of stock risk arbitrage opportunities for small individual investors. I'm currently entering in the stock symbol, company name, tender price and links to the SEC filings in to an Excel spreadsheet that then gets the stock price for each stock in the table and then calculates the difference between the stock price and the price the company is offering to buy back the stock for. I then run a mail merge and produce the list of the deals with xhtml markup. I have to run this several times to get reports sorted by each of the different variables. This is a real annoying task.

I noticed the Flexinode module, and it looks like I could set up a node that would have fields I could configure and enter the information for each of these deals into a form. I also spotted the stockapi module that can get stock prices from Yahoo. I was wondering if there was any way I could have a field in a flexinode for stock ticker and then have the stock price automatically added to another field. I also need another field that takes the stock price and calculates the percent gain from the offering price of the stock buy back (entered earlier into a numeric field).

Before I go into my major project, I need to check out the design implications of going with drupal. It seems to be an issue.

With Mambo I can do what what I want design wise.

The same with Drupal? The sites I have seen, examples have seemed to be a little samey.

WHat is drupal like for design, honestly?

Thanks

I will be setting up a brand-new Drupal site within the next week. I'm wondering if 4.7 is at a point where it makes sense to start right up with it, or if I should start with 4.6. While I enjoy poking around in the code and such, I'm not a programmer, and I need to get this site up at at least a basic level of functionality pretty quickly.

Thanks for any input.

I have some questions about installing and building a website community with drupal. I've done a few sites using Joomla and I like it but I'm taking on a much larger task and I wanted the opinions of the users here.

We're completely re-vamping the site www.Philosophy.org and here are my concerns and questions:

1. Philosophy.org sells books to the public currently and sells them in many different countries. It's not currently user friendly and we want to make it better. With this, we have to have a store integrated within the site that can allow for automated check out for those customers that are out of the country. Preferabl we'd like the shipping charges (in respect to weight) for each of our books to be calculated automatically to be shipped to other countries. Is there a module in Drupal that can support this?

2. The very reason I'm looking at Drupal is because we want to build a community. We want to take the existing site and information and transform into a site that allows for users to become members and to join in community discussions through blogging and Forums. With this in mind, when a user registers with our site we'd like them to be able to enter their mailing address and other information for the purposes of ordering online books and such. Having a database of addresses is important for the purpose of physical mailings and the shipping of books and media. Does anyone here have any suggestions on this?