Drupal

The LinksDB module provides a nice "it just works" way for implementing a classic Links or Resources page. The standout feature is its hierarchical display of the URLs. Even after Views and CCK arrived, the hierarchical display was worth staying with the module. Sadly, with a site to upgrade and no Drupal 6 version of LinksDB in sight, it was time to convert.

Note: Drush is now a better option for running Drupal scripts. Please see this article for more information: Drupal Command Line Scripts with Drush.

Most experienced Drupal developers don't give a second thought to creating blogs, but if you're just starting out an overview is usually welcome. That's just what Rick Vugteveen from ImageX Media delivered in his presentation, Building a Blog in Drupal: When, Why and How, at the February 2009 meeting of the Vancouver League of Drupaliers (Vancouver's Drupal user group).

If you've been hearing about how Apache Solr is a great solution for search and looking for a nice introduction, look no further. In this video taken at the January 2009 meeting of the Vancouver League of Drupaliers (Vancouver's Drupal user group) Audrey Foo explains how to install and use Apache Solr with the Drupal Apache Solr Search Integration module.

Jim DeLaHunt's presentation of International and Multilingual Drupal Sites at the November 2008 meeting of to the Vancouver League of Drupaliers.

Sunday February 22nd I had the pleasure of brunching with a group of Freebase enthusiasts. What's Freebase? Here's an explanation from the Freebase website page:

Rene Hache of North Studio presents Taking Logic Out of Your Template Files at Drupal Camp Victoria 2008. In this session Rene discusses template file theming and the separation of presentation and logic. It proved an engaging session with the Q & A lasting almost as long as the original session.

Note: It's worth reading through the comments on this post, this technique isn't as useful as it first appears - Dale, Feb 18/09

The addition of preprocessor functions to Drupal 6 makes customizing template variables straightforward and clean (bravo to everyone who made this happen!). Have you ever wondered where the variables come from? It's actually helpful knowing, even if you're a themer with basic PHP knowledge.

Some reasons why:

Views 2 provides a well structured theming environment allowing presentation control for each element of your view. And in my humble opinion, it rocks!

Those with no past experience with Views 1 will find Views 2 uses standard PHPTemplate theming techniques. All of your experience theming Drupal can be used with Views.