It was apparent at the March Connecticut Drupal Meetup that we have a lively and friendly community of beginning and experienced Drupal developers in Connecticut who are passionate about Drupal and who would enjoy monthly face-to-face meetings at which we get to know what each other is doing and learn from each other's experiences and from formal or informal presentations or hands-on activities.
Please use this discussion to share what you would like to see happen in future Connecticut Drupal Meetups and what you can offer in future Connecticut Drupal Meetups. Don't be shy about requesting some activity or focus for a future meeting (be it a presentation, hands-on exercise or informal discussion, or be it a beginner's topic or an advanced topic). And, don't feel you need to be an expert to volunteer to give some presentation or lead some discussion. We appear to be a passionate and fun group enthusiastic to help others wherever they may be on their Drupal journey.
1) What topics would you like to see presented or discussed at future Connecticut Drupal Meetups?
2) On what topics would you be willing to present at a future Connecticut Drupal Meetup?
3) Can you suggest activities beyond presentations to be held at future Connecticut Drupal Meetups?
4) Do you have any other suggestions on improving future Connecticut Drupal Meetups?
Comments
Brief (5+ Minute) Introduction to Drupal Pitch for Newcomers
I imagine we will have newcomers to Drupal drop in at our Meetups on an occasional or regular basis. We clearly have a group that includes many active and experienced Drupal developers and we may most often find ourselves in conversations above the newcomer's head.
In order to make the newcomer feel welcome and to expand our community, I suggest that when a newcomer to Drupal shows up at our Meetup, someone from the group presents a brief (5+ minute) "Introduction to Drupal" Pitch, and that the pitch be given by a variety of people in the group... which should benefit the presenter as well as the entire group as we'll get to hear how different members of the group pitch their enthusiasm and perspective on the benefits for using Drupal.
Dr. Mark A. Friedman, President
The Richard Roman Institute
email: webmail@drmarkafriedman.com
web: www.drmarkafriedman.com or www.richardroman.com
im & online: drmarkafriedman (major services & sites), 216365864 (icq)
Great March Meeting - What Is In Store For April?
I agree that it was a great meeting last night - I counted roughly 20 folks. I'm new to this type of group, so was very excited to see so much participation. It seems we have a great bunch of people involved and I think that we should continue to spread the word to others. Also as a newbie, I felt very comfortable talking about my (lack of) experiences freely. Meaning the more experienced folks were very encouraging and supportive. We had some really technical people, some new-to-Drupal technical people, some designers/themers, some business people, some who are just curious about Drupal and checkin' things out, and even one guy who said he was there to just "gawk" ;-) All in all, a very valuable experience for me and I hope for others. I heartily agree that we should continue to build the momentum and energy moving forward to the next meeting. Do we have a date yet for April?
I think I read somewhere
I think I read somewhere April 20th
Sorry I missed last night shooting for next month.
Next Meeting Time and Location
My recollection from last night was that we would be discussing here the best next date and location for meeting.
In terms of dates, the idea initially had been to have meetings on the third Tuesday of every month, so as not to conflict with other Drupal Meetups in the north east. However, some of those dates have been changing so it was thought we might want to revisit the date.
Because of committees that I serve on the third Tuesday of every month will generally mean that I cannot attend. My other conflicts because of committee work include the third Monday and the fourth Tuesday of each month. That said, we need to find what works for the majority, and if it works out that I can't regularly attend, that's okay.
In terms of location, we had a group come up from New Haven, and folks come down from Western Mass. So, while I would like to see something a little further south on 91 to make it more balanced for people from around Connecticut, I think Hartford is probably the best location.
My two cents on this topic for now.
Aldon
CT Drupal Meeting Dates
For now, based on our original planning, I announced Tuesday, April 20th at 7pm in Greater Hartford as the date and time of our next meeting. I am verifying the meeting dates of regional Drupal meetups and will then set up a poll with suggestions to confirm a regular day of the month for our meetings.
Would anyone like to suggest other groups with regular meeting dates with which we would like to avoid a conflict?
--
Mark
Dr. Mark A. Friedman, President
The Richard Roman Institute
email: webmail@drmarkafriedman.com
web: www.drmarkafriedman.com or www.richardroman.com
im & online: drmarkafriedman (major services & sites), 216365864 (icq)
Is April 20th a confirmed date for Hartford?
I for one am still very enthusiastic about keeping the ball rolling from our March meeting. Do we have a confirmed date, time and location for the next Hartford area meeting?
Yes, the Central Connecticut
Yes, the Central Connecticut Drupal Meetup will next meet on Tuesday, April 20th at 7pm in Greater Hartford.
I am busy preparing a few wiki pages for our group, collecting the suggestions for presentations that have been posted, so that we can effectively work together to organize our meetups and select topics that are most interesting to the group.
I expect to have those pages up sometime tonight.
-- Mark
Dr. Mark A. Friedman, President
The Richard Roman Institute
email: webmail@drmarkafriedman.com
web: www.drmarkafriedman.com or www.richardroman.com
im & online: drmarkafriedman (major services & sites), 216365864 (icq)
Topics
A few topics that I heard people talk about that might be really interesting:
Introduction to theming. How do you get started making your own theme, or customizing a theme beyond what you can get for readily available themes.
Ubercart - How to set up Drupal sites of e-Commerce.
CCK and Views - How do add, arrange and display content beyond the typical Title/Body type posts?
Actions and Triggers
All good ideas
I'm specifically interested in theming. Unfortunately (or fortunately) next months meeting I can't make as it is in the middle of Druplacon in SF.
Anybody else going?
The format of last nights
The format of last nights meeting was good. We had two presenters that shared their experience with what they are working on and the trials and tribulations along the way. This type of information is invaluable education as there is nothing better than real-life experience.
In addition, I think that we could have a "how-to" presentation, where a member can volunteer to present their knowledge on topics such as theming, Views and CCK, actions and triggers, multi site setup, integration, searching, etc. on an introductory and or advanced level.
In short I would favor a format of:
I personally am wrestling with integration through the services module and I would be willing to present what I am doing in the future. Hopefully I will have some of the walls I have been hitting up against torn down by then.
It was a pleasure to meet all last night.
John
I agree
I enjoyed the format as well. It was great to see how others are using Drupal to meet site requirements. I was very impressed with how seriously the Yale group manages there development and rollout process :)
I could volunteer to do a presentation/demonstration on theming, if the group would like. I could talk about the process I go through from design to tpl.php files and template.php. I could cover such things as theme .info and regions. Also theming nodes, blocks, and views. And lastly, utilizing base themes within a multisite setup. So I guess this could actually roll a bit of multisite into it too.
Theming - Sounds Great
I'm very interested in understanding some of the basics of theming and would appreciate a presentation on this topic. Go for it..... Good to meet you at the meeting.
We'll volunteer
First off, great meeting yesterday. It was nice to meet other people in the area working with Drupal, especially those who are just starting out.
My friend/colleague Dylan (un: dylan.riordan) and I would be willing to give some presentations at future meetings. We've done a lot with Drupal, so we're pretty comfortable explaining how it works and how to get things done.
Possible topics:
-Theme development
-Views
-CCK
-Ubercart (setting up an online shop)
It sounds like there are a number of people in this group that can give the same presentations as above, so maybe we should break them up based on experience/preference/etc. I attended a few of the Drupal meetups in Portland, Maine when I was living up there, and they would feature one presenter/topic per week. That setup worked pretty well.
It sounded like there was a little bit of interest in what Ubercart is all about, during the after-meeting discussions last night. Anyone else want to hear about our experiences setting up a shop with Drupal+Ubercart?
Ubercart YES!
Thanks mstenta for offering to present on Drupal+Ubercart. I very much would like to see your presentation. I also agree with John as to the format for our future meetings. We should probably formally add an item for business such as planning an event, or something different, etc.
Drupal Hosting Services - Pros and Cons
Being a novice with Drupal (but vowing to learn more about it quickly) I am very interested to hear about experiences people have had with various hosting services. It doesn't have to be specific to named providers, but what are the questions to ask when considering a hosting service to be used for a Drupal site. For example, this week while working on a client's project, adding new modules, etc. I was presented with two warning messages (shown below) and I'd like to know what to ask before signing up with a hosting company.
First message - "ImageAPI GD Memory Limit - It is highly recommended that you set your PHP memory_limit to 96M to use ImageAPI GD. A 1600x1200 image consumes ~45M of memory when decompressed and there are instances where ImageAPI GD is operating on two decompressed images at once." Does any shared hosting service allow a PHP memory limit of 96M? If not, what are my options?
Second message - "Your server is capable of displaying file upload progress, but does not have the required libraries. It is recommended to install the PECL uploadprogress library (preferred) or to install APC."
The bottom line is that I'm not comfortable committing to a hosting service only to find out later that I can't use a particular module or feature because the hosting company doesn't support it or provide it. I intend to use Drupal for other clients and would like to get on the right track now and not after learning the hard way.
Any thoughts, either here for discussion, or for inclusion on the agenda for an upcoming meeting?
Thank you. Phil...
One for VPS
The more you want to do with Drupal the more freedom you will need. If it's for clients I say do VPS.
You can achieve the 2 with some shared hosting services.
First message you need to be able to access php.ini if you can your all set. I had 128 set on one shared account I forgot where though. A lot of host do not want to increase it for you.
Second message The PECL on shared if you have ssh access you should be all set.
You should also check PHP version available I went through a bunch of shared and grid services before I said forget it.
But honestly like I said I would do VPS and forget the worries. It can be pretty affordable now. I finally went with Media Temple and have had nothing but good experiences fast support and just all around good people. Although I plan on trying either Slicehost or VPS.net their pricing is awesome and I have heard good things.
Can't wait for the next meeting any agenda.
Slicehost
I use Slicehost for my own drupal site and those that I am hosting. One of my larger clients also has his own Slicehost account. I highly recommend them. That said, there are two caveats.
First, you need to do things like set up Apache and related software yourself. They have great instructions on how to do it, so it is fairly easy, but it is a little extra work you need to take on.
The other part is make sure you get a large enough slice. You pay for your slice by the amount of RAM you want available. Initially, I tried to get by with the smallest slice, 256 Meg. I'm sure that if I really carefully tweaked all of my parameters, I could have gotten some Drupal sites running okay in a 256Meg slice. However, I ended up going with a 512Meg slice and that works much more nicely, and I can run a bunch of other funky things as well.
Drupal Hosting
You might also consider the new drupalgardens.com and buzzr.com services. Both do Drupal with a very usable user interface. They are both very new, but worth a look.