August NYC Drupal Meetup - Theming 101
The next meetup will be held from 6 to 9pm August 27th at Mansueto, 7 World Trade Center / 250 Greenwich St., 29th Fl.. To sign-up just click the "sign-up" button at the bottom of the full post. Make sure that you have your real name in your profile when you sign-up.
Oleg also created a chipin link to allow members to easily donate money to the group for things like snacks at the meetups and other stuff the group needs.
The meetup agenda, like everything that happens with DrupalNYC, is up to you and will be determined based on your comments and suggestions. Please offer topics you'd like to present on or presentations you'd like to see.
In other news... Oleg has been doing a lot for the group, which is why I asked him to take over as group organizer. I recently had a baby, moved to a new apartment, and I'm currently looking for a new job in Sales/Marketing. Needless to say I'm swamped.
DrupalCamp is gelling, but as of now we do not have an exact date set. Please post your suggestions for the camp in the DrupalCamp tab.
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED
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Ical feed
I know this post is very
I know this post is very long but please read it as it details very important topics regrading format of the upcoming meetups, which means: it affects YOU
From my observation at the last meetup, my understanding is that most of our participants would like to be helped in the following 3 areas:
Beginner + Intermediate topics:
Advanced
I know developers are creature of habbits, however refreshing on topics you've learned earlier can help you greatly as things often build up onto eachother to get to the point of where you are now. So make sure you know your foundation because it may be outdated.
How should we do this?
I was thinking we could try something new this time. I've come to learn a great meeting format called Birds of feather when i went to Boston DrupalCon and i think we should give it a try at the next meetup. I think if we have enough intermediate - advanced members present at the next meetup then we will be able to have ~6-7 tables with 2-3 beginners per table being all taught on various topics that will empower them to build a drupal site immediately.
What do we need to pull this off?
We need 5-6 intermediate-advanced members able and willing to present on topics outlined in the "beginner + intermediate topics" section above.
Advantages of the above meetup
Once we have covered the drupal basics and everyone is comfortable with doing it on their own (and i know they will because our proactive presenters are just that good that information they say sticks like a glue ;) ), we will be able to advance onto intermediate levels during the course of our next meetups at which point our new members will be able to better connect with intermediate-advances members.
non-beginner topics
Because this is a BoF format meetup, people that are not interested in learning/presenting beginner topics, can as easily get a small table and talk about the topics that matter to them the most.
This meetup format allows to take into consideration everyone's interests, so i hope you will enjoy it.
Comment on Oleg's (Litwol's) proposal
I like Oleg's suggestions, but will there be multiple tables available for people to work at? It is difficult to have several groups working around a single table.
Alternative suggestion. I liked the format of the last (July 30) meetup, with several different people presenting different topics at different levels of difficulty. The only problem was that some topics went too long, and we did not get to everything that was planned. In particular, we did not get to Jerad's (Sirkitree's) presentation about Drupal 6 migrations, which I wanted to hear.
What if we have the following general outline for monthly meetups:
1) the first half hour (6:30) will be for introductory presentations: installing Drupal; configuration; tools (IDEs, etc). This could even involve using previously made movies, such as the Drupal Dojo movies, or others, with the presenter(s) mostly answering questions. We could also make our own movies, to contribute to the community.
2) the last hour (7:00-8:00) could be divided into three 20 minute sections on more advanced topics.
That way, newbies could come and listen to the intro material, and then leave if they don't want to stay for the more advanced stuff. And more experienced people would not miss the advanced material if they cannot get there right at 6:30 every month.
Other suggestions??
My ideas was to utilize the
My ideas was to utilize the area that is outside of the conference room. we still have the big conference room for presentation while other people can do specialized topics as per my suggestion. so the ideas dont really conflict :). lets do both! we just need to make sure we have enough listeners + presenters.
Would Like to Help
If you need someone to assist you in completing this, I would like to. (917.676.0677)
I think that it would be a good idea to set up two projectors (i can bring mine) and have a list of where we are in the queue so that people can take notes. Also, I wouldn't mind helping you organize / document the process.
Also, I would like to do a "Heads Up" about Drupal. One of the most confusing things that stump "Drubies" is terminology and how all the stuff links/works together. This could be the second hour.
Whatdaya think?
Thanks for stepping up
Thanks for stepping up :)
Can you call my skype? : olegterenchuk
I'm on most around the clock so i should be easy to reach.
Dont hesitate to call me on skype. if i'm really unable to speak to you at that time i will tell you so and reschedule a better time, so dont hesitate to click that call button :-p.
Theming Drupal Discussion Group at the Next Meeting
on the IRC, Oleg and I started to plan a "presentation/demo/discussion" on theming D6 (I would also add that it is important to be alittle retro sometimes... I am still rolling out D5's because killer modules haven't been updated)
The theming scope is very large. We will cover not only CSS, but tpl theming and theme functions. Oleg passed on this page http://drupal.org/phptemplate as an example of what he would like covered.
If you have something that needs clarity or would like to know more about, then jsut say so.
All input is welcome!
Initial Thoughts on the Theming "Presentation"
Posted below are my first stab at a structure. I am not attached to any of it, although, the introduction is pretty essential... especially understanding scope.
Rather than start from scratch, I think that we should always look to make use of the amazing resources that the community provides. To that point, the killer theme-ing overview (http://drupal.org/node/171188) is a document that we can use. Really, I would treat that document as the "notes" and explain them "live": essentially providing clarity / answering questions.
Also, I think that it might be smart for people coming to the session for this to look over that document and come with specific questions. From an educational standpoint, it is always better to review material several times than cram and try to get it in one
shot.
Finally, in section "3.2.1.3 Techniques for declaring"
I would like to talk about conventions for printing / echo-ing HTML markup. Essentially, giving concrete advice for how to do this in a Drupal environment according to best practices.
Thoughts and suggestions?
=============================================================
Drupal Theme 101
A visual map of this can be found here: http://www.disorderdesign.com/files/maps/d6Theme101a.png
1 Introduction
1.1 Assumptions
1.1.1 Separation of
1.1.1.1 Aesthetics
1.1.1.2 Functionality
1.1.2 Scope
1.1.2.1 What is scope?
1.1.2.2 Understanding of scope is necessary
1.1.2.3 Structure
1.2 Best Practices
1.3 Roadmap
1.3.1 Guide book is http://drupal.org/node/171188
2 Theme "Scope"
2.1 Theme
2.1.1 Location
2.1.1.1 sites/all/themes
2.1.1.2 importance of location
2.1.2 Parts
2.1.2.1 .info (required)
2.1.2.2 template files (.tpl.php)
2.1.2.3 template.php
2.1.2.4 Sub-themes
2.1.2.4.1 Sub-themes, their structure and inheritance
2.2 Modules
2.2.1 Overriding themable output
2.2.1.1 1. Finding the source:
2.2.1.2 2. System of overrides:
2.2.1.3 3. Functions vs. templates:
2.3 Relationships
2.3.1 theme to module
2.3.2 module to theme
3 Building a Theme
3.1 CSS
3.1.1 HTML
3.1.2 Drupal
3.1.2.1 Classes
3.1.2.2 ID's
3.2 Template Files
3.2.1 Guidelines for using PHP to generate HTML Markup
3.2.1.1 What the hell is this mean?
3.2.1.2 Single quotes or double?
3.2.1.3 Techniques for declaring
<?php
?>
3.3 CCK
3.3.1 PHP Variables
3.3.1.1 $
3.3.1.2 Node
3.3.1.3 User
4 Helpful Hints
4.1 Designing a theme
4.1.1 Graphic File "Template"
4.2 The importance of Developers tools
4.2.1 Firebug
4.2.2 Devel
4.2.3 To WYSIWYG or not to WYSIWYG
4.2.3.1 Pros
4.2.3.2 Cons
4.2.4 Suggested Tools
Wow what a great lineup! I
Wow what a great lineup! I am not sure it would be possible to cram everything into 2.5 hours. My preferrence would be to re-organize the topics a little so there's minimal focus on theory and more focus on practice. at the meetup hopefuly every BOF table will have a laptop so participants can tinker with themes and see results right away. However, for the upcoming DrupalCampNYC5 i recommend going through this topic exactly as outlined in your list. great work johnvsc :).
P.S. an absolutely essential link to include in the above lineup is : http://drupal.org/phptemplate
Thanks for the comments...
yes, it is alot for 2.5 hours... and i like the idea of re-organizing the topics. In reality, i am a pragmatic person. I want to know the essentials about a way of looking at it... so i know how to look at it. So, the "theory" isn't ph'd ... but more like "heads up". It is important to know how to look at something without theory getting in the way...
Also, if we took a video of it, let's say, break it into three parts, then those who didn't catch the first part can watch the vid before the second... and feel like they didn't miss anything.
thoughts on re-organization of topics?
actually i am VERY
actually i am VERY interested in making videos of this. i want to create a library of videos (by NYC DUG) that is organized in easy to digest manner for people with less than 20 years of web experience (/me is drumpy @ dojo videos).
My topics of preference are (in order):
1) what tools to use for theming
2) how to prep drupal for theming
3) show how you can theme drupal site with zero php knowledge (only doing CSS with print drupal variable as described in http://drupal.org/phptemplate)
These, i believe, are the most essential basics that will build enough of a buffer to allow people to experiment on their own while taking the time to digest the rest of the list at their own pace. I'm not one of the fastest learners with the longest attention span, so i've found that this approach has the right balance with hands on experience to keep me interested in the subject while allowing me necessary time to learn the rest of drupal twirks at my own pace.
Awesome!
That's great about making a video. I won't be there (obviously), but if you need assistance after the fact let me know.
You know what else would be a cool idea for a theming topic would be "How to Create a Drupal Theme with Dreamweaver" One of the presenters at DrupalCon Boston included a little bit about that in her overall theming presentation at it was informative as far as she was able to get within the time constraints. Something like this might warrant its own presentation.
Dreamweaver Integration
I haven't used DW for creating a theme in a while. However, the plug-in for Drupal (that was just released... or was it) puts it back in the game. The biggest reason is that it doesn't include a PHP editor, which is kinda essential.
However, I do use WeBuilder 2008 ( http://www.blumentals.net/webuilder ) and that has answered alot of my issues. Especially being able to open a file from FTP and saving right to the server...
While back in DW, I created all these snippets for building forms and stuff, but never migrated them to WB. Still need to do that though.
Another thing I love about WB is the code explorer, which will take all your functions or CSS class/id's and list them as they are or alphabetically. And the CSS code clean up is a life saver!
I still use DW for formatting text through cutting and pasting. Rather than
<ol><li>always</li><li>having to write</li><li>the markup for </li><li>ordered and un ordered lists</li></ol>... its just plain easier to let the computer automate those mundane tasks, don't cha think?That said
We should cover it. From a design perspective, it is familiar territory. Also, it would be helpful to show how similar DW is, say to something like WB (see above for definitions) ... so that using another code editor isn't so daunting.
Also, has anyone used CodeLobster. They came out with a free Drupal version that was good, but to tell you the truth, it was buggy ofr me so I stopped.
This whole conversation reminds me of a how different designers and developers look at things: I was explaining Drupal CSS to a colleague of mine (a designer) and I was using the code hints like crazy mad. He scoffed and said, "I can't believe that you rely on code hints!?!" and I was like, "um, I wouldn't say 'rely', I would say, 'force the really dumb machine to bend to my will and serve me, the dominant master.'"
LOL, the priorities in these two worlds, eh?
Sorry I'll miss it!
Man, this looks like a great presentation and I am always looking to enhance my theming chops. I'll be away and sorry I'll miss it. Any chance someone will video the presentation?
I'm really looking forward
I'm really looking forward to this presentation. This looks great.
Site Design Template File
Site Design Template File Download
I have posted for the use of the group, a simple template file that I use when I begin to make a theme. You can grab it here: www.disorderdesign.com/downloads/siteDesign.zip
(I really wish that I could embed images to these posts...) but here is a screen shot of the layers: http://www.disorderdesign.com/files/layers.png
Essentially, I just created a whole bunch of layers and demarcated them with the div tag names, so that when i am designing, i can hide, move and think in terms of structure. I also have a couple of div's that i put in (the header/footer additions)
I use zen for most everything. Thev linked PNG is best when worked in Fireworks (why does Photoshop resent PNG layers?). Also, I keep it in my sites/zen/themeName/images folder, that way, it is always with the theme and any exported images are in the right place.
Hope this helps
:)
Networking break
I think in a way the range of levels is a plus - even those of us who don't get all the high-level stuff can get ideas about how the community works and how Drupal is put together. However, on a couple of occasions it has been difficult to stay focused on technical info for a couple of hours straight. Also, many people miss the first or last few minutes. For these reasons, I think it would be nice to put a short networking/schmoozing break in the middle of the meeting -- the personal intros, job announcements, etc. could go then.
I found the "lightning talk" format from the DrupalCamp last summer to be very informative - I'd be interested in having something like that at monthly meetups as well.
Jean Gazis
www.jeangazis.com
www.webhostny.com – Drupal hosting
This sounds good
This networking break sounds like a good idea...what is "lightning talk", is where you have a couple of minutes to present whatever you want.
I wouldn't mind doing a presentation
Hi,
I was at the last drupal NYC meeting. I'm definitely not a Drupal Expert but I could do a very good presentation on getting Drupal set up from start to finish and what code editors to use.
I would probably do the presentation on a windows box with a Linux virtual machine running to point out key specific difference when setting up a linux box instead of a windows box.
My presentation could be something like this:
Setting up the local server (Apache, PHP, MYsql) and the options you have available, Wamp, Lamp, or Xampp, Or not using any pre package and setting it up each one individually and getting them working together.
Where to download drupal and what to do when you've downloaded it.
A comparison of code Editors. Probably start by specifying who needs what type of code editor. For example someone looking for just a simpler way to insert HTML might just be interesting in a fckeditor or tinymce. Then there might be someone that's looking into creating modules and they would probably be interesting in using a php ide such as Eclipse, Zend, Kodomo and I could compare the difference between using these IDE or something like notepad ++ where the the intelysense isn't provided and the advantages of using a debugger. (some of these would require at least an decent understanding of php so the debugging part could be left out)
Awesome!
This sounds like a great presentation for beginners, as well as advanced users interested in seeing new interesting ways of setting up a development environment. My vote is in!
The post above (Would like to help)
should have been here...
wheres that coffee?
Bad date
This conflicts with Drupalcon Szeged. This will be very unawesome. It will make the first meeting of this format into a failure. And no one wants that. So let's move the date. Either the previous wednesday or the next wednesday will work. However litwol will not be able to make the previous wednesday, so it seems like the wednesday after the proposed wednesday would work best. That would move the date to September 3rd.
Many people will not be making the trek to Drupalcon
Many people will not be making the trek to Drupalcon. We of limited resources will have to do something while everyone else is partying in Szeged.
DrupalCamp?
What if we were to hold off until DrupalCamp in September to just have an awesomely huge Drupal Camp full of the presentations that would've gone on in the August meet? I'm not saying that I would rather not have two meetups, I'm just concerned about when Drupal Camp will take place, and the timing of this session. If Drupal Camp is early in September, then this meeting would be a week or two before it...... Otherwise, we could interpret this as a small Drupalcon for those who can't make it to Szeged..... Thoughts?
Call it what ever you want:
Call it what ever you want: DrupalCamp or Drupam Meetup. end of the day we accomplish the same thing :). my vote is on to doing something that is easier to organize so we can focus more on content.
September 3 works for me
Given the existing two larger events (int'l and locally), my vote is with Charlie et al for 3 Sept.
Those who wish to help
Those who wish to help organizing this event should email me directly. i will then be able to add you as an official event organizer which will also publicize your efforts on http://groups.drupal.org/local-ambassadors and other resources! wow what a motivation to be involved.
Comments
Hope to make it, this is my first meet-up. I'm most looking forward to theming. I had the most difficulty with this part when I first started working with Drupal. I think the difficulty is that you just don't know where to theme, or what goes where.
Will there be some sort of podcast or webinar for people who can't make it to the meet-up, or for our national audience. We may also post on video sites such as youtube, possibly, to attract more group members.
Also, just an idea, maybe we can even attract local businesses who have utilized Drupal for a future meet-up, as speakers, to hear their story, difficulties, solutions, etc.
Hope to see you there.
Yevgeniy Gutsalo
http://www.csbcenters.com
There's been a lot of talk
There's been a lot of talk about changing the date. Is this meeting still happening on this date? I'm still able to do my presentation if needed.
Yes we are still on this
Yes we are still on this date. please do your presentation :)
Ok. Kool. So I guess I'll do
Ok. Kool. So I guess I'll do my presentation. I'll post a more detail outline in a bit.
Date for the meetup
I am a Drupal newbie/rookie--have recently picked up and study Drupal a little less than a month ago because my company has chosen Drupal for its CMS related usage. I actually have a project coming up in the next few days that I need to know how to theme it, but, despite my previous experience on a number of CMS/portal applications, I still have a challenging time getting a handle on something as easy as (supposedly) theming. I think it may be because of Drupal's much prescribed standards/structures/methods of doing it.
As such, I've been reeeeally looking forward to the upcoming meetup on theming . . . I need to learn this thing FAST :-\
I hope that the meetup will not be postponed to September as per some suggestions here (I am also going to DrupalCamp in September too.) . . . this meetup doesn't come soon enough . . . from my prespective, that is ;)
See everyone there :)
jc
Check out the Zen Theme.
Check out the Zen Theme. This theme is designed to be a base theme that you can build pretty much anything on top of. By looking at the files and CSS you'll get an idea of how a Drupal theme is supposed to be structured. You should be able to do a lot with Zen just by modifying the CSS.
Thanks for the
Thanks for the suggestion.
Yes, I have been playing with the Zen Theme, and several other ones too, but to no avail to my "stuckness" (there is actually a very specific functioning/effect/look-and-feel I am trying to acheive, and I don't think it is straight theming.)
I've posted my problem to the Theme Development forum this afternoon. Haven't seen any response to my post. If I don't get myself unstuck by the meetup date, then I will bring in my problem for open discussion . . . but I hope that I will get through it before that because there is a deadline I have to meet for this piece :(
Well, until then, thanks again.
jc
What should I bring to the meetup?
Oh, I almost forgot to ask . . .
I have read in the above posts that for some topics, the attendee should bring laptop and have the appropriate installed software. For Theming 101, do I need to bring a laptop with Drupal 6 installed on it? So far, I am using Drupal on my network server, not on any portable device.
Thanks,
jc
Ideas on ideal starter development environment?
hmm... Good question. I don't think we've exactly worked this out. I'll send out an email this week with information on what you need to bring. Please give me your suggestions on the ideal starter setup. I certainly don't yet have the ideal development environment setup on my computer. Suggestion would be appreciated.
Hummm . . . I am not sure
Hummm . . . I am not sure what is the ideal starter setup--I am so new at this. I will be very happy if I would come away with a clear head on how things in Drupal work together, where everything is (the file structure as well as the database tables), the scope from the perspectives of the themes and modules . . .
I think johnvsc has created a very fine syllabus for the presentation. I hope, though, that the information/how-tos will be presented in a different way or from a different angle from the documentations available online Drupal.com . . . because I have spent the past few weeks combing through the manuals and documentation (mainly on theming for now since I have a theming project to tackle), but I can't say I am very clear on many things in Drupal.
I will try to compile a list of questions as they come up and bring it in for possible open discussion.
jc
two things: Because I have
two things:
Here is some background theory:
When I taught painting classes, I would set up my students with a very large canvas, and I would jump on the canvas right next to them, and paint right next to them. I would say," ok, using the oil on our palette, we are going to create a sphere on a plane with light coming from the upper right hand corner. Now, follow along with me, paying attention to not only what I am doing but how I am doing it. I want you to mimic what I am doing: using the gestures that I do; holding the tool (the brush) in this specific way; reproducing these specific marks."
The goal is not to create a carbon copy. We learn best through mimicking (this is how we acquire the use of languages, even machine ones) however, in this web /open source environment, we do not have the benefit of our mothers standing over us, making vocalization noises so that we can practice those small parts that we will, one day, link together to become words, then sentences, then phrases.
the goal is to give you a grounding. to say "Ok, this is how to think about how this works". Really, I am used to giving four hour long classes (typical in art class... after the first hour, you a just warming up) so, if we need to do that, well, we'll do that :)
You can bring a laptop and work along side. But really, you might find that cumbersome: Some times, the best thing to do is be an engaged spectator: surveying the terrain before one sets out on the journey: then you will be sure to bring the appropriate tools. It may serve you better to gain a global understanding of how the parts work together ... and then, from that mind set, you will find doing this is alot easier.
Finally, all this stuff is really very easy in this sense: You need to understand 1 or 2 core ideas and then everything follows suit. So, we will focus on that. regardless of what anyone says, there are tricks and secrets to getting this done... we will integrate that into our activities.
peace
Thanks, johnvsc, for your
Thanks, johnvsc, for your insights . . . and your empathy for us newbies :)
Yes, from reading your syllabus for the Theming 101 presentation, I knew that you are a good teacher for this. (BTW, I studied Fine Art in the university and had many oil painting classes, so I definately relate to your analogy.)
My previous experience with other CMS and portal applications (osCommerce, DotNetNuke, etc.) doesn't seem to help much with my understanding of Drupal . . . I can tell that Drupal employs a rather different approach in terms of skinning/theming? Regardless, I am REALLY psyched about this meetup! I will stay for 3, 4, hours, as long as it takes for me to get this :)
Thanks so much . . . and see you there.
jc
Oh, please also plan for
Oh, please also plan for some information on Taxonomy (I don't seem to see that in your syllabus.)
To me, taxonomy is a fancy term for classifying/organizing the content/pages of the web site. I have that, or I know how to create a good structure that represents the web site content, but then how is it implemented in/by Drupal? What does taxonomy mean to Drupal? I may not even be able to articulate it well since I am very unclear . . . only that I have a clear picture of the finished piece and the structure of it; I was advised of the tools needed to produce that; but then how to make that happen with Drupal and its vast array of tools?
These are some of the questions that have been circling in my head looking for answers . . . hoping to be covered at the meetup.
Thanks again :)
jc
Awesome! i'll be giving out
Awesome! i'll be giving out our official NYC stickers at the meetup :). here's the preview:
Since the meeting has switch
Since the meeting has switch to theme 101 does that mean my presentation has to be on Theme and not on my original proposal?
your presentation is still
your presentation is still part of this month's agenda. we will give everyone a quick walkthrough on how to setup basic local server and then move onto theming. so showing how to set up a server is very important. and talking about which tools to use for theming is also very important.
bear in mind that we will have 7+ tables with 3-4+ listeners at each and 1 presenter at each. this is very unlike what we tried before and has a more personal touch to it.
Agenda Page?
Is there a meeting agenda wiki page where the current/final agenda is laid out?
The Agenda
The agenda for this month's meetup is as follows: (comment corrections as necessary)
1) Install local development environment (windows, mac and linux. depending on your flavor)
2) Download and install the necessary editors (all the tools that pros use)
3) download and install drupal 6
4) Show how to theme drupal pages with zero php knowledge. we will focus on discovering what drupal makes available for you to theme withut having to do any php of your own.
I need people that are able to talk on these topics to comment bellow. if not enough people are available to do the presentations then i'll change the format from BOF to regular presentation meetup. All the same topics will be discussed, just the format will change to one where it is easier to teach with less people presenting.
All the participants that have laptops or are able to bring laptops please do so. if you dont have laptops then you will have to either take notes ( or not) or work with some one that has a laptop.
Timeframe?
What's the estimated timeframe for this? I've volunteered to help teach the theming, but I have other things going on that evening and can't stay too late. This seems a very ambitious schedule, especially including step 1. See Peter's comments in the discussion in plans for upcoming DrupalCamp regarding this at http://groups.drupal.org/node/13828#comment-45393 - perhaps some useful tips if we really are going to include this step. Maybe we shoudl post a list of links to download files and encourage participants to have all files downloaded and ready to go?
Good idea. I shall do this
Good idea. I shall do this tonight. I was meaning to skim through. steps 1,2,3 and quickly arrive at step 4 which is the main point of this meetup.
WiFi access at the meeting site?
Greetings.
Will there be WiFi to connect to the Internet if I bring my laptop? I don't have Drupal 6 installed on my laptop, but my server does have a copy of Drupal 6 where I've been playing with. If I have WiFi access, then it will be useful for me to bring my laptop.
Thanks in advance for letting me know.
jc
Yes. we have high speed wifi
Yes. we have high speed wifi enabled. please bring your laptop :)
More details please
Could you please give a few more details on (4). I assume you will not address the hook_theme related functions of the api since this obviously requires getting into PHP coding. Does this mean the discussion is limited adapting an existing theme by editing CSS and the html mark-up in the tpl files? Will this get into using add-on modules or third party tools? If so, which ones?
Thanks
Correct on all accounts. we
Correct on all accounts. we are avoiding getting into PHP this time around. perhaps the next theming session will focus on more advanced topics.
In my experience i usually use Zen theme or other startup themes, but for the purpose of educating this session, i want to start with a blank slate.
This means that we will not use any contrib module, or contrib theme unless people request it at the meetup.
Hoping for a little more . . .
I am actually hoping that the material covered will be a little more advanced than modifying the Zen template (the Zen Starter Kit) to produce a standard mod themed page.
Although I have only been messing around with Drupal for about a month, I've gotten the basic down by now and have gone a little bit further with modules like CCK & Image & Taxonomy (what a painful learning journey thought . . . ha ha :-\ ) like what the .info does, how to edit the page.tpl.php to add regions, installing Drupal and the additional modules and themes (installation-wise, Drupal is the easiest CMS of them all to deal with . . . but beyond that, things get pretty rough though . . . :-\ )
I hope to at least come away knowing how to turn one of though vertical nav menus into a horizontal menu (while still keeping the vertical nav menus . . . need both on the page.)
The project I am currently working on theming is rather complex . . . I hope that this evening will at least help me get unstuck a bit.
Looking forward to the additional learning :)
jc
69 people signed up so far
69 people signed up so far to this meetup. I dont think the contributed $70 will be enough to get enough pizzas for everyone. Please use this link to sponsor more pizzas which you will be eating http://nycdrupal.chipin.com/nycdrupal :)
Edit: the previous link have expired. i forgot that i put a time limit on it. please use this one to sponsor snacks and food http://nycdrupal.chipin.com/nyc-meetup-snacks-and-food . thank you.
Views 2?
Anyone want to do some Views 2 theming? We could do a Birds of a Feather on it outside the conference room.......
I'd be down for that. I'm
I'd be down for that. I'm just starting to get into Views2 and it's delicious.
VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE: due
VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE:
due to the large number of signups (even with 50% fallout rate), i will be closing the registration 14 hours earlier. tonight at 12:00AM i will send the final attendees list to our building security. If you have friends that would like to come make sure you tell them to night up before tonight at 12:00AM. I apologize for any inconvenience.
And the trick, as I recall,
And the trick, as I recall, from last time, is that you need to have your full name and a bio in your g.d.o profile, correct?
yes! thank you :-D
yes! thank you :-D
well this sucks. My laptops
well this sucks. My laptops hard drive die today. Anyways I'll see if I can find a replacement before the meet up.
This is a checklist that
This is a checklist that presenters may use to cover today's topics. You don’t have to use this, but it is advised (by me) that you do. It will ensure everyone is on the same page and that we can squeeze today's meetup in a reasonable timeframe.
1) Setting up local development environment (MySQL5, PHP5, Apache2):
a) For windows: Download and install all-inclusive local server package from http://www.wampserver.com/en/
b) For Mac: Download and install all-inclusive local server package from http://mamp.info/
c) For Linux: if you are using Linux I’m assuming you know what you are doing to get this setup on your own
2) Code editor:
For purpose of simplicity and showing what a good IDE is, I advise downloading Zend Studio (www.zend.com) and using it for the 30 day trial period. We can host a separate discussion at a later date discussing more IDEs and in more detail
3) Download and Install drupal 6
a) Talk about setting up database for drupal
b) Talk about extracting drupal into web directory
c) Quick walkthrough installing drupal settings
4) Theming!
a) Talk about which files drupal use to theme it's content
b) Show http://drupal.org/phptemplate
c) Requirements for drupal themes. Which folder to put it in, what files are necessary (theme info file etc)
d) Talk about how to use variables available to drupal themes in (b) to build your own custom theme
e) Questions + answers
For #1, you might also
For #1, you might also consider XAMPP, which runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
I have xampp on my usb key,
I have xampp on my usb key, that way everyone doesn't have to go and download it.
sounds good. How many
sounds good. How many presenters do you have so far?
i dont have the exact
i dont have the exact number. we'll split the group between the available presnters for small tables, and the rest in the conference room. i dont mind teaching a larger group so i can take up on the conference room.
I've ordered 2 vegetable, 1
I've ordered 2 vegetable, 1 pepperono, 1 meatballs, 3 cheese pizzas. i hope that will be enough. we can get more later.
Color Palette Generators
john's theming talk mentioned color palettes
there are a few online color palette generators.
this is one i use:
http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/
here is another one that was mentioned during the meetup:
http://kuler.adobe.com/
any other color palette tools out there?
there were a few mentioned for PC - what are people using for mac?
Producer+Innovator
www.jakilevy.com/blog
Director of New Media
www.misnomer.org
IRC
what is the link to check out the Drupal IRC group ?
how do i get on there??
Producer+Innovator
www.jakilevy.com/blog
Director of New Media
www.misnomer.org
irc://irc.freenode.net/#drupa
irc://irc.freenode.net/#drupalnyc
You can use the online chat
You can use the online chat room if you dont want or cant install an IRC client: http://nycdrupal.org
This wraps up this month's
This wraps up this month's meetup. I hope that we were able to come close to our meetup agenda. If anyone still has any questions specificaly about drupal basics please feel free to post a comment here and we will attempt to answer it :)
I personaly enjoyed having everyone at the meetup tonight, thank you for coming and i hope to see you at the next one. or maybe even sooner if you guys want to have a couple of drinks over at the social: http://groups.drupal.org/node/14262 .
P.S. i hope everyone got as many stickers as they wanted. now lets spreading the nyc drupal goodness!
Thank you everyone that
Thank you everyone that sponsored today's pizzas! they were delicious even though i only got 1 slice :-D
Our group collected $145 for food & snacks fund which was all spent on today's pizzas. Here's he receipt from the purchase, on the background of my sofa (taken with iphone. good quality, dont you think?) :
I gave $5 tip for delivery and the remaining $5 are considered spent on paypal fees (even though there were much bigger than that).
Let me know if anyone is curious on the exact breakdown of funds starting from how much was received, how much paypal took, etc etc (or any other statistic you may be interested in).
Also a shout out to the people that sponsored our stickers! you rock, our stickers are cool and we'll have even better next time around (charles, get your photoshop warmed; so to say :-p)! . i think about 1/4 of the stickers went out today, the rest i'll be handing out at the NYC camp.
Feedback
Thanks to Oleg, Johnvsc, Eric, and all others who helped organized and set up last evening's meetup. You guys made my first Drupal NYC meetup a great experience. :)
Although I am a PHP developer, I am brand new to Drupal, the topic covered last evening was apropos for me. Learning a CMS/portal application is never easy from my experience--I had used DotNetNuke last year (yikes!) and osCommerce before that (a bit easier to pick up).
I like the BoF set up (it seems that it was somewhat a new arrangement that the group tried out yesterday . . . from the posts that I had been reading prior to the meetup.) . . . I like the fact that there was a main theme/agenda for the evening's meeting, yet there were opportunities for participants to break into groups depending on our familiarity of Drupal. A completely free ranging BoF would make the gathering a bit unfocus and difficult/intimidating for a newcomer like me. Yet a rigidly locked in arrangement would not be too useful/helpful for people who come with a different level of knowledge or simply want to discuss with like-minded people about something else. So yesterday's arrangement was very productive.
You guys were actually amazingly organized and prepared with a good level of individual interactivity level . . . comparing with my experience of attending other gatherings of professional groups. Kudos to the group!
I did wish that we at the outside of the big conference room have access to electrical outlets to juice our laptops . . . my laptop is one of those that doesn't have a long-life battery . . . hee hee :-\ I would bring an extension cord but I did not see any wall outlets.
Well, I will be seeing everyone at future meetups :)
jc
Getting MAMP Pro to Work
Last meetup was my first one, and I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to more, and I would especially love the idea of some PHP for Drupal workshops, as people have discussed previously.
One thing is that I'm having some real trouble applying the stuff that Oleg discussed about creating virtual domains via MAMP Pro. I already had a full copy of my website stored locally using the free version of MAMP, but the Pro version intrigued me, especially since I accidentally wiped the local copy of my site during the meetup and had to do it over again anyway.
Anyhow, I can get my site to function using the free version, but I seem to be having trouble getting it to work using the virtual domains feature in Pro. Can anyone give me any tips?
Yet when I go to the page http://aramchek, all I get is a white page. (Although if I go to http://aramchek/install.php, I do get the expected page telling me that Drupal has been installed.)
So what am I doing wrong? I'd really like to move up to MAMP Pro, as it seems to have some cool features.
To me it sounds like you are
To me it sounds like you are missing .htaccess file. you need to view your drupal 6 folder (folder where you extracted drupal 6 gzip file into) and make sure that you can see all hidden files. find the .htaccess file and move it to your aramchek installation folder.
Got the .htaccess
Yeah, got the .htaccess. Still a blank page, though.
If you are using MAMP Pro.
If you are using MAMP Pro. open up the Log > PHP error log (from the application top menu). see if it fires some fatal error.
Memory Error?
Hmm. Interesting:
[09-Sep-2008 12:36:51] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 16 bytes) in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/aramchek/includes/cache.inc on line 33
Several of those through the log. I've got memory_limit = 128M in php.ini.
which php.ini file?
which file have you upped the limit?
Look at the output of phpinfo
You can tell the php.ini you are using and the memory that php is reading through the output of this:
<?phpprint phpinfo();
?>
Advomatic
Got It!
WOOH!
I got it. Thanks for all the help, everyone. I figured it out, finally. It was indeed a memory error. But the reason that it kept persisting is that I kept trying to change memory_limit manually, with TextWrangler. Apparently, this is a big no-no with Pro, although that is the proper way of changing memory_limit in the free version. Apparently, in Pro, the software recreates the php.ini files every time it's launched, using a template. You have to edit the template through the menu: File > Edit Template. Soon as I did that, everything was golden. Thanks for the help.