CampaignFoundations.com

In this tutorial we will create a Mayoral campaign site for Charlie Sierra, who is working hard to extinguish the fire at the Velcro Time Dump. Her site is at:
http://cls.campaignfoundations.com/. You should adapt the links we offer here to use your own domain, the menu items we suggest to reflect how you wish to organize your content.

Link to your website.

On the left, follow the link labeled "create the first account", to: http://cls.campaignfoundations.com/?q=user/register. Name your first account admin, assign it an email address which will not go away and submit the "Create New Account" button. Make note of the password you have been assigned or complete and submit the form to change it. NOTE: this step may have been handled by CampaignFoundations.com when your account was installed.

Then use either the "settings page" link in the first paragraph or the administer -> settings menu in the left column to provide a basic configuration for your site.

Under General Settings, enter at least the site name and email address, say perhaps: website@cls.campaignfoundations.com. Add a slogan, mission and footer if you wish. The footer is a great place to provide for your disclosure statement as required by the FEC or your state or local campaign finance laws.

Under file system settings: File system path, replace the red "files" with "/n/cf/drupal-4.7.2/files/". Use private as your download method.

Next choose Administer -> modules from the menu in the left column. Turn off all modules except: countdown, excerpt, help, menu, page, path, statistics, story, taxonomy, taxonomy_access and weight.

Submit this form with the "Save Configuration" button.

Next choose Administer -> Themes from the left menu. Choose a theme and submit the "Save Configuration" button. Know that not all themes work as well as others. We've had great success with the B7 series. Other themes are available from the Drupal site's Theme Gallery. We'd be happy to install a new theme for you, including a stock theme, an adaptation of a stock theme or custom built theme (after a code review for security concerns). But for now, simply choose a theme and lets keep going. The clock is ticking on that two hours.

Next, go to Administer -> Menus. Use the "Add Menu" tab to add a new menu called "Issues we face". Submit the new item with the button.

Use the "add menu item" tab, in the "Parent item" pull down menu, choose "Primary Links". The Primary Links will be featured in the heading of most themes. These are the links that should be most prominently displayed on your site. We provide the tools permitting you to put your message out to your community. But as a point of departure, perhaps you'd like to try these values:

Title: About Charlie
Description: Learn about our Charlie, her background and what makes her tick
Path: node/nnn

The nnn in the path will be changed to the node number of the page or story you create with content linked from this menu item, once you create it. But for the moment, we're still outlining the website. Using this same process, add the additional menu items to the Primary Links menu. Use the weight drop down menu to order the links: lower negative numbers rise to the top, higher, positive numbers sink to the bottom. Use the submit button at the bottom of the "add menu item" form to submit the following one item at a time.

Title: Velcro City
Description: Learn why Charlie calls Velcro City home!
Path: node/nnn

Title: Platform
Description: Charlie has a plan to make Velcro City a Better Place to Live!
Path: node/nnn

Title: Contribute
Description: Click here to Securely Donate to Charlie's Campaign!
Path: http://cls.campaignfoundations.com/supporters/supporters.cgi

Title: Volunteer
Description: Your Volunteer Energy Makes this a Winning Campaign!
Path: http://cls.campaignfoundations.com/supporters/supporters.cgi?function=volunteer&process=1

Title: Subscribe
Description: Subscribe to Campaign Lists and Stay in the Loop!
Path: http://cls.campaignfoundations.com/supporters/supporters.cgi?function=subscribe

Now use the "Add menu item" tab to add appropriate items to the "Issues We Face" menu you created earlier. On our sample site, those items are:

Velcro Tire Dump Fire
Fully Fund Our Senior Center
Safe Cycling for our Schools

Next choose Administer -> Blocks. Then the "configure" link next to the Countdown block. For "Event Name", enter "the polls close ". Accuracy: minutes. Target date/time: enter the date and time for the close of the polls. Be sure to adjust to account for the fact that the server runs on Pacific time and make adjustments appropriate for your time zone. Use the "Save Block" button to save your changes. Then enable the Countdown block and give it a weight of -10, so it floats to the top. Then use the "Save blocks" button to commit your changes. Enable the Syndicate block, assign it a weight and "Save Block" again. That will permit folks to monitor changes on your site using their rss clients. Finally, enable the "Issues we face" block you created in the menus configuration screen, assign it an appropriate weight and "Save Blocks" yet again.