Ventura Workgroup/Studygroup at Pizza Chief, Wed Jun 9, 7-9pm

Great, I plan on coming :) as long as there is newbie interaction - I have to learn to crawl before I walk ...

Great I plan on being there. Thanks for organizing

Hi Charles,

This is a casual, small group get together with the goal of helping each other get things done with Drupal.

We're all new to something, so this is meant to be a general Q&A session where Ventura locals can hookup with a few other folks who want to help each other learn what they need.

Quick answers or longer explanations are up to you. Come on by and ask away! Or come by and help others. :)

Need more structure? Then suggest a specific topic you are interested in and an example of how you want to use it. We'll see if we can work it out together.

It was a small group, but we quickly ate up the 2 hour meeting time discussing and working on solutions to specific questions that we had about our day to day use of Drupal. We just opened our laptops, moved some benches to make for better viewing and jumped in. Here is a summary of our main discussion points.

• Installing multiple Drupal sites under OSX, using MAMP. This turned out not to be a discussion of Drupal multi-sites,but more about simple Drupal configuration issues in settings.php.

• We looked at theming issues associated with using the Nice Menus module. In particular, we discussed how certain CSS selectors effected menus made from <ul> and <li> elements. Also discussed related id's css classes and selectors, such as .menuparent and #block-nice_menus-1

• Showed how to turn on built in web developer tools in Safari to examine Nice Menu html and CSS. Compared with Chrome and Firefox.

• We discussed CSS selector precedence or weighting and how it applies to Drupal theming, especially sub-menus.

• Discussed use of jQuery Cycle plugin and corresponding Views Cycle module with Views in order to create a 'slider' like one that a participant had seen on an existing site.

The participants made it clear that what they want is basic help. They feel that Drupal Camps and regional meetups are great, but that many of the discussions and presentations are either way over their heads or not something they can take back and directly apply to their own Drupal sites at this time. They appreciate those events, but are also looking for something more basic and practical.

We plan to hold bi-weekly meetings of a 'clinic' nature; one where you come in and get help on specific questions, practice skills and work on your own projects around others who can help each other.

While the pizza parlor was a nice place to meet, it's not an ideal working and learning environment. Wifi, no sports/TV's, more space, projector, etc all make for a nicer workspace. Also, it looks like being in central Ventura is not that big of a convenience.

So we plan to hold future work group meetings, or clinics if you prefer, in people's homes.

We also discussed organizing some classes this summer to look specific aspects of Drupal that the group would like to cover. The first one of these will be on using and theming Views on June 19th in Ojai.

Markus I wasn't able to join the meetup but have a few thoughts on your next meetup. If you want to do it in Ojai you are welcome to use my office which is a converted garage that has a few large desks and plenty of room for added tables, etc. If you want to in Ventura then the Ventura Incubator may be a great location, I know the organizers there if you need to speak with them http://www.v2tc.com/about/visualtour

Though I am mainly a lowly project manager / biz dev guy Drupal is all we do so staying connected locally is up my ally.

Best,

Rob Wickens
Incendia Media

Just contact me next time you are ready to plan a meetup!

Cheers,

Rob

Sounds good to me. If at my place just let me know time and est attendance so I can setup some table and chairs.

The Ventura meet up sounds like quite the hit. Not to steal the Ventura thunder but would there be an interest in starting a meet up in Pasadena? Ventura is just a little too far for my liking. I have a fairly unused corner office in Old Town Pasadena (right above the Cheesecake Factory). It's sad that it's not getting much use because it's such a great place to work in a great location. The office overlooks the corner of Colorado and Fair Oaks. We can meet on the Wednesdays that the Ventura group doesn't meet. It would also be great if at least a couple people from different skill levels show up (so the "hardcore" programmers can push the envelope together and newbs can experiment new things together).

Let me know if there is any interest. We can meet as early as the 16th if people want.

best,
Scott

I had a great time last year for the drupal weekend at your house. I hope you do it again some time.

See you Benno

Absolutely. Should we make it Tuesday night then? Does 7:30-9:30 work best for most people? We do have wifi and plenty of work room (I will post pictures soon). There is a Coffee Bean across the street and a Starbucks a block away (we also have a couple bags from Jones Coffee Roaster we can brew here too). The address is 1 S Fair Oaks suite 201, Pasadena if anyone wants to gmap it.

Yup, Tuesday the 15th at 7:30pm. I started a new event for the Pasadena work group/study group with a link to some pictures... http://groups.drupal.org/node/74623