[support] events page in drupal 7

[adept techlists - kazar]

Hi all --

I have moderate exposure to Drupal 5 and 6, and am building a Drupal 7 
site as a volunteer for a summer-long art project for kids. I could 
probably learn the info I need by spending hours reading the docs and 
playing in my sandbox installation, but the site needs to be up now, at 
least with bare minimum features, and my time is very limited. So I'm 
hoping for some suggestions to help me get this accomplished ASAP (and I 
*promise* to read the docs over the next few weeks!)

I have a Main Menu item called Events.

I have created a content type called Events.

Each Events type node will need a start date, end date, description, and 
if possible option to include an image.

When a site visitor clicks on Events all the Events type nodes should be 
displayed in Start Date order, sort of like blog posts added to a blog site.

HOW DO I DO THIS? The problems I've run into so far are ...

1. When I made the Events main menu link, since I have no clue what path 
to give it, for now I just used node/add. What node should it be? There 
is no one Events "page", it will just be a list of events.

2. I don't see any Date field types in manage fields for the Event 
content type. How do I add date fields?

3. How and where do I specify that any node of the Events content type 
will appear when a visitor clicks the Events link? I thought of using 
Views (which would handle the sorting too) but I see that Views is still 
in Beta for D7 and I cannot afford to mess around with heavily buggy 
modules. Any opinions on the status of Views?

4. Should I be using Taxonomy instead of or in addition to Content Type 
to define which posts should appear under the Events link?


I would think that the question "how do I list all content of a 
particular type under my menu link" is a FAQ but I can't find a simple 
page that explains it. Any pointers would be so appreciated!!

kazar