Session brainstorming for DrupalCamp Florida 2010

I would like to see a session on best practices on upgrading the core Drupal stuff. Not so much modules, those are generally easy. For example, what specifically do you back up, how do you insure no data loss, etc.

I'd like to see a session on cases of having a dev environment and a prod environment that do not exactly match (like if you have a Linux VM for dev and an ISP for prod). This would include some tips on keeping them synced. For example, I run into issues where cached items on dev are not there when I update prod so stuff breaks until I flush the cache or copy the cache to the prod box.

I'd like to see a session on using Drupal to manage schedules of events. Using the date and calendar modules to accept events from a certain roles of users, making them go through an approval process then showing them on a calendar. I have struggled with this for some time, particularly with modifying aspects of a view for calendars to make it do things like show a certain date (such as the next approved event date) as default on the calendar instead of the current day.

• Themeing Views best practices & general themeing best practices.
• Themeing a site from scratch
• Pros/Cons of using Panels
• How to keep Drupal friendly to front-end site administrators - problems when themers over-customize tpl files which take away ability to administer Drupal from the front-end - using CSS to hide stuff rather than using custom tpl files, etc.?
• ability to choose from multiple theme styles for blocks - having more than one "look/feel" for a block - maybe one block has a blue title, and the other has a red title - how can that be managed from the front end Drupal admin?

uploading and displaying Flash SWFs as lightbox images and on the page. Like a portfolio page where you can upload and display JPGs, GIFs, and Flash SWFs.

Sorry, Damien, this isn't a session idea but rather an idea to have comment pages built for each session so that presenters can get instant feedback after the presentation. This can also be a home for the presentation itself if the presenter decides to put it up.

Maybe this belongs as a thread on the web site itself but I wanted to put it in here with sessions.

I would like to present a session which covers the basics new users need to get started. This session will be for those who have no prior drupal knowledge but are reasonably adept using the Internet. My presentation will cover the basics of setting up a drupal site; users, roles, permissions, blocks, themes, nodes, modules, and a few other basics.

I am already preparing this for a local non-profit customer of mine who needs training for about a dozen contributors to the drupal site I am helping them build.

I welcome comments.

-Charles Wheelus
http://harmonylogic.com

Does anyone know how many new users might possibly be attending? Is there any marketing effort aimed directly at new drupal users for drupalcamp?

rightsprocket:
If it is going to be a two hour session, and you would like to team up, that is fine with me. As I mentioned, I am already preparing this for another group anyway. You can call me at: 561-395-6655 to discuss.

-C

• Creating your first module -- This is where I keep getting stuck. I've plowed through parts of Pro Drupal Development, but can't seem to get a handle on how to start a module from scratch to do something that I need, or even to modify an existing contrib module to make it do finetune its functionality to better match what I need.

Given the importance of security for Drupal sites (and the obvious abilities to shoot yourself in the foot), what does everyone think of maybe having a closing keynote focused on security? The idea is that through-out the day you'd learn all sorts of new tricks but go home with some core principles on how to keep your site safe.

How to use Drush: from simple things like updating modules to a quick intro on writing your own Drush scripts.

I think a closing keynote on security would be excellent.

Some session ideas:

Drupal 7 - What's new , how to upgrade, when should we upgrade
Deployment Methods - using Aegir, drush, svn, sever setups

I'd love to see a presentation on github. How is it different from cvs/svn, how to set it up and basics for using it.

-mike

Hello All,

Below is what I am preparing to cover in Getting started with Drupal. I would appreciate your comments and thoughts.

rightsprocket: Is there any thing else you would like for me to cover leading up to your presentation on CCK/Views?

NOTE: I am not planning on covering Drupal Installation. My demonstrations will start with a virgin drupal install and go from there.

I will present (not necessarily in this order):

Intro - How we got here:
brief history of web pages
what is html, css, javascript, php, mysql, etc.
how does drupal help you use them (without having to really know about them)

Covered concepts:
Themes
Blocks
Modules
Nodes
Users
Roles
Permissions
Menus
URL Aliases
Pages
Blogs
Forums
Polls

Demonstrations:
Logging in for the first time
Installing a theme
Admininistration theme vs. "main" theme
Enabling and configuring a theme
Installing a module
Module configuration
Block configuration
Setting up a role
Adding a user (from the login screen or manually)
Setting user permissions
Creating a page
Creating a blog
Creating a Poll
Adding basic HTML tags
Adding menu entries
Adding URL aliases

Hello all,

I would like to plan for who will be video recording for which sessions.

I would like to do the first beginner session since I am starting "at the beginning" in my presentation. It would seem that rightsprocket should follow me since my presentation will segue-way into his. Can we go ahead and put these two presentations into the beginner time-slots one and two respectively?

Assuming I can go first, I will be video recording session 2-5. I will also have someone assisting me to record my presentation and get "b roll" footage and interviews during drupal camp.

anneeasterling: Are you presenting? What sessions (1-6) will you be available to record?

We will need at least one more person to record. Jason Graham (polishyourimage) has volunteered use of his camera.

Anne and Jason: Can you supply the media necessary to record to prior to it being captured?

Lets pull the discussions of the beginner track to:
http://groups.drupal.org/node/35006