Next Meeting
Thursday, January 10th, 6:00pm to 8:00pm
ABI Innovation Hub
*** NEW ADDRESS ***
844 Elm Street, Manchester, NH 03101
*** NEW ADDRESS ***
Website: http://www.abihub.org/
Directions: http://goo.gl/maps/utCke
Parking: "The Strange Brew Lot" (metered) - On Middle Street at Franklin Street, west of Elm Street (behind the ABI) .
Parking: Metered parallel spots anywhere on any street.
Signup!
Please use the built in sign-up functionality so we know how many people to expect.
Topics/Presentations
We'd like to see everyone come prepared to either pose a question/issue they've ran across in the past month or to share something cool/amazing they've discovered in the past month. There are plenty of questions out there, so let's make sure we know what they are so we can get them all answered at this month's meetup!!
Additionally, please use the comments on this event node to suggest topics. If there is a consensus, we will try to have someone prepared to do an informal presentation.
We will also discuss DrupalCampNH 2013!!!
Virtual Meetup!
We will not be broadcasting this week and should discuss our options going forward.
Dinner & Drinks
After each meetup, we depart from the "structured" environment, and continue our discussions over beers and/or food.
The Farm Bar & Grille
http://www.farmbargrille.com/#!__manchester
1181 Elm Street
Manchester, NH 03014
(Located at the cross of Elm and Bridge Street)
Map: http://g.co/maps/uegpa
Parking: Diagonally NorthEast of The Farm
Take Elm Street going North
Turn Right on either Pearl St or Orange St. Follow the loopdy-loops to the the inside of the lot.
Comments
I will see you all there.
I will see you all there.
JL
potential topic
I'd love to talk about a problem I'm currently trying to solve. I'm looking for a way to serve slightly different versions of a site to anonymous users based on their selection of US states and customer type. Most of the pages are the same for all users, and it would be preferable to not create duplicate nodes for those pages. Many pages will have more than one version and versions may be shared among multiple states or customer types. A single node will be served with different versions of the menu based on the current user's selections, meaning the menu should only show the menu items related to the current user's selections. Obviously, I want the pages to be cached, but I'm trying to avoid client side DOM manipulation if possible. I'm investigating several approaches, including utilizing the i18n module, using contrib modules and/or custom module development. But, have yet to come up with a satisfactory solution.
I know it's very specific and complex, but I hope it isn't too crazy. I would love to hear people's ideas about how you might approach this issue. Perhaps you have experience with i18n or know of other modules that would help. Perhaps altering some of the above assumptions would greatly simplify the implementation. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Mike, As a starting point,
Mike,
As a starting point, why not set up one or more taxonomy categories/vocabularies, as appropriate, for use in tagging individual content nodes? Thereafter you can filter in and out certain content based on the vocabulary-specific terms that match the (explicit or implicit) selections of the current user.
The panels family of modules, for example, has great facilities for accomplishing this; so does views. The taxonomy learning curve is pretty flat; views' curve is definitely uphill; and panels' is pretty steep.
Also, depending on the needs of your problem domain, customer types can be captured taxonomy and/or assigned roles. Either case fits right in with the suggested approach.
Bob
Thanks for the comment Bob. I
Thanks for the comment Bob. I have set up a couple taxonomies to categorize nodes and I have a few views that filter on terms. Most of the trouble arises because I'm dealing with anonymous users. I get stuck when I try to filter the menus in php and then cache the page. If the first user to the page is, for example, a NH resident, the menu is filtered and the page is cached with that menu. Then when a MA resident visits the page, they get the cached version with the NH menu. I think I need to do some url rewriting, similar to the i18n stuff, so I have unique urls to cache the different versions of the page. But, I haven't been able to figure that part out yet.
I don't have any experience with panels. I've skimmed some docs and watched a couple short videos and your right about the steep curve. Perhaps we could cover panels briefly at the meeting.
Gotcha. Have you looked at
Gotcha. Have you looked at the Domain Access module (http://drupal.org/project/domain), its extensions, and associated contrib modules? They may be of genuine help to you. They will allow you to set up state-specific subdomains (ma.mycompany.com, nh.mycompany.com, ...), exercise control over the visibility of content by subdomain, cache subdomain-specific paths, etc. From one perspective, the Domain Access ecosystem provides a lightweight alternative to multi-site. Many people use it to provide a mobile-specific experience (m.mycompany.com).
Cheers.
I have not looked at Domain
I have not looked at Domain Access. Sounds promising. I'll be sure to check it out. Thanks Bob!
Definetly and interesting
Definetly and interesting topic, are you planning on going to the Western MA Drupal Camp? You might find this session interesting.
http://drupalcampma.com/content-personalization-options-drupal
Mary M.
Thanks Mary. I am going to
Thanks Mary. I am going to try to make it to drupal camp MA. I'll have to check out this session.
Possible discussion topics
I will be happy to spend some time reviewing and discussing one of the following topics at tomorrow's meeting:
Managing a site's "business policies" using Rules, Flags, and implementations of hook_cron.
Using Page Manager, Panels, and Panelizer to display content.
Using Field Group to organize add/edit forms for content types that have more than several fields.
Please let me know if there is interest.
Bob
One vote for Panels
I'd like to hear more about Panels. Also, if anyone wants to discuss their experiences with Varnish, I'd be happy to listen.
Hate I missed the meeting. I
Hate I missed the meeting. I will make certain I make the February meeting cause it will probably be my last one (relocating).
Brady
@fastglassllc
@derailedonline