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Learning Drupal

[copied from my Google Wave just in case it gets lost]

A Google Wave Blog. This is partly an experiment into using Wave as a place to write a blog. I was thinking that I should start a blog about my experiences as I learn Drupal, and debating over where to put it. There are lots of possibilities, but no slam-dunk winner. Should I create a forum at Drupal.org since the blog will be about Drupal? Should I put the blog up on my own website own website , since I moonlight as a Drupal Developer ? On my employer's website, since I am the Drupal webmaster for my work group?

Drupal Form submission

I've made some significant, but truly hard-won progress. Getting things done the Drupal way is really really hard when you don't know how. So, here's what I've learned.

Form Submission Woes Solved

My son Peter built me a very simple module that puts node-specific student notes into a side panel. He basically copied some stuff from the FAQ-Ask add-question block. The problem is, when you click the 'Save' button, the whole page reloads. Took me weeks to figure out the best way to overcome this.

Test glossary

So, I see a tag here I didn't know existed. I'm going to try to use it to create a term with a definition.

swfBook

BUEditor

I've finally broken down and installed an html editor. However, this one is not WYSIWYG, and I love the button set I got by making a small donation to the module author. I think this is going to work out just fine.

I still have markdown enabled, and it appears to work fine if you just throw the markup into your page instead of the full html. Remember to use real lists if you want to be able to do multiple levels easily. Also, us the LI button to insert a list item into an existing list.

  • first item

New markdown

I've changed the default Input Type to Full HTML. I'm going to give markdown another try

single star wrap = italic

same with single underscore

double star wrap = bold

same with double underscore

heading 1

So. This is the last gasp for blockquote

nested?

Markdown Enabled

I have just learned about a module called Markdown, which will hopefully be a good compromise for those who wish writing html were more like writing a wiki. Unfortunately the Markdown markup is not the same as that used in the Sakai wiki, but it still saves a lot of keystrokes over writing the full html.

So, here are some of the things you can do.

Bulletted list. Start lines with + - or *. I'm not sure about *, because that is also supposed to handle bold. Maybe the difference is the space.

My first Module

Today I built my first real Drupal Module. It was way easier than I expected it to be. The Module doesn't do anything I hadn't already found a way to do without making a module, but the mod solution is certainly more elegant, and possibly more secure.

So, what does my mod do? To find out, navigate to one of the Books at this site and take a look at the Page Extras panel that appears to the left of the book content. That's my module!

Books to try:

To do list

Page Extras Mod To-Do

  • build form for input
  • get forms into appropriate pages
  • document!
  • move files from Flash Assets to page_extras and relink

Installed Modules

Just keeping a list of the modules I want to request on the ATS drupal instance. These are in addition to the ones in the UD core.

  1. me
  2. faq-ask
  3. contemplates
  4. organic groups

And here are some scripts I'd like to add to the list of scripts hooked into page.php.tpl

  1. swfobject-modified.js
  2. getXML.js

Admin Blog

Blogging has gotten to be pretty commonplace, so I won't say a lot about what a blog is. Creating a blog in drupal is drop-dead easy, however, group blogging is a little more elusive. Here at drupal4ed we have the Organic Groups module enabled, which should help create blogs (or the equivalent) that can be jointly authored. I hope.

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