Engineered Web

I recently switched to Git to manage the source code for projects I work on. I still use CVS to manage Drupal modules on drupal.org and SVN for many client projects. But, when I have a choice I choose Git.

Git, for those of you who don't know, is one of the most popular Distributed Version Control Systems (DVCS). A DVCS can be used in a traditional central repo style setup or a distributed approach. For more details checkout the Wikipedia article on Distributed Version Control. Read more »

Quite a few Drupal modules rely on outside libraries to work. Some are JavaScript based requiring outside plugins and others are based on outside libraries. When users install these modules they, also, have to download and install the outside library. This is a pain that drush make and the Libraries API in modules can help with.

A typical setup will have a drush make file with a project and associated libraries defined within in them. The author who puts together the profile or top level make file will need to know the library and where it needs to go.

A little known feature about drush make files is that all projects can have make files and drush recursively builds each one out. So, if a module has a make file and the module is included in another make file the modules make file will be executed as well. Read more »

Farbtastic is one of those widely used jQuery plugins you may not have realized you were using. One place many people have seen it in action is on Twitter. If you've changed the colors on your twitter page and used the color wheel to select the color you've used it. Farbtastic is the color wheel in Twitter, identi.ca, Drupal, Wordpress, and many other tools and services. While farbtastic is widely used it does have one major problem. Farbtastic is dead. The latest release of Farbtastic is version 1.2 written to work with jQuery 1.0. Remember how long ago that was? Read more »

I recently saw something terrible happen again. Another website was hacked with a very simple attack. An attack that's been used time and time again. It was a brute force attack trying common usernames and passwords. This is annoying to have to fix, trouble when the server or site is being used for something malicious, and the users feel terrible for being the cause with their weak passwords. There is something we can do about it. We can put password strength testers everywhere someone sets a new password or changes an existing one. Let users know the passwords are weak and what they can do to make them stronger. Read more »

Out of the box, Drupal puts (not verified) next to user information for anonymous users. For example, when an anonymous user submits a comment (not verified) appears next to their name. This is handy for community sites where you need to distinguish between who is a member and who isn't. For sites, like a single user blog, the (not verified) doesn't fit. So, one of the first things I do when a fresh new major release of Drupal comes along is learn how to remove the (not verified). Read more »

The admin area of a Drupal site should be themed differently according to recent usability research. The idea is that an admin or a content editor needs the context that they are doing admin functions, which an admin theme can provide. The concept of having an admin theme is different for many Drupalers. While numerous Drupal shops have been using them for quite some time, a lot of discussion has focused on using the theme for the site in the admin area. Drupal 7 is embracing admin themes by using one and taking the admin area to a whole new level. But, we don't have to wait for Drupal 7 to have a smoking hot admin theme. Let's take a look at 3 good admin themes for Drupal 6. Read more »

MySQL has been my database of choice for a long time. Just about every host supports it and it meets the requirements for just about every project I work on. When I've needed to be in the database to make changes during development I've used numerous programs over the years. Some of those have included phpMyAdmin, DBVisualizer, and the command line. Now that my full time development is on a Mac I've switched to Sequel Pro when I need to work in the database. Read more »

Over the past year the number of good looking freely available Drupal themes has really gone up. Yet, I am still amazed at how many sites are still using Garland as their theme. Especially the personal sites of so many Drupal developers. Don't get me wrong, Garland is a great theme. It's just a very well used theme which means its lost some of it's luster. So on the heels of my post about 5 Hot and Free Drupal 6 Themes, here are 5 more well designed themes for your usage considerations. Read more »

Drupal has long been known as a CMS with few good free themes and even fewer that anyone would call hot. While there have been many great sites built with Drupal the lack of hot free themes has long been discouraging. That is, until recently. Over the past year there has been a boom in hot free Drupal themes so here are 5 of them that recently caught my eye. Read more »

Amy Stephen recently posted on twitter how much Wordpress rocks. My gut reaction wanted me to respond by saying I was less than impressed with Wordpress. Instead I asked a question. How do we go about evaluating a content management system? Amy came to one conclusion and I came to a very different one which means our evaluation criteria must be miles apart. In response to that question, here is my take on how you evaluate a content management system. Read more »