A beginners musings

Submitted by kirk on June 8, 2006 - 9:00pm.

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Woohoo! Going to take the plunge and play with blogs. I don't know
how successful it'll be but what the hell.

First I'll try asking some questions and see if anyone can or will
answer me. Is there a way to select a larger number of entries shown
like the various forums or threads, not quite sure what they are
called, on each page/screen?

Is there any possibility of configuring a link at the top of each page
to skip directly to that pages content rather than having to traipse
through a zillion links on each page before finding what you are
wanting to read? Or, is there a way to configure the pages so the
content is up front and the navigation, calendar, blah blah blah is at
the bottom of the page.

Is there a permanent set of pages where one can accumulate text and
documents like a wiki so that it doesn't scroll off the page over
time? I am thinking of the situation where you want to build an
informational set of pages for providing information such as
alternative energy, wireless networking, or any other semipermanent
information.

I have tried to find answers to these questions by looking through the
my profile and configuration page but it didn't jump out at me. Any
answers folks would provide would certainly be appreciated.

Kirk

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a few answers

Submitted by Jeremy M on June 9, 2006 - 6:45am.

Hi Kirk,

I'll try to answer as many questions as I can right now, and maybe some more later.

As far as the general layout of each page goes, your options right now are limited to the themes and blocks that can be selected in your profile.

That said, we can create a new theme that puts the content first and all of the navigation links at the bottom. People would then be able to select that theme in their profile. Unfortunately I'm still pretty much a novice when it comes to CSS and especially Drupal themes. If you or anyone can help that would be great.

As far as a static or permanent set of pages goes, we have looked into a Wiki type feature for the site. There is a Wiki module under development for Drupal, but right now the closest thing available is the Book module which is more geared to creating handbooks. We also need to figure out a flexible permissions system for the permanent content section... ie. if something is posted to the static section under the Creative Commons No-Derivatives license, it should not be editable by anyone else. But other pages should be.

Of course, there is also the FreeWiki. It might be more productive to better integrate LondonCommons.net and the FreeWiki. FreeWiki runs MediaWiki, which is already a well developed system compared to a version 0.1 of whatever Drupal Wiki module becomes available. Ideally there should be a Wiki that is well integrated into the site for the kinds of information that we don't want being constantly pushed to the bottom.

That's it for me... I've gotta hit the sack.

Jeremy

Cool Site!

Submitted by kirk on June 9, 2006 - 1:30pm.

Thank you Jeremy. I will look into the drupel software and see if
maybe I can set-up a test site to play with and learn what is all
involved with modifying it's lay-out and so forth.

I really thank you for that link to the freewiki site because there
were a whole whack of local organizations I didn't know anything about
and have spent a pleasant day reading web pages. It may do nicely for
linking to with information we want semi-permanent.

My brain has run dry from everything I've been reading so I'll shut-up
for now and continue reading.

Kirk