Create WebApplication with Drupal: development steps...

Question

I am new to Drupal and I am figuring out a set of steps for developing a Web Application. I planned:

1) Develop the application without any template or graphic effect. Just create your nodes, your views, integrate some plugins and so on. Goal: to have a website up and running from a functional point of view

2) Customize plugins: if some functionality is missing, customize plugins or develop on your own

3) Choose Theme and Customize it

4) Insert graphic effects (ex. JQuery)

5) Fine tuning

I am learning Drupal so I haven't any experience. Am I figuring out correctly ?

Answer 1

Drupal i a great piece of machinery, but it might not be the best choice as a web app framework. It depends what you want to do really, but usually web apps is a lot of custom code / logic. Here Drupal's complexity might become a hindrance for you.

If I was going to build a site or application I would probably do something like this.

1. Find all the modules that I need. This can involve
   • Finding the contrib modules that I absolutely need.
   • Figuring out if I should use a contrib module + alterations or build my own module.
   • Searching for modules that can solve a problem, looking for solutions to problems that seem common etc.
2. Do the actual development, and create the features needed.
   • This include functional jQuery like AJAX.
3. Theming - this can in some extend be done while developing.
   • First step is usually to find a good base theme for your design, like Zen.
   • Then you need to implement the design.
   • Add jQuery where needed for flashy effects
4. Test and bugfix.
   • This should be done while developing, but when all looks good, be sure to give it all some good testing to make sure that it doesn't fail anywhere.

Answer 2

There are different approaches. This is how I work:

1. Define the goal of the site
2. Define functions
3. Define menu / pages
4. Deleveop theme / templates. Either from scratch or themes you downlowd.
5. Replace dummy text with Drupal code to show content. Here you functions comes in to place.

Remebmer that a node i Druapl, is basicalle your content / your text when you write articles.

When I tried to learn Drupal, I summarized some content here : http://stiengfoto.wordpress.com/category/development/drupal/

If you never have used CMS before, find some tutorials and start with the very most basic things.