Blogs & Pods

5th theme contributed by RCS to Drupal : Painted Wall

hubert — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:48:53 -0400

Working on, with and thanks to Drupal everyday, it seems just normal to contribute to it as much as we can. Not only Raincity Studios contribute modules, like Katherine B.'s Quicktabs, or Hostmaster (now Ægir) by the already Drupal-star Adrian, but we just submitted our fifth Drupal theme on Drupal.org called Painted Wall.

A Basic Start

The first theme that we contributed was another starting theme for Drupal : Basic. But instead of being just another starting theme, it is the actual theme we use internally when designing new clients websites.

We were using ZEN classic for the longest time, and realized that everytime we started a new project, we were getting rid of the same snippets, creating the same folders... so when the new ZEN came out, instead of switching, we decided to create our own, with only the necessary elements, trying to create the simplest and most efficient base to start with. No extra code, template or functionalities that could interfere with the one we develop.

So we regrouped all the elements from ZEN that we liked with all the other elements that we like to use. Contributing this theme was not only a gesture for the community, but also a way to keep our base theme always up to date. Now when we start a new website, we simply download Basic.

And then, Design

Basic was quickly followed by three themes that we developed in 2007, but that we never really contributed to Drupal.org because of a lack of time and CVS experience from our designers (me in particular...). These three themes are Moleskine, Abarre, and A Block.

Thanks to the community, two of these three have now an official release. It is always nice to receive feed back from the users who are not only testing, but using this contributed themes on their websites, and I really consider them almost like clients (well.. it's easier to say NO to the crazy feature requests :) ).

Colors please!

Have you ever noticed that most of the user who want a Drupal site simply use Garland because you can customize the colors ? And it kinda makes sense, who wants to have a website that looks exactly like someone else's website? So with a little bit of research and head-banging, we successfully integrated the color module (by the other Drupal star Steven W.) to Abarre and partially to A Block!

Even though it is a great module, it has its limits, and sometimes it just won't be possible to apply it to a specific design, like Moleskine, because there would be too many colors to change. But the way it works is pretty fascinating and it offers a great flexibility for themes. It is so powerful that it could be used in many ways, like giving the ability to a client to change the colors of only specific elements of the websites, like the logo for example. We didn't try it yet, but it's definitely possible.

Once I figured out how to integrate the color module, it was so rewarding (I spent a ridiculously long time changing the colors of Abarre just for fun!) that I decided to try to integrate on all the future themes I'll create, and that's what I did with Painted Wall.

From the design to the admin interface.

The difference with Painted Wall, is that as soon as I started to design it, I always kept in mind that I wanted to use the color module. It actually changed the way I designed it, and I think I could compare this to CSS. I remember when I was learning css, I kept thinking that some elements that I design will be difficult, and sometimes impossible to do with css, so I had to alter the design to make it more doable. The funny thing is that sometimes, it really helps! A good design is a simple one, CSS helped me to be a better designer.

Painted Wall was also a challenge because of the flexibility I wanted it to have. I wanted the user to be able to have a 1, 2 or 3 columns layout, to change the colors, and also make the admin interface more readable. One example is the node edit form. I always try to add some styles to the fields to make them more meaningful, like the title field that has the same font style as the title itself, and same for the body field.

I also added some styles to the fieldset so they look different when opened. Many little tweaks like these ones make the "Drupal life" way more comfortable.

Painted Wall is brand new, but I am already very proud of it, so I hope that the community will like it, and will continue to help us make better drupal themes.

References

3 conferences in 2+ weeks

Audrey Foo — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:03:31 -0400

Recently I have delved a little more into understanding more about topics related to distributed search and identity. It was an eye opener to a whole new world of acronyms. To try to resolve the issue of lack of awareness and information, I have signed up for 3 events in 2 weeks

Drupal Camp Victoria, where I will be attending/organizing a BOF on identity, to discuss, listen and understand with other interested parties. As well, trying to do my part, by giving a talk on setting up local development environments
Digital Identity conference in Los Angeles, where I managed to register as a "blogger".
Drupal Camp LA since I will be down in Los Angeles, might as well.

It has been more than a year since I had last read up on single sign-on (SSO), and Verisign's one-time password (OTP) system generator.

In the meantime, due to evangelists such as Boris Mann, Dick Hardt, I became more aware of other identity alternatives such as OpenID, Facebook connect, SAML, InfoCard with associated drupal modules

From what I can understand, OpenID is great for blogging purposes, but not enterprise level authentication unless backed up by a token, smart card or biometric device, which Trustbearer has a good grip on. Information card seems a little more difficult to manage, as software may need to be installed on each computer and their information cards transferred between the computers they use. The information card foundation is attempting to address those issues, however, the techniques they use then seem to draw upon smart cards and maybe even openid. I don't know how it all will shake down, as far as I can tell openid and information cards do not plan to compete. Then again Facebook Connect may make OpenID obsolete, depending on how Facebook intends to manage its identity implementation.

How DrupalCon Szeged was for me

Katherine Bailey — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:54:42 -0400

First off, for those of you still clueless about the pronunciation of Szeged, a handy hint: the Hungarian for sex is szex, pronounced exactly the same (based on my observation of a sign for a "Szex Shop" in Budapest). So basically, just ignore the z.

I have just left the beautiful little city with its gorgeous architecture, wonderful thermal baths, and great bars and restaurants, having had to tear myself away from DrupalCon which is not quite at an end: there's a code sprint tomorrow which I'm really sorry to be missing, but client projects call and I need to get back to Vancouver. I can't complain though - I've had four really amazing days.

Of the sessions I attended I think the most interesting for me were Konstantin Käfer's session on JavaScript patterns and how they are used in Drupal to create such elegant functionality as the auto-complete feature; and in fact Raincity's own Adrian Roussouw's presentation on Aegir, his successor solution to Hostmaster - there were a lot of blown minds in the room after that one, including my own.

It may seem crazy that I had to go to DrupalCon to get a decent grasp of what one of my own colleagues is working on but with colleagues spread around the world that's sometimes just how it is. So it has been wonderful spending time with RCS folks based in faraway parts. But as for meeting new peeps, Szeged has been an absolute treat. The venue itself and its proximity to tons of great bars and restaurants in an easily walkable town centre, have made the social aspect of DrupalCon Szeged truly superb. The ground floor of the conference centre had a whole space for people to sit down between sessions and get to know each other and talk Drupal. I got to chat with maintainers of favourite modules and find out about upcoming functionality, meet other Irish Drupalers for the first time, chat face to face with people I had only ever chatted previously with on irc, discuss documentation ideas with the head of the documentation team herself (Addison Berry), and generally hobnob with some of Drupal's most committed and talented contributors.

My own double session on jQuery, with co-presenters Stella Power and David Eads, went well and we received great feedback

The balmy evenings allowed for a very pleasant continuation of interesting conversations, with large amounts of Drupalers engaging in general merriment on the terraces of Szeged's bars and restaurants or chilling out in the thermal baths.

I never did get over my jetlag, partly because the nightlife was too good and partly because the music festival taking place right beside my hotel provided a constant flow of drunken teenagers walking past into the early morning. But I've had too good a time to care, and besides, I fly back to Vancouver tomorrow so maybe the jetlag will just get canceled out (does it work that way?).

Szo, I will szign off from my beautiful old hotel in central Budapest and look forward to being back at the RCS Vancouver office on Monday.

Photo credits: peterlozano, hannes_l, Tine & Hagen Graf

Hop on the Drupal Camp Victoria Bus

DaveO — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:19:06 -0400

In the wake of Gnomedex, we're rallying up a crew of Vancouver Drupal geeks heading across the Georgia Strait to Vancouver Island to commune with our Drupal colleagues for another camp.

This shindig is organized by the fun-loving NorthStudio.com crew and The Victoria School of Business and Technology plus feature what's sure to be an excellent field trip to the Great Canadian Beer Fest.

As Boris pointed out in his recent How Drupal Can Help Change The World spiel, beer and Drupal seem to go hand in hand. Is that what make the modules so tasty? For those less lubriciously inclined, the NS crew are also setting up movie night.

With the remnants of Drupal Camp Vancouver coffers, and the organization and driving skills of Ryan Dempsey, many of the Vancouver contingent are riding over in a big ole van.

Now i doubt that it will get quite as *magic* as the web archive company Iterasi's Gnomedex Magic Bus with the sage-like Nat at the wheel taking the assembled geeks on a magical mystery tour of hi-jinks, but I am confident a rollicking ferry ride to the kick off party - followed by (not too early) solid sessions of peer education on Friday and Saturday - will be a winner!

How about you? Are you on the Drupal Camp Victoria bus?

The Deets:

September 5th (~8:30AM to ~4:00PM)
September 6th (~9:00AM to ~5:00PM)
@ Gateway Village 301 - 771 Vernon Ave. Victoria BC.
Get Directions
Cost: FREE, Yes Free as in nada, zip, zilch

Accommodation ideas:

Accent Inn, Red Lion, Howard Johnson Hotel & Suites, Thetis Lake Campground & Trailer Park, Sunrise at Island View Campground, Blue Ridge Inn, Travellers Inn, Holiday Inn, Sandman Hotel.

Note: Anyone interested in hosting out of towners at their place? Think of the fun cultural exchange you can enjoy. Drop a comment to find a match.

Get involved:

Attend: You'd best register first so they know you're coming
Present: Share your knowledge + speakers receive a comp pass to beer fest
Sponsor: Bask in link love and kudos from your community
Document: blog it, twitter it, podcast something, make a vidcast, add your photos - tag'em all "#dcvic08" to auto-magically add your content to the site

More coverage:

Our pal Lloyd Budd! Drupal Camp Victoria next Weekend
Digg - Drupal Camp Victoria 2008
Groups.Drupal.org DrupalCamp Victoria / Beerfest!
Drupal Camp Season Ends in Victoria - Techvibes|Blog

DrupalCon Szeged Day 1

Katherine Bailey — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:43:58 -0400

I'm just in from a fantastic day 1 of DrupalCon here in Szeged. This is a beautiful town and extremely welcoming of us Drupalers - this is how welcoming: the vice-mayor of Szeged himself gave a brief talk to welcome us this morning. He explained that before becoming a vice-mayor he actually used to be a software engineer, and that the City of Szeged administration is very pro-open source, using Open Office and "an open source content management system" for their website. Admitting that it was actually Joomla drew good-natured cries of "we can change that!" from the audience. I think everyone was really chuffed to be greeted like that by such a representative from the city, especially when he clearly shared so many common interests with us. It set the day off on a great note.

Dries's "State of Drupal" keynote followed and provided some very interesting insights, most notably on the current state of play regarding CCK and Views in core. So, apparently CCK, or custom fields in some form, looks set to make it into core for Drupal 7. Views on the other hand is a much more complicated matter as there is so much to the module - the proposed solution seems to be to include just a part of it in core. I'm guessing the contrib part would then be like plugins to provide the amazing advanced functionality we've all come to know and love.

Rasmus Lerdorf presented a keynote talk that focused mainly on the issue of scalability in php frameworks and showed the huge changes that intelligent structuring of code can make to the performance of php-driven pages.

Another highlight of the day for me was the DrupalChix session, organised by webchick, where about 20 of us chatted about how much we love Drupal :-)

Having arrived in Budapest on Monday night and travelled to Szeged yesterday I'm still pretty jetlagged but there's a welcome party tonight which is at the same great spot where most of us ended up last night when there was an informal meet-up... maybe just one beer...

Photo credit: Robert Scales