West Midlands UK
Geographic scope
The West Midlands Region is a large area of the United Kingdom that encompasses the cities of: Birmingham, Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton (among others).
Our aims
To provide a forum for communication, organising events and encouraging Drupal loveliness. Seriously though, we'll hold regular meet-ups to discuss site building, actually do some site building and maybe have a drink or two.
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2012-02-21 19:00 - 22:00
Recent posts
US hosting vs UK hosting
Similar to last post I'd also like to hear what people have to say about using US based hosts for serving mostly UK targeted sites? Is there anything to consider (with the exception of obvious time delays for support)?
Thank you
Stephen
AWS - Amazon Web Services - Accessing servers on a mac using SSH and public/private keys
Hi everyone
I've been using AWS (Amazon Web Services) and their EC2/Cloud Formation services for the past week and have been testing the instant Drupal sites via the Cloud Formation. After much trial and error I have everything working with the exception that I am unable to upload/download files to the server as it requires SFTP utilising public/private key pairs. I've done everything possible and have viewed umpteen articles in relation to this but still cannot find any answers on how to do this via my mac.
Website Tender | Open Studios Network
The Open Studios Network provides a platform for Open Studios, Artweeks, Art Trails, Art Tours and similar events and organisations across the UK in the visual arts. Funded by Arts Council managed funds it is aiming to be financially sustainable in the longer term. There are currently in the region of 130 of these organisations, mainly county based. The original website (2006) brought these organisations together on one site so that artists wishing to participate and visitors wishing to attend the events, could locate them more easily.
Website Tender | Open Studios Network
The Open Studios Network provides a platform for Open Studios, Artweeks, Art Trails, Art Tours and similar events and organisations across the UK in the visual arts. Funded by Arts Council managed funds it is aiming to be financially sustainable in the longer term. There are currently in the region of 130 of these organisations, mainly county based. The original website (2006) brought these organisations together on one site so that artists wishing to participate and visitors wishing to attend the events, could locate them more easily.
The resources section
This is mostly aimed at group organisers, but I've written up what we basically do in the resources section of our group. Hopefully it will help us take some of the tedium out of creating events in calendars etc.
Feel free to edit the pages and templates as needed.
The resources section is here btw.
Event templates
This page lists the various templates for the different event sites we use. Find a template, and plug in the values from the right places and you're good to go. There is a page of pre-written event descriptions.
The Event notification guidelines should be used to help you announce events to the wider public.
Event sites
We advertise on the following event sites:
groups.drupal.org
Types of events
The group holds regular monthly meetups. These are relaxed, informal get-togethers that are the primary outworking of our stated group aims:
To provide a forum for communication, organising events and encouraging Drupal loveliness.
Types of monthly meetup
It was decided by Steven Jones that each monthly meetup of the group should have some kind of theme or topic. No one had any serious objections, or were just too polite to raise them, so that is now how we roll.
The types are currently:
Event notification guidelines
When creating a new event, please use the following page and the templates to ensure that we give a consistent message, and so that things are not forgotten etc.
Title
The title should be in the format:
West Midlands MMM Drupal Meetup - SSSWhere MMM is the month of the meetup as a full word, e.g. February. And SSS is a 'short name' of the type of event being help. Types of events can be found on the types of events page, along with their corresponding 'short names'.
West Midlands February Meetup - Problem Solved!
Bring your Drupal problem
This month's session is 'Bring your Drupal problem'. We'll try to solve it for you. Bring your laptop!
Location
Aroq Ltd
Seneca House
Buntsford Park Road
Bromsgrove
Worcs
B60 3DX
Getting there
Seneca House, Buntsford Park Road, Bromsgrove, B60 3DX. Check out the Google maps or stick the postcode in your satnav! There is ample parking.
West Midlands January Meetup - Social
This month we meet in a pub and have a chat, doesn't have to be about Drupal, but I would imagine that some of it will.
If you've thought about coming along to meet us before and haven't this month's meetup would be a perfect time to do so!
We're going to meet in a pub in the centre of Birmingham a short distance from Birmingham New Street station, so hopefully easy to get to for everyone. Feel free to come along for as long as you want and don't feel obliged to come at 7pm exactly!
Venue:
Old Joint Stock Pub & Theatre
Eye Tracking / Usability - Tobii
Hi Everyone
I'm currently looking into the possibility of organising a Tobii eye tracking usability full day training session. (See http://www.tobii.com/en/eye-tracking-research/global/ for information in regard to Tobii and eye tracking in general for those of you that may not be aware of the system).
Resources
These pages are here to provide resources for the group, for organizing events etc.
Basically we try to document everything that we do, so that things don't depend on any one person.
Currently we've got the following resources written up:
- Event notification guidelines - Essential reading if you're creating events on behalf of the group
- Types of events - Lists the different types of meetups we hold.
West Midlands December Meetup
Presentation evening
This month's session will feature two presentations, one about Load testing and one about something else.
Location
Computerminds Coventry
8 Edison Buildings
Electric Wharf
Coventry
CV1 4JA
Getting there
The entrance is a bit hard to find, there's a visitors car park on site, and we're right next to the main pedestrian enterance to Electric Wharf, which you will see as you come into the estate.
Street view of the entrance: http://g.co/maps/e49wz
Drupal Developer | 3-6 Month Contact | £300-350 per day | ITT
My client is urgently seeking a Drupal Developer for a 3-6 Month contract. This opportunity is based in the heart of Central London and will start at the beginning of January.
You will be supporting, maintaining and developing their current website alongside another developer on a Drupal 7 based website.
If you will be on the market for the beginning of January and seeking an opportunity based in London, please get in touch asap.
Interviews will take place next Tuesday.
Please contact me on 0207 220 1629 or send your CV to sam.marsh@it-talent.co.uk for immediate consideration.
Drupal Multisite??? Shared cck fields???
I'm not sure if this is simple question or not, but I'm a little bit confused.
I am planning on developing 4 drupal sites that are essentially pretty much the same in terms of what they do, they will look different but will more or less do exactly the same job as each other with the odd exception. What I'd like to know is if it is possible to feed the sites from the same database and most importantly can the sites share the same cck fields 'if and when' they are required, or do you need to either share all fields or non at all?
Migrating data to CCK field in D6
Hoping someone might be able to advise. I'm trying to migrate data from an old site across to my drupal site. Ive pulled the data out from Access (dont ask) and now have it sitting in the drupal mysql database. Ive used table wizard to draw the data out and check it via a view which works nicely however when trying to use Migrate Ive now come un-stuck due to the change to Migrate V2 which has no UI (certainly not for drupal 6 anyway). Im just not upto the level of being able to use migrate v2 comfortably and was hoping someone might be able to point me in a new direction?
West Midlands November Meetup
Bring your Drupal problem
This month's session is 'Bring your Drupal problem'. We'll try to solve it for you. Bring your laptop!
Location
Lichfield Business Village
The Friary
Lichfield, WS13 6QG
Getting there
NOTE: Stephen's Contact Number: 078666 (Three Four Two Eight Two)
Drupal PHP Developer - Immediate Start (Remote work considered) | ITT
My client is a worldwide established Media Agency based in Central London that is in urgent need of a Drupal 7 Developer.
You will be required to work alongside a small team of Drupal Developers and support a project that is already underway. From a technical aspect you will need to be competent in Drupal 7, PHP and able to create custom modules.
This is 1-2 month contract and is a immediate start.
Remote work is suitable for this role although onsite would be preferred.
Please get in touch asap for immediate consideration, I will need an up to date CV.
Sam Marsh
West Midlands October Meetup
It is short notice, but the October meetup of the West Midlands group will be at Aroq Ltd, in Bromsgrove. As with the previous meetings, we'll do introductions, then have a couple of 15 minute presentations (details below), then we'll have time for general discussion. This is in a regular series of meetups.
Directions to Aroq Ltd can be found on their contact page. Please signup, so we can get an idea of how much pizza to get :-)
