building a new site

helping with a new site - using drupal 6 to build it. it's for a music label. I haven't had a chance to talk to the guys much yet about what they want, so it's very early stages & I'm testing some of the new drupal 6 modules that I haven't used before + some old favourites

I want to try an online store to sell file downloads and physical cds etc

I've tried ecommerce before and it worked OK, but there's no drupal 6 version yet that I can find. so this time I'll try ubercart - I think it was still being developed the first time I tried the drupal store/sales modules & the second time I was going to try an online store, ubercart was only for drupal 5 and I'd recently upgraded to drupal 6. I've heard it's good. plus there's one feature that I remember reading about in an article somewhere which analysed online store sites and said that one thing that improved sales was to not force customers to sign into the site when making a sale ie anonymous purchases. I remember they said that some people "don't want to start a relationship with your site, they just want to buy something from you and give you money". I can't remember which article this was from, but I think it's true for me in most cases, and I'm sure it is for other people too. ubercart has both options from what I can tell - people can just purchase or they can sign up to the site (create the relationship) - handy for repeat sales.

alphabetical list of drupal 6 modules

modules installed :

drupal 6.11

-- changing list ... configuration & usage in progress ...
advanced_help-6.x-1.2
uc_auspost-6.x-1.x-dev.tar_0 - Australia Post shipping quotes (available from ubercart site not drupal) - try worldwide shipping on drupal??
cck-6.x-2.2 - for custom fields
date-6.x-2.1 - date API
filefield-6.x-3.0 - for file downloads / products
getid3-6.x-1.2 - extracting id3 info from mp3 files & other media files
- needs the getid3 library files - recommended getID3 library is 1.7.7
- version 1.7.9 is current version on the sourceforge page so using this
- only copy the getid3 directory, not the demos & helpapps. (try the demo to check it's working then delete)
google_analytics-6.x-2.2 - for stats / tracking of file downloads
imageapi-6.x-1.6 - image api
imagecache-6.x-2.0-beta9 - image caching
imagecache_actions-6.x-1.5 - image manipulation
imagefield-6.x-3.0
lightbox2-6.x-1.9 - for image display (lightbox / overlay)
mp3player-6.x-1.x-dev - mp3 player (audio cck field was only for drupal5)
-- wordpress standalone mp3 player
node_import-6.x-1.0-rc4 - for importing .csv files ie stock items
pathauto-6.x-1.1 - path enabled - pathauto to use text urls rather than the node id / numbered urls (text urls are easier to remember)
poormanscron - cron on hosted sites (favourite module)
uc_ajax_cart-6.x-1.0-rc9 - ajax cart - recommended by chourmovs
uc_product_triggers-6.x-1.x-dev - some initial conditional actions for products (workflow)
token-6.x-1.11 - for fields/tokens - pathauto & ubercart pre-requisite
ubercart-6.x-2.0-rc2 - online store module
uc_discount-6.x-1.x-dev
uc_followup-6.x-1.0-beta3
uc_node_checkout-6.x-2.0-beta3
uc_pic_cart_block-6.x-1.0-beta2 - store pictures
uc_views-6.x-2.0 - some pre-made ubercart views
views-6.x-2.5 - make your own views & display pre-made ones
views_slideshow-6.x-1.0-beta2

themes
lemontwist-6.x-2.0 - trying this one. will change the images though. checking the column layouts
analytic-6.x-1.3

background reading / viewing
- top notch themes has an ubercart guide for building ecommerce online stores + a general drupal configuration guide - both are great

- upload progress - recommended for the upload progress bar

- watched Views + Views Slideshow Screencast by Sean @ drupaltherapy.com to see how slideshows can be used & created

- what are product classes

helpful info
- mp3 shop
- building nowt records
- building a reggae shop
- for music product class - remember to setup permissions for new cck fields so non-user1's can use them!!

example drupal + ubercart music label / store sites
nowt records
reggae shop