Posted by jhodgdon on April 25, 2014 at 1:02pm
Start:
2014-05-15 10:00 - 12:00 America/Los_Angeles Organizers:
Event type:
User group meeting
We hope you can join us for the next meeting of the Spokane Day-Time Drupal Learning and Co-Working Group!
- When
- Thursday, May 15, 2014, 10 AM to noon
- Where
- Spokane County Library - Argonne branch, 4322 N. Argonne Road, Millwood. We meet in the large meeting room - enter from the door out in the hallway before you go into the area with the books
- What
- Learning and "co-working" time - bring your laptop, or watch on the projector screen. Come with a project you're working on, a desire to improve Drupal in some way (documentation, programming, design, marketing etc.), a question about Drupal you would like to get an answer to, or a desire to help others with their projects and questions. Or just come and listen and observe.
- Who
- Everyone is welcome -- the only prerequisite is having some interest in Drupal. This group is usually 5-10 friendly people, with experience levels ranging from novice to expert, so you'll fit right in. Because of the size of the group, you will have time to share something you've learned, or get your questions answered, or both!
Note: If you'd like to have a meeting at another time that is more convenient for you, please feel free to organize it! See http://groups.drupal.org/node/161584 for a Wiki where people have listed when would be convenient for them to have meetings.
Comments
Important: Sign up!
As people's schedules get busier (spring break, summer vacation, etc.), I'd like to try a new idea: Log in and click the "Sign up" button if you plan to come (or even if you think you probably will come). If you later realize that you cannot come, you can log in again and cancel your sign-up.
If less than 4 people (including me) have signed up by the morning of May 14, I will most likely cancel the meeting, and reschedule for June.
Signing up will also result in you getting an email reminder, which I've set up for 2 days before the meeting. An added benefit!
Thanks!
Drupal programmer - http://poplarware.com
Drupal author - http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920034612.do
Drupal contributor - https://www.drupal.org/u/jhodgdon
Any more sign-ups coming?
As of today (Monday), it looks like this meeting may be canceled due to an insufficient number of people signing up. If you plan to come, sign up now!
Drupal programmer - http://poplarware.com
Drupal author - http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920034612.do
Drupal contributor - https://www.drupal.org/u/jhodgdon
I can't find the sign-up for this
meet-up, I can see july, october and so... but not for MAY?
I am planning on being there.
Things have changed and I am back to my consulting business. Hope to see you all more often!
Thanks for the reminder about the meeting.
I will be there... My self...
Hello let me know if you would like to spend this time onlty with me... I have couple of gaps I know you can help me to fill up!
I'm planning to be there too...
Good to know, Jose, and I'm planning to be there too.
Got it
Thanks!
Great!
Thanks for signing up! We have a quorum. Unless something changes, we will have the meeting.
I'm also planning to continue the "you must sign up if you want the meeting to happen" practice for future meetings. Hopefully it was not too inconvenient (you just have to log in and click the "sign up" button, so shouldn't be too difficult).
Drupal programmer - http://poplarware.com
Drupal author - http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920034612.do
Drupal contributor - https://www.drupal.org/u/jhodgdon
What we discussed
At today's meeting, we discussed:
Overview of how Panels can be used to have different layouts on different content (Node) pages
The difference between "Security" and "Maintenance" releases of Drupal 7, and the release schedule
-- https://drupal.org/planet (Drupal Planet - RSS feed of blog posts about Drupal)
-- https://drupal.org/news (Drupal News - RSS feed of "official" news)
-- https://drupal.org/security (Security alerts - see sidebar for how to subscribe by email)
How to scan security alerts to see how "critical" they are for you (check for the "... is mitigated by..." section)
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
== "Wordpress is better at SEO than Drupal" has been heard
-- Jennifer asserts that any SEO thing you need to do can be done in Drupal (somehow!)
-- Tools for evaluating SEO: http://www.webgnomes.org/blog/10-seo-analysis-tools/
-- Drupal module: https://drupal.org/project/seo_checklist (Shawn does NOT recommend installing this!!!!)
-- Tips: Page title, URL, and content in H1 and H2 tags is the most critical (plus generically having good content on the page)
-- Use the Google Webmaster Tools (Web Analytics) - they will analyze your site and its SEO -- works with the Google Analytics module: https://drupal.org/project/google_analytics
-- Cool things to look at in Google Analytics: "User Flow" (where people land on your site and where they go), "Overview" (demographics, geographic, bounce rate, session duration)
-- Tutorial on how to use Webmaster tools: http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/webmastertools
-- Setting up an XML sitemap: https://drupal.org/project/xmlsitemap (module)
-- Hopefully, we will discuss this more next month!
URL redirects - if you need to get rid of old pages and do not want to have broken links - use this module: https://drupal.org/project/redirect
Browser tip: control-click or scroll-wheel-click on a link ==> open it in a new tab (wow!)
Tool for making and sharing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript demos with instant previews: http://codepen.io/ -- free/paid versions (paid gives you "private" pages) -- looking at other people's "Pens" on this site is a great way to learn HTML/CSS and see how to do cool things
Whew! That's a wrap... See you next month!
Drupal programmer - http://poplarware.com
Drupal author - http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920034612.do
Drupal contributor - https://www.drupal.org/u/jhodgdon