Before you start

Well, I've taken a few peeks around the site and the forum and am interested... now just need to figure out whether a solution awaits.

Let me preface everything with the usual disclaimer... no CMS background, little PHP background, but strong background on XHTML/CSS table-less design.

I'm actually on a mission, in that I have some very specific things in mind, and would like to determine if Drupal can fit the bill, but also get some advice on where to begin and what things to look at specifically to my mission.

I want to develop a site that can offer theme related hosting/site solutions. Similar, though different topics, to something like Hostbaby. Targeted at the non-webbie person... not just newbie, but those who really have no desire to learn to make a site, they just want control over it. I've looked at a number of site builders, but I think they miss the mark for my idea and would overwhelm the target audiences.

So, as a designer, I want to develop a number of template themes, controllable thorugh CSS, and allow my users to select their theme, and then have an interface to add, update, and manage their content, without worry of messing up their site or the template. This way, they get a professionally designed look, though not exclusive to their site, but at a fraction of the cost of a custom site. Ideally they would be able to have their own domain name (which I could also provide if needed) and hosting space, however I realize that this may have to be a directory or sub-domain setup and use URL-framing. Obviously one of the goals is to have one central control area and the ability to provide various features (guestbook, calendar, gallery, etc.) to the users rather than setting up separate instances of Drupal which would become a nightmare to maintain. The other big issue is limiting the users control and visibility to just the things they need to control their content and to keep from overwhelming them.

I've been using google's adsense on my site by simply adding the adsense code into a block. But I see there is an adsense module. Why would I do that if the code works in a standard block?

Hello,

I converted my site to a CMS in December using Joomla!, as it seemed to be the best solution in some quick reviews. Snooping around, I feel my site is better fit for Drupal. It doesn't need to be bloated with such options. Is there a converter, or am I gonna have to redo my whole site? It's not too big of a deal, as I got not too involved, but it would be nice if there was a transition script of something.

I have developed a Drupal-based business website on my home Fedora 4 server which includes PHP5 using druapl 4.6.x. I am now at the point where I need to deploy it to the Host. However, the host currently only provides PHP4 support (in-line with most hosts it would appear). Can you forsee any issues of migrating my website due to this difference?. I was planning on bulk copying out the database from my dev server and bringing it into a new drupal 4.5.x install on PHP4.

Hello Everyone...

I'm new to Drupal and am somewhere between beginner and intermediate as far as CMS-blogging software goes and could say the same for PHP. On other skill sets like servers: Windows with Apache and Mysql=Ok; Linux=Fair, work in progress.

So I've been doing some research on the forums and a little on the handbboks to get a feel for Drupal and have decided to give it a go with a site I would like to develop.

To try and get the best possible start and save myself some headaches down the line, as is usual in development; I had some initial questions I'd like to pose and see if the Drupal community can give me some pointers to get started. First I would like to thank all in advance for any and all help provided, here it goes...

1. If I develop on Windows XP platform with Apache and Mysql, would I have any special considerations for moving to a virtually hosted Fedora Core 2 platform? I researched this on the forums but would like some futher calrification if possible to address the specific XP to Linux issue.

I am about to load Drupal, but when I go to download it is a .tar.gz file. I have WinXP so I am looking for .exe file. Is there one? Or am I barking mad, or barking up the wrong tree here?? Before you say it ~ yes I know I am barking mad, just put it down to all the tablets I take.
Have tried to download with Firefox with the .tar.gz, but is only takes a second to download, so somethings wrong...........

Any ideas please.

Moonseye