Posted by Michael Hofmockel on March 2, 2009 at 10:21pm
Start:
2009-03-30 19:00 - 21:00 America/Chicago Organizers:
Event type:
User group meeting
UPDATE
Pizza will be provided from Black Market Pizza so RSVP is crucial - please sign up if you are planning to attend. More Info
I like the idea of a short module sharing session built into each meeting. How about we try this next time:
- 7-7:15pm - Social multi-discussions of modules of the month. "Check this out!"
- 7:15-7:30pm - Introductions, this way we get the stragglers too. "Hi. My name is Michael and I'm a Drupal-holic."
- 7:30 - 8pm Round Table single-discussion. Topic to be determined by attendees and allowed to flow freely. "I do it like this, how do you do it?"
- 8-9pm Formal presentation
TBD. Any volunteers? Be brave and bold! Volunteer someone else?Theming round table discussion lead by Dan DeGeest.
We are an open group of Drupal users in Ames, Iowa willing to freely share knowledge about Drupal.
We meet 7-9pm the last Monday of the month at iMed Studios.
2604 Northridge Parkway
Ames, IA 50010
Google Map
Park in the back and enter through the back door (knock if it is locked).
Comments
Theming
I suggest the topic of Theming for the formal presentation. I'm a bit too noob to want to lead any presentation, but I can contribute to a "themes I like and why" discussion. And maybe by the end of the month I'll have a pros/cons matrix to share of blueprint vs. 960.gs vs. Zen (CSS starting bases to roll your own theme).
Even a loose discussion on all things related to theming (Panels, downloadable themes, theming engines, styling Views, theming from scratch, best practices for altering tpls, etc.) could help provide orientation to theming and set the stage for future, more specific presentations...
Comments?
Theme Discussion
I'm with you on this one...too noob to have much of an opinion but I am looking at building a handful of sites this summer and they can't all have the same theme (how dull would that be?). Would love to learn more about themes in general so I vote YES.
Mark
Mark
Theming it is!!!
Apparently, No one wants to claim to be a theming expert. This is a short fall of not just this group but the Drupal Community as a whole. But Dan Degeest can't stand the silence and has offered to lead us in a round table discussion on theming. Three cheers for Dan! He says he has much to learn but I feel he is just being modest.
He will get us started by talking about some theming basics, tips and pitfalls. And then open it up to a greater round table discussion to pool the collective theming knowledge. This means everyone should take a few minutes to formalize their theming questions. Also take some time to note the theming efforts that have proven successful. What I'm trying to say is bring something to the table!
Can't wait! Bring beer.
*The only difference between bravery and stupidity is success.
Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios
Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind
Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind
Please do sign-up
Please do sign-up if you are planning on coming. It really helps the organizers!
Sign up button at the top of this post.
Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios
Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind
Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind
Pizza for the March 30th meeting
My employer iMed Studios which provides the space for our meetings has also graciously agreed to provide pizza for the upcoming March 30th meeting from our new neighbor, Black Market Pizza. We'll order the pizza based on the number of registered attendees so if you have not yet signed up to attend the meeting please do so. Black Market has some really great pizza so even if my theming presentation tanks we can at least look forward to some good food and if the budget allows maybe a few post meeting pitchers of Fat Tire.
Please RSVP ASAP so we can properly calculate our food/beer ratios.
Dan DeGeest
Lead Software Developer
iMed Studios
http://www.imedstudios.com
Dan DeGeest
Software Developer
Somewhere or Another
More O'Reilly Drupal books for free!!
I sent O'Reilly a link to our last meeting that ended with one happy attendee going home with a free book. I just wanted to thank them for their generous offer that has played a part in our groups rapid growth. We have doubled our membership in 6 months.
They were so happy to help that they sent me two more copies of "Using Drupal".
I would like to offer these two books to current members who bring a new member with them to the next meeting. I'f we have the desired problem of more than two members who bring new members we'll let the meeting attendees collectively decide who gets the books. A sure bet, would be to bring two friends with you!
See you soon. Don't miss this meeting, Free food and books.
Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios
Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind
Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind
DrupalCorn meeting reminder - 30Mar09 7pm - Theming!
Just a quick reminder that we will be meeting this coming Monday 30Mar09. Dan Degeest will present D6 - theming. IMed Studios will provide pizza from Blackmarket Pizza. And of course I got a stack of free books to hand out.
Don't forget to signup so we can buy the right amount of food. See you then!
Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios
Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind
Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind
We're offering free pizza! And free Drupal training and books!!
We will be ordering the pizza at 3pm today for our meeting tonight. - http://groups.drupal.org/node/19641
Please do signup so we can have a proper count and order the right amount.
Just a quick reminder that we will be meeting this coming Monday 30Mar09. Dan Degeest will present D6 - theming. IMed Studios will provide pizza from Blackmarket Pizza. And of course I got a stack of free books to hand out.
Can't wait. This should be a great movie.
Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios
Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind
Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind
Thanks everyone for a Great meeting!!
The meeting was really awesome last night. Dan Degeest presented a wonderfully naked presentation on theming in Drupal 6. I say naked because he left in all the gatchas for us while coding live. Seeing these gotchas live provided valuable information that can save others hours of work/confusion. Dusty was a great wing-man for Dan providing the icing on the cake. Thanks Dan!
The big Gotcha that everyone needs to be aware of when theming Drupal 6 (it got me):
Theming functions are now cached in the theme registry. When actively theming in Drupal 6 you must rebuild the registry or you will not see your changes. Submitting the theme settings page will force the theme to be rebuilt - /admin/build/themes. Or a little less tedious solution is to add a global function to your template.php file while actively theming (don't forget to take it out when your done).
<?php/**
* Uncomment the following line during development to automatically
* flush the theme cache when you load the page. That way it will
* always look for new tpl files.
*/
drupal_flush_all_caches();
?>
This function is probably a little over-kill as it will flush everything. There are some more granular functions to target specific types of caches. You might want to use drupal_rebuild_theme_registry() instead.
Installing devel module and using its reset cache function is probably easier and definitely better practice.
Our meeting would be not be as great without our supporters:
Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios
Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind
Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind
Also, a special thanks to
Also, a special thanks to Black Market Pizza for giving us a deal on the pizzas and for staying open a little late to accommodate our after meeting discussions.
Dan DeGeest
Lead Software Developer
iMed Studios
http://www.imedstudios.com
Dan DeGeest
Software Developer
Somewhere or Another
We didn't cover...
There is no where near enough time in a 2 hour meeting to cover everything with respect to theming, but I wanted to give everyone an example of using theme settings. Working around the Drupal 6 theme registry using theme settings.
Dusty
Interestingly enough
I had to make some theme changes this morning and tested my theme. Had a little 30s fit trying to figure out why my changes weren't working... then cleared the cache. I went on to make a further change to my theme and accidentally made a typo which caused a PHP error. However I didn't need to clear my cache, the php error showed up instantly. I fixed it and then the PHP error went away and my template showed the change, again, instantly, no need to clear the cache.
--
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode
--
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode