Before you start

i was wondering, in your opinion - which modules should u download before installing drupal?

I have spent the last couple of hours reading around the forum. All I can say is wow! (and I mean in a bad way). You see I'm new to the whole CMS thing. I have spent the last 4 years making my sites using raw HTML and used PHP add-ons if I want to add some features. I have no knowledge in PHP whatsoever (as in zero!). Above average knowledge on HTML and CSS. Can handle graphics and web designs well, I could take pride in saying I'm good at this department but I don't know if this could help with my upcoming endeavors with Drupal.

I have yet to install Drupal on my site as I'm still looking on what version best suit my needs. I got this mixed feelings of nervousness and excitement. Wondering how hard is it to learn and customized (heavily) Drupal for someone like me. I'm a very willing apprentice and will put some effort in learning but I'd really wish it's just easy and it won't take me that long! How hard is it for someone like me to learn Drupal who has no knowledge on PHP and has no courage and wisdom facing database issues, security, patches, updates.... you know that sort of thing as what some are experiencing with Drupal? Tell me.

Hi,

Since i've been asked the question it became obvious little is known, or i'm not asking the right question, about migrating data from an external CMS (like Plone or other sources).

My understanding is that XML can be used but it's not obvious to do so for any given circumstance. As such this post for your remarks on whicn resources to visit or what guides to read.

So far search-engine results were not very stimulating, this mostly due to version-specific issues and similar roadblocks.

Thank you,

Joris

Hello all,
I'm curious if drupal would suit my needs for a small project I have. I should mention that I am an interface designer and am very well versed in xhtml and css. I'm just lacking in the backend/cms department. I'm not sure if drupal would be the answer without some serious modifications.

Anyway, here are the requirements...

The site is for a mixed martial arts team. It only needs a single user, the administrator. The administrator needs to be able to add/edit/delete individual martial artists.

Hello all. I'm thinking of creating a social networking site such as adultfriendfinder. Would Drupal be able to create a site like adultfriendfinder?

If not, would joomla or other open source software be better?

Thanks!

I just get started working with drupal 6.2, and i dowloaded some themes and modules but mostly are not compatible, hows that? So wanted to shift to drupal 5.x, would it be easier?