Tutorials

It's a good idea to have a list of modules you intend to use before you start building. Looking through the modules will give you an idea of what's possible already in contrib, point out any problem areas, such as modules that aren't yet ready for the version of core you are using, and maybe give you ideas for functionality you hadn't thought of.

While this book is broken up into logical sections, I actually find it easier to install the whole mass of contributed modules I will be using at one time. Many modules are used in more than one section and they often have intertwining functionality. Having them all installed means less running back and forth to add another module and also can show problems where modules don't get along before you get too deep into using them. Here is an alphabetical list of all the modules we will be using on this site:

Activity, Admin menu, Advanced Forum, Advanced Help, Advanced Profile Kit, Advanced Poll, Author Pane, Automatic Nodetitles, BUEditor, Calendar, CCK Field Privacy, CCK, Comment Page, Comment Subject, Comment RSS, Content profile, Custom Pagers, Custom Error, Date, Devel, Facebook-style statuses, , Fast Toggle, Fivestar, Fivestar Extra, Flag, Flatcomment, GMap, Google analytics, Ignore User, Imagecache, Imagefield, legal, Lightbox 2, Live, Location, logintoboggan, Me aliases, Mollom, Meta tags, Notifications, OG, Page title, Panels, Path redirect, Pathauto, Privatemsg, Quote, Signatures for Forums, Smileys, Token, User Relationships, User titles, User Comment, Userpoints Contrib, Userpoints, Views

----
Modules I have installed but not listed above, yet:
*messaging
*votingapi
*ctools
*filefield
*image_fupload
*link
*plugin_manager
*imageapi
*demo
*devel
*jquery_impromptu
---

Possibles:
Abuse, (could be done with flag), Blog Information, Blog theme, Comment Mover, Comment Upload, Forum Access, Google CSE, Kudos, Moderate, User Display API, Simplenews, Views slideshow, Hierarchical select, OG Block Visibility, OG Calendar, User badges, User Points Top Contributors

And here is a list broken down by section so you can see where they fit. To keep it simple, each module is only listed in one section.

*** SECTION ONE: BASIC SETUP
Chapter 1: Getting Drupal up and running
None

Chapter 2: Core modules
Book, Comment, Contact, Database logging, Forum, Help, Menu, OpenID, Path, PHP filter, Profile, Search, Statistics, Taxonomy, Tracker, Trigger, Update status, Upload

Chapter 3: Useful contributed modules
Admin menu, Devel, Views, CCK, Panels, Advanced Help, Pathauto, Flag, Token

*** SECTION TWO: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE USERS
Chapter 4: Registration
logintoboggan, legal, Automatic Nodetitles, Content profile,

Chapter 4a: Making friends
User Relationships (Alt: Flag Friend), Privatemsg, Ignore User,

Chapter 5: Blogs
Author Pane, User Comment, ?Blog Information, ?Blog theme,

Chapter 6: Incentives
Userpoints, ?Userpoints Contrib, ?User Points Top Contributors, User titles,
User badges, Fivestar, Fivestar Extra, ?Kudos

Chapter 7: Public profiles
Advanced Profile Kit, Activity, Facebook-style statuses, Me aliases, User Display API

Chapter 8: Home pages
TBD

Chapter 9: Privacy
CCK Field Privacy

*** SECTION THREE: GET YOUR USERS TALKING

Chapter 10: Forums
Advanced Forum, BUEditor, Live, Quote, Smileys, Signatures for Forums, ?Comment Upload, ?Moderate, ?Abuse (could be done with flag), Comment Mover, ?Comment Subject, ?Forum Access, Fast Toggle, Flatcomment, Notifications, Comment RSS, Advanced Poll, Comment Page

Chapter 11: Groups
OG, OG Block Visibility, OG Calendar

Chapter 12: Live chat
TBD

*** SECTION FOUR: AREA INFORMATION
Chapter 13: Building an area directory
GMap, Location,

Chapter 14: What's going on? Adding an event calendar
Date, Calendar

Chapter 15: Extra! Extra! Add local news feeds
TBD

Chapter 16: Articles

Chapter 17: Show off your area with photos and video
Imagefield, Imagecache, Custom Pagers, Lightbox 2

*** SECTION FIVE: YOUR UNIQUE LOOK

*** SECTION SIX: GETTING THE WORD OUT & SEO

Meta tags, Page title, Google analytics, Path redirect, Simplenews

*** OTHER MODULES

Custom Error, Google CSE, Hierarchical select, Mollom, Views slideshow

Drupal is extremely flexible and capable of building nearly any type of site. That is one of its greatest strengths, but also the source of the infamous learning curve. An often used, and still very true, expression is that "Drupal is like a box of Legos." These days, with over four thousand contributed modules, it's more like a whole bucket full of them. When you open a bucket of Legos, you have two choices. You can start grabbing blocks and assembling them however your imagination dictates or you can grab (or write) a plan and follow that. With enough time and patience, the first method can get you a community site but the second will get you there a lot quicker and without all the trial and error. That's where this book comes in.

In this book, we will walk through step by step, screen shot by screen shot from downloading Drupal to going live with a fully functional local community site. Along the way, I will show you the modules and configurations I used on Coulee Region ONLINE as well as mentioning alternate methods to give you ideas to go off exploring on your own. This book is a guide and you can follow it closely to end up with a site that functions exactly like mine or you can wander in and out, following where it suits you and making your own path where you choose. There is no one right way to build a site. This is just one way, the way that worked for me.

Let's get started.

Update Aug 3, 2009: Here we are 6 months later and I haven't made much progress on either this book or my site. When I started, I had big plans of documenting step by step everything I do on the site. But I found myself struggling because I just don't build things in a nice linear order that the book needs. I bounce around all over the place, go back, make changes, try different things. On top of that, my modules take so much time, I really don't have much time for my site and keep pushing the launch off further and further.

So, I've reluctantly decided to abandon the book idea. I feel bad to have dangled this tease for so long and I assure you it wasn't intentional. But I've decided I need to be selfish, and do what's best for me for a while, and that means finishing my site without taking 3 times as long documenting every bit of it.

When it is done, I will take a look at writing docs retroactively on anything really custom I do and will still write up a nice and detailed "case study". So there will be more docs coming, just not the ebook I had planned.

A little history

When I built what is now the current version of Coulee Region Online, it was done with the help and support of the Drupal community. I wanted to give back to that community and share what I had done so I had in mind to do an extensive case study / site recipe to help others build a site like mine. Back then, nearly two years ago, there wasn't much documentation in this area. I put out the first of what was meant to be a series of tutorials, my user profiles tutorial, and it was popular beyond all my expectations. So much so that it eventually morphed into a module (Advanced Profile Kit). Between the time that took me and Advanced Forum, also from Coulee Region Online, my site recipe idea petered out.

About this book

Now that the bulk of modules I need are ready for Drupal 6, I'm ready to upgrade Coulee Region Online. But I want to do more than simply upgrade; I want to rebuild it better with all the knowledge I've gained in the last two years. And, along with that, I had planned to resurrect my plan to write that site recipe and flesh it out into a full fledged eBook for a start to finish documentation on building a community / social networking site in Drupal. Unfortunately, now that I am ready to try again, I find there are already two physical books and an eBook on the subject that have beat me to the punch. Rather than doing yet another take on the same thing, I have decided to go back to my original plan of an extended case study / site recipe. Therefore, this book will be a blend of looking over my shoulder as I rebuild my site in Drupal 6 and tips for building your own community site, with heavy emphasis on what I did and why. It will also be focused on building a local community site, which is more than just a social networking site, though at least the first half of the book should be of interest to people building any sort of community site, local or not.

This book is being written literally as I rebuild my site and is very much a work in progress. This outline will likely change as I go along but it is a start. As I do each section, I will post it and refine it and update it until, finally, the book is just the way I want it. At that point, I will put it in a PDF and make it available for download. Until then, you are welcome to glean whatever usefulness you might out of it but I am not offering any support. Please don't email me to ask when it will be done as I don't know. This is a hobby and life often gets in the way of hobbies. I'm anxious for the rebuild to be done and will devote as much time as I can on it but there is no ETA.

License

While this book is being written, I am keeping all rights. Once it is finished, I will change over to a more open source friendly license, probably one of the CC varieties. For now, though, I would prefer to keep all the text on this site rather than having bits of it floating around in all different levels of revisions. If you link to it, please link to this first page as all the other pages are subject to moving and removing.