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Backing up your Drupal site with the Demo Module

Posted on June 10, 2010 - 10:56 by Doug Vann
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I probably don't have to tell you how important it is to keep your Drupal site backed up. However, if you don't know some of the methods that are commonly used to accomplish the task, chances are that you are not backing up your site.

In this VIDEO I show how to take SNAPSHOTS of your website's database with the DEMO module. I also discuss how to copy your website's FILES so that you can use them if you need to do a total restore of your site.

Here's What We Did:

Drupal 6 Attachment Display in VIEWS

Posted on June 1, 2010 - 00:40 by Doug Vann
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Out of the box, VIEWS in Drupal 6 offers FOUR displays; PAGE, BLOCK, FEED and ATTACHMENT. Of the four the latter is the least used and least understood. So that's exactly what we'll tackle here!

First, I'll quickly review the three that you probably know.

  • PAGE
    •  User enters a PATH and the output of the VIEW is viewable at that URL.
  • BLOCK
    •  A BLOCK is created when the view is saved. Going to the Blocks Admin section shows that the newly created BLOCK is disabled and needs to be assigned to a region.
  • FEED
    •  Custom XML FEEDS can be created to supply users and robots with FEEDS that are tagged with specific taxonomy OR event details for events that are upconing, etc.

And here's what we did with the ATTACHMENT display.
I already had a page display created earlier which simply showed the 10 most recent blog posts and only showed specific fields. 

We then selected ATTACHMENT from the Drop Down Selector of Displays and then selected CREATE DISPLAY. 
At this point we made some configuration changes, most notably changing from Fields to Nodes, and from 10 to 1 with an offset of one to avoid duplicate results.
After this we had to configure the attachment settings. We observed that the POSITION setting was set to BEFORE and that the ATTACH TO setting was set to NONE. We changes the NONE to PAGE so that the ATTACHMENT display would attach to the PAGE display and appear BEFORE it.

The preview bore witness to our success BUT we visited the actual page to see it in its glory.

Enjoy the video and PLEASE give us feedback on the topics we're delivering. We've enjoyed great feedback so far and would love to hear from YOU! :-)

CMS Energize: A Bold New Versatile Drupal Theme

Posted on May 28, 2010 - 12:21 by Matt
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CMS EnergizeCMS Energize is a bold Drupal theme that really stands out in the crowd, great for making your best content pop. As with all our themes, there are 17 regions that you can use to place all of your content as well as the flexibility of our custom theme settings. Clearly defined region separations and distinct color combinations allow you to space and organize things how you want.

Possible uses could include fun sites, business applications, community portals, and blogs. The versatility of Energize really comes into play when you look at the vast array of customization options. This is our first theme to feature 3 separate color selectors. Whatever the application, have a look at CMS Energize today.

CMS City Guide: Drupal Theme for City or Community Portals

Posted on May 28, 2010 - 11:49 by Matt
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CMS CityguideCMS City Guide is a clear, structured Drupal theme aimed at groups and organizations who want to make an online portal for there city or town. As with all our themes, there are 17 regions that you can use to place all of your content as well as the flexibility of our custom theme settings. Clearly marked blocks and strong typography help complete the look by ensuring content is well marked and asscessible.

Possible uses could include city or town government websites, large or small organizations, community portals, and event websites. If you need a Drupal site that can showcase your local events or keep citizens up to date on the latest news, impress them with a great new look for your site with CMS City Guide.

CMS Flare: Drupal Theme for a Software or Technology Business

Posted on May 12, 2010 - 18:36 by Matt
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CMS FlareCMS Flare is a sleek theme aimed at blogs, businesses, and organizations who need a clean, contrasting look to their site. As with all our themes, there are 17 regions that you can use to place all of your content as well as the flexibility of our custom theme settings. Several block themes are also included to help complete the look.

Possible uses could include tech or company blogs, product display, portfolios, or software / service industries. Whether you are looking for a hi-tech theme or a pixel-perfect way to show off your product, CMS Flare is a solid choice.

Process of Installing and Enabling Modules in Drupal 7 - A Major Improvement

Posted on May 11, 2010 - 19:51 by Doug Vann
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Installing Modules just became a whole lot easier in Drupal 7!

In this video we're going to show off the new and amazing feature in Drupal 7 that allows you to simply paste in the address of your favorite contributed Drupal modules and then let Drupal do the tedious work of downloading and installing it. Alternately you can point the interface to a local archive file and upload it from there.

Previously you had to go to Drupal.org and download the compressed file to your computer THEN unpack the file THEN use Command Line Linux OR an FTP program to get the folder and all of its content up to the server. If you were successful at this process then you would see your newly added module appear in the list of modules on your admin/build/modules page.

But now!

Drupal 7 comes with a nifty installer feature. It not only works for modules but for themes as well. In fact it's not just for contributed modules and themes. You can keep archive files of custom modules or themes and use the same interface to install those as well. Many of you, like me, are saying, "Yah, this is great but what took so long!?" Indeed WordPress and Joomla have been doing this for quite a while. I don't have a good answer for this question. I'm just happy its there and offer major thanks to everyone that put in the time and effort to get it done!

To follow along with this example all you need is a Drupal 7 install and nothing more.

  1. You simply click on the MODULES button on the admin navigation.
  2. Select the INSTALL NEW MODULE option.
  3. Navigate to the Modules directory via the provided link. Select the module you desire and find the Drupal7 version.
  4. Right click [or CMD-Click] the DOWNLOAD link and COPY the url of the link.
  5. Go back to the Drupal 7 Module Installation screen and PASTE the url into the field asking for a url.
  6. Submit the page and enjoy your new module.

Actually you need to hit the list button and look for the module then ENABLE it via the check box next to your new module. It is also possible that the module you downloaded may have some DEPENDENCIES meaning that the module requires OTHER modules to be in place first. These will be very clearly indicated if that is the case.

WYSIWYG Image Handling in Drupal 6

Posted on April 29, 2010 - 12:15 by Doug Vann
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In our previous video we tackled the task of getting a What You See Is What You Get editor into your Drupal 6 site. Now we're going to show you how to have some pretty impressive control on getting images into the WYSIWYG field.

Here's how we did it:

  1. We already had the WYSIWYG module installed from the previous video
  2. We added 2 modules: http://drupal.org/project/imce_wysiwyg and http://drupal.org/project/imce and enabled them
  3. Then we went to Site Configuration -> WYSIWYG and EDITed the configuration for the FULL THML filter
  4. We added IMAGE, IMCE, and the two Paste Plugins, Text-Paste, and Word-Paste
  5. Heading over to Content Management -> Create Content we created a PAGE
  6. In that page i sued the TEXT-PASTE to paste some filler text
  7. Using the IMAGE icon on the WYSIWYG toolbar I pulled up the Image options
  8. Choosing BROWSE SERVER, I was faced with a NEW option to UPLOAD
  9. Choosing UPLOAD I selected an image from my harddrive and also selected the 180x180 thumbnail creation option
  10. After uploading the image I looked at the original and the thumbnail and decided that the thumbnail was a better size for the image to appear in my post.
  11. With the large_thumbnail selected I hit the "SEND TO CE-EDITOR" button near the top
  12. I was faced with a preview of the image and I added some ALT text then saved the page to see that the image DID appear on the page BUT needed some additional formatting
  13. Selecting the image, I hit the IMAGE icon again and was faced with options on changing the settings for this image. 
  14. I hit the ADVANCED tab and added some styling to cause the text to wrap up to the image AND to give some room for the text to separate from the image. The style was "float:left; margin-right:9px;" Now the image is where it belongs and the layout looks great!

Out of the box: WordPress vs Drupal

Posted on April 27, 2010 - 23:57 by Doug Vann
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Taking a look at WordPress 3 Beta1 through the eyes of Drupal 7 Alpha 3. 

The comparisons have been drawn many many times. Some say WP is just a really cool Blogging Platform and some say that Drupal is entirely TOO difficult for any one to use.

In this video we don't go so much HEAD to HEAD. Rather, we take a peak at the newest version of WP which is WP3 Beta. But we look at it through the lens of Drupal. I draw analogies to Drupal terminology and I draw out the many distinctions as well. I show how cool WP does somet hings better than even Drupal 7 does.

If you're not very familiar with WP then this will give you an understanding of how WP differs from Drupal as well as how much they are alike.

In all honesty, WordPress is a rather sophisticated application with a large following and a promising future. To deny that is to think that Drupal has arrived and everyone will just leave their existing platforms and waltz on over to Drupal. :-)

Adding a WYSIWYG editor to your Drupal 6 install

Posted on April 26, 2010 - 08:34 by Doug Vann
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Some call it a necessary evil. Others regard it as pure magic. Love it or hate it, the time will come when you will have to install a WYSIWYG editor.

The What You See Is What You Get editor is a 3rd party application that plugs into your text fields and offers your users a slick interface to format text in many ways; bold, italics, font size and color, bullets, tables, indents, links, just to name a few.

In this video we're going to:

  1. Download the WYSIWYG module http://drupal.org/project/wysiwyg and install it in our usual place at sites/all/modules
  2. Go to Site Building -> Modules : admin/build/modules and enable the module
  3. Go to Site Configuration -> WYSIWYG : admin/settings/wysiwyg
  4. Select the download button for the ditor of our choice [we chose CKeditor]
  5. Download that app unzip or untar it into the sites/all/librairies directory
  6. Go back to Site Configuration -> WYSIWYG : admin/settings/wysiwyg
  7. Select the FULL HTML filter to be the one that uses the CKeditor that we just installed.
  8. Go to Site Configuration -> Input Formats and select FULL HTML as the default.
  9. Go to Content Management -> Create Content and select a content type to create. We chose page at node/add/page
  10. Observe and use the WYSIWYG editor in all it's glory!

Installing Drupal 7 on a rackspace.com hosting account

Posted on April 16, 2010 - 13:16 by Doug Vann
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This tutorial covers how to install Drupal7 on your rackspace.com shared hosting account.In my example I use the following:

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