Last month's meetup went great. We had well over 20 people and had two great presentations. We also had a lot of good feedback about what the group wants, so we're going to try a few new things this month. First, if we have a large enough group again, we will split the group after the break in order to provide some more direct support for our Drupal beginners who may not be ready for the more advanced topics. (bring your questions + laptops to get help) Second, we want to make use of the balcony area for some socializing/networking and we have a strong possibility of getting this month's meeting sponsored with food, so please bring some drinks or wine if you want. Let's keep up the great work!
This month is going to be our "Views Extravaganza" - we've got some great presentations on the Views module and will cover both the basics and some expert tips and advanced usage of the module.
When: Thursday, September 18th
Time: 7pm - 9pm (Show up around 6:45!!)
Venue: ABC Centre 700 Harris Street, Ultimo ( Map | Directions )
The ABC Centre has some security issues, so it is important that people arrive early and sign in at the security desk so that James can take everyone into the building at once. Everyone just waits and chats in the lobby, so just look around for us if you're new. If you have problems you can call either of us. Many thanks go to the ABC for providing this venue.
Agenda:
- Greetings and Welcome new people + Announcements
- Presentation: Intro to Views 2.0 by: TBA
This presentation will provide the basics of creating views with the new Views 2.0 UI for Drupal 6. - Site Showcase - TBA
This will very briefly present a launched Drupal site and some of the behind the scenes on how it was created - Module Highlight - TBA
A short presentation to highlight a module someone has tried and their experience with it. - Break (on the balcony)
- Presentation: Advanced Views: Programming Views by: James Gollan
This presentation will focus on how you can create and manipulate you views programatically. For example, doing conditional changes on your views or working with blocks compared to lists. - Presentation: Advanced Views: Theming you View by: Geoff Davies
This presentation will illustrate how you can theme your Views and customize how they are presented. This will also show case a site that makes extensive use of custom views themes but will focus on the practical aspects of coding. - General help/Discussion + Drinks/food
Post below if you can talk about something (anything is ok, everyone has something to share) or if you're are interested in other topics for discussion.
Remember to sign up, and I'll send out a reminder announcement a day before the meeting with all the latest details. This will also help us plan numbers/audience.
Other Details
Venue:
According to James: "Parking is possible at parking meters around thomas street and mary-anne street. But they take a 2 hour max i think. There are carparks behind the abc $15 (enter from thomas street, but on the chinatown side)"
Future Presentations:
- Intro to CCK (Ivan)
- Best Practices for Upgrading your Drupal site (Ryan)
- Project Management and Resource Planning for Drupal (Erle?)
- What can you present on?
Resources:
Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/group/sydney-drupal-users-group
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/groups/drupal-au/
Chat: #drupal-au on freenode : Connect
Comments
Follow Up
As you will notice from my announcement, there are still a few open topics.
1) Intro to Views - we need someone to do this presentation so that any groundwork is laid for the advanced presentations and also to provide all the necessary basics for beginners to start using Views.
2) Site Showcase - based on the groups feedback, this should be a short presentation ~10-15 mins to showcase a drupal site. Who wants to volunteer?
3) Module Highlight - similar to the site showcase, the feedback last month seemed like this would be useful for people. I need another volunteer for this. If people have ideas of any modules they would like to see, please post below. If necessary, I might be able to do this and probably have a few useful modules I can point out. Its important that everyone participates in these presentations. It keeps the workload spread out, plus you often learn things by presenting and I know everyone knows something.
For what its worth, I gave a presentation on Views 1 and the Events Module last December. This is probably something good for any beginners to review before the meetup since it includes some background on Views. Also, it is probably a good example of the type of material the Views Intro should cover and an example of a Module Highlight (the event module here). I have uploaded it to the slideshare group for people interested: Drupal Views & Event modules
Also, if we are unable to get food sponsored for this months meetup I would like to see if any one is interested in meeting for dinner before the meeting. Probably meet at 6 somewhere close and have a quick bite before walking over to the ABC centre.
--Ryan
--Ryan
Ryan Cross
Drupal Development Services
ProjectPier project management and collaboration software
Another option?
Something else that dawned on me - with the DrupalCon going on this week, it might make sense to have someone make a bit of a summary presentation about what happened at the conference or some form of "repeat" of one the presentation topics. Not sure if anyone from the Sydney area is on their way to Hungary, I only know of a few in Melbourne that will be there.
--Ryan
Ryan Cross
James Cross Construction Services
ProjectPier project management and collaboration software
--Ryan
Ryan Cross
Drupal Development Services
ProjectPier project management and collaboration software
site showcase
While my work with Drupal has been more application oriented, I am rolling out a site (quite a simplistic one) for some colleagues, but it should be good enough to demo as a showcase for this (using 6.x)
The target of the site is to have a web presence, membership, perhaps even forums ... simple, basic, community stuff. Might even through in a bit of theming.
This site is not very complex (which is why it could be great walk through)
I would be quite happy to 'attempt' a showcase if need be. /* emphasis on the word 'attempt' ;) */
--Erle
Other announcements
Small note, I've added announcements to these services as well.
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1067584/
http://drupal.meetup.com/13/calendar/8668498/
--Ryan
Ryan Cross
Drupal Development Services
ProjectPier project management and collaboration software
Small groups
Thanks Ryan for structuring the next meetup to cater for us newbies. This will certainly make the trip from Tamworth worthwhile.
Steve Lyne
wheres the fun LOL
who wanna do a internet meeting for drupallists??
http://smile4me.x24hr.com/drupal/
come join me...
Agenda changes
After a bit of a chat with James, I think we will be modifying the agenda a bit so that we're not trying to do too much. Any particular feedback in this area is appreciated. Also, we can also (hopefully) use many of these presentations/ideas for the DrupalCamp
--Ryan
Ryan Cross
James Cross Construction Services
ProjectPier project management and collaboration software
--Ryan
Ryan Cross
Drupal Development Services
ProjectPier project management and collaboration software
Doing less is not a bad idea
I think doing less is not a bad idea. The presentations will stimulate plenty of discussion and questions and it is often in dialogue that people learn the most.
Might I suggest name tags. It can be quite hard to remember everyones name. Sticky labels we can write on would be sufficient. What do you think?
Regards
Geoff
Regards
Geoff
The user previously known as gpdinoz
Another Showcase Site
Hi Ryan,
I recently put a Drupal website live, and if there is time in this upcoming meeting I wouldn't mind
presenting it. It is not an overly complex site and it is built using Drupal 5.1. It uses views
quite a bit so it may be appropriate considering the theme of the night. If there is no time
I can delay this presentation for a future gathering.
If I do present it, I would be just going through the front-end elements, and how they
were administered/created with Drupal.
cheers,
Paco
Hey Paco, That sounds like
Hey Paco,
That sounds like it would fit in well. I am going to be giving an introduction to views and the jeff will be presenting a more advanced 'themeing views'.
I reckon it would be great to do the showcase presentations straight after the beginner presentation and before the break.
Presentations Posted
I have posted Geoff's presentation at http://www.slideshare.net/rcross/advanced-drupal-views-theming-your-view...
Hopefully James's will be up shortly.
Check out http://www.slideshare.net/group/sydney-drupal-users-group for several other presentations.
--Ryan
P.S. sorry for all the posts in a row tonight
--Ryan
Ryan Cross
Drupal Development Services
ProjectPier project management and collaboration software