Drupal Camp Seattle Agenda

June 28 & 29, 2006
Location: Richard Hugo House

Drupal-Camp Seattle is an opportunity to learn about the Free and Open Source Drupal Content Management System (http://www.Drupal.org). This community driven event will focus on the PHP Theme Engine theming system, theme-able functions, Drupal 4.7 modules, module development and CiviCRM.

Who Should Attend:

If you are a php programmer, or a css/xhtml programmer looking to increase your ability to rapidly deploy websites for clients, work with other people doing interesting things, and generally spend less time re-inventing the wheel or maintaining your own proprietary or single source CMS, this event is a perfect introduction to Drupal. You'll leave with a comprehensive understanding of deploying a Drupal website out of the “box” and a foundation on which to build your Drupal knowledge.

If you have started to dabble in Drupal, either as an application specialist type (installing and configuring but not hacking on code) this is a great opportunity to learn more, and learn tips and tricks from others.

If you are a webmin, online director or organizer for your company or organization and are looking to move away from a static HTML site, add interactive features, blogging, events calendars, forums or other community building functionality, this is a great event to learn about Drupal's capabilities and even come away ready to build your site.

Why?

Drupal rocks! Drupal is Free (capital “F”) and Open Source. Hundreds of developers are constantly making it better and extending the functionality. You can leverage the work of these multitudes!

If you are looking for more regular work, there are over a dozen firms working in the United States deploying Drupal sites and many of them have openings for developers familiar with Drupal. The demand for Drupal powered websites is outstripping the community's ability to build them. Developers with Drupal skills have ample opportunities to work in the field.

Drupal Camp is free, but donations are appreciated. A suggested donation is $20. You can also buy a shirt to support the event soon at http://www.goodstorm.com (we'll provide the direct link as soon as we have it)

What: The Agenda

Day 1: 9 am to 6pm

Welcome, coffee, talking, intros 9 to 9:45

Session 1: 10 – 12:30

A) Introduction to Drupal:

What is it? What is the Drupal way? What's the development community like? How does it work? This session is designed for developers and non developers looking to understand Drupal as a concept, a project and a community. There will be some heavy discussion of coding and the Drupal way.

B) Advanced:

You already know some Drupal, you want to get involved in the community, help by filing patches, and fixing bugs etc... This session is for anyone with Drupal experience. It will start with a discussion of how the Drupal community works on a very operational level (CVS access, filing patches, maintaining modules etc), the second half or more will be dedicated to getting real help with your module, and or fixing some annoying bugs/functionality etc.

Session 2: 1:30 to 3:30

C)For Developers: Theming

What the hell is a theme? dissecting php template themes: This starts with a tour of a few themes, dissecting as we go. Then you will learn to create a theme, come with your theme comp, if you have valid css/xhtml that will expedite things, you could find one online.

D)For non developers: How can I bootstrap my site with Drupal?

You'll learn about various existing themes, modules, and module recipes (ways of setting up modules to work together to achieve a greater purpose). This session will involve dissection of existing sites, talking about how they do what they do, as well as advice on what modules to use to do what you want to do. So come with your site's requirements! If you have a web host, we can even set up a Drupal site for you, and get you started with your own site. But if you are not a coder, don;t worry, you will learn plenty about the capabilities of Drupal.

Session 3: 4-5:30

E) For Developers: theme able functions and the views module

Learn all about themable functions, the views module and the crazy things you can do in the theme layer to make your site super cool.

F) CiviCRM for super users:

Your organization needs a database, can CiviCRM satisfy your needs? We'll give you a tour, and answer all your questions about using this powerful new cms as part of Drupal or on its own to meet you organization's database needs.

Day 2 Hacking, Modules, and fun!

9-9:45 So you have some questions from yesterday? Come and have coffee and stuff and talk to folks about what you've learned, and what you still don;t understand.

Session 4: 10 to 12:30

G) Modules, what the heck are they?

Hooks, apis and the the Drupal way of doing things

H) Open session: Hacking and other fun stuff: you decide!

Session 5: 1:30 to 3:30

I) For Developers: Scratching itches...

In this session we'll look at some itches, yours and others already in the community and talk about and code some modules, work on others that might have some bugs as well as tackle some core and administor issues, we'll work in pairs or small groups. Come with your itch, we'll help you scratch it. If you don't have an itch, we'll give you one. (for example http://dev.civicactions.net/moin/DrupalAdminInterfaceImprovements)

J) For the non developer: How to contribute if you don't code??

Writing documentation, testing, use cases, module recipes, install templates

Session 6: 4 to 5:30

K) For developers: what burning questions do you have left?

This session will provide an opportunity to continue coding together, as well as asking and answering any un-answered questions.

L)For Non developers: online campaigns: advocacy, political, social:

How to combine Drupal with existing web services (like flickr, youtube, del.icio.us and rss feeds) to create a kickass website in just a few hours! This is a great session for the online coordinator, webadmin, communications director of a non-profit organization to come and hear about lightweight strategies for becoming more web-savvy (as an individual and an organization). You can come to just attend this session if you want.

Pre-Requisites and other information:

If you are a developer:

• Please review the pre-requisites listed on http://www.drupal-camp.org.
• Bring a laptop with a wireless card.
• Have a sandbox on your local machine, or a hosting account where you can do work in real time.
• Bring an open mind. Try to leave other work at home.
• For developers who cannot attend these session, and/or those who wan to help out, please consider hanging out on chat.freenode.org #drupal-camp throughout the two days.

If you are a non-developer:

• Please try to bring a lap-top with WiFi
• Poke around the pre-requisites (depending on your skill level, you might find them interesting.
• Bring an open mind. Try to leave other work at home.

Drupal Camp Seattle is Free and sponsored by Bryght, CivicActions and Rain City Studios.

Donations and contributions (monetary and otherwise) are welcome. All content created during Drupal-Camp Seattle will be made available on http://groups.drupal.org under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.5 license. If you are interested in hosting or coordinating a Drupal Camp in your city, log on at http://groups.drupal.org/drupalcamp