Drupal

I recently gave a presentation about "Install Profiles" in Drupal 6 and 7 at the monthly Broward County, FL Drupal Users Group. Here at SoFla Web Studio, we use Install Profiles along with Drush Make to assist in speeding up development times, and also to automate as many repeatable steps as we can. This allows us to focus the majority of our time on the custom work that each website requires.

There are quite a few steps that need to be repeated for a base Drupal install that can be easily automated with the use of Install Profiles, however most people do not bother to create their own. Install Profiles are actually realatively simple to make. My presentation is an introduction into the anatomy of a Drupal Install Profile, the differences between Drupal 6 and Drupal 7, and a few basic code examples to get you started.

The presentation does not have any audio right now, however, once that's released, I'll post a link. We had a healthy discussion during the meeting and most of it is captured in the audio. To summarize Install Profiles versus Features it is best stated that Features works better for defined tasks and sections, while Install Profiles are great for general configuration that can be accomplished during an installation of Drupal. Such configurations include; creating input formats, creating an administrator role, and setting a default admin theme.

Drupal Developer/Site Implementer/Designer (Hollywood, FL)
 
Local Web Studio close to I-95 and Hollywood Blvd. is looking for a Drupal Developer/Site Implementer.

We have a current opening for a talented individual with direct Drupal experience.

Qualified candidates will have experience deploying Drupal websites with any or all of the following.

Experience with:
- deploying Drupal website from installation to final launch
- creating requirements for clients and formulating Drupal recipes to meet those requirements
- customizing Drupal themes - strong CSS skills
- maintaining Drupal website content and updates (administering users, permissions, etc...)
- adding 3rd party modules to Drupal websites
- developing custom Drupal modules
- working with CiviCRM is a strong plus
- experience with Ubercart is a strong plus

Experience with other open source CMS systems is a plus but we do need direct Drupal experience.
Any experience with Zen Cart or Ubercart is a plus.

No companies or contractors will be considered for this position! We are looking for someone to grow with our company.
This is an in-house position. You must live in the South Florida Tri-county area and commute to our office daily.

Our very own Lead Drupal Developer, Chris Parsons, recently presented to the Fort Lauderdale Drupal Users Group.

In May 2010 Chris spoke to the group about creating rotating banners in Drupal and the multiple ways to accomplish this commonly request feature.

Used to make slideshows, homepage billboards, portfolio displays and many other functions, rotating banners are a fantastic tool for use in your Content Management System. When built properly, they are very easy to use, maintain and can be updated frequently, to keep your content fresh, with very little effort.

Chris spent time discussing options between rotating banners in Drupal, such as views_slideshow and views_cycle.

Check out his slide deck below.

Aquatic Systems is one of the leading Lake and Wetland Management companies in the state of Florida. They restore and maintain private, commercial and public lakes, waterways, wetlands and preserves from overgrowth of algae and exotic species, poor water quality, and fish kills. Their former site was a 10-page static HTML site. Their goal was to not only update the look of their website, but to be able to add press releases, articles, and case studies in order to become the online resource for their industry.

This multi-part story is presented for those parties that are contemplating using CiviCRM with Drupal for an online project. The information provided will apply particularly well if you are looking to utilize CiviCRM for running an association or membership group.

Background

It all starts with an idea...

We were approached by a client to build a membership website for their constituents to utilize and assist in marketing the association, to attract new members, and ease the administrative burdens on the association staff. Our team has many years of experience with membership and association websites and this was the primary reason we were chosen for the project. After reviewing the requirements, we quickly realized that the systems we had used in past projects were not going to be adequate for this one without heavy customization and custom coding. After much deliberation, research, discussion and testing we decided that CiviCRM running on Drupal would be our best approach. What follows is the story of our process and our project.

With the announcement of Drupal being used to power WhiteHouse.gov, Drupal has been thrust into the spotlight even more. Its merits of a content management system have already been heralded, but as Drupal matures, people are starting to understand its power even more, and use it for non-CMS uses, such as the recently featured site on Drupal.org, GoTwitr.com. This begs the questions: is Drupal turning into a framework? Is it one already? Should it be?

Drupal as a CMS

Drupal was born as a CMS, and it would be a sad day if it gave up on those roots. This isn't predicted to happen, at least anytime soon. In fact, there has been plenty of work on the user interface in Drupal 7, including extensive UI testing and bringing in UI designers from outside the community to revamp and simplify the administration and content editing experience in Drupal 7. And while there's still an amount of configuration needed to get Drupal running well and tuned to be fast, it's still an out of the box solution that has near-immediate usability as a CMS.

When in need of Content Management System (CMS) for your website you can't go wrong with Drupal.  Several years ago our company was evaluating different options for  (CMS) software for our clients. As with any software selection in today's time there are generally 3 options to pursue: