Drupal

The French Ministry for Health, Youth and Sport launched a Drupal-based information portal for French youth: a href=http://www.jeunes.gouv.frhttp://www.jeunes.gouv.fr/a. Building on the rapid adoption of a href=http://drupal.orgDrupal/a by non-profit and advocacy groups, Drupal's use by governments just keeps increasing! div class=figure img src=http://buytaert.net/cache/images-drupal-jeunes-gouv-fr-500x500.jpg alt=Jeunes gouv fr style=border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 4px;/ /div

h3Community Strategy/h3 pMy challenge goal to the Drupal community is that we have our contributed modules ported within a month of the D7 release to show our support for and be able to take advantage of the new Drupal core. As most of us know, it has been 10 months since the release of a href=http://drupal.org/node/221219Drupal 6.0/a and a fair number of large modules have either not been ported to D6 or did so only recently./p pThe idea is that, when D7 goes to code freeze, module developers would similarly freeze the feature development of their D6 releases and focus on conversion to D7. This strategy will reflect well on the community's commitment to maintain a solid code base and reap the benefits of all the cool new features in each new core release./p h3Proposal/h3 pIn order to facilitate the achievement of this goal, I propose the following:/ppa href=http://boombatower.com/challenge-goal-and-proposal-for-drupal-7read more/a/p

pThis a href=http://media.libsyn.com/media/podcastnyc/learnbythedrop-image-gallery.movvideo/a shows you how to create a very basic image gallery withih Drupal by utilizing the a href=http://drupal.org/project/imageImage/a and a href=http://drupal.org/project/thickboxThickbox/a contributed modules./p

pIn this episode/p pa href=http://civicactions.com/blog/drupalnews_episode_6_we_wish_you_merry_drupal_core_and_happy_node_queue target=_blankread more/a/p

pLast week Acquia sent me to New Orleans to be a speaker at Lullabot's Do it With Drupal conference. The conference went very well and I gave a presentation about a href=http://drupal.org/project/apachesolrApacheSolr/a, and how faceted search will change the way you think about finding things on your site. Since Acquia recently announced that we will be launching a a href=http://acquia.com/blog/hosted-search-service-drupalhosted Solr search service/a even more people have shown interest in ApacheSolr./p pa href=http://acquia.com/blog/apachesolr-search-presentation-do-it-drupalread more/a/p

pAfter getting sick of closing issues in various module's issue queues that boiled down to people not knowing how to use Views 2's relationship feature I decided to make a screencast explaining it:/p embed src=http://blip.tv/play/AeHlD5KoWg type=application/x-shockwave-flash width=640 height=510 allowscriptaccess=always allowfullscreen=true/embed pa href=http://drewish.blip.tv/file/1593750/http://drewish.blip.tv/file/1593750//a/p pI think I need to get a microphone, and figure out all the features of the tool I was using but I'm excited to do more of these.

pThe fields in core sprint is happening, and you can follow it in the a href=http://groups.drupal.org/fields-coreFields in Core group/a. Check out the emerging Field API specification at a href=http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dcz939d6_2gnh78thd title=http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dcz939d6_2gnh78thdhttp://docs.google.com/View?docid=dcz939.../a and the latest public discussion on storage at a href=http://groups.drupal.org/node/17576 title=http://groups.drupal.org/node/17576http://groups.drupal.org/node/17576/a, table per field or table per type. The functionality of fields is huge for Drupal and future versions of core. Follow along in the fields in core group and participate because it's not something to be taken lightly./p

div class=teaser-body pMy customer just asked me can I see the user's role when they contact me on the contact form. I looked at the option of setting up web form module, using hook_form_alter or hook_mail_alter./p pFinally the hook_mail_alter option was chosen, because it seemed the quickest, and the Contact Profile module was born./p pAll the module does is add the user's name, email address and roles to the bottom of the email sent from the contact form./p pI have a href=http://millwoodonline.co.uk/sites/millwoodonline.co.uk/files/contact_profile.zipbr / attached the module/a to this post, have a look, let me know what you think, and help me think of a better name. Hopefully I can find time to submit it to Drupal.org over the holidays./p pa href=http://millwoodonline.co.uk/sites/millwoodonline.co.uk/files/contact_profile.zip title=http://millwoodonline.co.uk/sites/millwoodonline.co.uk/files/contact_profile.ziphttp://millwoodonline.co.uk/sites/millwoodonline.co.uk/files/contact_pro.../abr / strongbr / Edit:/strong This had now been added to Drupal.org a href=http://drupal.org/project/contact_profile title=http://drupal.org/project/contact_profilehttp://drupal.org/project/contact_profile/a/ppa href=http://millwoodonline.co.uk/contact-profile-module-can-you-think-a-better-nameread more/a/p

Drupal goes to space! ASI is in Italy what NASA is in the USA. In other words, ASI is the Italian national agency for space activities, and works primarily with ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Among their many projects include recent work on construction of the International Space Station. Turns out their site uses Drupal. Check it out at a href=http://www.asi.ithttp://www.asi.it/a. div class=figure img src=http://buytaert.net/cache/images-drupal-asi-500x500.jpg alt=Asi style=border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 4px;/ /div

pWorking on Drupal core means that any change you contribute - even the most trivial tweak - is likely to go through multiple levels of review before being applied. Most contributors to core can expect delays of weeks, months, in some cases even years before a patch is accepted--if indeed it ever is accepted./p pAnd even if a new feature you contribute to core goes in, you won't get to actually use it for months or years--the typical lag time until a new major version is ready for production use./p pSo it's no wonder many Drupal developers choose to work instead on contributed modules./p pIn contrib, if you're developing your own module, you've got a pretty free hand to do whatever you want. You can get a lot of functionality out there relatively quickly. And you won't have anyone breathing down your neck while you code. Want a new feature? Easy: code it up, press that metaphorical commit button, and you're set./p pSo end of story? Put in the occasional minor patch to core, but otherwise stick to the easy world of contrib?/p pNot quite. Because it turns out that the ease of contrib can also be its greatest pitfall./p pa href=http://civicactions.com/blog/what_would_chx_do target=_blankread more/a/p

pFinding a high quality premium Drupal theme can be hard to find! It#8217;s not as saturated of a market as the Wordpress premium themes market. Which is a good thing for you theme developers out there, because the market for Drupal premium themes is wide open for you! If you are in the market however for a premium Drupal theme than look no further than this newspaper syle Drupal theme called a rel=nofollow target=_blank href=http://www.worthapost.com/products/premium-drupal-themes/endless-newsEndless News/a. Here#8217;s a screenshot of what it looks like./p pa rel=nofollow target=_blank href=http://chasesagum.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/endless-mag_3.jpgimg class=alignnone size-full wp-image-887 title=endless-mag_3 src=http://chasesagum.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/endless-mag_3.jpg alt=//a/ppa href=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/chasesagum/~3/489429690/the-best-premium-drupal-theme-you-can-find-anywhereread more/a/p

It would be interesting to get a list of all the Drupal sites at a href=http://web.mit.edu/MIT/a -- I know they have quite a few. Recently, MIT's well-known Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) launched its new and improved website using a href=http://drupal.orgDrupal/a at a href=http://www.csail.mit.eduhttp://www.csail.mit.edu/a. a href=http://dig.csail.mit.eduDIG/a, a group at CSAIL that includes father of the web a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-LeeTim Berners-Lee/a, has been using Drupal for many years now. emGreat!/em div class=figure img src=http://buytaert.net/cache/images-drupal-mit-csail-500x500.jpg alt=Mit csail style=border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 4px;/ /div

pWe recently helped out with the development of a pretty neat multiple vendor e-commerce website. In working on it much of the code was custom but we were able to build a novel, generic per user content type quota system. Each user can purchase credits towards their quota, which allows them to submit new content./p h3About LolliShops - Multi Shop Marketplace/h3 div style=float: righta href=http://www.lollishops.com/img src=http://growingventuresolutions.com/gvsfiles/lollishops_logo.gif //a/div pThe easiest way to describe a href=http://www.lollishops.com/LolliShops/a is an upscale emboutique/em version of a href=http://www.etsy.com/Etsy/a, built in Drupal. Lollishops provides a turnkey solution for artistic individuals who make jewelry, clothing and art by hand. Anyone can sign up and setup a personalized online store in minutes. It focuses on the emFrou Frou/em market (if you're not familiar with it, it's probably best described by the site). So far, LolliShops has thousands of individual stores. The theme and products shown on the home page give a great sense of the intended audience. Vendors on the site purchase the ability to sell their products on the site with 3 different selling arrangements. Two of these arrangements limit the number of products that they can create, requiring a quota system./ppa href=http://growingventuresolutions.com/blog/new-user-quota-module-provides-turnkey-solution-artistic-entrepreneursread more/a/p

pa href=http://planet.grep.be/planet.grep.be/a today has a lot of active open source users and contributors.br / The weird thing is that we never meet apart from Fosdem.br / Yes, we occasionally run into eachother at other events but there's not enough beer involved./p pI've had different people ask me what and where are the Open Source gatherings in Belgium, and we must admit that apartbr / from Fosdem there isn't that much in our little country./p pThere were a couple of MySQL User Group events, some Drupal ones, some LUG had meetings altough I have the idea most of them have dried out :( /p pSo I have this crazy idea of inviting you all to grab a beer, maybe even free beer :) on december 29 some in a pub in Antwerp /p pI`m open for suggestions on good locations./p pOh and everybody is welcome, both readers and writers :) /p pPS. Yes I know that some of you will be drinking in Berlin at that time .. we'll drink an extra one for you./p

pAs many of a href=http://www.developmentseed.org/blog/2008/nov/18/hey-thats-nice-map-new-custom-mapping-module-drupalyou read earlier on this blog, we released Nice Map/a as a bridge for Drupal to better communicate with span class=capsWMS/span servers. Jeff gave a nod to a href=http://wms.jpl.nasa.gov/NASA#8217;s free server/a, which is a great source for beautiful surface imagery and an easy way to test span class=capsWMS/span clients. However, the real benefit of mapping with span class=capsWMS/span is that you can drop in any WMS-compliant server you like, and Nice Map and other clients will do the legwork of getting beautiful maps on your site. This opens up the possibility for completely custom, beautiful maps like we have on a href=http://www.outsideindc.com/stumblesafelyStumble Safely/a #8211; maps that can set your site apart from the masses of Google Maps and match the zaniest color schemes. The level of flexibility offered by the span class=capsWMS/span protocol and servers is an incredible boon for anyone doing online maps. Here#8217;s one example of a custom map we built with this./ppa href=http://www.developmentseed.org/blog/2008/dec/10/get-over-first-hump-making-completely-custom-beautiful-maps-install-mapnik-ubuntu target=_blankread more/a/p

pDrupal Project founder Dries Buytaert's recent blog post on a href=http://buytaert.net/contributing-back-to-drupalContributing Back to Drupal/a came on the heals of much discussion of the same topic while I was the Lullabot DIWD Seminar. It is not a new conversation, at CivicActions we have been having it for as long as I can remember./p h2The Community Stipend Program/h2 pRecognizing that it was hard for our company as a company to give back beyond our sponsorship of a href=/topic/drupalcon title=DrupalCon Blog PostsDrupalCons/a and a href=/topic/drupalcamp title=DrupalCamp Blog PostsDrupalCamps/a we have made efforts to empower all of our team members to give back. A big part of this is our emCommunity Work Stipend Program/em which we started in 2006. Team members who achieve a threshold of client work each month earn an additional stipend to do community work. This can take the form of maintaining modules, working on patches for contrib or core, organizing or presenting at Drupal events like camps, cons or user groups, or writing documentation./p pa href=http://civicactions.com/blog/how_civicactions_gives_back_drupal_community target=_blankread more/a/p

pThere are two simpletest modules for Drupal 6. The 2.x branch (currently at a rel=nofollow target=_blank href=http://drupal.org/node/3249176.x-2.5/a) is a backport of the unit testing framework that will be included in Drupal 7./p pUnfortunately, error handling is not very good and it is possible to get inscrutable errors like this when running a test:/p blockquotepRunning SimpleTests/p pAn error has occurred.br /Please continue to the error pagebr /An error occurred. /batch?id=30amp;op=do /p pa rel=nofollow target=_blank href=http://wtanaka.com/node/7869read more/a/p/blockquote

pScheduling when content goes live on Drupal has up to this point mostly been handled on a per-node basis. For instance, the useful a href=http://drupal.org/project/schedulerScheduler/a module lets you schedule when a node is published/unpublished, and a href=http://drupal.org/project/workflowWorkflow/a transitions can be scheduled as well. But what if you don't want to have your site editors micromanage the exact publishing time for every relevant node, but instead to allow them to put content into a queue with pre-established scheduling logic? This is the purpose of the a href=http://drupal.org/project/slot_machineSlot Machine/a module, originally developed for FastCompany.com and recently released in alpha for both Drupal 5 and 6. I have proposed a DrupalCon session (a href=http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/session/going-live-content-scheduling-slot-machinebvote for it!/b/a) to introduce Slot Machine to the Drupal community, but first I'll whet your appetites with a few screenshots./p pa href=http://www.advomatic.com/slot-machineread more/a/p

pI found myself wanting to use regular expressions to find some imported Drupal nodes containing broken old image paths. Naturally, I went looking for a module that might accommodate me and I did find the a href=http://drupal.org/project/scannerScanner/a module. Unfortunately the site I was working with is in Drupal 6, and I didn't have the time to work on a Drupal 6 port of what looks like a pretty sophisticated module just to find a few nodes./p pa href=http://proofgroup.com/blog/2008/dec/searching_drupal_database_regular_expressionread more/a/p

pTo get you excited about the upcoming a href=http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/frontpageDrupalcon in DC/a and while you are waiting for the video's from a href=http://www.doitwithdrupal.comDo it with Drupal/a you could have another look at the video recordings from a href=http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/program/sessionsDrupalcon Szeged/a. /p pRecently I skyped with Roel De Meester from a href=http://krimson.beKrimson/a, who is one of the people involved in the proposal for a href=http://groups.drupal.org/drupalcon-maastricht-2009Drupalcon Maastricht 2009/a./p pa href=http://www.pronovix.com/blog/video-recording-drupalcon-maastrichtread more/a/p