Creating an online catalogue using Drupal, what are the best modules/techniques?

Question

I have a large collection of retro games consoles and computers, I want to create some sort of catalogue to keep track of them using Drupal. I could do it as a series of pages in Drupal, but would rather have some sort of more structured method.

It'd be great if I could somehow define a record consisting of certain fields (manufacturer, model, serial number, etc) and have a form to fill in, and then have the display part automatically taken care of.

From looking at various Drupal modules I get the feeling I can do this, but I can't work out what modules to use. I got somewhat lost looking at the CCK module.

Answer 1

Look harder at the CCK module, it's exactly what you want.

You can define records and then assign taxonomys and views to make it all work, just need your own creativity.

CCK is THE module for doing this kind of stuff.

Also, this link maybe helpful for pre-made modules.

http://drupal.org/search/node/type%3Aproject_project+catalog

Answer 2

You'll want CCK, yes, but you'll also want the Views module most likely, in order to more easily control how and what data from your CCK-based nodes show up at certain times. Panels might be nice too... These three are the triumvirate of must-haves for Drupal.

Answer 3

CCK and Views are the easy way to do this, but really not the best. I recommend building your own module. There is going to be a much greater learning curve, but your code will be easy to move from server to server, run faster, be more customizable, and you'll end up with much better understanding about how Drupal works. You won't have to wait for Views and CCK to be ported to a fresh Drupal version, you'll be able to contribute your module, etc, etc.