Below is a very short list of other companies who have chosen the drupal framework recently.
All the links are to the Drupal sites.
1) FedEx : A very well known express delivery company
2)The United Nations : A site that supports and inspires people from around the world to take action in support of the Millennium Development Goals.
3) Nike : A well known sports site with a large database
4) Warner Brothers Records : A huge site with a very different Theme for drupal.
5) Freshbrain: A safe enviroment for high school students [where they ] will be able to do activities and projects using our state of the art platform, tools, training and with the support communities and advisors!
6) Team Sugar : Womens social network and community
7) Lifetime TV : massive Drupal site with a movie database,television schedule, videos,photos, editor-produced articles,
user-produced stories, games, tag clouds, topic-based search, and beautiful theme.
8) Project Opus : Local music community.Music events and people where you live; free music hosting and play list.
9) Adrenaline Hub : The action sports community site with news aggregation and video upload.
10) SonyBMG : Britney Spears Blackout Magazine: Videos, events, photos,Lyrics etc.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Drupal's File Download
10 things about file download in drupal:
1. The problem : Using Drupal’s in-core upload module, and no “node access control” contributed module, anonymous users can either download all files attachments, or none of them. The trick : in the case where anonymous users are forbidden access to uploaded files, automatically generate a message to inform them that one or more files are attached to a post. Involves : modifications to node.tpl.php and the use of Drupal’s function format_plural(). This section provides sample code safe to copy from the pdf to your template file in your favorite text editor. download permission
2. The problem : Drupal’s core upload module does not keep track of file downloads, even when the download method is set to private. The trick : install the contributed module download_count. This module writes a descriptive message in your logs whenever a person or robot is attempting to download an attached file. The module also keeps a record of total download hits, and last download time, to display on a dedicated page and in nodes (to which these files are attached). In your tracking of file downloads, you can chose to disregard file attachments with particular extensions. download statistics
3. This third point explains when, why and how to use the hook function file_download. Using this function, we can :
* Keep track of file downloads — and this section tells us what files the function can do bookkeeping of.
* Allow files that aren’t recorded in the upload module’s table {files} to be downloaded by returning an appropriate HTTP header for them.
* Block the download of particular files of our chosing.
This section provides two code examples : one in which we allow the download/display of an image that sits outside the web root, and an other in which we allow the download of any file through an “open or save to disk” prompt. module development
4. This point describes 5 Drupal functions to use when dealing with file download :
* file_directory_path()
* variable_get('file_downloads')
* file_create_url($relativepath)
* file_create_path($relativepath)
* theme_image() should be called through the rooter function theme()
The section explains when to use these functions and what to expect from them. It also provides sample code. file path
5. This section explains how to use private download — and why we should use the ../privateFolder notation when specifying our File System Path. File System Path for private download.
6. Challenge : we need to change when and how the attachment table is displayed. The solution : we use the themeable function theme_upload_attachments($files) to print the table in node.tpl.php — hence printing the value returned by theme('upload_attachments', $files) — or we override that function in template.php. This section provides sample code, and it reminds us of the difference between the variables $teaser and $node->teaser in the template file node.tpl.php : $teaser is a boolean, TRUE if we are to display the teaser as content, while $node->teaser is the content of that teaser. attachment table
7. What we should know about uploading two files with the same name when using the Drupal core upload module. filename versus filepath.
8. This section explains what hot linking is, and presents 3 different methods to try and prevent it. However, I only recommend the first method, and explain why the others are flawed (these others use the value $_SERVER['HTTP-REFERER']). leaching
9. The problem : when clean URLs is enabled, we cannot use relative paths to files and images in our html markup. This problem has been discussed on Drupal.org. There are at least 4 solutions to this problem :
* Use an absolute path, possibly resorting to a subdomain or a virtual host.
* Use the contributed filter module pathfilter, which has been ported to Drupal 6.
* Set the input format to php and use the function base_path().
* Set the input format to php and use the function file_create_url() — when the file we want to link to is inside the File System Path.
relative versus abolute path with clean URLs
10. This section provides a recipe to scan directories for particular files using the Drupal function file_scan_directory. It provides sample code on how to pick a random image from a folder and all its subfolders. scanning the file system path folder.
1. The problem : Using Drupal’s in-core upload module, and no “node access control” contributed module, anonymous users can either download all files attachments, or none of them. The trick : in the case where anonymous users are forbidden access to uploaded files, automatically generate a message to inform them that one or more files are attached to a post. Involves : modifications to node.tpl.php and the use of Drupal’s function format_plural(). This section provides sample code safe to copy from the pdf to your template file in your favorite text editor. download permission
2. The problem : Drupal’s core upload module does not keep track of file downloads, even when the download method is set to private. The trick : install the contributed module download_count. This module writes a descriptive message in your logs whenever a person or robot is attempting to download an attached file. The module also keeps a record of total download hits, and last download time, to display on a dedicated page and in nodes (to which these files are attached). In your tracking of file downloads, you can chose to disregard file attachments with particular extensions. download statistics
3. This third point explains when, why and how to use the hook function file_download. Using this function, we can :
* Keep track of file downloads — and this section tells us what files the function can do bookkeeping of.
* Allow files that aren’t recorded in the upload module’s table {files} to be downloaded by returning an appropriate HTTP header for them.
* Block the download of particular files of our chosing.
This section provides two code examples : one in which we allow the download/display of an image that sits outside the web root, and an other in which we allow the download of any file through an “open or save to disk” prompt. module development
4. This point describes 5 Drupal functions to use when dealing with file download :
* file_directory_path()
* variable_get('file_downloads')
* file_create_url($relativepath)
* file_create_path($relativepath)
* theme_image() should be called through the rooter function theme()
The section explains when to use these functions and what to expect from them. It also provides sample code. file path
5. This section explains how to use private download — and why we should use the ../privateFolder notation when specifying our File System Path. File System Path for private download.
6. Challenge : we need to change when and how the attachment table is displayed. The solution : we use the themeable function theme_upload_attachments($files) to print the table in node.tpl.php — hence printing the value returned by theme('upload_attachments', $files) — or we override that function in template.php. This section provides sample code, and it reminds us of the difference between the variables $teaser and $node->teaser in the template file node.tpl.php : $teaser is a boolean, TRUE if we are to display the teaser as content, while $node->teaser is the content of that teaser. attachment table
7. What we should know about uploading two files with the same name when using the Drupal core upload module. filename versus filepath.
8. This section explains what hot linking is, and presents 3 different methods to try and prevent it. However, I only recommend the first method, and explain why the others are flawed (these others use the value $_SERVER['HTTP-REFERER']). leaching
9. The problem : when clean URLs is enabled, we cannot use relative paths to files and images in our html markup. This problem has been discussed on Drupal.org. There are at least 4 solutions to this problem :
* Use an absolute path, possibly resorting to a subdomain or a virtual host.
* Use the contributed filter module pathfilter, which has been ported to Drupal 6.
* Set the input format to php and use the function base_path().
* Set the input format to php and use the function file_create_url() — when the file we want to link to is inside the File System Path.
relative versus abolute path with clean URLs
10. This section provides a recipe to scan directories for particular files using the Drupal function file_scan_directory. It provides sample code on how to pick a random image from a folder and all its subfolders. scanning the file system path folder.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Optimizing Drupal database
There are two easy ways to optimize the tables in your Drupal database.
The easiest way is to install the DB Maintenance module. Information on how to install a Drupal module is available in our Drupal tutorial.
After the module is installed and activated, you can access it from your Drupal admin area > Administer > Site configuration > DB maintenance. Select the tables which you wish to optimize and click Optimize now.
The other, slightly more complicated way, is to create a php script with the sql query. The code you should include in the php file should be similar to this:
$db = mysql_connect('localhost','user','password');
if(!$db) echo "cannot connect to the database";
mysql_select_db('user_drpl1');
$result=mysql_query('OPTIMIZE TABLE accesslog,cache,comments,node,users,watchdog;');
echo mysql_error();
?>
Change user, password and user_drpl1 to reflect your Drupal MySQL username, password and database.
This will optimize the tables accesslog, cache, comments, node, users and watchdog. Feel free to add or remove tables from the query.
Once you have inserted the code, save the file. For the purposes of this example, we'll assume that the file is called optimize.php. Once the file is saved in your Drupal folder, you can execute it directly from a browser:
http://www.yourdomain.com/drupal/optimize.php
If you get a blank page without any errors, this means that the tables have been successfully optimized :)
You can also set a cron job in order to execute the optimization script at regular intervals. The cron job you set should be similar to this:
php /home/user/public_html/drupal/optimize.php
Make sure you don't set the cron to be executed too often. Once a week should be more than enough to keep your tables optimized
The easiest way is to install the DB Maintenance module. Information on how to install a Drupal module is available in our Drupal tutorial.
After the module is installed and activated, you can access it from your Drupal admin area > Administer > Site configuration > DB maintenance. Select the tables which you wish to optimize and click Optimize now.
The other, slightly more complicated way, is to create a php script with the sql query. The code you should include in the php file should be similar to this:
$db = mysql_connect('localhost','user','password');
if(!$db) echo "cannot connect to the database";
mysql_select_db('user_drpl1');
$result=mysql_query('OPTIMIZE TABLE accesslog,cache,comments,node,users,watchdog;');
echo mysql_error();
?>
Change user, password and user_drpl1 to reflect your Drupal MySQL username, password and database.
This will optimize the tables accesslog, cache, comments, node, users and watchdog. Feel free to add or remove tables from the query.
Once you have inserted the code, save the file. For the purposes of this example, we'll assume that the file is called optimize.php. Once the file is saved in your Drupal folder, you can execute it directly from a browser:
http://www.yourdomain.com/drupal/optimize.php
If you get a blank page without any errors, this means that the tables have been successfully optimized :)
You can also set a cron job in order to execute the optimization script at regular intervals. The cron job you set should be similar to this:
php /home/user/public_html/drupal/optimize.php
Make sure you don't set the cron to be executed too often. Once a week should be more than enough to keep your tables optimized
Friday, January 16, 2009
Simple Test Module - Drupal
Drupal is currently lacking a test suite to be run by developers before submitting important patches. The simpletest module shows some great promise but it is unfortunately not widely adopted yet and there aren't many tests written. See here for a tutorial on how to write tests for your module.
The following setup isn't really a test suite but it is a start to avoid the most embarrassing errors.
Proceed as follows:
1. Enable the menu module and disable the 'log out' link.
2. If you have the image module installed, enable the image module and set permissions so images can be written for the userid running the link check. This will avoid image creation errors when crawling with image enabled.
3. Run
wget --mirror --delete-after http://example.com/
where example.com is your development site. This command will crawl your site very quickly which can put a large stress on the site. You can add --wait=5 to the options if you don't want to perform the stress test.
4. If you want to test as an authenticated user you first should login to the site using a browser and get the authenticated cookie. Then do
wget --mirror --delete-after --load-cookies=/path/to/cookies.txt http://example.com/
where /path/to/cookies.txt is the cookie for your site inside your cookie directory. The exact location of this cookie depends on which browser you are using.
5. You can repeat for each of your roles on your site, and look for errors users with different roles might experience.
Note that this can take some time. wget will access every Drupal page linked from anywhere on your site. You can later have a look at the error logs and find out if any errors where caused. This will not test submitting forms. You can test submitting forms through simple test module.
The following setup isn't really a test suite but it is a start to avoid the most embarrassing errors.
Proceed as follows:
1. Enable the menu module and disable the 'log out' link.
2. If you have the image module installed, enable the image module and set permissions so images can be written for the userid running the link check. This will avoid image creation errors when crawling with image enabled.
3. Run
wget --mirror --delete-after http://example.com/
where example.com is your development site. This command will crawl your site very quickly which can put a large stress on the site. You can add --wait=5 to the options if you don't want to perform the stress test.
4. If you want to test as an authenticated user you first should login to the site using a browser and get the authenticated cookie. Then do
wget --mirror --delete-after --load-cookies=/path/to/cookies.txt http://example.com/
where /path/to/cookies.txt is the cookie for your site inside your cookie directory. The exact location of this cookie depends on which browser you are using.
5. You can repeat for each of your roles on your site, and look for errors users with different roles might experience.
Note that this can take some time. wget will access every Drupal page linked from anywhere on your site. You can later have a look at the error logs and find out if any errors where caused. This will not test submitting forms. You can test submitting forms through simple test module.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Drupal - Like or Dislike
The review written by Justin James for Drupal is in an article titled, A product review of the Drupal Content Management System, does it make the grade? The author states that "Drupal does not make the grade". He bases his opinion on issues with usability and ease of installation. With regards to usability he says:
Drupal fails on these measures. There were links to create content, which I happily followed. I was immediately presented with an interesting dilemma: do I want to create a "page" or a "story?" The system explained that a "page" is for something like an "About Us" page, and a "story" contained content like a blog. This did not make any sense to me...Every other system I have used (that I can recall) lets you define a particular "page" as a blog, and then just add content to the blog.
I decided to try to make a "page." I was confronted by a plain area to enter text, with no WYSIWYG editing capabilities. I actually considered this to be good, because I have had so many problems with Web-based WYSIWYG editors. However, less than advanced users will be pretty helpless putting content into Drupal.
Ouch! The author also concludes that "Drupal may be a decent choice for an ISP, but its difficult installation, lack of simple on-line content management, and failure to provide asset management make it too hard to use for the average user for anything above and beyond basic site creation." Double ouch!
Most of my early complaints centered over some of the "special" privileges needed when accessing the MySQL database. Database privileges such as LOCK TABLES are not provided by all host providers. There are time when potential Drupal users talk about what they don't like about Drupal. Instead of acknowledging the user's remarks may have validity, there were those that who replied with what. Their simple reply would be that "Drupal isn't for everyone".Drupal's strength is understood not with the first impression it gives users, but with the final impression it leaves users. IBM's project development series involving Drupal and other open source projects should become a good read and the start of some great discussions ahead.
Drupal fails on these measures. There were links to create content, which I happily followed. I was immediately presented with an interesting dilemma: do I want to create a "page" or a "story?" The system explained that a "page" is for something like an "About Us" page, and a "story" contained content like a blog. This did not make any sense to me...Every other system I have used (that I can recall) lets you define a particular "page" as a blog, and then just add content to the blog.
I decided to try to make a "page." I was confronted by a plain area to enter text, with no WYSIWYG editing capabilities. I actually considered this to be good, because I have had so many problems with Web-based WYSIWYG editors. However, less than advanced users will be pretty helpless putting content into Drupal.
Ouch! The author also concludes that "Drupal may be a decent choice for an ISP, but its difficult installation, lack of simple on-line content management, and failure to provide asset management make it too hard to use for the average user for anything above and beyond basic site creation." Double ouch!
Most of my early complaints centered over some of the "special" privileges needed when accessing the MySQL database. Database privileges such as LOCK TABLES are not provided by all host providers. There are time when potential Drupal users talk about what they don't like about Drupal. Instead of acknowledging the user's remarks may have validity, there were those that who replied with what. Their simple reply would be that "Drupal isn't for everyone".Drupal's strength is understood not with the first impression it gives users, but with the final impression it leaves users. IBM's project development series involving Drupal and other open source projects should become a good read and the start of some great discussions ahead.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Create Link From Drupal To Moodle
This assumes that a) you have CCK and Computed Field installed
First, give every DrupalEd course an automatic alias that is the same as your Moodle short-course name. (Yes, right now, we have to do that by hand. That needs to change eventually.)
Then, in Content Management -> Content Types -> Course -- create a new field called field_moodle_link (or something like that) and select Field Type -- Computed and create the field.
In the next page that pops up, fill in the Label with whatever you want the label to be on the Drupal Group page. Then I chose "Required" under data settings, but I'm not 100% sure that's necessary. And under Computed Code, enter this:
$db = mysql_connect("", "", "");
mysql_select_db("",$db);
#Enter base moodle website here
$website = "http://www.yourwebsitehere.org/moodle";
$nodepath = "node/";
$nodepath .= arg(1);
$shortname = drupal_get_path_alias($nodepath);
$query = "SELECT id,fullname from mdl_course where shortname='$shortname'";
# Standard debug test
# print("
$query");
$idquery = mysql_query($query);
if ($idarray = mysql_fetch_array($idquery))
{
$id = $idarray["id"];
$fullname = $idarray["fullname"];
$node_field[0]['value'] = "
$fullname";
}
else
{
$node_field[0]['value'] = "No Moodle Course w/ shortname: $shortname";
}
?>
Make sure "Display this field" is checked, and I use this as my display format:
$display = $node_field_item['value'] . "
";
And then save it.
Once it's saved, click "Manage Fields" and make sure that your new field has a lower numerical value than the Highlighted Content Field, so that it's at the top of the Drupal page.
First, give every DrupalEd course an automatic alias that is the same as your Moodle short-course name. (Yes, right now, we have to do that by hand. That needs to change eventually.)
Then, in Content Management -> Content Types -> Course -- create a new field called field_moodle_link (or something like that) and select Field Type -- Computed and create the field.
In the next page that pops up, fill in the Label with whatever you want the label to be on the Drupal Group page. Then I chose "Required" under data settings, but I'm not 100% sure that's necessary. And under Computed Code, enter this:
$db = mysql_connect("
mysql_select_db("
#Enter base moodle website here
$website = "http://www.yourwebsitehere.org/moodle";
$nodepath = "node/";
$nodepath .= arg(1);
$shortname = drupal_get_path_alias($nodepath);
$query = "SELECT id,fullname from mdl_course where shortname='$shortname'";
# Standard debug test
# print("
$query");
$idquery = mysql_query($query);
if ($idarray = mysql_fetch_array($idquery))
{
$id = $idarray["id"];
$fullname = $idarray["fullname"];
$node_field[0]['value'] = "
$fullname";
}
else
{
$node_field[0]['value'] = "No Moodle Course w/ shortname: $shortname";
}
?>
Make sure "Display this field" is checked, and I use this as my display format:
$display = $node_field_item['value'] . "
";
And then save it.
Once it's saved, click "Manage Fields" and make sure that your new field has a lower numerical value than the Highlighted Content Field, so that it's at the top of the Drupal page.
Drupal Data Migration Services
Standard Data Migration into Drupal
If your moving from one technology to another one of the hardest areas to get right is the data migration. We have years of experience in migrating data from old systems into Drupal. Frequently we find that we are requested not to merely migrate from data from one application to Drupal but from multiple applications, this is where our knowledge and expertise in data architecture really come into play. We can take the headaches our of even the most complex data migrations.
Drupal SEO Website Migration / upgrades
It is imperative that you understand that moving from website technology to another that you don't lose your current SEO value. Many companies plough ahead and change their sites making what they think are great SEO improvements, but actually damage their position in Google and other Search engines by not doing the move properly. We have migrated countless sites without losing any of the existing search positions and still gaining by improving the seo.
If your moving from one technology to another one of the hardest areas to get right is the data migration. We have years of experience in migrating data from old systems into Drupal. Frequently we find that we are requested not to merely migrate from data from one application to Drupal but from multiple applications, this is where our knowledge and expertise in data architecture really come into play. We can take the headaches our of even the most complex data migrations.
Drupal SEO Website Migration / upgrades
It is imperative that you understand that moving from website technology to another that you don't lose your current SEO value. Many companies plough ahead and change their sites making what they think are great SEO improvements, but actually damage their position in Google and other Search engines by not doing the move properly. We have migrated countless sites without losing any of the existing search positions and still gaining by improving the seo.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
PHP Zend
Zend Platform is the only PHP Web application server for that supports the enterprise reliability and comprehensive performance features organizations need for business-critical applications. Platform PS provides the performance and management functions needed for every PHP deployment. Platform ES is the ultimate PHP solution incorporating enterprise-grade functionality for multi-server environments.Today's Web applications deliver diverse services including static content and rich media. By providing a multi-layered approach Zend Platform lets you easily optimize your application, according to the services you provide. Code acceleration, content caching, download optimization and configurable off-line processing capabilities give you the maximum performance options needed to get the most out of your business-critical applications.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Drupal 6 Theme Registry
Drupal's theme registry maintains cached data on the available theming hooks and how to handle them.
For most theme developers, the registry does not have to be dealt with directly. Just remember to clear it when adding or removing theme functions and templates. Editing existing functions and templates does not require a registry rebuild.
To clear the theme registry, do one of the following things:
1. On the "Administer > Site configuration > Performance" page, click on the "Clear cached data" button.
2. With devel block enabled (comes with devel module), click the "Empty cache" link.
3. The API function drupal_rebuild_theme_registry.
The theme registry is cached data instructing Drupal on the available theming hooks and how to handle it by indicating its type. In previous versions all theming calls were handled on the fly. Since a lot more work is being done under the hood, the cached instructions speeds up the process especially for templates. The theme engine your theme is running under should automatically register all the theming hooks for you.
There are special cases where you may need to work with the registry directly. When your theme requires a new hook to be registered that was not already implemented on the layers below it (core, modules, engine). This includes some forms when they are not explicitly themed by core or modules but instead rely on the default form presentation.
* More details can be found in the sub-page, The theme registry for special cases.
* Do not confuse the theme registry with the theme's .info file which is also cached. Points 1 and 2 on clearing the registry will clear both.
* Your theme must be using phptemplate engine for the for its templates and functions to be discovered. Other engines should behave the same way. For engineless themes, it must be done manually. See phptemplate_theme to see how it is done.
For most theme developers, the registry does not have to be dealt with directly. Just remember to clear it when adding or removing theme functions and templates. Editing existing functions and templates does not require a registry rebuild.
To clear the theme registry, do one of the following things:
1. On the "Administer > Site configuration > Performance" page, click on the "Clear cached data" button.
2. With devel block enabled (comes with devel module), click the "Empty cache" link.
3. The API function drupal_rebuild_theme_registry.
The theme registry is cached data instructing Drupal on the available theming hooks and how to handle it by indicating its type. In previous versions all theming calls were handled on the fly. Since a lot more work is being done under the hood, the cached instructions speeds up the process especially for templates. The theme engine your theme is running under should automatically register all the theming hooks for you.
There are special cases where you may need to work with the registry directly. When your theme requires a new hook to be registered that was not already implemented on the layers below it (core, modules, engine). This includes some forms when they are not explicitly themed by core or modules but instead rely on the default form presentation.
* More details can be found in the sub-page, The theme registry for special cases.
* Do not confuse the theme registry with the theme's .info file which is also cached. Points 1 and 2 on clearing the registry will clear both.
* Your theme must be using phptemplate engine for the for its templates and functions to be discovered. Other engines should behave the same way. For engineless themes, it must be done manually. See phptemplate_theme to see how it is done.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Theming Drupal primary links with child sub-menus
Using 'Primary links' for your Drupal site's main navigation menu is a great idea. However, most themes by default display primary links in such a way that if the menu has sub-child menus, they will not be displayed. Fortunately, the solution is much easier that you'd think.
First off, the way that most themes generate primary links is like so:
theme('links', $primary_links);
As mentioned, this will only output the top-level menu items, like so:
That's not very useful for sites with a robust navigation tree.
To get around this, the simplest way is to remove the original theme() function outputing the primary links, and create a new region in your template where you'd like your navigation menu to show up. Then, you can assign the 'Primary links' block to that region, and the entire menu tree will be displayed there.
To create a region in Drupal 5:
You'll need to modify your theme's template.php file. If it doesn't yet have one, create it, and enter the following:
function name_of_theme_regions() {
return array(
'name_of_new_region' => t('name of new region'),
);
}
To create a region in Drupal 6:
In your theme's '.info' file, you'll need to define your new region. Put something like this:
regions[name_of_new_region] = name of new region
Be sure to replace 'name_of_theme' with the name of your theme, and 'name_of_new_region' with the name of your new region.
Outputting content of the new region
The key of the array item (or value in between brackets for Drupal 6) will be used as the variable name in your theme files, like '$name_of_new_region'.
The value of the array item (or value to the right of the equals sign for Drupal 6) will be used as the title of the region on the '/admin/build/block' page.
In your page.tpl.php file, output the content of the region like so:
Then, head over to '/admin/build/block' and set the 'Primary links' block to the region you just created.
First off, the way that most themes generate primary links is like so:
theme('links', $primary_links);
As mentioned, this will only output the top-level menu items, like so:
- Menu Item 1
- Menu Item 2
- Menu Item 3
That's not very useful for sites with a robust navigation tree.
To get around this, the simplest way is to remove the original theme() function outputing the primary links, and create a new region in your template where you'd like your navigation menu to show up. Then, you can assign the 'Primary links' block to that region, and the entire menu tree will be displayed there.
To create a region in Drupal 5:
You'll need to modify your theme's template.php file. If it doesn't yet have one, create it, and enter the following:
function name_of_theme_regions() {
return array(
'name_of_new_region' => t('name of new region'),
);
}
To create a region in Drupal 6:
In your theme's '.info' file, you'll need to define your new region. Put something like this:
regions[name_of_new_region] = name of new region
Be sure to replace 'name_of_theme' with the name of your theme, and 'name_of_new_region' with the name of your new region.
Outputting content of the new region
The key of the array item (or value in between brackets for Drupal 6) will be used as the variable name in your theme files, like '$name_of_new_region'.
The value of the array item (or value to the right of the equals sign for Drupal 6) will be used as the title of the region on the '/admin/build/block' page.
In your page.tpl.php file, output the content of the region like so:
Then, head over to '/admin/build/block' and set the 'Primary links' block to the region you just created.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Best Practices - Drupal 6
If you are going to invest the time to set up a CMS, then you should protect your investment by following some simple best practices. These guidelines are only suggestions. It is up to you to decide what is appropriate for your site.
The following list contains some quick pointers (for more detailed information, see the list of articles at the bottom of this page):
* Plan your site. Drupal provides a good toolset to help you build your site but you still need to plan. Good wireframes and proper planning can avoid significant misunderstandings and problems later.
* Plan for the future. You should revisit and reevaluate your site each time there is a major version release of Drupal. This does not mean you have to upgrade it, but you should evaluate and plan for an upgrade approximately each 12-24 months.
* Get involved in the community. This will help you follow development trends and, while helping others, you may just come across a cool idea that solves your own problem.
* Back up your site. Back up both the database and the files on the web server. Test your backups! If you don't test them, you have no idea if you are doing it right.
* Test your PHP snippets. Drupal gives you a great deal of power and flexibility when using PHP code in blocks. Unfortunately, a stray character or a missing semi-colon breaks PHP. Drupal then attempts to evaluate this broken code on any requested page, the PHP interpreter chokes on it and therefore your whole site is broken. Fortunately, there is a very simple and easy solution. Instead of writing and testing your code inside the administer > blocks page, go to create content and create a new story or page node. Use PHP input format, write the code, and the Preview to debug your code. When you are satisfied that your code is working, copy and paste the code into the block.
The following list contains some quick pointers (for more detailed information, see the list of articles at the bottom of this page):
* Plan your site. Drupal provides a good toolset to help you build your site but you still need to plan. Good wireframes and proper planning can avoid significant misunderstandings and problems later.
* Plan for the future. You should revisit and reevaluate your site each time there is a major version release of Drupal. This does not mean you have to upgrade it, but you should evaluate and plan for an upgrade approximately each 12-24 months.
* Get involved in the community. This will help you follow development trends and, while helping others, you may just come across a cool idea that solves your own problem.
* Back up your site. Back up both the database and the files on the web server. Test your backups! If you don't test them, you have no idea if you are doing it right.
* Test your PHP snippets. Drupal gives you a great deal of power and flexibility when using PHP code in blocks. Unfortunately, a stray character or a missing semi-colon breaks PHP. Drupal then attempts to evaluate this broken code on any requested page, the PHP interpreter chokes on it and therefore your whole site is broken. Fortunately, there is a very simple and easy solution. Instead of writing and testing your code inside the administer > blocks page, go to create content and create a new story or page node. Use PHP input format, write the code, and the Preview to debug your code. When you are satisfied that your code is working, copy and paste the code into the block.
mktime in PHP
mktime -- Get Unix timestamp for a date
Note the strange order of arguments, which differs from the order of arguments in a regular Unix mktime() call and which does not lend itself well to leaving out parameters from right to left (see below). It is a common error to mix these values up in a script.
Returns the Unix timestamp corresponding to the arguments given. This timestamp is a long integer containing the number of seconds between the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970) and the time specified.
Arguments may be left out in order from right to left; any arguments thus omitted will be set to the current value according to the local date and time.
is_dst can be set to 1 if the time is during daylight savings time, 0 if it is not, or -1 (the default) if it is unknown whether the time is within daylight savings time or not. If it's unknown, PHP tries to figure it out itself. This can cause unexpected (but not incorrect) results.
Note: is_dst was added in 3.0.10.
mktime() is useful for doing date arithmetic and validation, as it will automatically calculate the correct value for out-of-range input. For example, each of the following lines produces the string "Jan-01-1998".
Example: mktime() example
echo date("M-d-Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, 12, 32, 1997));
echo date("M-d-Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, 13, 1, 1997));
echo date("M-d-Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1998));
echo date("M-d-Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 98));
?>
Year may be a two or four digit value, with values between 0-69 mapping to 2000-2069 and 70-99 to 1970-1999 (on systems where time_t is a 32bit signed integer, as most common today, the valid range for year is somewhere between 1901 and 2038).
Windows: Negative timestamps are not supported under any known version of Windows. Therefore the range of valid years includes only 1970 through 2038.
The last day of any given month can be expressed as the "0" day of the next month, not the -1 day. Both of the following examples will produce the string "The last day in Feb 2000 is: 29".
Note the strange order of arguments, which differs from the order of arguments in a regular Unix mktime() call and which does not lend itself well to leaving out parameters from right to left (see below). It is a common error to mix these values up in a script.
Returns the Unix timestamp corresponding to the arguments given. This timestamp is a long integer containing the number of seconds between the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970) and the time specified.
Arguments may be left out in order from right to left; any arguments thus omitted will be set to the current value according to the local date and time.
is_dst can be set to 1 if the time is during daylight savings time, 0 if it is not, or -1 (the default) if it is unknown whether the time is within daylight savings time or not. If it's unknown, PHP tries to figure it out itself. This can cause unexpected (but not incorrect) results.
Note: is_dst was added in 3.0.10.
mktime() is useful for doing date arithmetic and validation, as it will automatically calculate the correct value for out-of-range input. For example, each of the following lines produces the string "Jan-01-1998".
Example: mktime() example
echo date("M-d-Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, 12, 32, 1997));
echo date("M-d-Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, 13, 1, 1997));
echo date("M-d-Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1998));
echo date("M-d-Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 98));
?>
Year may be a two or four digit value, with values between 0-69 mapping to 2000-2069 and 70-99 to 1970-1999 (on systems where time_t is a 32bit signed integer, as most common today, the valid range for year is somewhere between 1901 and 2038).
Windows: Negative timestamps are not supported under any known version of Windows. Therefore the range of valid years includes only 1970 through 2038.
The last day of any given month can be expressed as the "0" day of the next month, not the -1 day. Both of the following examples will produce the string "The last day in Feb 2000 is: 29".
Monday, January 5, 2009
Drupal and CVS
CVS is how Drupal developers manage code. It is a tool for managing the revisions and releases of a software project that is being developed by multiple people. In such a project, each developer will create one (or more) separate copies of the code, then make local modifications to fix bugs or add features. After debugging this modified code, the developer uploads it to a server, where it is merged with the other developers' modified code to create the next release of the software. Often, two or more developers will modify the same module at the same time, which creates a big problem when they try to combine their work. It is very easy for one of them to unintentionally overwrite the other's changes.
CVS helps to manage this problem by maintaining a central code repository -- a directory on the CVS server that contains the definitive archive of a project's code, as well as a complete history of that code's development. You can use CVS to download a local copy of the code -- either the very latest version (which is often called HEAD, and is typically very unstable), or one of the earlier, stable versions (which are labelled with tags to identify them). When other developers change the code, CVS can download those changes and update your local copy.
When project maintainers make changes they wish to share, CVS is used to upload and commit them. If your changes threaten to overwrite those of another developer, CVS will warn you and give you a chance to resolve the conflict. And when you make a mistake, CVS can help you recover: you can read a complete log of all the changes to the code since the project began, retrieve versions of files from any time in the past, and generate patch files that summarize the difference between any two versions of the code.
In addition, CVS helps developers stay up to date on the state of the project. For example, the Drupal CVS server will email all CVS commits to all maintainers, automatically informing them of the work you have done.
CVS helps to manage this problem by maintaining a central code repository -- a directory on the CVS server that contains the definitive archive of a project's code, as well as a complete history of that code's development. You can use CVS to download a local copy of the code -- either the very latest version (which is often called HEAD, and is typically very unstable), or one of the earlier, stable versions (which are labelled with tags to identify them). When other developers change the code, CVS can download those changes and update your local copy.
When project maintainers make changes they wish to share, CVS is used to upload and commit them. If your changes threaten to overwrite those of another developer, CVS will warn you and give you a chance to resolve the conflict. And when you make a mistake, CVS can help you recover: you can read a complete log of all the changes to the code since the project began, retrieve versions of files from any time in the past, and generate patch files that summarize the difference between any two versions of the code.
In addition, CVS helps developers stay up to date on the state of the project. For example, the Drupal CVS server will email all CVS commits to all maintainers, automatically informing them of the work you have done.
Drupal and PHP
Drupal 7 and PHP 5.2
Drupal has long prided itself for staying ahead of the curve technologically. In order to be able to write the best quality Drupal software, Drupal developers need the best programming tools available. Today, the best PHP available is PHP 5.
PHP 5 has been deployed and tested in production environments for three years. Unfortunately, web hosts have been slow to adopt PHP 5, which has made it difficult for Drupal and many other PHP projects to fully embrace PHP 5's features.
Now a growing consortium of PHP projects have joined together and push for wider PHP 5 adoption. By all embracing PHP 5 together, the projects involved in the GoPHP 5 effort are sending a message to web hosts that it is time to embrace PHP's future.
Drupal is now part of that movement.
After much deliberation, the Drupal project is committed to the following path:
* As of Drupal 7, changes to Drupal which use language features found exclusively in PHP 5.2 will be considered for acceptance into Drupal core.
* This policy effectively means that Drupal 7 will be incompatible with PHP 4.
The Drupal developer community agrees that this change is best for the future of Drupal. We are excited by the potential that PHP 5 brings, and we look forward to building better software for the community.
Drupal 6 and PHP 4
The upcoming Drupal 6 and all current Drupal releases will remain PHP 4-compatible for as long as they are supported.
In Drupal 6, contributed Drupal modules and themes may declare their PHP version compatibility. Contributed modules can only be installed on systems that support the required PHP version. This change will allow developers to leverage PHP 5 features without breaking existing Drupal sites. This feature will let Drupal users evaluate the advantages of moving their sites to PHP 5.
Drupal has long prided itself for staying ahead of the curve technologically. In order to be able to write the best quality Drupal software, Drupal developers need the best programming tools available. Today, the best PHP available is PHP 5.
PHP 5 has been deployed and tested in production environments for three years. Unfortunately, web hosts have been slow to adopt PHP 5, which has made it difficult for Drupal and many other PHP projects to fully embrace PHP 5's features.
Now a growing consortium of PHP projects have joined together and push for wider PHP 5 adoption. By all embracing PHP 5 together, the projects involved in the GoPHP 5 effort are sending a message to web hosts that it is time to embrace PHP's future.
Drupal is now part of that movement.
After much deliberation, the Drupal project is committed to the following path:
* As of Drupal 7, changes to Drupal which use language features found exclusively in PHP 5.2 will be considered for acceptance into Drupal core.
* This policy effectively means that Drupal 7 will be incompatible with PHP 4.
The Drupal developer community agrees that this change is best for the future of Drupal. We are excited by the potential that PHP 5 brings, and we look forward to building better software for the community.
Drupal 6 and PHP 4
The upcoming Drupal 6 and all current Drupal releases will remain PHP 4-compatible for as long as they are supported.
In Drupal 6, contributed Drupal modules and themes may declare their PHP version compatibility. Contributed modules can only be installed on systems that support the required PHP version. This change will allow developers to leverage PHP 5 features without breaking existing Drupal sites. This feature will let Drupal users evaluate the advantages of moving their sites to PHP 5.
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