Hi all,
I have been using Drupal for about 6 months on my own site and now having a real desire to learn how to code in Drupal. I'm an application developer in real life, but never had to use PHP.
I'm wondering if anyone would like to walk down this path with me. I thought it would be more fun to do this as a team rather than by myself.
We can discuss details like when and how often we are going to meet if there is enough interest in such a "learning" group.
Please reply to this post if you are interested, and feel free to post any ideas you may have.
Thanks!
UPDATE AS OF 06/09/08:
Trying to sum up what has been suggested below:
- bi-weekly (or even weekly) standing time window at a coffee shop (by gormsby)
- take a small, simple module from drupal.org and rip it apart. (by maher)
- The 3-5 PM time frame on weekdays is usually open for me. (by cwgriesel)
- creation of a TC Drupal coders forum (by hikarateboy)
- bi-weekly meetings with different times (by steamedpenguin)
- documentation and patch testing (by steamedpenguin)
ISSUES:
3-5 pm time frame for meeting would most likely not work for most of us. I for example don't leave work until 5pm at the earliest.
PEOPLE INTERESTED SO FAR - 11 people so far!
justinzero, gormsby, cwgriesel, hikarateboy, steamedpenguin, libsys, Wylbur, dgorton, CitizenKane, Allie Micka and myself.
First Group meeting has been Scheduled!
Sign up for the meeting here. Hope you can attend!
Comments
Maybe
I'd be interested depending on scheduling. I'm only in the Twin Cities area for 3 month intervals for an internship, I'm otherwise in Michigan for school.
I really haven't used PHP much since PHP 3, so all the new features are lost on me.
Interested [with all the caveats that come with a busy life]
I like the idea. Perhaps we could have a bi-weekly (or even weekly) standing time window at a coffee shop where the expectation would be to focus on programming questions and topics - not as demonstrations, but as a chance to collaborate and think about projects. Sort of a standing working meeting to complement the demonstrations and free-form discussions at the monthly Drupal User Group meetings.
I'm working my way slowly through Pro Drupal Development (Van Dyke and Westgate) in preparation for the Lullabot Workshops coming up in May, and having an ongoing collaborative forum to develop and share what I learn over the next couple weeks would be great.
Exactly what I had in mind
at a coffee shop where the expectation would be to focus on programming questions and topics - not as demonstrations, but as a chance to collaborate and think about projects.
This is exactly what I had in mind. I thought a good way to get started is to take a small, simple module from drupal.org and rip it apart. Try to understand how it is coded and what and how it does what it does. We can move from one module to another until we feel confident enough to code our own or even add features to the ones we already studied?!
Count me in
Count me in too. There are already many opportunities to get together to learn from other Drupalers in the Twin Cities... check out www.advantagelabs.com -- the sponsors of this group -- as well as www.tcopencircuit.org, who has held "Drupal Day", "Short Circuits" and other events designed to learn from each other. And the upcoming Minnebar (barcamp.org/MinneBar) is another great opportunity.
But more opportunities to learn from each other can only be a good thing.
The most difficult part of these sort of endeavors is finding a time to meet. But if someone wants to propose a time & place, I'll try to stop by. The 3-5 PM time frame on weekdays is usually open for me.
Just my thoughts but excited for whatever happens.
I definitely feel it would be great to have others locally with which to work thru challenges and share experiences and discoveries.
I've been a web applications developer by day over the last 10 years and have been using php on my own stuff for half that. Unfortunately the job limits my ability to meet during between 3 - 5 weekdays.
Face to face is great but feel that bi-weekly may be to often in light of the numerous other local drupal meet ups. Perhaps a portion of one of the monthly meetings could be used to explain a coding paradigm or issue specific to drupal.
I am tentative to suggest creation of a TC Drupal coders forum but in all honesty it may be a good idea. I realize that this is redundant due to the forums on drupal.org but to be honest, I dread searching there due to the poor implementation of forums in drupal, the glut of garbage posts from people who aren't coders as well as the amount poor or incorrect information.
Our forum would exist to feed the local coders group discussion and allow those who are not able meet up to contribute or receive help. If there are only a couple posts a day, a week, a month so be it.
I'd also advocate that posting permission be requested as to avoid any 'create extensive step by step instructions for me since I am not interested in learning anything' or 'do it for me' types.
The main difference would be a sense of focus, connection and responsibility to the local community which would result in a much more efficient and effective group.
Just my thoughts but excited for whatever happens.
Another thought
A friend suggested how bout taking the tear a module apart idea one step further and the group adopts a module.
We wouldnt even need to take full responisbility for maintaining (unless some one wanted to) and we could just jump in and go to town.
I thought it was a great idea which would supply a common frame of reference, plenty opportunities to write and debug not to mention contribute back to the bigger drupal community.
would work too
That would work too. I think it will be helpful though to start with a simple module and not jump right into complex ones from the start. Lets not forget, this is a group to "start learning how to code in drupal", jumping into complex modules, or even complex tasks from the very begining might cause lots of frustrations. Building good foundations should be our main foucus, and when members start getting confortable, we of course can move to more complex assignments.
Count me in
I think this is a great idea.
My several cents:
The thing that Drupal developers almost always suggest for beginners are:
Play the patch game. Instead of focusing on a module we could rip through patches that are awaiting testing for D7 core. When the patches don't work that well we could discuss and offer our patches to the patches.
There is always a need for documentation. Those with more code experience could describe code snippets and functions leaving writing actual English to others. This way we go through the code piece by piece gaining knowledge while Drupal core gains documentation of code and functions.
I would suggest having bi-weekly meetings with different times so that different people can congregate around different days and different times if it is too difficult to agree on one day and one time slot.
Samir M. Nassar
...count me in
...count me in too
steamedpenguin raises a couple of good points regarding documentation and patch testing. Both activities would be highly appreciated by the community.
But all the suggestions so far seem interesting.
3-5 generally works for me, and I'd like bi-weekly to start off.
Good ideas
Good point about making sure we are developing coders not just code.
Patching sounds like a good idea. Documentation a necessary evil that is extremely lacking (I hear some people even enjoy doing it).
The book 'Pro Drupal Development' (Van Dyke and Westgate) that gormsby mentioned is great recommendation for anyone wanting to understand drupal's architecture and best practices. I have to admit that I still don't fully understand hooks within drupal. Pick it up or check the library so you can at least look thru it.
We should probably create some sort of roadmap for this based on the suggestions captured by Maher.
In addition to learning code we should probably include the use of CVS. That may sound heavy duty for what we are try to do I think it would be very helpful especially if when people are working on the same lines. It would be very helpful for documentation also.
Afternoons are hard for me with the day job but my schedule is somewhat flexible so will try to make it when I can.
Great Discussion - a few more thoughts
Patching and documenting are great ideas and are probably pretty well-suited to an ad-hoc, come-who-may group.
D7 is a great place to pitch in. It's a good idea to look at contrib as well, and there are some great close-to-home resources in contrib -- at least two members of the TC Drupal community (Allie and Ronan) have multiple contrib modules already out there, and I'm sure others do as well.
I bet lots of contrib module maintainers would be happy to share knowledge, insights, etc., especially if they thought that it might pay off with having more people up-to-speed on their modules, willing and able to help with issues, patches, suggestions, documentation and such. If so, that may be a great everyone-wins, sum-is-greater-than-it's-parts formula. Maybe once a month the goal would be to have a 'guest module maintainer' come, give an overview of module X and the kinds of places it could be improved (or whatever). Over that month, then, the working sessions could focus on that module, it's issue queue, new features, documentation or whatever else the module maintainer thought might be appropriate/interesting.
That would provide lots of exposure to smart, experienced Drupalers, lots of different code samples and a chance to both contribute and learn a lot at the same time. Grabbing guest Drupalers as they come into town would be another option (e.g. the Lullabots who arrive on Monday, combined have about 2 zillion contrib modules, many which they are encouraging others to take over. Or maybe someone from the U of M Search Sprint next weekend.)
I'd be up for participating in a sub-group like this. Realistically, my free time is quite limited (e.g. I only seem to be able to make it to about every other TC Drupal meeting). I'd be unlikely to show up to something multiple times a month, but I would come when possible. My own personal focus would also probably tend towards documentation.
Drew Gorton
Gorton Studios
Ok, Lets Put a Meeting Together!
It looks like there is a lot of interest to shape such a learning group. Keep posting comments without acting on them will lead no where. So here is what we can work on to take this a little further.
Can we plan to meet next week some time for about an hour to put together some sort of a "Road Map" and discuss ideas, options, and direction face to face?!
I don’t know how you guys feel about next Thursday evening 05/08 for a "startup meeting"? We can lay down the essentials and get a sense on where we can take this little group we are going to form!
I can create an event for us to signup to. Lets agree on time and place to meet. I think a coffee shop would work just fine.
Any Thoughts?
Please reply with the place and time that works best for you. If Thursday doesn’t work for you, please suggest a different day.
I'm all for it. A place
I'm all for it. A place that's not too hard to find would be great. I'm pretty new to the area, and live up in White Bear Lake.
As for scheduling, how about 6pm?
First meeting
Thursdays are a no go for me until June 12. Whether I make it to the planning meeting won't affect my participation in the project. Ultimately whatever format is chosen the benefits of working with other Drupal users to learn about Drupal internals outweight any considerations of how it is done.
Even if I can't make certain times I'll try to track through email/CVS/wiki/etc.
SteamedPenguin: Not Your Usual Meal
Samir M. Nassar
Place: Here?
We'd be happy to play host tonight. Our offices are about 20 minutes from either downtown (map).
Open to other suggestions as well, but it seemed like it was high time to propose a concrete location.
So, to recap - tonight at 6:00 at Gorton Studios is a potential time/place combination.
Drew Gorton
Gorton Studios
Only one Person
justinzero is the only one who replied saying he would be able to meet. That makes only 2 members - I highly doubt we will be meeting tonight. I was hoping for at least 4 to 5 people so we would be able to collaborate on a Road map.
Your offer is great, and would be great if you can extend until we decide on when to meet. If more people can meet tonight, then lets do it!
Event?
Is there a way to get this meeting listed as an event, to do sign ups and so on?
6PM may work for me but I will have to plan it a couple weeks out so I can re-arrange my schedule.
If we do 6PM in a couple weeks, I'll try to stop by.
Sounds good.
Per maher's comment - let's try to get a count of people who would be willing/able to come tonight. If we don't hit 5, let's reschedule. Please reply to this comment with affirmatives.
(I'm in - so that makes 1)
If not tonight, though, I'd still be happy to let the location offer stand.
Drew
Drew Gorton
Gorton Studios
I'm in - that makes 2
I'm in - that makes 2
If 6pm is too close to people leaving work and traffic - would the place be available lets say 0630 to 0700pm?!
If we don't reach the 5 people count today I will create an event for next Thursday or even Wednesday so people can sign up.
Unfortunately I have a conflict for tonight.
Since I went to Lullabot meet up last night I'm stuck home with the kids tonight so can not make it.
I'd really like to be involved in getting this group off the ground but have a similar situation as Drew (Go Node Monkey!) in that my schedule always runs a bit tight and wednesdays are always booked. Hence the reason I havent made any of the tc group meetings.
I think it important that people are in a room to hammer out a road map but once that's done we probably need to take a look at creating a system that allows for a good amount of virtual collaboration so any one who is interested can be involved regardless of schedule.
keepin the dream alive
I'm Unavailable today....
I'd love to attend, but I'll be working pretty much all night tonight....next Thursday should be OK for me though.
Postponed
Just in case those guidelines weren't crystal-clear, tonight is postponed. Look for the rescheduled version.
I personally am traveling next Wednesday - Friday, so won't be able to attend anything then (and Ronan is having a baby, so our location is probably out as well). Evenings the following week are generally open, though.
Drew Gorton
Gorton Studios
Would a week from this coming Monday work?
I'm not sure how it works for anyone else but my schedule is usually more open earlier in the week so hopefully Monday is good for others too if not throw another time out there and I'll see what I can do. I'm cool with whatever location.
In addition to the people mentioned above I think I have another 1 or 2 that would be interested.
Still interested, despite my silence
I've been at the Lullabot Drupal trainings all week, and that has monopolized my time and brain power, hence my silence. Just letting you know I haven't disappeared. My schedule is fairly open with random commitments, as well as work M-F during the day.
I'm in
I'm all for it! I available in the evenings (after about 6:30pm) every day of the week. I'm not sure where to start, but ripping through patches or some small modules seems like a good idea to me.
Another pass?
Here's hoping this didn't get dropped! Summertime is hard with vacations and a variety of lake-related distractions, but it's worth trying to nail down another time + place for this.
My vote is for a social venue so we can talk freely and plan next steps. Common Roots cafe in Minneapolis is great for this, with good, local snacks - and BEER!
June 17th at 7:00 seems like a safe candidate for timing.
I'm in!
The 17th works for me -- I'll be there.
Will create an EVENT for this
I will be creating an EVENT for Jun 17th so members can sign up for it. Will do this Sunday - watch for it
Sign up
Sign up for the meeting here. Hope you can attend!
17th is a go...I'll be there
17th is a go...I'll be there
Good Work!
This has been on my mind as well - and yes - that summer schedule has definitely set in. I'm going to try to make it as well - will sign up once everything is cleared to allow that to happen!
Drew Gorton
Gorton Studios
Subscribing
Add me to the list of the interested. Thanks for picking a date and venue, this is the best way to get things rolling.
Alas, Tuesday nights do not work for me, so I cannot attend. I will stay tuned for more updates!
Wylbur Ince
Sundays Energy
Headcount needed for June 17th meeting (venue issue)
I went ahead and tried to reserve the community room at Common Roots for our group on Tuesday evening. Unfortunately it is already booked. This is a problem if we have more than, say 6-8 people show up. If it's half a dozen folks, their patio or several tables in the main sections of the cafe may accommodate the group.
So, can we get a show of hands (in the form of signing up via http://groups.drupal.org/node/12101) of who is intending to come to this group meeting? If it looks like a larger number by the end of this afternoon, we should look into an alternative venue for this first meeting. If we can establish a date/time for a regular meeting, we can book out the Common Roots room up to 2 months in advance...
barry
Barry Madore
Advantage Labs, Inc.
Barry Madore
Triplo
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN