I just took over a Drupal-based website in which I implemented a forum. Now I need to add an advanced search tool. But I haven’t found out how. Could you help me do it? Like are there any new plugins I need to download?
If you want any way of advanced search you can study Solr. There are many integration modules for Drupal and Solr. For example, you can use Apache Solr Search. I don’t use neither this module, nor Drupal itself, but Solr is a very good solution for indexing and searching.
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I would like to know if there is some Drupal module or a WordPress plugin that enables the creation of a ushahidi type website (Ushahidi is a non-profit software company that develops free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping.)
I am asking this to know if one can use the feautres that ushahidi is offering, while also leveraging all of the other plugins/modules created in these more mature platforms.
Thanks.
The Managing News Drupal distribution might be helpful.
Does anyone know of a way to include pdf documents in the search for drupal 7?
I can't find anything to achieve this.
The Apache Solr Attachments module does this, but currently only has a development (not stable) release for Drupal 7.
Check out the Search API module and it's sibling module Search API Attachments. It uses Apache Tika to parse text from documents.
Another option:
https://drupal.org/project/search_files
This is slightly lighter weight but given SOLR's power and community adoption it is probably still the best return for effort (as a service or installed yourself), whether using Apache SOLR modules or Search API modules.
I'm looking for a web platform to set up a forum where users can post and vote "ideas" (i.e., proposals about a topic).
More specifically, I need something like Wordpress Ideas.
Anybody knows any opensource software which could help me?
kind regards
IdeaTorrent is a GPL licensed written in PHP, SQL, and Drupal that will run a site that allows users to vote on idea. I haven't used it, but am looking into it.
Well, WordPress ideas is powered by bbPress + plugins + custom theme.
You probably could spend some time and accomplish a similar set up with some forum software of your choosing, a voting plugin, and some custom theming.
I'm building something similar to that in rails: https://github.com/Chocksy/opiniodev-rails-app
I just started right now but i intend to work on it each week. If you are interested any contributor is welcomed.
I'm going to make a blog session tutorial of how i build this thing also.
So I've been asked to take over another persons code in WordPress with little time before launch date... Usually I would say no but it's an interesting project. I am a pretty good Drupal programmer but have little experience in WordPress.
So I want to know, what is the difference between developing a Drupal module and a Wordpress plugin / widget? Are the systems sort similar? API's, hooks etc? Could you learn to do it sort of good in a week?
If you're a good Drupal (and PHP) programmer I'm pretty sure that you can pickup Wordpress programming in a week. The trick in such a scenario is a to pickup a good book/ebook that gives you the basics so you don't have to google around for the absolute fundamentals. After you've picked up the basics I think its just about writing decent PHP code, checking out the code of other (similar) modules and checking API references.
Here are some links (though you can probably google it for yourself...) http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API
Some lessons
http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons
Books on wordpress
https://www.packtpub.com/books/wordpress
You might particularly want to checkout
https://www.packtpub.com/wordpress-plug-in-development/book
I'd like to learn how to create modules in drupal- modules which can interact with the user, database, assign permissions, views.
Is there any good video tutorial or a simple sample module which covers these things?
Thanks.
My suggestion would be to pick up a copy of Pro Drupal Development and start working your way through. I think that book is the best one stop option for providing an easy to follow, yet in depth start for learning Drupal development.
If you really wanted to get by without purchasing a book, I would suggest checking out the Lullabot site for whatever free content they have available.
After an initial background, the Drupal api pages should be helpful for you, . Hit the search box in the upper left hand corner for type ahead search to find detailed info on drupal functions. This would be a great resource for getting some more background on the functions googletorp listed. I agree with googletorp that those are a good list of functions to get started with.
It requires some effort to learn how to develop in Drupal. You might be able to find some good videos, but you will only really master this when you get your hands dirty and start coding.
How hard this will be for you, is also highly dependent on your background. A seasoned PHP developer wont find it that difficult to develop with Drupal.
There are some key points that you need to understand though.
The hook system. This is Drupal's way to do OOP. The idea is that modules or Drupal core can define and run hooks when an event happen that other modules want to react to. An example could be the creation of a user or the display of a node. To implement a hook, you simply create a function with the correct name. You need replace the "hook" in the name of the hook with your module name.
Drupal has a lot of API functions and it takes time to find them and learn how to use them. Take your time, as using the right API functions can make a big difference. Drupal has a nice API site
From your description you should take a look at these functions:
hook_user
hook_perms
hook_menu
db_query
In addition to what googletorp and mike munroe already said, check out the module developers guide on drupal.org. On the api site, check out the well documented example modules.
I have learnt drupal from beginner to advanced with CodeKarate. its one of the best website for drupal.
http://www.codekarate.com
There is a very good, easy to follow tutorial on developing JQuery/Javascript modules on Drupal. Check it out as well.