Module development and code questions

I'm trying to make a small block snippet using html or php to post to the search form but searching only certain nodes.

I don't really think it's necessary to create a custom module for this, it seems like all I need to do is throw in some hidden vars in the form html.

Here's what I have so far and it's not working exactly:

Hi, it seems logical to me that, if a story (node) belongs to a child term (category), it should also belong to its parent term (category), too.

For example, if I've written a post in the "Food & Drink" vocabulary (category?) that is categorised in the "Scotch" term, it should, by implication, also live in the "Whisky" term" - it's relevant to its parent...

- Food & Drink
--- Whisky
----- Scotch
---------- Single Malt
---------- Double Malt

Is there anything out there that can accomplish this?

I'm working on an intranet site that will become a DBA portal. Part of what I'm looking for is the ability to create reports based on a secondary data source. I've looked at the multiple databases info and I'm comfortable with that part. As an approach, I was thinking of creating a reporting module that would grab the info it needed from either a database or XML file (1 per report) and display formatted data to the user. The menu of reports would come from querying the database (or pre-loading the list of XML files in a directory).

I installed drupal a week ago to get my feet wet. Upon reading about how forums are built on Drupal, I took the time to begin the process. The first module I thought to add was the Smileys Module.

The installation instructions refer to examples.mysql and smilies.mysql however I do not see them within the downloaded folder for this module. Which explains the error I am getting that, the smilies table cannot be found.

I am setting up a Drupal site with about 15 organic groups. The goal is that registered users will have absolutely NO ACCESS to any group except the one to which they belong (this is to prevent users from digging into information that does not apply to them -- and to eliminate confusion by not even showing them the list of group that don't apply).

This might be a strange subject :P

here are what I active with drupal:
drupal + gallery2 + gallery.module + clear url

briefly, I need the embed user function and block
but i want a stand alone gallery2, in other word

right now, in normal way

http://www.example.com/gallery goes to embed page drupal+gallery2
http://www.example.com/gallery2 goes to stand alone gallery2