Upper Valley Drupallers: We'll likely rotate among all of these meetup formats, but which would you find the MOST useful?

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cdulude's picture
"How to" session on one topic, announced ahead of time (How to write a module, How to use Drush)
0% (0 votes)
"Show and tell" session, topic(s) announced ahead of time (Here's a great theme I just wrote, Here's a new website I launched)
0% (0 votes)
"Open mic" session, topics *not* announced ahead of time (Here's something I'd like feedback on, Something I'm working on)
0% (0 votes)
"Informal networking opportunities," aka socializing about Drupal (Happy hour, meet for dinner)
0% (0 votes)
Total votes: 0

Comments

Meetup structure

liber_tas's picture

Although I voted for "How to", I think all the formats are useful. So either a rotation, or maybe a combination in the same meetup if time allows.

We tend to be "open mic" now...

himerus's picture

In the Manchester meetups, we have recently been leaning more towards the "we really have no agenda" type meetups, with less structured topics, and they've been working really well. (according to some feedback I've received) However, the structured, primary topic meetings have been the ones (historically) where we have had the best attendance.

They do ALL work well however, even if it is, say for a month when only a very small handful can attend, just meeting up right at the bar for some networking and beer.

I've attended a lot of meetups in the Boston DUG, and their format (since it is a much larger group) is that anyone who likes can have 10 minutes for the evening... Then you can either ask a question of the group, (about the issue you're having) or show off something cool you've seen or built.

Our main idea now is to "try" to pick one topic that can be covered quickly, then move to "how can we help each other" where anyone with a question can pipe in and get some support. I've personally done a couple meetups (last year) where a presentation I gave (intended to be 45 min - 1 hr) ran quite long (1.5 hrs) and I wasn't personally satisfied, and I think the room was mostly asleep. :)

All in all, once you guys get to meet a few times, it should all sort itself out about what is the "best" method, or which methods to vacillate between.

menu question

rogman_lebnh's picture

Hi Upper Valley Drupallers,

I have a question. Is it possible to pick apart the Primary menu links?

You know how each item in the Primary menu can have a list of children? I want to print a list of child links in the left sidebar whenever the parent item has been clicked in the primary menu. I don't want drop-down menus for this site. (Please don't ask why. My end-users are getting crazier and crazier each day.)

I'm afraid that I may need to create a list view of CCK types or I may need to hack the template.php file in my theme.

-Roger

Hi Roger, I think you could

cdulude's picture

Hi Roger,

I think you could accomplish this in one of two ways:

  1. As part of the theme: check out the "Settings" section of the menu admin interface. Set both the Main Links and Secondary Links dropdowns to be "Main Menu" (Primary Links in D6). And make sure you have both "main menu" and "secondary menu" checked in your theme settings.

  2. Check out Menu Block module: http://drupal.org/project/menu_block . It allows you to set parent and child menus in various ways.

Hope this helps!

Christina

re: menu_block

rogman_lebnh's picture

This looks really cool. Just one question. In your experience, do you know whether this modules interacts well with Panels?

-Rog

Hi Roger -- sorry for not

cdulude's picture

Hi Roger -- sorry for not responding earlier! Somehow I missed this. Anyway, I'm not sure I've ever used Menu Block with Panels? Hope it worked out for you.

Menu Block

rogman_lebnh's picture

It seems to work great actually. I use so many different modules; I'm surprised that they all seem to work well together. I used blocktheme to style the menu block. BTW, I'm still on version 6.x for production sites.

There are just a few minor drawbacks to menu blocks. I can't just use to specify the homepage path in the Primary Menu. I had to use the same URL alias of the "Default front page" that I specified in the admin/settings/site-information settings. If I did use , then my menu block would be empty when I clicked the corresponding link the Primary Menu. (And I obviously don't support the use of the same URL alias in more than one place in the Primary Menu tree. I think that would really confuse menu block because it wouldn't know which branch of the menu tree to display.)

Other than that, it worked great. All the nested menu items appear automatically in the menu block whenever a Primary Menu item is clicked. I put the menu block in the left sidebar.

This is yet another example of the granular control that Drupal gives you over your websites. This is why I tend to lean towards Drupal when end-users ask for something that involves more than just simple WYSIWYG content editing.

-Roger

presenting?

rogman_lebnh's picture

Hi there,
I wasn't sure if we're due for a meeting.
When is the next meeting?
Are we doing "Open Mic" or a "niffties" style meeting?
I'd like to show off my menu blocks and draggable views.

-Rog

meeting...

rogman_lebnh's picture

sorry, never mind, I saw Christina's post. I missed it.
I got a lot on my plate now. Next time...
-Rog

New Hampshire

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