Join us for a DTLA (Downtown Los Angeles) Drupal meetup to talk about Drupal at the offices of at Oversee.net on March 15, 2011 in Downtown Los Angeles. There will be several presentations as well as open discussions, job announcements and time for networking. Several of us may be going to Weiland's Brewery Underground for a Drupal After Dark afterward.
The meetup begins at 7:30pm but the doors open a little earlier at 7pm for Users Helping Users, which is a chance for members of the community to help and be helped by others with whatever questions and problems they're having with Drupal.
When: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 from 7:30-9:30pm |
Where: Oversee.net in Downtown Los Angeles at 515 S. Flower St. (Suite 4400), Los Angeles, CA 90071 |
Logistics
This event is free and no RSVP is required. To breeze through security and get free or discounted parking, however, you can sign up by logging in and clicking the Sign up button below.
The first 15 people to sign up will get free parking and anyone who signs up after that can get discounted, validated parking at any of the restaurants in the building. Preference is given to those who carpool. All who sign up will also have instructions and last-minute details (if there are any) sent to them before the meeting.
Be sure to update your profile with your full name so that a name badge will be ready for you at the front desk. To do this, log in and click My Account → Edit → Personal and fill in the "Real name" field. This is optional, but it makes things much easier for the event organizers and our venue sponsor. In any case, please be prepared to show a valid photo ID at the front desk.
Agenda
If you'd like to give a presentation, announce a job position or ask any questions of the group, please come a few minutes early or leave a comment below. If presenting, be sure to bring your laptop (and power and display cables) and whatever else you need.
Job announcements and open Q&A
Everyone has a problem every now and then and the open Q&A session is a chance for attendees to divine answers from the collective wisdom of the group. This is also an opportunity for local businesses to make job announcements and ask for referrals and recommendations.
Presentations
Migrating Content from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7
As announced in the comments below, Ashok Modi (@BTMash) will present how a Drupal 6 website he worked on was relaunched on Drupal 7. Instead of upgrading the entire Drupal codebase and database to Drupal 7, the site was rebuilt in Drupal 7 and the content was then migrated to it using the powerful Migrate module.
Why Hooks?
The word "hooks" is often mentioned or thrown around when talking about Drupal's modular architecture and code philosophy and Kevin Kaland (@WizOneSolutions) and Oliver Seldman (@otseld) will present what Drupal's hook system is and how it can be used.
This presentation topic was recently requested by a community member and here it is!
Lightning talks
We have time as well for lightning talks, which are 5-10 minute presentations from attendees who would like to share something with the group. If you'd like to give a lightning talk, be sure to come a few minutes early and bring your laptop (and power and display cables) and whatever else you need.
As always, please feel welcome to leave a comment below and let others know what you'd like to present ahead of time.
Location
We're meeting at the offices of Oversee.net in Downtown Los Angeles. Oversee.net owns a large portfolio of online properties, including Moniker, SnapNames, DomainSponsor, AboutAirportParking.com and LowFares.com, to name a few, and is using Drupal extensively for their emerging businesses division.
Oversee.net is hiring a Senior PHP/Drupal Developer to join them in Downtown Los Angeles. To learn more about Oversee.net and their open positions, come to the meetup or visit Oversee.net/careers.
Travel
Our venue is easily accessible by bus (see mta.net for bus lines) and by commuter rail (the Red Line connection is Pershing Square and the Blue Line connection is 7th and Wilshire).
Parking
There is almost no on-street parking in the area but free parking is being provided to us by Oversee.net in the A level of the John Hastings Tower at 515 S. Flower St. The first 15 people to sign up will get free parking and anyone who signs up after that can get discounted, validated parking at any of the restaurants in the building. Preference is given to those who carpool
The parking entrance is a very quick right turn heading underground, immediately after 5th St. To qualify for free parking, you must sign up by logging in and clicking the Sign up button below. Those who sign up will also have instructions and last-minute details (if there are any) sent to them before the meeting.
Comments
If anyone reading this hasn't
If anyone reading this hasn't been to Oversee yet, I enthusiastically suggest attending this meetup (and checking out Oversee's available Drupal jobs at http://oversee.net/careers). Oversee has been a great venue, food and parking sponsor for us but this month's meetup will likely be the last time we meet at Oversee.
The majority of LA Drupal managers voted to reduce the number of LA Drupal meetups to just one a month, and while anyone is welcome to organize "Drupal meetups" anywhere they'd like, the "LA Drupal meetups" are now on the Westside at our current venue at Media Temple.
Oversee has renewed/continued their sponsorship
Oversee has renewed/continued their sponsorship of the Drupal meetups in Downtown Los Angeles! Chris Charlton (an Oversee employee and LA Drupal co-manager) said at the meetup this week that Oversee can host these Drupal meetups for the rest of the year.
Present / Longer lightning talk / BOF on content migration
I don't know what talks are being proposed for this meetup, but (and I'm proposing this mainly because this is the most recent thing I've been working on and better to get it out while its still fresh ^_^) I have been working on a website refresh whereby we decided to launch on Drupal 7. And while the old site was in Drupal 6, we opted to make a fresh install using Drupal 7. And to potentially make things a little simpler, I opted to migrate content from the old site into the new one (instead of upgrading the old site to Drupal 7). Learning a lot in the process about content migration, I don't mind talking about a few of the approaches a person could take in doing something like this (though I will primarily talk about using the migrate module - it is what we used).
Putting it out there now since this talk is way more on the technical side and there may be other talks more suited to the meetup that others may want to see.
I'd like to see this
+1 for this talk. I'm sure many people will be interested (regardless of how technical). It also sounds like a perfect time to prepare this, as the experience is fresh. I'd love to hear about what you've learned.
This sounds terrific, Ashok.
This sounds terrific, Ashok. I've been following your posts on Twitter with great interest!
I've put this on the agenda. Together with the presentation on hooks, this will make for a great meetup.
This is awesome!
I've wondered about this very thing, Ashok! Like which process is better, faster, etc. I'm sure that varies but never tested it myself. Personally, it's great timing for me so can't wait to see this.
Thank you for offering to share your experiences, Ashok.
Miguel Hernandez - www.migshouse.com
Founder & CEO - The OpenMindz Group
Writer- Linux Journal & TechZulu
Presentation: "Why Hooks?"
oseldman and I are whipping up a presentation on hooks and are expecting to present it here, so safe to expect it.
There were some good comments on this in http://groups.drupal.org/node/129924, so we will attempt to make this general public friendly. If you're not a developer, you can at least point your developer to it and sell them on how easy (and automatic!) basic hook usage is.
WizOne Solutions - https://wizone.solutions - Drupal module development, theme implementation, and more
FillPDF Service - https://fillpdf.io - Hosted solution for FillPDF
Sweet!
This will be another great presentation for this meetup. Can't wait to see what Kevin & Oliver have whipped up.
Miguel Hernandez - www.migshouse.com
Founder & CEO - The OpenMindz Group
Writer- Linux Journal & TechZulu
Thanks guys! That will be a
Thanks guys! That will be a great eye opener to many of us!
Features
I'm hoping everyone is totally on the Features bandwagon, but I've been using it a lot more lately, and could do a lightning talk to convert anyone who isn't already on board.
+1 for Features. There can't
+1 for Features. There can't be enough Features lightning talks.
WizOne Solutions - https://wizone.solutions - Drupal module development, theme implementation, and more
FillPDF Service - https://fillpdf.io - Hosted solution for FillPDF
+1 for Features
Agree wholeheartedly with Kevin on Features always being a great topic. Panels are/can be as well. I'd love to see this, Joe.
Miguel Hernandez - www.migshouse.com
Founder & CEO - The OpenMindz Group
Writer- Linux Journal & TechZulu
DT meeting
Hopefully this will be recorded for those of us unable to make the DT meeting :)
Hello, I'm new to the
Hello,
I'm new to the community here, and looking forward to becoming a happy and cheerful part of the group.
I plan to attend this event, and I inquire about the parking.
have a lovely day, everyone!
C
Welcome to LA Drupal! Free
Welcome to LA Drupal!
Free parking is reserved for the first 15 people who sign up and you're the 16th person to sign up. I wouldn't worry, though. At least a few of the people on the sign up list (myself included) are carpooling.
The entrance to the parking area at our venue is a sharp right off of Flower St.
Chris Charlton, an employee at this venue and an organizer of some other LA Drupal events, was going to check the parking situation across the street at the library. Hopefully he can post an update about that.
Piggybacking
Welcome to the community! Piggybacking on what Christefano said, several folks (myself included) usually carpool or take public transportation over so we should hopefully be ok on parking. I've also found that carpooling to Drupal meetups usually has you getting to know fellow community members and/or having really good Drupal chats en route. Bring a friend!
Also, if folks ever, I mean EVER, feel unsafe walking to where they parked, please speak up. Fellow Drupaleros are always happy to walk folks to their car. I aim this at everyone (guys & gals) due to the cutback in parking & cuz meetups usually end ~10pm.
Miguel Hernandez - www.migshouse.com
Founder & CEO - The OpenMindz Group
Writer- Linux Journal & TechZulu
Hi Techivist, Thanks for the
Hi Techivist,
Thanks for the pointer about carpooling. I was the 16th person to sign up- I have my fingers crossed RE parking, but I'm curious about the carpooling- where do some of the carpoolers live? I assume you guys might also meet up near the actual venue, and then drive together in one or two cars?
So I did some research for
So I did some research for parking around the Oversee office.
Chris' original idea that the library parking would be $1 only works if you leave before the library closes (8pm). That's not ideal.
However, the library parking is only $8.
Another option is to utilize public transit gasp. Oversee.net's office is very transit friendly. I do it everyday, and it's so much more cost effective and convenient than driving.
There is also some street parking options nearby (< .5 miles). I am sure someone is willing to drop anyone off if safety is a concern to your parking spot.
iirc, underground across the street is $5 after hours....
I recall the after hours parking across the street being shockingly cheap; down the ramp and under the park to the left of the California Club. Do not let this stifle the noble impetus toward ride sharing and public transit using!
Gah, I mean $8, not $5.
Paul slipped in with the real dope.
Willing to Ride Share
I'm going to be coming from Santa Clarita to the meetup so I'd be happy to ride share with anyone that is along the 5 / 170 (My route for reference). I haven't used the public transit in a while so that could also be a fun option and will join if others do so
Looking forward to it. :)
Hi Everyone,
Our company is actively looking to hire 1 or 2 expert Drupal/UI/PHP developers to join our team ASAP.
There are 2 permanent full-time positions available, but would be willing to provide a contract or part-time position for the right candidate.
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/eng/2254588836.html
We hope to meet you at the event.
Samson
:)
Yes, that is my profile pic.
:)
yay!
The presentations for this meetup sound great!
Also, if anyone who plans on being there tonight is a wiz with profile assignment, I could really use some assistance trying to customize registration for different roles. . . :D
Of course, Sarah!
Many of us in attendance are quite familiar w/user roles & permissions, grab/ask whomever you feel most comfortable chatting with. ;)
Cya tonite!
Miguel Hernandez - www.migshouse.com
Founder & CEO - The OpenMindz Group
Writer- Linux Journal & TechZulu
Auto Assign Role
We can talk about this later, of course, but I have to ask if this would be any help:
http://drupal.org/project/autoassignrole
I wish it were that simple
I already have role assignment done. What I need to do is customize the fields that the user must fill out when they choose to purchase a role. So, let's say for Role A I want the user to input their name and their phone number, but for Role B, I need the user to give me their name and their shoe size. I need that info to come through when they make the purchase, so that that info can be mailed to the admin so they can look it over and decide whether to approve the role, or assign a different role.
I hope that's a relatively clear explanation. . . something about my explanation of this seems to make people think I am asking about assigning roles or purchasing roles when I'm really talking about profiles, not roles.
Drupal After Dark Tonight at Weiland Brewery
Just posted to the Wiki info on tonight's Drupal after dark location the Weiland Brewery.
After the monthly meeting of the DTLA (Downtown Los Angeles) Drupal meetup at Oversee.net, it has been customary for many to go downstairs to Weiland Brewery to continue talking Drupal in a more casual atmosphere while enjoying a beer.
Please Come!
Thank you, Stew!
I saw that wiki update. Thank you for taking the time to do this & contribute in yet another way.
Miguel Hernandez - www.migshouse.com
Founder & CEO - The OpenMindz Group
Writer- Linux Journal & TechZulu
Willing to Ride Share
Who else is coming from the Pasadena area this evening?
Matt
Hey matt, if you don't mind,
Hey matt, if you don't mind, I may catch a ride with you back to Pasadena if you are driving.
I believe that I am number
I believe that I am number 15th on the list so if anyone need a ride from the Burbank area and don't mind playing parking voucher roulette with me give me a call, 818-562-7004.
parking validation for $3
Weiland's Brewery Underground, which is the venue for our Drupal After Dark tonight, will validate parking any time after 4pm. Validated parking is just $3 so long as you are out of the building before midnight.
THANKS!
That was my first meeting at the downtown location. What a great venue -- thank to Oversee for the location and the managers and presenters for a great evening. As one of the people that chimed in on requesting the "Hooks" presentation, I was really glad I made it. I am now completely ready to start cranking out modules. Almost.
I also managed to absorb some knowledge from Ashok's presentation on Drush and Migrating content. (However, since I don't need it at the moment, some of it flew over my head.)
Mike Stewart (mediadoneright) was asking for people to present on Theming. Was this for the next (main) Drupal meet-up in Culver City, or the next DTLA meeting? I may be able to put something together.
Oh! One more thing... I was at Drupal After Dark virgin until last night. That part was fun and informative too. Had a chance to trade notes with Rgon. I also thought $2.50 beers in Southern California were like mythical Leprechauns. Happily The Weiland Brewery believes in Leprechauns.
Hey mcfilms - ya, we're
Hey mcfilms - ya, we're looking for something on theming... please contact me (westside meetup in two weeks).
We may have someone from Burbank area coming down for a presentation... (waiting for confirmation from him) but we're otherwise open - and if you've got something fresh and useful to help beginners out, that would be awesome! if nothing else, come with a lightning talk... it always great to share power tid-bits!
--
mike stewart { twitter: @MediaDoneRight | IRC nick: mike stewart }
Glad you enjoyed the
Glad you enjoyed the presentation! Thanks for the feedback.
WizOne Solutions - https://wizone.solutions - Drupal module development, theme implementation, and more
FillPDF Service - https://fillpdf.io - Hosted solution for FillPDF
Oooo - Drush + migrating
Oooo - Drush + migrating content - two topics that are pretty hot for me right now. Any chance of somebody recording the talks?
Rich Yumul
Sage Tree Solutions
www.sagetree.net
yaaah ... you know we did
yaaah ... you know we did ;-)
although the migrate is on a USB drive with btmash ... so we need to get that (or the data) from him in order to convert. one of us will post here once its live. Although, subscribing to our ladrupal.blip.tv or iTunes feed might be worthy
--
mike stewart { twitter: @MediaDoneRight | IRC nick: mike stewart }
Oh, I handed the drive to
Oh, I handed the drive to Rain yesterday evening...oh boy. I have no idea where it would be on my comp then.
Slides are up
I've added the slides on slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/BTMash/drupal-contentmigration. Pending where the video would be on my computer, I'll send it to you guys so it can go up.
Why Hooks? slides
I'm sharing our slides via Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dcn4t95t_7skrhhfcx
The resource links are there as well.
Hopefully they'll process the video soon!
WizOne Solutions - https://wizone.solutions - Drupal module development, theme implementation, and more
FillPDF Service - https://fillpdf.io - Hosted solution for FillPDF
Screencast available
The screencast of Why Hooks by Oliver Seldman and Kevin Kaland is available at http://replay.uci.edu/clients/drupal/
John Romine
Screencast 2 available
The screencast of Drupal Content Migration using Migrate Module by Ashok Modi is available at http://replay.uci.edu/clients/drupal
John Romine
Thanks a ton, John!
Just wanted to say thank you, again, for not only recording the sessions but also for doing all the work it takes for those to have a home, John. I can only imagine that's a timely process. Also, let's not forget to thank UC Irvine for hosting ALL of those videos for us & for providing the bandwidth so that community members can download them, if they choose! You & UC Irvine have done that for the Southern California Drupal community for a few years now so that's quite a contribution.
Miguel Hernandez - www.migshouse.com
Founder & CEO - The OpenMindz Group
Writer- Linux Journal & TechZulu
Two great
Two great presentation!
Thanks Oseldman and Wizonesolutions I totally get hooks now(and can not stop thinking about it each time I go to my kitchen...).
Thank you BTMash for illuminating talk about migration and the attached slides!
I also enjoyed Drupal after hours for sure a good solution for the parking vs food dilemma.
Last but not least, thank you for our host Oversee.net and DTLA organizers.
Uzi
+1 ;)
Agreed - Oliver and Kevin did a great job presenting on hooks and hopefully got more people 'hooked' on the idea of using them in their projects (I know, that was a horrible pun).
And thank you to Oversee.net for providing us with a space to share our ideas (and ramblings) and to the managers for 'bringing it' each time :)
And though this should probably be a separate comment, I did some digging around after Miguel asked yesterday night on whether on not there is a migration path for Joomla -> Drupal. I hadn't seeing anything but lo and behold - Joomla to Drupal does exist. It doesn't use the migrate module, but seems to have the same sort of continuous integration in mind. So there is something out there :)
Agreed, Uzi!
Couldn't agree more, Uzi. All the presenters did a great job. So much so, that we didn't even have a chance to hear Joe's presentation on Features! I think lots of folks learned a lot from both presentations & went home thinking of new ways to upgrade/migrate their content or get into the inner-workings of Drupal through Hooks.
Oliver, Kevin & Ashok all did a great job (as usual)!
That's awesome, Ashok! The site that I'm looking at is an earlier version of Joomla so that module page saying it's good for 1.0 or 1.5 is good news. I didn't think something like this existed so I'd thought of alternative ways to migrate data (& your chat illuminated yet another!). I'll evaluate the module & will report back to the group my thoughts/experiences.
Miguel Hernandez - www.migshouse.com
Founder & CEO - The OpenMindz Group
Writer- Linux Journal & TechZulu
The screencasts that jromine
The screencasts that jromine linked to above are now available at http://ladrupal.blip.tv for your viewing / embedding / commenting pleasure:
Content migration using the Migrate module
http://ladrupal.blip.tv/file/4896373
Why Hooks?
http://ladrupal.blip.tv/file/4896381
Thanks, jromine!
Sweet!
Thank you, Christefano! I love how community members have access to so many different resources for finding content created by the LA Drupal community.
Miguel Hernandez - www.migshouse.com
Founder & CEO - The OpenMindz Group
Writer- Linux Journal & TechZulu
I just wanted to say a quick
I just wanted to say a quick thank you to the organizers and oversee for hosting the event. I've been using drupal for almost 5 years now and have never been to a meetup. I definitely enjoyed meeting everyone and felt right at home. WARNING: For future meetings, if you don't want me to give you a hug (as Miguel found out), please don't tell me how much you like to play Tribes.
Thanks again,
Scott
To learn more about me http://www.sunsetlosangeles.com/management
Welcome to the community, Scott!
Glad that you were able to make it out & we were happy to have (& meet) you, Scott.
OMGROFL!!! It was really great geeking out w/ya over such an awesome game. To this day, I still haven't had as much fun & challenge in an FPS (kinda like Everquest 1 in the MMO-space or Interstate '76 in the Action/Driving genre). NOTE: Sorry to the non-gamers for the foreign language. ;)
Along those lines, I've been thinking of pitching the idea of a Drupal After Dark event where we all hit a Pinball/Arcade Spot for a night of kicking-back & hanging out. Maybe for the summer. Maybe we can pitch it together to the community?
Miguel Hernandez - www.migshouse.com
Founder & CEO - The OpenMindz Group
Writer- Linux Journal & TechZulu