Ask Agaric: Can we add a menu item that...

Once some people get a little familiar with doing things with Drupal, it seems all further requests come as subsidiary requirements of the important thing: creating a menu item.

That's not really where I, as a web developer, want to come in on the conversation.

Someone tell me, am I making sense? What should I say?

More broadly: what should the relationship be, what should we as the alleged experts be asking our clients to do, in circumstances where their own inclination or financial situation is such that they need to do as much as possible themselves?

Here's how I did respond to one, with the initial query and conversation in reverse order below:

I just did this by editing the node

http://www.microcommercejustice.org/node/25/edit

giving it a menu with a

Title: Tufts IGL Exposure Photo Gallery
Parent Item: (IGL-IBO MicroCommerce Contest Menu)
Weight: 9

Menu items can *also* be added / edited at

http://www.microcommercejustice.org/admin/build/menu

Don't tell Drupal to delete anything, and nothing should be deleted. All you've done so far is changed menu settings so not much damage. I don't see what you were trying to do by logging out.

But in the broader sense how are you planning to do the photo gallery? Where are the pictures coming from?

ben

Agaric Design Collective
Open Source Free Software Web Development

Client, Esq. wrote:
> I am confused, which page do you need a link to? Here is the link to the
> page that I created but could not post on the menu. Let me know if this is
> the proper link you need.
> http://www.microcommercejustice.org/tufts-igl-exposure-photo-gallery
>
>
> also, I sent an email with notes re: a totally new menu that is for the
> judges only. Please let me know if you need me to resend this or if you got
> this earlier. Thanks.
> -client
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Benjamin Melancon
> To: Client
> Subject: Re: hi ben
>
> if you're online, got a link to the page?
>
> Client, Esq. wrote:
>> Hi ben
>>
>> So I don't know what node to make this new page. Since the last time my mistake might have erased a whole bunch of stuff I wanted to ask which node to make this new page. Also, I reloaded the page and tried signing off and on again and it still didn't work in the page setup. Be in touch and let me know how to work around this. Thanks
>>
>> -client
>>
>
>

And that "totally new menu"? Here's that request, with the paragraph broken up and tightened for clarity:

a judges/administrators only menu that only we can see.

one menu item that has a breakdown of the teams that are registered and the members in each team

This means that the initial log-in registration area needs to add a biography item called “Team Name.” Each student will be organized into teams

the judges will be able have a page that has all that information. from the initial log in registration, and organized by team and containing all the log in info for each member.

The judges/admins menu should also have a menu item that is the upload center. Teams will be uploading documents for the judges (through the menu item on the contest menu) and the judges should be able to see these documents organized by team.

Can we set this up so that the upload function on the contest menu sends the documents to this yet to be created new menu for the judges/admins?

This new menu should also have a hit counter. That way we can see the daily volume of usage.

Since we will be organizing the contest around teams, can you think of any other areas where we should add team-affiliated contacts? I don’t know if there are any areas that I am missing that would help facilitate the flow of team participation. Your expertise here is much needed. Thanks.

UPDATE: More on teams.

The immediate need is to allow for team creation by people who will be registering over the next 4-5 days. I would say, yes, those who register and want to form a team should have admin privileges over the team area functions, perhaps as a part of their profile/permissions? Beyond this, we want people who register either this week or later (later because they couldn't attend this week's meetings) and who want to participate on a team as oppose to build their own team. I had suggested a message board for this.

As far as the registration page detail, the one thing we discussed that I'm not sure exactly how to do is asking for a student ID. However, we are asking for them to list their school so maybe that is enough. That can always be checked. Perhaps we could add a box under the school name box that asks them what year in school or when they estimate they will graduate.

Resolution