Before you start

I'm just wondering how much Drupal can actually do for personalized websites.

What I have in mind is a calendar-based website where each registered member would have their own personal calendar with specific information relative to that member. No two calendars would be the same.

Am exploring the possibility of using Drupal to run a website for a swimming school.

As well as the 'ordinary' features of a website (blog, pages, newsletter/bulletin for parents and/or staff) this swim school site will also need to allow admin and teaching staff users create reports for each student - in a way that allows ONLY the parents of that particular student to view that student's report.

Another way to say it is that "parents" Mr & Mrs Smith can login and view ONLY the reports for Angela, Bart and Clara Smith (their three children); but are not able to see reports etc for the other students in the swim school.

I'm sure it's possible. But how to do that is (currently) beyond me. All the more so because I'm new to Drupal*

I've installed the School Administration module but am struggling to figure out how to work with it (documentation isn't all that clear to a complete newbie - and have offered to help the author with that).

I've looked at School Reports but there's nothing at all to download there. Gradebook also has potential - but is not available for the latest Drupal.

Any suggestions / observations would be welcome.

Thanks.
Sean.

I'm a regular Wordpress user but have stumbled on Drupal as a viable alternative. What are the benefits of Drupal that might coerce me into switching sides?

Hi all,

Hoping for some help with the following. I'm looking at creating a website for cyclists that allows users to share routes with other cyclists. I'm unsure if Drupal can support my requirements and I'm looking for some advice.

The website would function very similar to cycle-route.com, specifications/key requirements briefly as follows;

- Website to provide users with a tool to create custom routes to share with the community, the routes would need to be stored/archived on the site by geographical locations making it easy to find routes in your local area.
- Route would need to be drawn out on Google maps by the contributor for others to see.
- Each route created would be shown on its own page, the page would need to display the route via Google maps, the user would also need the ability to attach a supporting GPX file for GPS users.
- Each page would need to have the ability for user comments, feedback and the ability to rate the article.

- On the main page I would would require a panel displaying recently uploaded/created rides.
- Also need a page which allows users to view all routes uploaded via a map, rather than clicking through text menus.

I have been building in Dreamweaver but I would like to get started using Drupal. The methods seem so different and I think I have a basic understanding, but still in the dark about the details.

Do you recommend just downloading and jumping right in and trying a build, or is there something else I should be doing first?

If I understand correctly, Drupal is going to be somewhat "templated" but with the option to edit the templates as needed? Can you change themes "on a dime" so to speak, or are you pretty much locked in once you start building with a certain theme?

I'm learning Drupal, and I figure what better way to get good and practice than to recreate, in Drupal, an impressive website that already exists.

This is just for fun, of course. The goal is to create an accurate clone of a commercial website.

Challenges:
- have the design look the same
- have the URL paths match/have the same structure
- not be obvious that we are using Drupal to power the site
- reproduce the many features of the site and its pages (blogs, users, commenting, forums, etc)