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

pIn a href=http://wimleers.com/talk/drupalcon-dc-2009my session at DrupalCon DC/a, I promised an initial version of the a href=http://drupal.org/project/episodes class=external-linkEpisodes module/a by March 15, which is today. I'm glad to be able to announce that I somewhat met that goal./p pIf you don't know what it is exactly, I encourage you to read the a href=http://drupal.org/project/episodes class=external-linkproject description/a first./p h4 id=status class=clickable_headingStatus/h4 pIt's not yet completely finished: the basic reporting UI must still be written. But you can already look at the results of each individual page through the Firebug add-on (which I didn't write, it's already available). See the first screenshot for that. That's of course much less useful, but it gives you a clear indication of the potential.br/ However, before I do that, I first have to work on making other deadlines for other courses.br / So what's done already? Here's an overview:/ppa href=http://wimleers.com/blog/episodes-drupal-integration-ingestorread more/a/p

pI have my hands in many parts of Drupal and for some time now I make concious effort to make sure things would go fine if I disappear or something. Not that I want to leave the Drupal project, not at all, but you never know what happens./p pa href=http://www.drupal4hu.com/node/190read more/a/p

pAfter 15.5 hours of travelling (1.5 hours on the train, 8.5 hours of flying, 20 minutes of bus, 30 minutes in the metro and the rest spent waiting or walking), I arrived at the Harrington Hotel l in Washington D.C. Immediately afterwards, I left for the pre-con registration, at which already about 400 people registered themselves./p h4Volunteering/h4 pThe next day I got up at 6:08 AM since I couldn't sleep due to the heat in the hotel room and because I was volunteering at the DrupalCon registration booth. With about 10 volunteers, we registered about 800 people in 2 hours (registering consists of giving them their lanyard, personalized name card, a href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/developmentseed/sets/72157614501313831/ class=external-linkswag bag/a and redirecting them to the t-shirt booth). It worked pretty efficiently :)/ppa href=http://wimleers.com/blog/drupalcon-dcread more/a/p

pNow a week after one hell of a week with the drupal elite in washington DC - wow what a week -br / Drupalcon are more like rock festival than a nerd gettogether with out the tents and way to many shitty bands (and yeah offcourse i miss at least 4 of the sessions)/p h3The Frankenstein monster session at DC/DC/h3 pThis was my 6 Drupalcon since i went to brussels a couple of years ago, and to say it nicely WTF! 1300 - 1400 drupal lovers in one place! - we were 200 in brussels and i thought wow were many who wanna share the drupal love, boy we surely have grown./p pa href=http://morten.dk/blog/post-dcdc-bluesread more/a/p

pNow that the a href=http://drupal.markboultondesign.com/iteration11/Drupal.org redesign/a is underway, a href=http://delocalizedham.com/Neil Drumm/a is currently collecting suggestions for what a revamped a href=http://association.drupal.org/Drupal Association/a website might look like./p pThe current website was created in a few days back when the Drupal Association was first founded in 2006, and hasn't really received a great deal of attention since then (shoemaker's children, and all that). The current site's content can basically be distilled into three things:/p p1. Outdated news you already heard somewhere else first.br / 2. Give us money.br / 3. Legal mumbo jumbo./p pUnfortunately, there is very little emphasis on awesome stuff the Drupal Association is working on and how you can help. That's something I think we need to change, to both help give the community assurances that their money is being spent wisely, and also to give the larger Drupal community on-ramps to directly help the Drupal Association members achieve their mission of supporting the Drupal project./p pHere's a wireframe I came up with at Way Too Late O'Clock that needs a whole bunch of work but is one approach:/ppa href=http://webchick.net/node/58read more/a/p