[support] Is there any sort of map/overview/tree in Drupal?

[cl at isbd.net]

On Sun, Feb 04, 2007 at 09:56:59AM -0800, Earl Miles wrote:
> cl at isbd.net wrote:
> > It just seems strange that something so essential/fundamental/useful
> > (depends on your view I suppose) isn't in the default Drupal.  It's
> > not in Joomla either but it *is* in some other CMS and, at least for a
> > newcomer it makes them a whole lot more usable.
> 
> This one really is a POV thing. Simply put, if your site is designed that way, 
> it seems essential. But not all sites are designed that way.
> 
Yes, I realise that, obviously a lot of people are using Drupal
successfully so it must be possible!  :-)

However one can only really voice one's own opinions, the world would
be a very boring place if we didn't.


> I was actually just thinking to myself the other day that the old Site Map 
> model has been slowly disappearing; the model is somewhat limiting, in that it 
> really makes an assumption of static content that's placed in a library and 
> then never or rarely changes. That's not really what CMS's are expecting to do. 
> They're expecting to have living content that changes a lot.
> 
Yes, I suppose that's true and maybe that's why I'm having a problem
finding a CMS that suits me because I *am* trying to create a fairly
static site (and I think a fairly static site is right for my application).


> In Drupal, people typically structure their content through taxonomy and/or the 
> menu and/or the book module. You tag your content to fit it into the taxonomy 
> structure and use taxonomy_menu to generate a tree.
> 
But (at least for some sites) there is surely a requirement to have
one page which is the front page and also, possibly/probably a few
other 'fixed' places like a contacts page, or a forums page, or
whatever. Surely *some* things need to be fixed or bookmarks will
become useless.


> Using the book module will automatically give you a default tree hierarchy, 
> with navigation, and it's *very* typical on the net of having tiered content. I.e,
> 
> Foobar manual
>    Introduction
>    Chapter 1: Baz
>      Baz for you?
>      How to baz
>      Why baz, anyway?
>      Advanced baz
>        Baz for breakfast
>        Baz for lunch
>        Baz for dinner
> 
> 
> Each node in a book then includes forward/backward/up navigation, as well as a 
> tree of all the nodes beneath it.
> 
> Book is fairly constrained, in the sense that it's harder to control the 
> navigation output than I'd like, but it does the job if that's what you're 
> looking for.
> 
Ah, thanks, that looks interesting and could well suit what we're after.


> When using taxonomy to structure a site, you're 'grouping' nodes. You can use 
> various taxonomy modules to create some kind of a structure to find node 
> groups, and then browse through teasers. This, likely, isn't entirely what you 
> want given what you've said, but you can also use things like taxonomy redirect 
> and views to completely change exactly what it is you get when you go to a 
> given taxonomy term. And you can use pathauto to get the tids out of the URLs 
> so that it looks nicer.
> 
I can see that taxonomy makes sense for certain types of website but I
don't think it's what we want.


> And as Larry suggested, with the built in menu.module, you can give nodes menu 
> entries as you create them, and put them in the menu structure.
> 
> The one thing I'll say: What you suggest basically, where you have a map of 
> nodes and how the nodes link to each other...that's generally done done, in 
> part because it makes the nodes too important. The content is expected to be 
> fluid and come and go, and I think you're creating more in the way of static 
> content. That's fine, and I understand what you want, but it does mean you're 
> using a tool that's not quite meant for it, and as such sometimes things that 
> seem fundamental to what you're doing simply won't be available because not 
> that many people think about their site like that.
> 
Yes, you're exactly right, I'm after creating something that isn't
Drupal's main raison d'être, however there don't seem to be many (any)
tools around which are aimed squarely at what I want.  ... and I don't
think what I'm after is all *that* unusual.

-- 
Chris Green (chris at halon.org.uk)