Posted by ashedryden on January 17, 2011 at 3:54pm
Start:
2011-01-17 09:00 - 10:00 America/Chicago Organizers:
Event type:
Online meeting (eg. IRC meeting)
First Skype discussion. If you haven't currently hooked up with everyone else on Skype, add me (my Skype name is Ashedryden) and I will add you to the group chat.
We should come up with a list of what everyone wants to learn and create a syllabus for the first month.
Comments
We'll use this meeting to get
We'll use this meeting to get a feel for what the participants are looking for in study group and to introduce ourselves. We'll have a voice call with video being an option.
The idea of the study group began as a way to learn module building. We can extend it beyond that if there is an interest once we tackle that first subject.
What do we hope to gain from a group like this, how will it best serve you?
D6 or D7?
Do we want assignments?
Will any need one-to-one help?
What is your skill level with Drupal, PHP, etc.
Does everyone have the Pro Drupal book?
Recommendations for resources
With regards to the subject matter we'll have a couple of things to consider as well.
Are we all going to try to build the same module in our own space then discuss how it went, or if we have/had problems?
Do we want to have a common sandbox to use to test?
Also we can use this meeting to determine if Skype is actually the way to go for the online meetings. We may need something more interactive like WebEx or Adobe Connect or DimiDim.
Build a Module Study Group notes
Build a Module Study Group notes
Jan. 17, 2011
Attendees: Ariel, Ashe, Carolyn, Kalpana, Kathy, Katy, Marilyn, Tena
We met for group Skype voice chat.
Contact Kathy (Kappaluppa on Skype, g.d.o, twitter, etc.) to join our Skype group
http://groups.drupal.org/studygroup
on IRC: drupal-studygroup
We went around and introduced ourselves
Ashe reminded us to mute yourself when you are not speaking to cut down on background noise
Ariel is from Queens, New York and is webmaster of womenenews.org and wants to learn more about customizing Drupal
Ashe is a web developer from Milwaukee is one of the organizers for DrupalCon Chicago
Carolyn lives in Washington DC and has been building Drupal sites for 2 years as a freelancer
Marilyn also lives in Washington DC and is a web manager at ipmglobal.org – just redesigned in Drupal
Kalpana also lives in Washington DC and works for federal government
Tena lives in Denver, Colorado, is an Oracle database admin whose passion is Drupal
Kathy is freelance Drupal developer in Denver Colorado
Katy is also freelance Drupal developer in Vancouver, Canada, with 2 years experience building websites with Drupal
Kathy: What version of Drupal would you like to focus on? Drupal 6 or 7. One person voted for Drupal 7 while the rest voted for Drupal 6
Kathy: Who has the Pro Drupal 6 Development book? Several responded Yes
Ashe: Is there anyone else here that is hearing impaired? Kathy responded Yes
Ashe: How do we want to communicate during weekly meetings? skype/irc/adobe connect ?
Where should we host our group? Ning, P2Pu.org, Open Atrium
We agreed to investigate using Ning and P2Pu.org.
Heather James from Acquia did a Intro to Drupal course using P2Pu.org.
http://www.p2pu.org/webcraft/introduction-drupal
What platform are you using? Mac, Pc or Linux?
Kathy: We could try adobeconnect
http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect/tech-specs.html
How do we start learning custom module development?
Do you want to start by writing your own module?
Katy has written a tutorial on how to build a module that displays “Hello World” message. See http://www.mydrupal.ca/how-build-your-first-drupal-module
See also Chris Shattuck’s website, buildamodule.com
It has some free videos and also paid subscription
http://buildamodule.com/drupal-video/build-your-first-drupal-module-video
Also a good video tutorial by Lullabot on Module Development
Pro Drupal Development book
pro drupal development errata: http://apress.com/book/errata/990
Tena suggusted it’s a good idea to investigate techniques for debugging
What kind of module should we build for homework?
Tena said several presenters at DrupalCon SF recommend putting PHP code in your own custom module. She would like to know how to do that.
Katy said she would like to build a module that automatically creates an Editor role with custom menu with links to Add blog post, edit content, etc.
Kathy: maybe that could be an intermediate level module
Ashe: Twitter module might be easy. There are several modules that pull your twitter feed into your Drupal website. We could pull one apart and re-write it as a practice exercise.
Anyone interested in learning outside of Drupal?
Some said yes to jQuery, PHP/mySQL
Katy: I'm interested in learning PHP and mySQL and I’m looking for online training
Responses: Zend.com for PHP
jquery for designers: http://jqueryfordesigners.com/
Jennifer A. Niles joined the group after we finished. She is also hearing impaired, uses a Mac and has been working in Drupal 6 for about 6 months or so and is still confused! LOL
Katy Laan, Senior Web Developer
SeascapeWebDesign.com
Seascape Web Interactive
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