Shantanu's Blog

Labels: aws, drupal

Labels: aws, drupal, mysql, php, unicode, usability

Here are 12 points to be checked once drupal is installed on the server.

1. Select your favorite theme for e.g. “bluemarine” and then click on Configure to add search box. Select "Use the default logo", Add custom logos and also Deselect page, story under "Display post information on"
   
2. Administer - Site configuration - Site information - Name - Syntax Chemicals and Footer - Footer message
   
3. Administer – User Management - User settings - select "Only site admins can create new user accounts" and Deselect "Require e-mail verification"
   
4. Administer – User Management - Roles - Create a role "permanent" and "Temporary" and edit permissions accordingly.
   
5. Administer – User Management - Users - Add user
   
6. Administer – User Management - Access control - Deselct "access content" for annonymous users
   
7. Administer – Content Management – Post settings – Number of posts – 1 Length: unlimited
   
8. Administer – Site configuration – Input formats – Select PHP Code or full HTML as default
   
9. Create a few stories and pages using the “create content link”. Link the stories to the Navigation Menus
   
10. Administer - Site building – Menu – Update primary and navigation menus
    
11. Administer - Site building - Modules - Make sure "Profile" is selected.
    
12. Administer - User management - Profiles - single-line textfield - to create address profile.
    
13. Administer – Content Management – Categories – Add Vocabulary – For e.g. Page type, Add term like facilities
    

Labels: drupal

Here are 5 modules you can install and test to see how the modules add extra ordinary functionality to the drupal installation.

1) Front Page Module : can be installed to redirect the user to a different page based on different criterion.
Administer - Site building - Modules - Select "Front page"
global $user;
$sql_profile_check = db_query("SELECT * FROM {profile_values} WHERE fid = 8 AND uid = %d", $user->uid);
if (db_affected_rows($sql_profile_check)== 0 ) {
return 'user/' . $user->uid . '/edit/Details' ; //put once only destination here, this takes you to Profile
} else {
return 'user/'.$user->uid ; // put normal login destination here
}
2. Image Module : is required to be installed for the site where you want the user to upload and manage photos.
3. Regcode module : can be used if you want to send the registration code offline for better security
4. CCK module : To design custom form for e.g. “Repair Order Status”
5. Nodeaccess module : can be used to give restricted access to the “Verified users” to read all tickets but update only their own tickets.

Labels: drupal

If you are planning to use drupal for your website or as a Content Management System, please consider the 23 modules those are installed by default. The list is as follows:

1) Aggregator: Aggregates syndicated content (RSS, RDF, and Atom feeds).
2) Blog: Enables keeping easily and regularly updated user web pages or blogs.
3) Blog API: Allows users to post content using applications that support XML-RPC blog APIs.
4) Book: Allows users to collaboratively author a book.
5) Color: (Default: selected) Allows the user to change the color scheme of certain themes.
6) Comment: (Default: selected) Allows users to comment on and discuss published content. Required by - Forum (disabled)
7) Contact: Enables the use of both personal and site-wide contact forms.
8) Drupal: Lets you register your site with a central server and improve ranking of Drupal projects by posting information on your installed modules and themes.
9) Forum: Enables threaded discussions about general topics. Depends on - Taxonomy (enabled), Comment (enabled)
10) Help: (Default: selected) Manages the display of online help.
11) Legacy: Provides legacy handlers for upgrades from older Drupal installations.
12) Locale: Enables the translation of the user interface to languages other than English.
13) Menu: (Default: selected) Allows administrators to customize the site navigation menu.
14) Path: Allows users to rename URLs.
15) Ping: Alerts other sites when your site has been updated.
16) Poll: Allows your site to capture votes on different topics in the form of multiple choice questions.
17) Profile: Supports configurable user profiles.
18) Search: Enables site-wide keyword searching.
19) Statistics: Logs access statistics for your site.
20) Taxonomy: (Default: selected) Enables the categorization of content. Required by - Forum (disabled)
21) Throttle: Handles the auto-throttling mechanism, to control site congestion.
22) Tracker: Enables tracking of recent posts for users.
23) Upload: Allows users to upload and attach files to content.

a) Color, Comments, Help, Menu and Taxonomy are selected by default.

b) I will recommend to enable Profile, Tracker, Upload and polls to enable user participation. You can ofcourse decide the type of user who will have access to these features. for e.g. employees, editors etc.
i) Profile enables you to add more fields to the user page like, college, City etc.
ii) Tracker keeps log of the comments, stories submitted by the registered user.
iii) upload modules as the name suggests, allows users to upload pdf, media files.
iv) Polls are another good example of user particiation. Everyone likes to express his/ her opinion on all the issues of the world. Let's ask the public what they think about presidential candidate. See the screenshot below.




c) I will also recommend to enable Search and Ping modules to make the site searchable and automatically indexed by serach engines.

d) You can also enable Aggregator module to add external blog entries to the registered users account. For e.g. you can add Rashmi Bansal's blog entries directly into the navigation menu of the Registered users as shown in the picture. To enable this feature,
i) Administer - User Management - aggregator module - access news feeds - Select "authonticated user" or "Annonymous" as well if you want.
ii) Administer - Content management - Add category - Title: "Editor's note"
iii) Administer - Content management - Add feed - Title : "Rashmi", URL: "http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/atom.xml", Category: "Editor's note"




e) Blog and Forum are essentially just another content type like page and story. Since "story" content type works exactly like blog or forum, dont' select it.

Labels: drupal

I assume that you have already installed drupal and created the first admin account.

1) Administer - Site Building - Modules - enable "Locale" module


2) Administer - Site Configuration - Localization - Add Language - Marathi
3) Administer - Site Configuration - Localization - Import - Browse...
Select the mr.po file that you have downloaded and unzipped from
http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/drupal/files/projects/mr-5.x-1.0.tar.gz
Right click the above link and choose "Save as..."




4) Enable Marathi and make it default interface.



5) To enable typing in Devnagari, download and unzip the file from...
http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/drupal/files/projects/unisaraswati-5.x-1.0.tar.gz
Copy the unisarawati folder in the modules folder under drupal directory. Enable the module by navigating to Administer - Site Building - Modules. Decide where should be the Devnagari / Roman option should be displayed by going to Administer - Blocks. You can use the F12 key to toggle the input method from Devnagari to Roman.

Labels: drupal, unicode, usability