PDF upload by user in Drupal

Question

I am developing a site for an International Conference. I want the registered users to upload their research papers in pdf format using a form. I have no previous experiences working with a CMS.

Answer 1

Create a 'Research' content type.

Enable Upload module

Enable File Attachments for the Research content type.

Allow registered users to upload files, and create new Research nodes, and edit own Research nodes

This would be the quickest way. If you are using CCK, you could create a CCK FileField instead, and tell it to only accept pdf files.

Answer 2

If you only have few experience of Drupal and CMS in general and only want to quickly add a form to collect files from registered users and only use Drupal as a basic CMS for your website, the Webform module is probably the easiest solution. It allows you to build a forms for PDF files and additional information submission. The submissions can be stored in the database, sent by email or even exported to a spreadsheet or a CSV file. Registred users are even able to edit their submissions.

Another solution is to use the CCK and the FileField modules to build a content type for submissions and allow registred users create new content using this type. If you go this way, you can build many additional feature. You can use taxonomies to organize submissions by category and/org tags. You can allow users to view, comment, rate, or flag submissions. With Views you can create lists of submissions by state (accepted, rejected), category, etc.