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Drupal Tips

Our collection of Drupal-specific tips.

Drupal 6.x Sub-Theme Development Troubleshooting Checklist

The Drupal Sub-Theme system is a welcome addition to the Drupal system. There are a few gotchas that can trip up the unwary. Here's a quick troubleshooting list to check when you are creating a sub-theme based on an existing Drupal theme.

  1. Disable Drupal's CSS and JavaScript caching in your site's admin settings/performance page: example.com/admin/settings/performance
  2. Be sure to define at least one style sheet in your .info file. Base theme style sheets are not inherited unless you define at least one style sheet for your sub-theme
  3. Avoid Frustration: Some changes won't take effect right away. Rebuild the Drupal theme cache by visiting your site's admin/build/themes page (hit the browser reload button just to be certain!)
  4. White Screen Of Death?: If you override one of the base theme's template files, then later delete it, you may fall victim to the dreaded WSOD, and will be unable to access the site. Solution: the theme cache may need to be cleared.
    • If you can't access your site due to a WSOD, use a SQL query to delete the theme cache entry from the {cache} table: delete from cache where cid like 'theme_registry%'; then reload your site's page. For more information, see Clearing the Theme Cache.

A few bad apples

One or two bad apples may not spoil the whole bunch but they sure do make a foul-tasting pie

I've built, from scratch, a few useful Drupal contributed modules for my own use, and shared them via the Drupal.org contributed modules system. I shared them as my way of supporting the Drupal community (since I benefited from the freely-available Drupal core and other contributed modules).

While the vast majority of users have been polite and reasonable, and a few have offered support, on the whole I find that the majority of users seeking help or reporting bugs do so without offering much in return. Most of the time it seems like a one-sided relationship.

I do appreciate the information most issue reports have to offer but I am unable to respond to all requests in a timely manner. I've been very busy with other priorities over the last year or so, so I've not had much time to dedicate to maintaining the modules I've contributed. The support requests and bug reports have been piling up. As a result I'm seeking new maintainers for all of the modules.

Further, I've decided that I will think twice before sharing future custom Drupal modules via Drupal.org's contributed modules project hosting.

Mollom.com: another spam prevention mechanism for Drupal admins

When trying to keep web site content clean and on-topic, the site administrators often face monumental challenges from spammers.

Mollom.com is an alternative to using the Spam or Akismet modules. It's in beta at present, and it is free of charge at present. It is expected to remain free for low-volume users (for details, please refer to the mollom.com web site - link below.)

gigs.exodusdev.com now online - uses our Drupal classified ads module

I've set up a new site, http://gigs.exodusdev.com, as a way to showcase my Drupal Classified Ads module. All Drupal consultants or developers are welcome to sign in and create ads for their services. If you are looking for a consultant, there's a category for that, too.

I want to put the classified ads module through its paces, so, if you offer or need Drupal services, please drop in at http://gigs.exodusdev.com and give it a try!

Classified ads module for Drupal 4.7 and Drupal 5 available on Drupal.org

I've committed the classified ads module to the Drupal.org CVS - it's now available for download as an official release package.

You can find the official project page (and the official downloads) at http://drupal.org/project/ed_classified.

Help for the weary Drupal developer: api.drupal.org and drupal.org OpenSearch plugins




OpenSearch Plug-ins for Drupal.org, Drupal 4.7 API, Drupal 5 API, and Drupal 6 API

I've created some Drupal-specific OpenSearch plugins for Firefox (and IE7, too!). They provide Drupal.org and api.drupal.org search integration in browsers supporting the OpenSearch search plugin protocol.
They are useful when searching for Drupal API routines or other Drupal development subjects. Install them as you would any other OpenSearch plugin...

MyBlogLog for Drupal 4.7

I've created a simple MyBlogLog module for Drupal 4.7. This module provides the following features:

  • Inserts the MyBlogLog tracking javascript into generated pages - no need to hand-edit your template's page.tpl.php file, or manually create a block to inject the tracking javascript.
  • Provides the "Recent Reader" widget block
    (includes configuration options - color, width, # rows, etc.)
  • Disable visitor tracking for Administrators and other users on a per-role basis (prevent skewed stats due to admin or other roles' visits.)


... and more

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