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Quick Drupal Tips and Tricks

Easy enough to copy and paste
Author: jeremy
Filed under:
Jun 02, 2009
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It's been a LONG time since my last post (roughly a year) so I thought it was time to finally post something new. I've been lucky enough to build quite a few Drupal themes lately and below are some bits of code that I use on a dailly basis when adding to or developing custom themes. The nice part is everything below should be easy enough to copy and paste! *Note: All code below is for Drupal 6.

Views horizontal scrollbar

You know that annoying horizontal scroll bar that appears on your browser everytime you hover over a View on your site? This short bit of CSS gets rid of that. Place the following code in your theme's CSS file and away goes the horizontal scroll. div.view div.views-admin-links {   width: auto; }

Admin page columns

Ever built a theme only to have the "/admin" columns display one on top of each other? That's typically due to not enough width in the content area to properly float the two columns. Add this bit of CSS to your theme's CSS file and you will no longer have the problem of floating your admin page columns. div.admin .left, div.admin .right {   margin-left: 1%;   margin-right: 1%; }

Rounded tabs from Zen

I'm a big fan of the rounded "edit" and "view" tabs on the Zen theme and wanted to incorporate them into my own themes. There's a couple of files you'll need to edit but it's really quite simple copy and paste. Be sure to download the tabs images and place them in your themes folder in the "images/tabs" folder so the paths below match up.

Open Source Bridge Proposal Deadline Coming

Author: justin
Filed under:
Mar 12, 2009
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Look, I know this isn't our normal type of post.  No code snippets, no real world examples, etc.  Barely even a trace of wit and/or style.

Ok, maybe the lack of style thing really is in keeping with our normal posts.  Whatever.

Point is that this is Important Stuff and, therefore, you need to know:

The deadline for submitting proposals for Open Source Bridge is fast approaching, as in you-need-to-get-yours-in-in-under-20-days-as-of-this-writing fast.  Or, more specifically, by March 31.

So what, exactly, is Open Source Bridge?  Well, my under-rock dwelling friend, it is:

 

Open Source Bridge is a new conference for developers working with open source technologies. It will take place June 17-19 in Portland, OR, with five tracks connecting people across projects, languages, and backgrounds to explore how we do our work, and why we participate in open source. The conference structure is designed to provide developers with an opportunity to learn from people they might not connect with at other events.

 

Them's their words, of course.  Me?  I like to think of it as The OSCON Replacement That Will No Doubt Be Better Than Its Predecessor, So San Jose Can Just Keep That Bloody Thing Because We Don't Need Them In Portland, Anyway, Conference. 

Granted, "Open Source Bridge" rolls off the tongue a little easier.

So go to the Open Source Bridge site.  Submit a proposal!  Volunteer!  Sponsor!  

And if you can't do any of those things, just make sure to register and get your bums to Portland in JUNE. 

 

References:

Upgrading from Drupal 5.x to Acquia Drupal 1.0.3-ISR

Author: justin
Filed under:
Nov 26, 2008
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My God, we've been behind the 8 ball.

Seriously, did you realize that there have been something like 1.8 million Drupal releases since we last upgraded? Here we are sitting on Drupal 5.2 when the rest of the world is runnin' 6.6. Clearly, time to upgrade.

This afternoon, we decided to jump from Drupal 5.2 to Acquia Drupal, and this here article is the first of two that will document the process.

In this post, we're just talking about the actual Drupal upgrade process. No coding, no theming. Just updating Drupal to a version created in the last, oh, decade or so. Later, Jeremy will tackle updating your 5.x themes to work with 6.x.

Ok, so first thing's first. Before you do squat, there are a couple of files you'll want read.

First, check out the UPGRADE.txt file in your root Drupal directory. That bad boy is the Bible of your upgrade process, and you should have a pretty good idea of what's in there before you get going.

Likewise, if you're installing the Acquia flavor, get familiar with the
Acquia Getting Started with Acquia Drupal doc.

There are steps in there that aren't covered by a normal Drupal upgrade and, while this here post will talk about some of them, your own installation and upgrade experience could be drastically different. This post is just a supplement and, frankly, might not apply to certain installations.

Because Network Solutions Sucks

One man's frustration is not lost in vain.
Author: fredric
Filed under:
Jul 29, 2008
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The Drupal community, and open-source community at that, has always had the altruistic goal of being accessible to all. The hope is that as freelancers and tech gurus go out into the world, maybe we can help by making better, more secure websites.

And then you have piece-of-crap hosting like that of Network Solutions.

Now, I only bring this up because as I work with clients to get their internet presence setup, sometimes you're stuck working with their choice of hosting provider, hosting package, and admin credentials.

This means crazy php.ini setups, no ssh access (because the cheap plans don't enable this), and passwords like '1234myfirstname'. Never the eternal pessimist, I figured I'd leave a few words of encouragement and one small tip to those that run into this.

First, don't give up. Although you can't convince your client to pay you monthly hosting fees on your leased vps (who hasn't tried that?), continue to make their internet presence more than a site built by iPowerweb. Yeah, you may have to wrestle with a table-filled layout, but a little progress is better than no progress.

Second, scour the drupal forums for a solution. Sometimes it may take a couple of days, but it seems like everytime I run into a roadblock, someone else has as well. A forked, non-hacked core, Drupal install on a POS hosting provider is STILL better than an MS Access-driven site hosted by 1and1. :-)

Third...if you're on Network Solutions, and get the dreaded email of 'we will not turn off register_globals or magic_quotes_gpc because it would affect other shared hosted sites', take a deep breath, laugh at them uncontrollably, blog about it, then put this piece of code in the cgi-bin of your vhost within a text file called 'php.ini':

register_globals = off
magic_quotes_gpc = off

References:

6 Tips: In the Know

So how do I stay 'in the know' and increase my Drupaliness?
Author: fredric
Filed under:
Jan 25, 2008
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I'll go ahead and warn the readers that this article won't have any fancy code snippets or super dark magic to turn your site into ten billion dollars of reoccurring ad revenue. What it WILL do is give you some great pointers in ramping up your Drupal knowledge as you begin to take over the world...one Drupal site at a time.

Muahahahahahaha....but I digress.

1.) Stay on the channels

While you probably need some clout to get anything answered or explained in #drupal, #drupal-support is where the n00bies flock...and flock often. Although I wouldn't consider myself any type of <air quote> expert </air quote>, I can say that I have learned a lot by seeing some of the questions float through the channel. If you've got something interesting to add, be sure to speak up and give your support. The Open Source world is live and let live, so if you're on, say hi! I'm caramelson, btw.

Other channels to check out are #drupal-dojo and #drupal-themes (for the themers in the house).

Note: For those that don't know what I mean by <air quote>channels</ air quote>, I'm talking about IRC.

2.) Groups

Drupal groups is a cool thing. I've played with other CMS platforms before (Plone, Wordpress), and I can say that groups.drupal.org is a great bonus to this particular CMS community! You can find discussions tailored to just about anything. From local meetups to other Drupalers looking to make the next Facebook, you learn a lot from the ideas being tossed around. Some of the n00bie groups include Drupal Dojo and Drupal for Evil (semi-n00bie), and often have neat websites that have a host of tutorials, screencasts, and podcasts.

3.) Lullabot

References: