Aug 27, 2010

The Micropublisher

This summer I was a mentor for the Google Summer of Code program for Drupal. I maintain the Facebook-style Statuses module, which allows users to have a stream of “status updates” on their user profiles and to write messages on other users’ profiles, like Facebook. So when I had the chance to mentor the Facebook-style Micropublisher proposal, which built on Facebook-style Statuses to allow attaching images, links, and video to status updates, I jumped on it.

The result was a resounding success, and I learned a lot during the process. Nitin Gupta, the student driving the project (and better known to some as publicmind) was an extraordinary developer in the true Drupal spirit. He gracefully put up with my pickiness about coding style, thoroughly researched the best code architecture for our purposes, and even identified places where Facebook-style Statuses itself could become more flexible. I truly believe that Nitin will remain committed to the module he created, and that both of us are better Drupal developers as a result of this process. read more »


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Aug 23, 2010

Recently, there has been a major focus on education and training from within the Drupal community – and with good reason. Dries himself has emphasized the importance of training-related initiatives on several occasions, since the future of Drupal hinges on constantly fostering new talent. One of the ideal ways to advance the Drupal community is by mentoring new individuals (developers, designers, users, etc.). There are a number of awesome endeavors like the Google Summer of Code that are tremendously beneficial to the Drupal project. There are also Drupal-centric consultancies, like Mediacurrent, who may have implemented their own Drupal summer intern program or others that have been contemplating. We just finished our first internship program, and this post will share some thoughts from our experience. read more »


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Aug 19, 2010

Drupal Commons

Drupal Commons is a Drupal distribution billed as “social business software.” That means that Acquia is distributing Drupal bundled with some other modules preconfigured to work as a company’s interactive user-facing website. Drupal Commons 1.0 was released on August 5th. read more »


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Aug 17, 2010

As a Drupal developer, I am constantly trying to streamline and generally make my processes as efficient as possible. With that said, I have seen tremendous value incorporating Features in just about everything that I do Drupal-related. Recently, I shared a snapshot at a Mediacurrent staff meeting of a more in-depth presentation I would like to do at the upcoming Drupalcamp Atlanta. Basically, I go over the highlights of Features with a short 'how-to' tutorial and then some notes on the general methodology I use when setting up a site. Again, I have gotten into the habit of using Features quite extensively (you could say Everywhere) on my projects so I thought I would share my approach. Oh yeah, please vote for the session or share any feedback on what I can do to enhance the presentation. I would greatly appreciate it. read more »


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