Suffering Drupal | Riccardo Barbieri

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Suffering Drupal

Story content submitted on Mon, 06/07/2009 |
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Ever since I started to try to develop anything under Drupal  - some more than 2 years ago at the time of writing (around July 2007) - I live with this horrible feeling of stupidly loosing precious time of my work and life in an everlasting and desperate effort of trying to make any progress with this Content Management System. I suffer the continuous doubt of wondering if ever it will be possible to get anything working at an at least 60% rate of what I pretend under this supposedly "powerfull content management system" which offers "a lot of features" provided by modules. However, in many cases two modules don't just work well together as they are. Patches and workarounds are needed. The latest problem appeared for something as fundamental for a website as Images & Galleries....

For a newbie the incompatabilities amongst modules or small bugs that need manual adaption are impossible to solve. And mostly even the most elementary info is not clear (and nobody tells), like what *.php file, *.module or *.inc  within those modules actually generate the output. Neither does anyone ever tell what tables or variables of the database are involved. For me it's not even clear how things like $content or $block are being constructed.  So, many times a newbie does even not know where to start looking. In many cases I have spent days only trying to discover which file has the code I need to adjust and frequently I just did not find it. And that's not even counting with the actual PHP programming, code and syntaxis...

For example, where is the actual code that generates the output for the image gallery??

This issue is what finally made me start this page as a report for myself to remember where the innumerous number of bits and pieces of code can be found or adapted. At the Drupal main site it seems no-one cares to explain. What php file(s) generate the corresponding code for the module, at least to know where to start for the ever unavoidable personal adjustments. I think this should be standard policy for each module: explicit information on what PHP code generates the output, what tables and which variables are involved.

 

Comments/questions on Drupal.org

I make my own list because I never remember/know where I put my questions (doesn't Drupal sort that out for me?)

  • 2009-10-16 - http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/image#comment-2158942
    image.module under sites/all/modules/image
    and I just happen to find:
    "The main difference with the Drupal 6 version is that the css file is specified in the drupal_add_css() function, which by default points to '/modules/image/contrib/image_gallery'."   in  http://drupal.org/node/41257#comment-968755
    so full path = /sites/all/modules/image/contrib/image_gallery    ¿WHAT if I hadn't found this?
    As so many times this gives me the feeling that being able to solve something in Drupal is pure luck. Here no specific knowledge is needed, just the appropriate feedback, something that is rather rare in the Drupal community.
    This helped me to get rid of the ridiculous <H3> for the text under the thumbnails (large and fat) and replace it for a 69% <p> as it should be.
  • 2009-10-17 - http://groups.drupal.org/node/22610#comment-98642
    How to achieve dynamic variables as filter for views??? Depending on specified variable in the node (in this case on taxonomy) or role being "current user's role".

 

Organized stuff

 

Some random stuff

 

Example colapsible content - http://www.lhmdesign.com/drupal-jquery-demo

Update module best practice - http://groups.drupal.org/node/19513
The Drupal way is to update your module by removing the old module code and replacing it with the new (this can be done using a version control system, of course), and then... running update.php!!!

een andere belangrijke referentie: /admin/settings/performance

 

Voor drupal referenties, ideeën, oplossingen, voorbeelden etcetera.

http://drupalmodules.com/search/node/menu+order+category%3A2?page=1

Goeie tutorial: http://drupalsn.com/learn-drupal/drupal-tutorials/installing-drupal-modu...

en http://drupalsn.com/learn-drupal/drupal-tutorials/essential-drupal-socia...

 

Install Drupal

  1. Download and further
  2. Copy and grant permissions on the configuration file
  3. Create the database
  4. Remember on 10for10: All you need to do is add the following line to your .htaccess of your drupal installs:
    suPHP_ConfigPath /home/riccardo/domains/
  5. run install (register_globals is enabled. Drupal requires this configuration directive to be disabled. Your site may not be secure when register_globals is enabled.)
  6. http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/mysql_intro.html

 

Drupal references and examples

About Drupal hosting: http://themegarden.org/drupal6/?q=buy-best-drupal-hosting

Misschien een wiki nog beter? Is dat anders dan wat wij willen? Wikiwiki??

Social web created with drupal

 

 

Drupal 6

 

Themes

 

Views

 

Images

Maps - GMap

http://www.interdependentweb.com/bestpractices/drupal/GoogleMaps

HOW TO: theme gmap popup - easy as pie... | drupal.org

OK, if you are using CCK or are applying a gmap map to a node like ... use the default code in that file, unless you tell it to otherwise. ... Please also feel free to expand on this, sharing what nodes/users popups you themed and how. ..... Password: *. Create new account · Request new password ...

 

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