pUnfortunately I've arrived late enough in Washington DC for Drupalcon to not be able to go to a href=http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/session/presenting-you-workshopthe Presenting You! Workshop by Emma Jane Hogbin/a. While I've been on stage in the past 20 years from presenting poems through singing in musicals to doing actual tech presentations, I feel I have some ways to go to improve my stage skills in terms of presentations: both slides and delivery. To that effect, I did manage to go to her presentation with the same title which was put on sometime mid-Drupalcon. One of her points which warranted this blog post was: emstart now/em to prepare for the next Drupalcon!/p pShe recalled being singled out for sending in the first proposals for Drupalcon DC and therefore cheating on the voting system to get the longest time under voting. However, she points out that the underlying mechanics of Drupalcons are well known. We know a Drupalcon is always coming up (this time a href=http://paris2009.drupalcon.org/in Paris early September/a). You might have presentation ideas already. So why not start mapping out your message, building your outline and proposal already? As soon as the call for papers will be out, you can post your session and enjoy your well prepared presenter experience./ppa href=http://hojtsy.hu/blog/2009-mar-17/time-prepare-drupalcon-parisread more/a/p

pAs explained in a href=http://buytaert.net/state-of-drupal-presentation-march-2009my DrupalCon DC keynote presentation/a, drupal.com has been getting way too much organic traffic (1,000 unique visits on a good day) to not look great and show off all the cool things that have been happening within the a href=http://drupal.orgDrupal community/a. I have had a pretty embarrassing place holder on this personal site for years that is just the Druplicon (see screenshot below)./p div class=figure img src=http://buytaert.net/images/drupal/drupal-com-old.jpg alt=Drupal com old style=border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 4px;/ pThe old Drupal.com design that we have had for years./p /div pI asked my friends at a href=http://www.developmentseed.orgDevelopment Seed/a to create some mockups for a new drupal.com (see screenshot below). I really like the professional tone that such a site could create for many people who are experiencing Drupal for the first time. The header part will come with rotating images and captions, and other Javascript goodness so don't blind stare at the copy on the screenshot./p div class=figure img src=http://buytaert.net/cache/images-drupal-drupal-com-new-500x2000.jpg alt=Drupal com new style=border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 4px;/ pThe new Drupal.com design that we plan to launch shortly./ppa href=http://buytaert.net/drupal-com-to-get-a-faceliftread more/a/p

pJust want to make a quick update and say that at long last my a href=http://acquia.com/products-services/acquia-searchsearch project/a is on the internets and getting decent uptake./p pPeter Wolanin and I a href=http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalconDc2009-MoreThanSearchHowApachesolrChangesTheWayYouBuildpresented at DrupalCon/a (don#8217;t laugh too hard at me)./p pI think the reception so far has been great, and the servers have been champs img src='http://pajamadesign.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' / We#8217;re getting more and more signups every day./p pOne really cool one is Bryan from the CMS Report:br / a href=http://cmsreport.com/search/apachesolr_search/Drupal%20Searchhttp://cmsreport.com/search/apachesolr_search/Drupal%20Search/a/p pIf any of you out there want to find out how search can change how you build your sites and bring more people together with pages they need. Just click this link now:/p pa href=http://acquia.com/products-services/acquia-searchhttp://acquia.com/products-services/acquia-search/a/p pA lot of people are excited but worried about trying out the a href=http://acquia.com/products-services/acquia-searchfree beta/a because we haven#8217;t released any pricing, and something this cool will certainly cost more than a few pesos. /ppa href=http://pajamadesign.com/2009/03/17/acquia-search-is-rocking/read more/a/p

pI'm a big fan of using exposed filters in my administrative views that I build. One thing that had escaped me until today was that there isn't always a really easy way for my users to get back to square one. I need a reset button. Don't we all?/p pI did some searching around and some experimenting. It turns out that you can do this really easily in a custom module just using a hook_form_alter(). You can see the result in the screenshot below. Easy reset button./p pa href=http://fleetthought.com/blog-post/adding-reset-button-exposed-views-filters target=_blankread more/a/p

pAlthough it's posted in the paid services forum, I think we should collect strategies to this question a href=http://drupal.org/node/404254here/a./p

pMost experienced Drupal developers don't give a second thought to creating blogs, but if you're just starting out an overview is usually welcome. That's just what a href=http://rickvug.com/Rick Vugteveen/a from a href=http://imagexmedia.com/ImageX Media/a delivered in his presentation, emstrongBuilding a Blog in Drupal: When, Why and How/strong/em, at the a href= http://groups.drupal.org/node/18865February 2009 meeting/a of the a href=http://groups.drupal.org/vancouverVancouver League of Drupaliers/a (Vancouver's Drupal user group)./p pThe slides from Rick's presentation are available at his website, a href=http://rickvug.com/rickvug.com/a, in the post: a href=http://rickvug.com/journal/2009-03/building-better-blog-drupal-slides-areBuilding a Better Blog With Drupal Slides Are Up/a./p p style=text-align:centerstrongBuilding a Better Blog With Drupal/strong/p div style=margin: auto; width: 480pxembed src=http://blip.tv/play/AfPZdQA type=application/x-shockwave-flash width=480 height=392 allowscriptaccess=always allowfullscreen=true/embed/div pThis video can also be viewed directly at: a title=Group42.blip.tv direct video link href=http://group42.blip.tv/file/1885994Building a Better Blog With Drupal by Rick Vugteveen/a/p

pDrupal's core contact module allows users of a site to contact one another via email. Unfortunately, it also reveals the sender's email address. Normally, this is seen as fine behavior because the only person's email address that is at stake is the one taking the action. However, for a recent site, this violated the site's stated a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COPPACOPPA/a compliance, so we needed to alter the strongFrom/strong and strongReply-To/strong headers sent with the email. As it turns out, this is quite an easy thing to do thanks to a href=http://api.drupal.org/api/function/hook_mail_alter/6hook_mail_alter()/a./ppa href=http://www.opensourcery.com/blog/jonathan-hedstrom/allow-users-contact-each-other-without-revealing-private-email-addressesread more/a/p

pa href=http://openspring.net/scor/a did the hard work on putting together a presentation on RDFa for the a href=http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/node/51keynote/a at a href=http://dc2009.drupalcon.orgDCDC/a. Just like last year, I did the legwork on the screencast while smarter, more productive people did the hard parts. It would seem that I am the voice of RDF in Drupal./p pBut alas, due to timeframe it was not to be. Fortunately, a href=http://bmannconsulting.com/Boris/a played a version during his a href=http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/session/practical-semantic-web-and-why-you-should-careRDFa presentation at Drupalcon DC 2009,/a and scor ran two BoFs which I couldn't really participate in, having to give Openband's presentation on Thursday and being cut down by food poisoning on Friday./p pNow scor did a a href=http://groups.drupal.org/node/20167writeup on the semweb group/a, and a href=http://buytaert.net/rdfa-and-drupalDries noted it on his blog./a I won't belabor the point when others have already worded it better by reiterating it all here, but the more exposure RDFa gets, the better! More credits for the work are in both of those links. You can view the video in the above posts flashy style, and I've also put up the higher-res original a href=http://bhuga.net/files/dcdc09 final.movhere./a/p

pLast year, I wrote a blog post title a href=http://buytaert.net/drupal-the-semantic-web-and-searchDrupal, the semantic web and search/a that outlined how search engines like Google and Yahoo! are getting increasingly hungry for emstructured data/em. It is no surprise, because if they could built a global, vertical search engine that, say, searches all products online, or one that searches all job applications online, they could disintermediate many existing companies./p pMore exciting to me is how search engines can help bootstrap the semantic web as they build out these vertical search engines, and the role that content management systems like a href=http://drupal.orgDrupal/a get to play in this. Hundreds of thousands of Drupal sites contain vast amounts of structured data, covering an enormous range of topics. Unfortunately, that structure is hidden deep in Drupal's database and doesn't surface to the HTML code generated by Drupal./ppa href=http://buytaert.net/rdfa-and-drupalread more/a/p

po.k. it's not just for Drupal 6, but it makes the title sound so much better :)/p

pThe past week was quite interesting and generated a fair amount of traffic and news about CiviCRM. It compelled me to summarize and link to the various blog posts :)/ppa href=http://civicrm.org/node/526read more/a/p

ppThe a href=http://drupal.org/project/gmapGMap module/a is a highly useful tool for enabling Google Maps on Drupal nodes, and its integration with Location has made it the de-facto choice for this functionality on most Drupal sites. On a recent project, I was looking for a quick way to allow a user to attach span class=capsKML/span files to a Gmap-enabled node through a span class=capsCCK/span field and have them integrated into the resulting map./ppa href=http://www.agileapproach.com/blog-entry/kml-overlays-gmap-enabled-nodes target=_blankread more/a/p

pThe a href=http://drupal.org/project/flagFlag/a module is one of those modules that in its previous incarnation (as the a href=http://drupal.org/project/views_bookmarkViews Bookmarks module/a) was a bit inflexible and often (at least in my cases) required some manual tweaking of the code to get it to do exactly what I wanted (no offense to the original authors, I actually used it a surprising number of times). /p pThe updated and renamed module is a breath of fresh air - it is an ease to install and configure for any number of use cases - in this article, I'll demonstrate how you can set up a list of the best comments on your site./p pThe Flag module is extremely useful mainly due to its excellent integration with other Drupal modules - specifically a href=http://drupal.org/project/viewsViews/a and a href=http://drupal.org/node/172152Actions/a (part of Drupal 6 core). It's also chock-full of AJAX-y goodness (flagging items doesn't require a full page refresh) and a plethora of configuration options./p pa href=http://drupaleasy.com/blogs/ultimike/2009/03/capture-power-flag-module target=_blankread more/a/pimg src=http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/DrupalEasy/~4/hNhDCWlWX78 height=1 width=1/

There is an old business saying that “if you are not growing you are dying.” As Drupal’s popularity grows, so do the number of local user groups that are sprouting up throughout the world – obviously, this is a really good sign. These grassroots gatherings are critical to Drupal’s long term success. Drupal is an ecosystem built around its community. We need new ideas, contributors, users, etc. to help carry the torch of what others have started so brilliantly.pa href=http://www.mediacurrent.com/blogs/best-practices-and-tips-local-drupal-user-groupsread more/a/p

img src=http://teddy.fr/sites/teddy.fr/files/imagecache/teaser_thumbnail/runner.jpg alt=Coder Sprint, or how to have a healthy DrupalCon title=Coder Sprint, or how to have a healthy DrupalCon align=right /pOne thing I realized in DC is that I am not the only geek around concerned about my health; I am vegetarian, exercise every day, run 3 to 4 times a week and overall try to find balance in my life. I love working in the Web industry, however for me and almost everybody else I know working in the same field it means having to spend a huge amount of time sitting in front of a computer (and, for most of my friends, drinking a lot of beer too)./p pThe latest DrupalCon had its a href=http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/news/anointing-king-parties-drupalcon-dcKing of Parties/a in charge of making sure geeks would see some action along the week. Although I enjoy sharing a couple drinks from time to time with other Drupalers, I must say that I am no more the geek I used to be; I don't drink as often as before and when I do, I usually don't need much before hitting the bed. On the plus side, I get much more done in the morning while others are still sleeping they beer off./ppa href=http://teddy.fr/blog/coder-sprint-or-how-to-have-a-healthy-drupalconread more/a/p

pbfont size=3Quick notes on sessions I attended/font/b/p pba title=Building APIs that Rock href=http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/session/building-apis-rock id=txpbBuilding APIs that Rock/abr //bBy: a title=Jeff Eaton href=http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/user/eaton id=q9ncJeff Eaton/a br /Links: a title=Slides href=http://www.slideshare.net/eaton/building-apis-that-rock id=q53gSlides/a, a title=Video href=http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalconDc2009-BuildingApisThatRock id=t_k0Video/a br /Talked about the importance of making it easier for other modules to use your code (not just users through the Web interface); showed an example of using hooks for ultimate flexibility. Key takeaway: Try building your module as an API, then layer a user interface on top of it (ex: Views). Also, puppets!/ppa href=http://sachachua.com/wp/2009/03/15/drupalcon-2009-recap/read more/a/p

Here is yet another example of Drupal being used as the basis of a custom quot;distroquot;. Ubuntu now has UbuntuDrupal which is used for the LoCo#039;s (Local Communities). Its original aim is to make Drupal easier to setup (which they describe as quot;painfulquot;) and run for these communities. They say that it has grown to be a quot;general development suitequot;. Here is where the code is on Launchpad. The numbering of the releases is confusing, since 6.2.0 does not correspond to a released Drupal version.

a href=/blog/090315/generate-your-own-drupal-themes-too-good-be-trueimg src=http://www.topnotchthemes.com/files/imagecache/thumbnail/files/updates/Screenshot-5.png alt=Drupal theme generated by Artisteer software and its settings title=Drupal theme generated by Artisteer software and its settings //aa href=/blog/090315/generate-your-own-drupal-themes-too-good-be-trueimg src=http://www.topnotchthemes.com/files/imagecache/thumbnail/files/updates/Screenshot-4.png alt=Drupal theme generated by Artisteer software and its settings title=Drupal theme generated by Artisteer software and its settings //aa href=/blog/090315/generate-your-own-drupal-themes-too-good-be-trueimg src=http://www.topnotchthemes.com/files/imagecache/thumbnail/files/updates/Screenshot-3.png alt=Drupal theme generated by Artisteer software and its settings title=Drupal theme generated by Artisteer software and its settings //aa href=/blog/090315/generate-your-own-drupal-themes-too-good-be-trueimg src=http://www.topnotchthemes.com/files/imagecache/thumbnail/files/updates/Screenshot-2.png alt=Drupal theme generated by Artisteer software and its settings title=Drupal theme generated by Artisteer software and its settings //aa href=/blog/090315/generate-your-own-drupal-themes-too-good-be-trueimg src=http://www.topnotchthemes.com/files/imagecache/thumbnapa href=http://www.topnotchthemes.com/blog/090315/generate-your-own-drupal-themes-too-good-be-trueread more/a/p

pTwo weeks after heading off to the US and I'm finally back home in Ireland. Drupalcon DC was fantastic and, while I'm glad to be home, part of me wishes it didn't have to end so soon! Twice a year it tantalises me with 4 days of non-stop Drupal talk, learning loads of cool stuff and hanging out with some really amazing people. No wonder I quit my job after Drupalcon Szeged and started working with Drupal full time - it's just an awesome community!/p pSome of the highlights of Drupalcon DC for me were:/ppa href=http://www.stellapower.net/content/drupalcon-dc-was-awesomeread more/a/p

div class=teaser-body pIn a few weeks I will be starting work for a href=http://www.markboultondesign.co.uk/Mark Boulton Design/a, who are currently working on the a href=http://buytaert.net/mark-boulton-to-help-with-drupal-7usability of Drupal/a. I will be working on many web development projects in Drupal and other frameworks, but hope I can get some input into Drupal's usability./p pAt Drupacon last week there was a lot of talk about the state of Drupal, the usability and where it is going. Drupal 7 is still in development, but already has some great new features and bug fixes, such as the new database layer and more of CCK in core./p pTo get an idea of what everyone else is doing I thought I would have a look at a href=http://www.wordpress.orgWordpress/a and a href=http://www.joomla.orgJoomla/a. These are Drupal's biggest competition, but they have a few good ideas that could be added to Drupal./p pJoomla and Wordpress are both offered in .zip format, this format is widely used on Window systems and would be a lot more familiar for some users. Maybe Drupal should offer a .zip version?/ppa href=http://millwoodonline.co.uk/me-drupal-7-and-its-competitionread more/a/p