Drupal
Drupal and open source topics.
For those of you using Domain Access, you'll recognize the problem: You need domain-specific settings.
Sure we have Domain Configuration module to expose certain settings through a single UI, but what about all kinds of other settings, especially from contributed modules? Adding exceptions in hook_domainconf() or hook_domainbatch() is cumbersome to the site maintainer, and out of scope for the Domain Access project.
What to do?
Well, you can test the Domain Settings module, which steal a few tricks from Deploy and makes it so that any form that uses system_settings_form() can be told to submit changes to a specific domain.
If anyone's really interested in the module, I may make a release. Anyone who wants to maintain it should leave a comment in the issue. UPDATE: I am also considering rolling this into the Domain Configuration module.
I see that voting for sessions is coming up fast (on 16th Feb). I actually submitted my two solo talks early, at the request of the organizers.
And, for the truly geeky, many of the features in Domain Access inspired Node Access changes in Drupal 7.
So remember to vote early and vote often.
I was at DrupalCamp Stockholm, having a great time with our hosts and the other international guests. But there was tension in the air. The chairs of the DrupalCon 2010 bids from Berlin and Copenhagen were both present, and things started to get a little heated. To break the tension, we started talking about DrupalCON San Francisco instead.
Specifically, we talked about the, um, colorful history of SF and its residents. Talk quickly turned silly. Morten.dk was renamed "Rainbow Starshine." Peace was restored. And an idea was born: What if we could automatically generate "hippie" names for users when they register for the conference?
Well, we were a little late, but the Rainbow name generator is now live on my site. Maybe it will make it onto the conference site. In the meantime, you can use it to create your own special name.
Try the name generator yourself
If you go to parts of the DrupalCON SF site, you will see that some folks have already started using the tool. Some of us think we should all have such names printed on our official conference badges.
On a technical note, the module was written initially in Drupal 7 (my second D7 module) and then backported to D6 when the folks at my office wanted to play with it.
The last touch was the addition of some special effects to the final product.
I'll be a part of Acquia's "Playing Nicely with Others: Integrating Drupal with Third-Party Data" this Thursday, December 3, 2009 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST.
My portion of the presentation covers territory that I have discussed at DrupalCamp Stockholm and at DrupalCON Paris. It revolves around how to import legacy data into Drupal, with an emphasis on XML and HTML imports. We will look at strategies for handling single-use and ongoing data imports, best practices in data migration, and some shortcuts tips and modules that just might do all the hard work for you.
At long last, I have gotten around to upgrading the site. I moved from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6. And at the same time, I consolidated my old WordPress 2.8.x blog into the Drupal 6 architecture.
Two tools make this possible. One, the pretty nifty WordPress import module for Drupal. (A hat-tip, as well, to WP's nice XML export feature). The second, of course, is Domain Access, which allows multiple subdomains to run from a single Drupal installation.
With Domain Access in place, I can branch out a bit, and separate different parts of the site (and my life) to different audiences. So, for instance, the main blog is still Second Goose, where I post work-related material. On the main site, TheRickards.com, will be the best from all sites, and maybe some family stuff (mostly dog photos, probably). For fun, there is \m/etal.therickards.com where I will talk about heavy metal and albums I like. And I set up API.therickards.com to host API documentation for various modules that I maintain.
There may be a little dust flying around for a few days while things get settled. Hopefully there aren't too many broken links on the site. I also have to get ImageCache and its family of modules running later.
Sometimes, you read things on the web and they just stick in your head. Randomly nagging at you to do something about them.
Well, on Friday, I ran across a tweet by @djay75, which I will repost here.
Governments trust plone. There are 5 times as many US gov #plone sites as #drupal, (e.g. FBI, CIA). Why? security http://bit.ly/199qWh
The link takes you to a Plone marketing page, which has this information:
Problem A2: Broken Access Control
How Plone handles this: Plone is based on the well-proven (7 years in production), flexible and granular ACL/roles-based security model of Zope. In addition, Plone utilizes an innovative workflow-based approach to security, which means that end-users never see or modify the security settings — they only work with security presets that have been supplied to them by the developers of the application. This greatly reduces the possibility of misconfigured security settings.
And, having been bitten by this in Drupal a few times, I looked at this line end-users never see or modify the security settings and thought, "Hm, I wonder if you can do that in Drupal?"
Well, of course you can. The original module code took me about 2 hours (thanks to some nice new API features in Drupal 7). I spent another 2-3 hours polishing the documentation and the user interface (making it so you don't accidentally lock yourself out of your own site.) And now, we have the Secure Permissions module for Drupal 7.
I can see this being very helpful in some use-cases, as site permissions and roles can be configured on a development site, then exported to code and loaded onto the production site.
Update: And I just realized, the entire module only has one SQL query in it. Big win for the Drupal APIs. And, for the record, the module is ~ 450 lines of code, probably half of which are comments.
Update 2: I just released the Drupal 6 version today.
I noted the other day that I'm off for PublicMedia Camp this weekend. I'm excited about the event, and my trip is generously sponsored by the folks at PBS Engage. While there, I hope to help with some of the technical brainstorming sessions (and maybe a little bit of strategy, too).
I also signed up to do a short session on Why Drupal is Good for Public Media. It is basically an introduction to the ethos (yes, we have one) and practice of the Drupal community. It is a non-technical talk designed to explain why Drupal is an attractive platform for public media projects.
Some clarifications and a request.
-- "Public media" may be a peculiarly American concept. Yes, the BBC is a government-run company, but its structure and (especially) its funding are vastly different from a PBS or NPR in the states. Public media in the U.S. (traditionally) is broadcast spectrum set aside for local public interest programming on TV and radio. Stations are run locally, and receive most of their funding from local contributions (though there are national grants and government funds available).
Part of the big challenge of public media is how to address the Internet and the shifts in audience that have happened over the last 20 years. That's precisely the problem PBS Engage tackles.
So, my request:
-- I am looking for examples of Drupal usage for public media operations and projects, with a particular focus on the following topics:
- Interactive projects that engage audience with content creators
- Fundraising and donation tools
- Membership and rewards programs, such as CRM
- Media channels and narrowcasting
- Local tools for civic engagement
Please, I don't need a technical "you can do that with module X and configuration Y." I would like some links to real-world examples. I also can't really use sites like NowPublic, because they are not "public media" as defined above.
If you have any thoughts or a good showcase site, please leave a URL in the comments.
When I was at DrupalCamp Atlanta two weeks ago, I spent some time talking to Ben Finklea, CEO of SEO firm Volacci. Ben was in town to present on Drupal and SEO marketing (naturally). After the con, his office contacted me and asked if I would review Ben's new book, Drupal 6 Search Engine Optimization
Let's start back in the dark early days of the Internets. I got my start in this business back in 1998 (though I was teaching rudimentary web page building as early as 1995). This was, if you can believe it, before Google ruled the web. (Looking on Wikipedia, it seems that Google was incorporated a scant two weeks before I started by job.)
I think this is important to the review because I have a deep mistrust of SEO as a concept, and that extends to the people who peddle SEO like a commodity. I have seen the rise of SEO and the tricks that came with it. Like this classic bit we all tried to add keywords to pages. And I have seen the failure of those techniques, as the search engine providers get smarter and trying to game the system gets you punished.
Well, the good news is that I think Finklea is on the good side of that battle. And a read through his book confirms it.
This book serves two purposes, and unlike some books that suffer from a split focus, pulls both off very well. On the one hand, the book is a gentle yet thorough introduction to current SEO practices, terms and tools. The other focus of the book is using Drupal and its contributed modules to optimize your site for Google. (Though other search engines are mentions, Finklea points out that Google's market dominance makes it the best target for your optimizations.)
One might argue, in fact, that the last chapter of the book ("Increasing the Conversion Rate of Your Drupal Web Site") should in fact be the first, since it introduces essential marketing strategies that, if you don't know already, you need to learn. But that chapter is deliberately placed, and ties together the technical details of the book with a marketing strategy. What you are left with is a nicely balanced, short introduction to SEO with a focus on Drupal best-practices.
Reading through the book, you will learn (or be given a refresher on):
- How to install Drupal modules
- The essential modules for SEO in Drupal
- Best practice usage of those modules (over two dozen are discussed)
- How to perform keyword research
- How to optimize content for search
- Using OpenCalais and Apache Solr to increase site traffic
- What not to do because it a) won't help or b) will get your site penalized
- How Google uses Robots.txt
- Which META tags you need use and which to ignore
- The importance of page weight and load speeds
- How to perform basic usability testing
- How (and why) to perform A/B variance testing to optimize your site design
That's a pretty long list, and doesn't cover the entire book. Particular standout sections of the book hit the following topics in detail:
- Picking the right keywords to target
- Using the Page Title and Token modules to advantage
- PathAuto configuration (which is always a little messy)
- How to write good content to increase search relevance
- Proper use of <H1> and heading tags
- Optimizing Drupal's default robots.txt file
- Identifying the goals of your web site so you can target your marketing spend
- Google Webmaster Tools, plus a survey of other free and commercial tools for SEO, such as SEOmoz
The book is written in an easy, conversational style, and I only found one instance where I thought I was reading a sales or marketing manual. (This comes fairly early, in discussing a site's first SEO campaign, Finklea writes "Since we want to justify a fuller campaign, we need some easy wins". In this book, that statement was a little jarring, and I couldn't tell who needed to sell a "win," to whom, and for what reason. This is the kind of sales setup which makes many of us wary of SEO firms, and I think the editor should have caught that error in tone.) A few parts of the book feel a bit rushed, too, such as the end of chapter 4, where some additional screenshots are noticeably absent.
Let's get to the bottom line: If you build or maintain Drupal web sites (or manage people who do), should you run out and spend $44.99 on this book? Well, if you know nothing more about SEO than what I have told you, then, yes, immediately go buy a copy. Otherwise, I would find a copy and read Chapter 10 (or browse the TOC online). If it contains ideas which you haven't considered when building your web site(s), then you'll know that this book is right for you.
One final note: this is perhaps the most gracious of the Drupal books that I have read, and the thanks to Drupal contributors (including Palantir's own John Wilkins) are sprinkled liberally throughout the book (there are more than 30 in the introduction alone). And this generosity really helps sets the tone for the community spirit that helps make Drupal so powerful for web site builders.
So I received this email the other day:
Your Domain Access module is fantastic and I am perpetually amazed at the level of support you provide and the speed with which you provide it. Having this module has made a huge difference in setting up and maintaining my research group's sites and I wanted to send along a little thank you...
And so he did, sending along a copy of Greg Knaddison's Drupal security book, Cracking Drupal
Aww. Thanks, Ethan!
That is a really nice use of Domain Access, too. Ethan provides a portal for ecology research: http://www.weecology.org/
Throw this on top of my upcoming trip to Sweden, and I'm having a pretty good Drupal month. Maybe even enough to roll up the sleeves and finish the stable release.
That's right. I have been invited to present at DrupalCamp Sweden, to be held November 11-12 in historic Stockholm.
First off, a huge thanks to NodeOne, the event sponsors, and to Palantir.net, for giving me clearance to take a week to travel to Sweden for the first time.
This is a two day camp, which some organized sessions and some BarCamp style meetups. You can look at the program online. I will be presenting on both days. Day One concentrates on Drupal as a platform for media companies, and I will be speaking about Drupal for newspapers and magazines (including sites like Foreign Affairs and SavannahNow). Day Two is more technical, and we will be diving into the Domain Access module suite. We may even do a live demo for how to run multiple DrupalCamp websites off a single installation.
And, if that wasn't enough, Amy also managed to get the week off. And, following the "You can't go to Europe without me" rule, she'll be coming along to explore. So if any Drupalgängers are thinking of going (or if you live in Sweden and want to show us around a bit), let us know.
All you Scandanavian Drupalers, this one is going to be big. Hope to see you there!
