[droppies] Re: [documentation] [Drupal newsletter] Drupal
Newsletter for Winter, 2005/06 -- DRAFT 1
Robin Monks
devlinks at gmail.com
Thu Jan 12 12:53:02 UTC 2006
Thanks for the note Korbus!
I've fixed the error.
Robin
On 1/12/06, Dries Buytaert <dries.buytaert at gmail.com > wrote:
>
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> > From: "Kobus Myburgh" < itbjdm at puknet.puk.ac.za>
> > Date: Thu 12 Jan 2006 07:52:40 GMT+01:00
> > To: <info at drupal.org>
> > Subject: [droppies] Re: [documentation] [Drupal newsletter] Drupal
> > Newsletter for Winter,2005/06 -- DRAFT 1
> > Reply-To: droppies at drupal.org
> >
> > In the last paragraph of Angie's Interview, there is this:
> >
> > But everyone has been so supportive and encouraging to me,
> > receptive to my input a nd feedback,
> >
> > There is a space between the a and the nd of and.
> >
> > That is all I noticed that wasn't noticed by someone else, so hope
> > this helps!
> >
> > Kobus
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>>> "Drupal.org newsletter" <info at drupal.org> 1/12/2006 4:07:27 AM >>>
> >
> > ------------DRUPAL NEWSLETTER FOR WINTER, 2005/06 -- DRAFT
> > 1------------
> >
> > Please comment on this draft and fill in the gaps.
> >
> > I'm afriad I have less time to work on generating content, and I
> > thank Steve
> > Dondley for his work on this.
> >
> > Robin
> >
> > -----------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Editor's overall comment: Newsletter seems really geared to
> > developers. Is
> > that desired?
> >
> > (We can only publish what we get, more user content submitted, more
> > gets
> > published. Feel free to submit some. --Robin)
> >
> > Not yet written...
> >
> > Module review: Views
> >
> > *In this issue...*
> >
> > * Upcoming Events – Learn about upcoming Drupal-lover events.
> >
> > * Drupal Interview – This month's interview with Drupal
> > contributor, Angie
> > Byron.
> >
> > * Summer of Code Projects – Google's "Summer of Code" heats up
> > Drupal
> > development.
> >
> > * Module Spotlight - A look at "Views," a powerful new third-
> > party module.
> >
> > * Drupal Development Quickies – What have the developers been
> > working on
> > lately?
> >
> > * Drupal Tips – Tricks to help you harness the full potential of
> > Drupal.
> >
> > * Status Update - In writing, please hand in.
> >
> > ------------UPCOMING EVENTS------------
> >
> > OPEN SOURCE CMS SUMMIT
> >
> > All Drupal developers should plan to make their way to the west
> > coast of Canada
> > for the event to kick off your year: the Open Source CMS Summit and
> > DrupalCon,
> > [http://drupal.org/conference-vancouver-2006 ] February 7th thru
> > 9th. As the
> > event page says, this will be a developer-centric event focused on
> > collaborating together on future directions and everyone's
> > favourite topic --
> > APIs!
> >
> > With it being peak ski season, developers will get a chance to
> > enjoy British
> > Columbia's coastal mountains, including the famous Whistler, for
> > some of the
> > best slopes in the world. For those who don't ski, there will be
> > plenty of
> > beer going round at the lodge!
> >
> > Chad Phillips and Angie Byron are the two main Drupal organizers,
> > with Boris
> > Mann and Roland Tanglao doing the Vancouver local organizing and
> > helping with
> > the summit as a whole. Please join the Drupal conference mailing list
> > [http://drupal.org/mailing-lists] and/or check out the wiki
> > [ http://2006.northernvoice.ca/wiki/open-source-cms-and-blogging-
> > tools-summit]
> > to add your own ideas to make this a great gathering of Drupalites.
> > Oh, and of
> > course, flip the switch in your user profile to get listed on the
> > attendees
> > page [http://drupal.org/profile/conference-vancouver-2006 ].
> >
> > ---------- Digitalclouds.Net - your Web Presence Provider ----------
> > no more limits
> > ... unlimited domains, unlimited MySQL dbs, unlimited e-mail ...
> > 10% donated to Drupal, 1.5 GB extra disk space, 90 days money back
> > http://www.digitalclouds.net/goto/xref/offers/supportdrupal/
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> > ------------DRUPAL INTERVIEW------------
> >
> > For this issue of the Drupal newsletter, Robin Monks interviews
> > Angie Bryon,
> > (a.k.a. "webchick."). Angie came to our community at the end of
> > June 2005
> > through Google's Summer of Code [http://code.google.com/
> > summerofcode.html]
> > program designed to help bring new talent and support to important
> > open source
> > projects. Angie's current focus is improving documentation and
> > generally
> > helping out wherever she can with graphics work, user support, module
> > extensions, and the countless other tasks that go into the Drupal
> > open source
> > project. Read on to learn more about Angie's self-styled "Winter
> > of Code"
> > program and what motivates her to stay involved.
> >
> > *So, how did you originally find Drupal?*
> >
> > Back a year or so ago, I came across the SpreadFirefox.com website,
> > and was
> > involved there for a little while making some posters. Their site
> > was clean and
> > easy to use, so I did some "homework" and determined that it was
> > running
> > CivicSpace, which is based off of Drupal. That's how I initially
> > heard of the
> > project. Then it kind of moved back under my radar again until
> > Summer of Code.
> > When I saw Drupal on the list of projects, I immediately wanted to
> > get involved
> > with something that was allowing a grassroots activism movement to
> > work so well.
> > And now I've had the opportunity to actually dig into Drupal's
> > "guts" a bit. :)
> >
> > *So how did that opportunity actually come about?*
> >
> > One of my instructors from my college found out about the
> > opportunity and
> > e-mailed myself and a few other students from my class. Getting
> > involved in an
> > open source development project is something that's been on my
> > "life goals"
> > list for quite a few years, so when I saw the opportunity, I jumped
> > on it. I
> > was especially excited about helping with Drupal, both because a)
> > it was being
> > used as a tool in activism, so I feel like a contribution there is
> > helping make
> > the world a better place (very important to me), and b) the
> > particular project I
> > took on (quiz module) was to help further Drupal's ability to be
> > used within
> > education, another extremely important issue to me.
> >
> > *I understand you did some work on the forms API, would you care to
> > comment on
> > that?*
> >
> > While I've not done work with the Forms API directly (Adrian is the
> > guru there
> > who allowed it to come to be), I have been trying to do a lot of
> > work in making
> > the transition between 4.6 and 4.7 as easy for developers as
> > possible, and a big
> > part of that is the effort being put into the documentation for the
> > new forms
> > API.
> >
> > *What kind of documentation improvements have you been working on?*
> >
> > The first effort has been to try and centralize a "resource center"
> > for
> > developers to go to to learn everything they need to know to
> > convert their
> > modules to the new API. You can find the result of that here:
> > http://drupal.org/node/33338. This area will include everything from
> > step-by-step documentation to answers to frequently asked
> > questions, to tips
> > that have been submitted by other developers to aid people in their
> > form
> > conversions.
> >
> > The second area is the Forms API reference, available here:
> > http://drupaldocs.org/api/head/file/contributions/docs/developer/
> > topics/forms_api_reference.html
> > which is a comprehensive listing of *all* form elements and
> > attributes, along
> > with descriptions about what they do, where they can/should be
> > used, and "real
> > world" examples from Drupal core on how they're used.
> >
> > The final piece of this will be a complete step-by-step run-through
> > of how the
> > Project module was converted (this module is particularly good for
> > this because
> > there is just about *everything* a module developer will run into),
> > as well as
> > documentation of the new hooks provided by the Forms API and that
> > sort of
> > thing. I'm working closely with Chad (hunmonk) on these, and Kieran of
> > CivicSpaceLabs has a huge hand in helping fund their development.
> >
> > *Great! So what do you do when not working on Drupal?*
> >
> > Sleeping and eating. Every other waking moment is taken up by
> > Drupal. ;) No,
> > actually, I also do volunteer work with a few other online
> > communities. One of
> > these is CyberArmy.net, which is a community of primarily young people
> > interested in open source, privacy, computer security/"hacking" and
> > so forth
> > and we try and hook them up with constructive opportunities to help
> > out the
> > Internet as a whole. I also enjoy playing video games, drawing/
> > sketching, and
> > doing logic puzzles and the like (yes, I'm a big nerd ;)).
> >
> > *Any final comments for our readers?*
> >
> > Only that I'd like to sincerely thank everyone in the Drupal
> > community for
> > really welcoming me here and making me feel like "one of the guys."
> > I didn't
> > have a lot of confidence initially when I first started with this
> > project,
> > since I was just kind of some mostly self-taught random girl coming
> > from a
> > community college. But everyone has been so supportive and
> > encouraging to me,
> > receptive to my input a nd feedback, and constantly throwing new
> > opportunities
> > my way. I've met so many friends and learned so many things since
> > first coming
> > here, that this experience has been literally life-changing. Thank
> > you!
> >
> > ------------VIEWS MODULE EXTEND'S DRUPAL FLEXIBILITY------------
> >
> > Anybody who's spent any time cruising Drupal's forums knows that
> > one of the
> > most commonly asked questions is something along the lines of "How
> > do I display
> > a list of nodes of a certain type on a page sorted by author and
> > then by date?"
> > The answer used to be "dust off your favorite PHP and MySQL
> > reference works and
> > get cracking."
> >
> > But a new module, developed by Earl Miles (a.k.a. merlinofchaos),
> > promises to
> > make customized displays of content much more attainable for the
> > average user
> > and save bundles of time for even the most experienced Drupal
> > developer. It's
> > called "views" and can be downloaded from http://drupal.org/node/
> > 38878.
> >
> > The views module is feature packed, providing a whole host of
> > options that
> > allow site administrators to pull content from the database and
> > display it in
> > just about every conceivably useful way, all without knowing one
> > line of PHP.
> > Want your content paged so only 5 entries show up on a page at a
> > time? No
> > problem. Sorted by one, two, or more fields? Of course! Listed
> > in a table?
> > Yup, can do that, too. How about output to a block? Easy as pie.
> > Can you
> > filter output based on arguments supplied by the url? Yes, sir!
> >
> > And amazingly, all of this flexibility, and much more, is provided
> > by simply
> > selecting options on one single web-based form. And, yes, the web
> > form can be
> > a little intimidating, especially for newer Drupal users. But no
> > worry here
> > either. Views has an export/import feature that lets you share
> > views with
> > other users. If the views module takes off, and I think it will,
> > there will
> > soon be an entire library of views at the Drupal site which can be
> > imported in
> > a matter of seconds with a cut, a paste, and a click.
> >
> > If all that doesn't impress you, Earl has also thrown in some
> > additional
> > features to win over the hearts and minds of Drupal developers and
> > designers.
> > For example, views has its own API so that other modules can let
> > views do the
> > work of displaying output. This will save developers time when
> > creating
> > sophisticated modules needing to output data in many different
> > ways. And views
> > can even be themed so that designers can give them their own
> > distinctive look.
> >
> > Just as the flexinode module created flexible ways for
> > administrators to input
> > data into nodes, views promises to do the same for node output.
> > There's little
> > doubt in my mind views will become a staple of many Drupal
> > installations. The
> > module is still in beta and needs testers to find any bugs and help
> > improve
> > usability. If interested, just download the module at
> > http://drupal.org/node/38878 and report your findings at
> > http://drupal.org/project/issues/views. Be one of the first to
> > check it out
> > this amazing piece of code!
> >
> > ------------DRUPAL DEVELOPMENT QUICKIES------------
> >
> > * DriesK separated introduced 'administer access control'
> > permission which is
> > now separate from 'administer users'. (Patch #32669
> > [http://drupal.org/node/32669])
> >
> > * kbahey added 'site offline/maintenance' feature. (Patch #32622
> > [http://drupal.org/node/32622])
> >
> > * Countless bugfixes against form API. Most of them by asimmonds,
> > chx and
> > hunmnonk.
> >
> > * Steven made huge improvements to Drupal's search feature.
> > Indexing has
> > been made smarter and more robust and several advanced search
> > operators (e.g.
> > phrase, node type, ...) have been added. The result rankings are now
> > customizable. (Patch #28159 [ http://drupal.org/node/28159])
> >
> > * Steven introduced a user-friendly error screen for users with
> > unsupported
> > database software.
> >
> > * Stefan increased a designer's ability to theme Drupal. Chief
> > among these
> > improvements is the ability to theme poll results.
> >
> > * ax made blogapi autodiscovery (rsd) work with the Flock browser
> > (and any
> > other standards-chasing RSD using client). This lets you post to
> > your blog
> > without even visiting your site. (Patch #34749 [http://drupal.org/
> > node/34749])
> >
> > * m3avrck and deekayen cured an immense number of PHP5 warnings.
> > (Patch
> > #30930 [http://drupal.org/node/30930])
> >
> > * the documentation team, Kieran and webchick introduced much
> > improved admin
> > help in core modules. This is the "mega patch" season... (Patch #26139
> > [http://drupal.org/node/26139])
> >
> > * Richard Archer integrated primary links into the menu system.
> > This was much
> > needed. (Patch #22215 [ http://drupal.org/node/22215])
> >
> > * Morbus improved handling of temporary files/directory. (Patch
> > #26249
> > [http://drupal.org/node/26249])
> >
> > * Cvbge did an awesome job to make pgsql and Drupal work better
> > together. Too
> > many patches to list.
> >
> > * Robert added permission to enable/disbale theme switching by
> > users. (Patch
> > #38981 [http://drupal.org/node/38981])
> >
> > * saerdna et al. added a 'change own username' permission. (Patch
> > #39547
> > [ http://drupal.org/node/39547])
> >
> > * One of those rare moments when two maintainers work on one
> > patch: JonBob
> > and Richard separated callback handling from menu handling. (Patch
> > #35768
> > [http://drupal.org/node/35768])
> >
> > * Morbus optimized performance of URL aliasing for newly
> > installed sites.
> > (Patch #29326 [ http://drupal.org/node/29326])
> >
> > * drumm introduced the first piece of an install: an SQL updater
> > you can hook
> > into. (Patch #35924 [http://drupal.org/node/35924 ])
> >
> > * Though we rarely mention fixes here, big kudos to Morbus,
> > webchick and
> > tangent for fixing the order of node(api) form fields. (Patch #34920
> > [ http://drupal.org/node/34920])
> >
> > * chx broke the record of 'added code' per 'comment needed for
> > the code'
> > ratio with #40886 [http://drupal.org/node/40886 ]. Reference
> > counting is tricky.
> > Thanks goes to Goba.
> >
> > * Richard and chx made it possible to link to the front page.
> > (Patch #36465
> > [ http://drupal.org/node/36465])
> >
> > * Steven introduced some javascript to make textareas in forms
> > resizeable
> > (Patch #42446 [http://drupal.org/node/42446 ])
> >
> > * Richard and Steven made it possible to use external URLs in
> > menus (and made
> > url() more flexible). Extra Druplipoints to them for this. (Patch
> > #32785
> > [ http://drupal.org/node/32785])
> >
> > Karoly Negyesi,
> > http://drupal4hu.com/
> >
> > -------------SECURITY UPDATES-------------
> > Get the latest security updates
> > right in your inbox! Subscribe to the
> > Security Announcements mailing list today!
> > http://drupal.org/security
> > ------------------------------------------
> >
> > ------------DRUPAL TIPS------------
> >
> > Editor: Should put in a couple more tips. And ones that are of
> > interest to
> > admins, not just developers (unless we want just developer tips).
> >
> > *Track activity and changes on your favorite projects with RSS*
> > (Contributed by
> > Bèr Kessels)
> > The CVS log is often underrated as a means of tracking what happens to
> > your favorite project.
> >
> > Let us take as an example the project named "shazamgallery": Visit
> > the link
> > http://drupal.org/cvs?file=/modules/shazamgallery/ to see the
> > latest commits to
> > that project. The /modules/shazamgallery/ in the url can be
> > replaced by
> > anyhting of your interest. You can even track changes to one file.
> > For
> > example, http://drupal.org/cvs?file=/modules/shazamgallery/
> > shazamgallery.mysql
> > lets you track changes to the database file only.
> >
> > The most interesting part, however, is the RSS feed that comes with
> > that
> > at http://drupal.org/cvs?rss=true&file=/modules/shazamgallery/
> >
> > Use this to track your own contribs (to see if some other contributor
> > slips in features, or bugs, by accident). Or to track changes of the
> > projects you use on your drupal site.
> >
> > ------------USER GEARED CONTENT. PLEASE WRITE,
> > VOLUNTEERS?------------
> >
> > Talk about how artists on a tight budget can build powerful web
> > sites to help
> > them spread the word about their art. Do they have podcasts/sample
> > work.
> > Might be interesting to mention.
> >
> > ------------COMING UP IN DRUPAL 4.7------------
> >
> > Editor's note: Seems like we're missing some other major changes like
> > forms.api . Specifically, what's the big deal about forms api?
> >
> > (doc team, thoughts? --Robin)
> >
> > One of the most obvious changes involves the Menu module. No
> > longer will the
> > primary and secondary links be a custom template configuration
> > issue. The
> > control of these links has been moved into the menu module. After
> > turning on
> > menu module, you can go into *administer >> settings >> menu*
> > ?q=admin/settings/menu You will find a new option Primary links
> > settings. If
> > you do not have separate menu's yet, you will need to create them
> > and then
> > designate them here. This will involve some minor code changes to
> > any custom
> > templates you have and you can see examples in the included Blue
> > Marine theme.
> > You will also have the option to add items directly to the menu
> > when you first
> > create them.
> >
> > In the aggregator module, the 'Allowed HTML tags' control has been
> > exposed
> > through the GUI so that you can edit for what html tags you will
> > allow for in
> > the rss feeds you pull from other sites. As an example, by default
> > the tag is
> > not allowed, but now you can change this through the *administer >>
> > settings >>
> > aggregator* settings instead of in the code itself.
> >
> > The configuration for your node type workflow (published, promoted
> > to front
> > page, etc) has been moved from it's semi-obscure location in
> > content >>
> > configure to a more sensible and consistent *administer >> settings
> > >> content
> > types*. This will help new neophytes and experienced admins all
> > around.
> >
> > Some new settings have been added to the user module in access control
> > *administer >> access control*. Added permissions are 'administer
> > access
> > control' and 'change own user name'.
> >
> > While it is exciting that blocks are now able to go into a number
> > of different
> > regions (left/right sidebar, header, content, footer) now, that is
> > nothing
> > compared to additional controls added to block configuration
> > settings. You now
> > have an experts mode option to control visibility based on php code
> > added to the
> > block configuration
> > as well as some radio button options to control site wide user
> > visibility
> > settings.
> >
> > The help files have had a serious going over and many now include
> > links back to
> > the Drupal.org site so that you can take advantage of new and updated
> > information from links right in your own installation.
> >
> > Contributed by,
> > Steven Peck
> >
> > /For more information about Drupal, visit our website at http://
> > drupal.org/.
> >
> > Content donations can be sent to the editor using the form at
> > http://drupal.org/contact .
> >
> > This work is licensed under the Creative Commons
> > Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. To view a copy of
> > this license,
> > visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ . /
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Footer will be appended here
> > --
> > Pending work: http://drupal.org/project/issues/documentation/
> > List archives: http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/documentation/
> > _______________________________________________
> > droppies mailing list
> > droppies at drupal.org
> > http://lists.drupal.org/listinfo/droppies
>
>
> --
> Dries Buytaert :: http://www.buytaert.net/
>
>
--
Robin Monks,
CSL Web Administrator
robin at civicspacelabs.org
( http://gmking.org, a gamers dream )
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