RandyFay.com | Customer information and blog for Randy Fay

I just got an email that my Debugging Drupal session for Drupalcon Paris is a go! I had already been told that none of my sessions went, so it was quite a surprise. Should be a good session. And the CTools Plugin session, which didn't go, will be done as a BOF add-on to the big session by MerlinOfChaos on CTools in general.

Ctools Plugin Example done, Finally!

Submitted by rfay on Sun, 2009-08-02 21:29

I finally got the Ctools Plugin Example module and documentation updated and submitted. Merlin of Chaos seems happy with the idea, so I'm hoping it can make it as a module distributed with Ctools, which is a fundamental part of Panels.

One of the nicest things about Panels (now provided by Ctools) is the ability to write relatively simple pieces that extend it. But it's been kind of hard to figure out the magic. Hopefully this module + documentation will help out.

Update 19 August: It's been committed, so it will be in the upcoming full release of CTools.

Updated Simpletest Tutorial, with sample modules

Submitted by rfay on Wed, 2009-07-29 22:19

I spent much of today updating the Simpletest Tutorial on Drupal.org. The tutorial has been revamped, with much more info, and there are downloadable sample modules for both Drupal 6 and Drupal 7.

Simpletest is making a big difference in the stability of Drupal, but we're going to have lots of work to do to get improved test coverage for the release of D7. Hopefully this will help in some small way.

My sessions proposed for Drupalcon Paris

Submitted by rfay on Fri, 2009-07-24 10:10

Drupal

I proposed 3 sessions for Drupalcon Paris at the beginning of September, and just hope I can get one in. There's one on Debugging Drupal, one on Ctools/Panels Plugins, and one on Upgrade-proofing your site. Looks like they're all kind of low in the running, but they've all gotten some votes. Surprisingly the one that I thought would be the lowest ranked is the highest - the "Upgrade-Proof Your Site: Best Practices to Avoid Major Version Upgrade Headaches".

If you're going and you like any of these topics, thanks for your VOTE!

Cooler forms with Drupal's AHAH (Asynchronous HTML and HTTP)

Drupal

[This material was developed for a presentation at DrupalCamp Colorado in the summer of 2009. It should serve well as a standalone resource, so I hope it will help out anybody learning or struggling with AHAH. If you find any problems with it or want to suggest any improvements, send me an email or catch me on IRC (rfay).]

All of us know about "Web 2.0" and "AJAX", or "Asynchronous Javascript and XML". The basic idea behind AJAX is that a Javascript program running in the browser communicates (usually via HTTP and XML) with the webserver and gets information that it uses to do a task or update the page. Several Drupal modules use AJAX, and it's widely deployed on the web. It normally requires you to write and maintain some pretty good Javascript along with your PHP, and it's a powerful way to add interactive features to a website. Drupal's excellent contrib module Fivestar, for example, uses XML to allow you to vote without a page load.

Built into Drupal, though, is a no-visible-Javascript technique for doing a particular class of asynchronous (no-page-reload) partial page updates. It's called AHAH, or Asynchronous HTML and HTTP. It also uses Javascript under the hood, but you never see it. Everything the programmer does is in PHP.

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DrupalCamp Colorado next week - My session got accepted

Submitted by rfay on Fri, 2009-06-19 14:01

Drupal

My session on AHAH in Drupal got accepted for next week's Drupal Camp Colorado in Denver. So it's time to get it ready. (Update: see the materials here.

AHAH (Asynchronous HTML and HTTP) is a technology built into the Drupal Forms API which allows for updates of a form without doing a full page refresh, and it makes some things really nice. All of the "add to cart" and similar behaviors in the Amazon Store module (try it at alonovo.com/amazon_store) are done with AHAH, meaning that you can add to cart and not end up on another page, and not have a long wait.

Basically, pressing a button causes a simple call back to the web server for replacement elements for the form. Instead of submitting the whole page to the webserver and then reprocessing and redisplaying it, only the part that needs to be updated (like your message that an item was added to the cart) has to be done.

I helped with a fun facebook game

Submitted by rfay on Sat, 2009-06-13 06:52

I just got word from client Marie Thacker that one of the projects I helped out with is now live - it's a facebook game app. I helped do the live scoring stuff. Try it here.

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