[support] Some questions re custom PHP pages in Drupal

[Earnie Boyd]

Quoting Donn <donn.ingle at gmail.com>:

> Thanks for your feedback Walter,
>
> I should have said that I have not yet used Drupal, but I get the impression
> that it has many ways to display elements and it's a matter of learning the
> way it does things.
>
> To anyone on the list:
>
> To further clarify: I would need to code a system that:
> 1.  Allows only logged-in users to access a custom 'content type'. 
> i.e. prompt
> for login when not logged-in.
> 2. Have many 'pages' within that 'content type' that provide the back and
> forth flow of things like shopping systems.
>

Check the modules at http://drupal.org/project/Modules

> On point 2, there are two approaches:
> a) Many PHP files, each doing a certain thing: login.php, showproducts.php,
> basket.php, errors.php, etc. Where each one would hook-into Drupal's way of
> showing forms and theming.
> b) One PHP file that handles all of that using a switch or if-then-else
> mechanism so that it shows various 'faces' according to the results of
> GET/POST/COOKIES and so forth.
>

Check the documentation at http://drupal.org/handbooks

> What's the best approach?
>
> I suppose I could create an iframe (ugh!) content-type the content of 
> which is
> my own system served from some other directory entirely - That would mean
> minimal css to maintain the look, but leave the Drupal home website on all
> surrounding sides.
>

Once you've reviewed the documentation and modules come back with more 
questions.  I suggest the Ubercart module for eCommerce, others will 
have more to say about other eCommerce modules.

Earnie -- http://for-my-kids.com/
-- http://give-me-an-offer.com/