Vladimir Zlatanov: Entities, Bundles, Fields and Field instances
Drupal 7 introduces a number of new apis and with those comes new jargon. Untangling that could be daunting. I'll try to briefly sketch what is what and relate it to terminology outside of the Drupal world.
This post is a work in progress, I am regularly revising the text from feedback.
Note Revised paragraph order and wording, clarified wording of definitions, added references, corrected glitches
Lullabot: Drupal Voices 158: Emma Jane Hogbin on PHP for Designers
Emma Jane Hobgin (aka emmajane) gives an overview of her DrupalCon San Francisco presentation on PHP for Designers. She talks about the importance of pattern recognition and forensic coding, some helpful modules such as Devel Themer as well as some of the basics of Drupal theming with tpl.php files and preprocess functions within the template.php.
For more information, be sure to check out her PHP for Designers presentation.
John Albin Wilkins: Converting a Subversion repository to Git, (7 steps to migrate a complete mirror of svn in git)
When I first realized that I needed a version control system, the best system at the time was CVS. (No, really.) Subversion was nearing 1.0, so I waited for its release and then used it everywhere. Well, that was 2003. Time for a change.
This past year, it became obvious that there were many Git users within the Drupal community, so Drupal has decided to move to Git. Since then I've started learning and researching the best ways to convert all my development to a Git-based workflow. So far… it rocks.
Engineered Web: Performance Is Green
Are you writing and using environmentally friendly software? Have you ever thought of the impact on the environment for the software you've written? Working in front of a computer it can be easy to overlook the impact on the environment due to what were creating. It's not like drinking a beverage out of a styrofoam cup (they don't break down). But, there is an impact. As Internet usage grows in leaps and bounds we need to start taking a closer look at that impact and doing something about it.
Why Performance Is GreenWhy did Facebook start using Hip-Hop? According to their blog,
With HipHop we've reduced the CPU usage on our Web servers on average by about fifty percent, depending on the page. Less CPU means fewer servers, which means less overhead.
When we have less servers we use less power, we need less space in buildings, less servers need to be built for our tasks and our overall footprint is smaller.
Think about it like this. We buy energy efficient appliances, we talk about turning lights off when we aren't using them, we look at energy efficient cars, and we think about being environmentally conscious. So, why not extend this to what powers our websites.
Gábor Hojtsy: How Drupal improves and evolves, the basics behind the community
It is that phase of my life! I'm just turning 30 in a month, working with Drupal for 7 years and just had my third Acquia anniversary a week ago. Time to look back and evaluate how things went, all the good and bad things; even better if the wisdom can be shared with others. This was part of my thinking when I submitted the session titled "Come for the software, stay for the community" for Drupalcon Copenhagen. I was interested to distill and share how Drupal came to be as unstoppable as it is, what core values lie behind it, so someone coming fresh can understand and integrate with these.
When Dries Buytaert started Drupal he made a few key decisions which launched the project and kept being governing principles ever since. First of all he decided to make it free and open source, and release it under the GPL. The choice of one single license helps you use all the Drupal components together without the requirement to consult lawyers. Also, the choice of GPL in particular ensures that derivative works are distributed in the open as well.
Matthew Saunders: Drupalcon CPH - Commerce Guys Talk Drupal Commerce
Ryan did a session on the new version of the D7 Commerce Module. He was the original writer of the Ubercart package - a main stay of ecommerce sites in Drupal 6. His self deprecating humour at the beginning of the session was charming as Ubercart was his first segue into many aspects of Drupal and it has become the defacto leader of the pack for Drupal ecommerce sites.
His new offering is looking very slick, making use of fields in core for example, and while Ryan tells us it isn't quite ready for primetime (he's still building out features) it looked pretty good.
Video from this session is below in seven sections. The original first video was only 4 seconds long.
Kristof De Jaeger: Benchmarks for the Display Suite module
I've been promising benchmarks for the Display Suite module after every presentation I gave so far. It took me a while to get a good setup but now it's here. I've used the demo site as a start, so there are a lot of modules enabled for this test. Views, panels, fivestar, heartbeat, comment, taxonomy, location, gmap, imagecache are the most important ones since they all integrate with the ecosphere of Display Suite modules.
I added a new content type called 'benchmark' and added 14 CCK fields to it: 4 textfields, 4 textareas, 2 images, 2 filefields, 1 node reference and 1 user reference. It also has a title, body, 2 taxonomy fields, a fivestar widget and a couple of comments.
Depending on the test, the complete set of modules integrating with Display suite are enabled or disabled. These include ds, ds_ui, cd, hds, nd, nd_cck, nd_search, nd_fivestar, nd_location, nd_switch_bm, ucd, ud and vd. You gotta love small project names right ?
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The first test was ran on my Fedora Core 13 desktop - Intel Core Quad, 2 GHz, 2MB RAM with php 5.2.13 and eAccelerator - ab sending 100 requests with 5 concurrent users on a single node and page caching disabled.
I Can Localize: How to Translate Interface Strings
Translating interface strings is always a painful process. Actually, it's difficult to achieve in many content management systems, not just in Drupal.
Unlike node contents, interface strings can come from many different places.
They can be part of Drupal core, from modules, themes or dynamically generated by the site's admin.
The hard part is locating these interface strings which appear to site visitors and translating them. To visitors, it doesn't really matter where the strings come from. All user-facing strings must be translated, for the entire page to appear in the right language.
Choosing Strings With The Localization Client Module
The localization client allows searching for untranslated strings easily. For site admins, the most important feature is the ability to spot strings as they are used on public pages.
Once installed and enabled, the Localization Client opens a panel at the bottom of public pages. These pages are viewable to admins only and not to site visitors.
Lullabot: Command Line Basics: More Editing with Vi/Vim
This video picks up where we left off in the Editing with Vi/Vim video. This time we take a look at some shortcuts for replacing text, how to copy/paste, and the cool visual mode feature you get with Vim.
Scott Hadfield: Drupalcon is dead. Long live Drupalcon?
With Drupalcon Copenhagen now behind us and Drupalcon Chicago approaching, I've found myself thinking about what Drupalcon is and how it's changing.
My first Drupalcon was in Barcelona, I was lucky enough to get to tag along with the guys from Bryght. I had an absolutely amazing time and met dozens of people, many of whom are now quite close friends. To top it off I also met my now fiancee and a future boss (no longer my boss, but still a good friend).
Since then, the twice yearly Drupalcons have consistently been highlights in my year. It's often the only time I get to see many of my friends in person.
Matthew Saunders: Drupalcon CPH - The Final Session
Many thanks to everyone who made Drupalcon CPH happen. The final session is a suitable (if silly) ending to what was a very productive week for me. Lots of meetings, reconnecting with old friends, and sessions.
The greatest silliness and fun in the session were the Kitten Killers - you can see just that piece of the presentation here (again and again and again).
If you just want to see the final session from beginning to end - I've posted the entire session below. The second to last is the Kitten Killers.
Matthew Saunders: Drupalcon CPH - The Kitten Killers
Have we replaced the Drupal Song? At the end of the final session, the Killers played a new song, "I Can Be Your Module, You Can Be My Theme". It was a fun and silly way to end the main part of the conference and segue into the sprints.
The song was fun and sounds like it would be really easy to sing again and again and again.
Here's hoping it has been placed in the public domain.
Acquia: Facet queries? Making custom Solr facets for fun and profit.
It sounded like a really simple request: "Is it easy to add a search filter for 'My posts'?". In other words, add a search result facet for posts by the current (logged in) user through the Apache Solr Search Integration module APIs?
But then the wheels start turning - we want not just one blind link, but a real facet link that tells us how many results we'll get. Also, if we are filtering by 'My posts' then we probably have an equal use case for the opposite filter 'Posts not by me'. So we really need a facet block with two links and facets counts. Read full article »
John Forsythe: Major SEO Mistake Affects Most Drupal Sites
Every day, millions of people use Google Image Search to find pictures, products, and people. If you're using Drupal, chances are you're not getting any of this traffic.
Here's why:
Drupal's robots.txt file contains a major mistake. Amazingly, the mistake has been there for years, and very few people seem to know about it.
Lullabot: Lullabot's Back to School Sale
The school year is starting up, DrupalCon CPH is over and it's time to learn Drupal! For those of you who've been waiting for the perfect time to grab your copy of one of our awesome Learning Series videos, now's your chance to save big. Now through Friday, September 3rd you'll aget 25 percent off your purchase of any physical or downloadable product in the Lullabot store by using the coupon code SCHOOL25. That includes ALL of our Lullabot Learning Series videos and video bundles!
To get this special savings, just use the coupon code SCHOOL25 at checkout and place your order before the sale ends! Tell your friends and share it with others, there are no limits on this coupon code, but it ends Friday, September 3rd.
Visit store.lullabot.com (or click the "store" link in the menu above) and shop for whatever's been tickling your fancy.
agileapproach.com: Make your carousels start seamlessly at a random slide
Lullabot: Drupal Voices 157: Sean Robertson on Drupal in Politics
Sean Robertson (aka seanr) of NGP Software talks about some of the political sites that he's worked on such as Barney Frank, John Conyers, and Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights. He talks about some of the automation processes that he's been working on with the context and features modules with the NGP Campaign Features set of functionality. Robertson started with Drupal with DeanSpace, and talks about some of the modules that he's worked on such as the Forward module, and a bit about the evolution of Drupal as he's seen it over the last 6 1/2 years.
Chris Shattuck: Letter to a disgruntled module user
From time to time there's a bit of a sour post in an issue queue or blog post that makes it clear that there are misunderstandings about how the Drupal community works, and in this case it was a disgruntled post regarding lack of support for a particular module. It got my blood a-boil, and this was my response after I calmed down a bit:
Mr. Anonymous,
Perhaps it's the language gap, but your posts are coming across pretty harsh. Or, maybe you're just figuring out how parts of the Drupal space actually works and you're frustrated by it. That's understandable - it's tough realizing that Drupal isn't actually run by a team of tireless developers with infinite patience and no bills to pay - and I don't mind bearing the brunt of your frustration if I can help you and other folks in your shoes come to terms with a more accurate perspective.
From a user's point of view, in the ideal world every developer would have the time and desire to regularly pummel their issue queues into submission (like some people). In the developer's world, things look a little different. Most of us have enough going on that we have to prioritize what gets done, and that depends on a huge number of factors, including but not limited to:
Chris Mavergames: Reflections on DrupalCon Copenhagen
Last week, I attended DrupalCon in Copenhagen. Being relatively new to Drupal, but by no means a "newbie," I was hoping to both confirm that we're using Drupal well and to learn some tips, tricks and other insider info on how we can use it even better. I'm happy to report that it seems we are using Drupal "well" in that many sessions confirmed this - I was saying lots of "yep, know that module" and "yep, we're doing that with that module" to myself. It was all quite reassuring.
There were, of course, many new concepts, modules, configuration options, etc. that I learned about during the excellent DrupalCon last week. Some highlights...
Security
I attended an excellent session by Ben Jeavons on Drupal Security. Learning about the Security Review module was almost worth the trip to Copenhagen alone. Some other modules and links they mentioned:
Localize.drupal.org: One year of localize.drupal.org
Three days ago on the 27th of August, Drupal.org's localization service, localize.drupal.org held its one year anniversary. It is worth a look back and a look forward to understand how far we came and what kind of tasks are ahead of us still.
The new web based user interface for Drupal localization came to unseat the usual tools used to translate Drupal itself, and its modules and themes. Over 30 teams joined the first two months, and most others followed later. The site now hosts over 70 language teams and numerous are in the queue discussing best ways they can leverage our toolset.
If you look through http://localize.drupal.org/news, we kept improving our performance, make our user interfaces simpler, give team maintainers more control over their teams, etc. We flip-flopped from backend and bugfix updates to user interface improvements and new features. We were the second site on drupal.org to deploy the new redesigned theme and therefore serve as a good test case for how it works.