Jake Strawn and Michelle Lauer of ThemeGeeks join me this week to talk about their new distribution NodeMaker.

NodeMaker

Basic Features

• During installation, choose which Apps you want to enable. Using our admin UI, you can change this at any time.
• Install optional default content that really shows off the power of the distro.
  • Too many times when installing a distribution or Drupal core alone, you really get no idea what’s going on behind the scenes or what the site in front of you is capable of. Our powerful set of default content demonstrates all the features available to you and creates a complete site out of the box that is ready for you to dig into and customize with a much greater understanding of how all the pieces fit together.
• An interactive launch checklist so you know that you have completed all of the steps needed.
• Lots and lots of in-site documentation. (Although it is not all written yet.)

Feature Sets

• Global stuffs....
  • Intuitive URLs and Breadcrumbs based on those
  • Free tagging on every content type
  • A Headline Image so every piece of content is interesting, whether it is displayed as a teaser or you are looking at the full node
  • Associate related content with each other to increase intra-site linking
  • Display ANY of your social media site links so users can find you elsewhere on the web.
• Multi-user Blog with archive and browsing by category
• Announcements with archive and browsing by category
• Galleries
  • Responsive slide shows
  • Any piece of content can have an existing gallery attached
• Events
  • Event listing and FULL calendar feature where you can browse by year, month, week, or day.
• Testimonials
  • Any user can write one, you get notified and choose to publish
• Social Network Functionality
  • Discussion Forums
  • Advanced user profiles
    • Lots of fields
  • Facebook style status updates
  • Activity log

Front End

• Omega NodeMaker is a new subtheme of Omega that serves as the base theme for NodeMaker, and will serve as the base theme for all ThemeGeeks premium themes that target NodeMaker.
• Responsive out of the box, NodeMaker gives you a more complete experience regardless of the device your visitors use.
• Standalone web app mode on compatible iOS devices

Use Cases

• For new Drupal users, provides all the normal out of the box functionality that you know you want but might not know how to build yet.
• For the advanced Drupal site builder/developer, cut 2-3 weeks of development time out of every project when using NodeMaker as a starting point.
• For when that friend says: “Hey, you build websites right?!? Can you build me a website tomorrow? I only have 200 bucks... “ You can actually say “Sure... I can help you out” and launch a site with everything they need in just a few minutes! I mean, you know you really do hate telling your friends that they can’t afford your work, so NodeMaker makes it simple!!
• Whatever the need for you site, NodeMaker’s core functionality is a very sturdy platform to get you started on your next project.

Questions from Twitter

• @jerryitt: Is there plans for the future of #nodemaker #omega for a panel's type of interface for region and zone configurations?