Resources

Hi, just saw this on the twittersphere and was intrigued. Michael, is this at all related to what you were working on a few months back?

http://groups.drupal.org/aegir-hosting-system

Aegir is a set of Drupal modules that helps you maintain your Drupal sites.
It does this by providing you with a simple Drupal based hosting front end for your entire network of sites. To deploy a new site you simply have to create a new Site node. To backup or upgrade sites, you simply manage your site nodes as you would any other node.

What do I need to run Aegir?

I'm curious how everybody keeps up-to-date with Drupal news and developments. Here's a partial list of my feeds.

The Planet Drupal aggregator.
New modules.
Twitter search for "drupal." Obnoxious volume but entertaining to skim.
Post installation support forum. Helping people is good for your karma. And educational.

Drush 2 is way better and usable than Drush 1.
http://drupal.org/project/drush

Drush is a command line tool for Drupal, it is not a module. I have found it greatly increases my Drupal development. It can download, enable, disable, uninstall and update modules/themes/profiles/translations. It is CVS, SVN and Rsync capable. It can execute SQL commands and many core functions like cron and clearing cache. But wait there's more ...

If you develop with Drupal I recommend loading it on your local environment with these commands. I do all my CVS checkouts/updates with it.

If you missed DrupalCon DC 2009 or missed a session, No worries! Most sessions were video taped and are already becoming available on Archive.org.

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=DrupalconDC2009%20AND%20collecti...

I'm going to watch the keynote now - http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalconDC2009-DriesKeynote

Yesterday, I received 3 copies of "Learning Drupal 6 Module Development". I requested these from Packt to entice new members (thank you Packt). So, if you have never attended a meeting and would like a free copy post a comment below briefly describing yourself, your Drupal experience (if any), other web development experience and a short plee why you deserve a book. The first 3 people to post a decent plea and attend a meeting will get a free copy at that meeting. If we have more than 3 people who qualify at the meeting, attendees will decide which 3 are the best. Lack of experience with good intentions and a plan seems like a decent plee to me.

So who wants a free book?

Last night I received two copies of "Using Drupal", one for me in exchange for a review and one to use as bait for new members. The book is a module mashup recipe book that covers more than 30 contributed modules in 8 common site requirements.

I registered our group with Apress Publishing. There are several benefits.

Dear Michael Hofmockel,

Thank you for registering Iowa Drupal Users Group with Apress!
In this message you will find:

1. Overview of Membership Benefits
2. Free Books for the Group
3. User Group Book Discount**

1. Overview of Membership Benefits:

• Free books in exchange for reviews.
• 25% off regular priced Apress and friends of ED titles.
• Free promotional items for user group raffles and events.

I registered our group with Packt Publishings user group program. This provides several benefits. Read the reply from Packt.

Hello Michael,

Thanks for getting back. I have registered your user group with us. The
information should come up shortly on our website.

This will get you and your user group members, the following benefits:

1) 15% off on all Packt products
2) Books to be reviewed and published on your website and
Amazon/Slashdot.org. Members are also welcome to review our books.
3) Donation of books for your user group meetings so that they can be

This morning I registered our group with O'Reilly's User Group Association Program. There are several benefits they offer. Read my interaction in typical email reply reverse order.

HI Michael

Nice to meet you. I'll send you a couple of copies of our new book.

We've also got a Drupal book forum here:
http://forums.oreilly.com/category/39/Using-Drupal/#

And a webcast we had recently here:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/e/1175