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Drupal 6 Theming Cheat Sheet

Matt — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:20:06 +0000

Now that Drupal 6 has been out for almost a year, I finally got around to updating my Drupal Theme Developer’s Cheat Sheet accordingly. Since it borrows from the Drupal Handbooks and API documentation, it’s available under the same Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 license.

Please contact me if you’re interested in translating the cheat sheet into another language and would like a copy of the Microsoft Word document used to create it. Also, let me know if you have any corrections or additions that you would like to see included in future revisions.

Drupal Theme Developer’s Cheat Sheet

Matt — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:00:38 +0000

UPDATE: I’ve now posted an updated Drupal 6 Theming Cheat Sheet.

The Drupal Handbooks are an exhaustive resource for learning all things Drupal. Unfortunately, sometimes finding just the information you need can be difficult. The Theme Developer’s Guide alone includes 14 sections, most made up of additional sub-sections.

With that in mind, I put together a Drupal Theme Developer’s Cheat Sheet that includes some of the most handy reference information for themers. The cheat sheet is specific to PHPTemplate, the most common theme engine for Drupal. The two page cheat sheet includes information on available variables, file naming conventions, sample code, and more.

If you have any corrections or suggestions for improving the cheat sheet, please leave a comment.

Download the PDF: Drupal Theme Developer’s Cheat Sheet

UPDATE: Horacio Salazar has translated the cheat sheet and posted a Spanish language version on his DrupalMex site.

45 Screencasts to Get You Kicking Ass with Drupal

Matt — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:14:19 +0000

I’ve been working a lot with Drupal lately. Drupal is a content management platform that can be difficult to learn, partially because it is so flexible and modular. Though the Drupal learning curve can be steep, the Drupal project founder and leader, Dries Buytaert posted a useful road map for getting you past the “I Kick Ass” threshold with Drupal.

Even with the road map, there’s still the matter of how to learn it all. There are Drupal books, Drupal podcasts, Drupal documentation, Drupal forums, Drupal IRC channels, Drupal groups, Drupal blogs, Drupal mailing lists, and more.

I’ve spent the last year or so developing a variety of Drupal sites both at work and in my off-time. I’m not an expert, but I have learned a lot during that time. For me, the various Drupal screencasts have proven to be one of the easiest ways of picking up Drupal concepts quickly.

Luckily, there are Drupal screencasts for practically every step along the Drupal learning curve, which I’ve collected below. One caveat: because the screencasts are free and produced by a variety of individuals, the quality can vary and some will definitely overlap in what they cover:

Installation and configuration of Drupal core

Node system

Block system

Users, roles and permissions

Installing contributed themes and modules

Upgrading, patching, (security) monitoring

Navigation, menus, taxonomy

Locale and internationalization

Drastically customize front page

see below

Theme and template modifications

Contributing documentation and support

How to Contribute to Drupal (slideshow, not a screencast)

Custom content types and views

Actions and workflows

Theme and module development

jQuery, FormAPI, security audits, performance tuning

Contributing code, designs and patches back to Drupal

More to Come

There are some gaps. For anyone who is interested in creating screencasts, the following topics from Dries’ list could use some more up-to-date coverage: drastically customizing the front page, security monitoring, security audits, performance tuning, locale and internationalization. If you find or create any screencasts covering these or other related Drupal topics, please leave a comment with a link.

This is my first of probably many Drupal-related blog posts. Subscribe to the RSS feed, if you’d like to keep up to date.

6 Sources for SXSW Interactive Panel Notes

Matt — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 07:21:44 +0000

I spent some time tonight tracking down notes from some of the SXSW Interactive panels. There are some panels I couldn’t attend because they overlapped with others and some I attended but wasn’t satisfied with my own notes. I’ve compiled a list below of six blogs that I found to have great notes.

In addition, the official SXSW Podcasts are already being posted. Unfortunately, the official podcasts get posted over weeks and months, so if you’re looking for specific panels it may be a while before they make it onto the site. The podcasts from SXSW Interactive 2006 are all online though and there are some definite gems in the bunch.

Unfortunately, the SXSW Baby Notes Exchange Wiki has seen almost no updates during the festival. The the wiki was a great idea, requiring a login goes against the nature of wikis and was apparently enough to keep anyone from creating or adding content.

Technorati Tags: sxsw, interactive, podcasts, panels, notes, Austin

Free Mindmapping Software, Today (3/6/07) Only

Matt — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:34:00 +0000

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Giveaway of the Day website lately. Every day, the site posts a new Windows program that is available for downloading free for just one day. The programs are fully licensed, though they must be installed the same day they are downloaded and are not upgradeable.

In the weeks that I’ve been checking the site, the offerings have been hit-and-miss, but today’s software looks interesting. It’s a mindmapping program called ConceptDraw MINDMAP Personal 4.

I’ve been using mindmapping software for a long time. Mindmapping has been especially useful for outlining my ideas before sitting down to write. I originally used Mindjet MindManager, but it has gotten to be too expensive, in my opinion.

Lately, I’ve been using the free, open source mindmapping package called Freemind. Freemind is slow to start up and a a bit clunky overall, but it is remarkably useful, especially considering the price. Still, I’m interested in giving MINDMAP Personal a try. I’ll be downloading it as soon as I finish this post.