To get things started, in this lesson we'll create a new module, and use hook_views_api() to let Views know we want to use its API.
There's a reason views is the most popular module on drupal.org and it's pointy-clickly user interface is only a part of that. In this series we cover the ins and outs of writing modules that implement the Views API. Once you’ve realized the power of creating complex lists of nodes, users and other content via the views UI the next logical desire is to allow people to do that with the content provided by your custom module as well. This series will take an in-depth look at exposing your own database tables to the Views module so that users can use them as a place to pull content from including the fields themselves and meta-data about how they can be used to create relationships to other content on your site.
After getting the basics out of the way we’ll also take a look at writing our own custom field handlers to expose our module’s data to views so that it can be sorted, filtered, and queried in new ways. We’ll also look at implementing views plugins to do things like add custom access control options to views and to add new output styles.
Once you understand a bit more about how views works under the hood and how easy it is to tie in to that system you’ll be reimaging your solutions for all sorts of different problems.
In this lesson, we give a brief overview of utilizing a very important feature when it comes to working with Drupal and that's Drupal.org. We show you how to get to the Views API documentation that is now part of Drupal's API documentation and teach you how to use the search function for finding particular function.
Additional resources
New Series: Coding for Views
Blog postViews is without a doubt the most popular module on drupal.org, and one of the reasons for it’s popularity is the plethora of modules that enhance the out of the box views experience. These modules add new display options like a calendar or Javascript caoursel, new formatters for existing fields, and even new backends so you can query things other than MySQL. Like Drupal itself views is written to be extended and it’s not uncommon to need to do just that in order to meet your site specific requirements.
If you didn't listen to the Last Lullabot Podcast last week, you may not be aware that Lullabot is shaking things up a bit on the podcast front. We're renaming the Lullabot podcast to the Drupalize.Me podcast. The Lullabot podcast has been running since January 2006, and we're reviving that legacy with a new bi-weekly podcast, talking about everything Drupal. Today is our first Drupalize.Me podcast, where we have a good chat about DrupalCon Munich with the Lullabot team: Drupalize.Me Podcast: Episode 1. Go check it out!
Upgrade Status: Phases 1 and 2 Complete
Blog postIt has been a few months since we started our site upgrade, and I wanted to give an update on our progress. We are a small team of three, who manage the site and create most of the videos, so needless to say we've gotten a bit waylaid on our schedule. We've also had quite a bit of fun distraction with our Lullabot company retreat (which was sooo fun!) and DrupalCon Munich (which was amazing). So, while we're not as far as we wanted to be, we have gotten a good chunk of work started, and we're through Phases 1 and 2!
We've been doing a lot of work with the Drupal Ladder, and we have two new FREE videos in the Drupal Ladder series. These cover the next two steps of the Ladder, testing and writing patches. Both lessons use a Drupal 8 sandbox site that has a known bug in it. First you walk through the process of testing a patch that someone else has provided, and in the next lesson you learn how to write that patch yourself. There is no crazy coding involved — the patch is changing some help text in Drupal core.
In this lesson we bring everything we have learned in this series and just round it out with some tips and tricks now that we have images in our content.
Additional resources
In this lesson we cover the Insert Module along with FileField Sources Module. The Insert Module is a great module when combined with a few others and is setup right. It takes a few configurations but gives you lots of flexibility with your images and placing them into the text area. We also demonstrate how you can use the FileField Sources module to make the insert module that much better when it comes to media management.
Note: not all Drupal modules provide access to images that are uploaded using a different toolkit. Before committing to a specific suite of media management modules, you should create a test site and practice uploading images. Based on your tests you will be able to better evaluate if you have chosen the right tools for your content managers.
Additional resources
In this lesson we cover the IMCE Module and utilizing it to get images into your content. We cover the configurations that are unique to this module such as user upload paths and different per role restrictions when it comes to uploading images. We discuss how this module integrates perfectly with your editors "Image" button and creates a pretty easy work flow for the average web user.
Additional resources
In this lesson we cover using the Media Module and how it works for both methods of getting images into your content. The Media Module has the ability to be a widget for the image field or a button inside your editor. We discuss the pros and cons of these methods and you could get the best out of both with just a little tip.
Additional resources
Drupalcon Munich Recap
Blog postDrupalCon Munich 2012 was a blast! The whole Drupalize.Me team (myself, Joe, and Kyle) went over to Germany and soaked up the Drupal goodness. I had a very busy con, and want to share some of the great things that came out of it. (I'll try to be brief, but wow there was a lot of good stuff just in my little corner of the con!)
In this lesson we cover the concepts behind getting media (images) into your site. We describe the two common methods as inline or image field and the advantages/disadvantages of both.
Additional resources
In this lesson we go a little deeper on working with Text Formats and having the ability to create different WYSIWYG editor situations for different users/roles. We also go over the process of using and editor and best practices when doing so.
In this lesson we cover downloading and installing the WYSIWYG module. We show the relationship between the WYSIWYG editor and Drupal Text Formats. We go over the basic settings of the WYSIWYG module, how to download and install an editor, and configurations necessary in Text Formats to make things work properly.
Use this handbook page on Drupal.org to determine which version of TinyMCE is supported with CKEditor: Editors.
Additional resources
I'm always asked about Drupal: "Where is the editor?" Well, this series is going to answer that and teach you everything you need to know about WYSIWYG.
I’ll cover the WYSIWYG module and other modules that allow us to bring media, especially images, into our content. I'll cover best practices for using a WYSIWYG module, how you can use other modules, and various methods of getting images into your text areas with WYSIWYG or with just an image field, and I'll explain the differences among various methods.
Additional resources
WYSIWYG and Media Management
Course
This lesson covers all the updates/differences in the latest 2.x version versus other Drupal 7 releases. The new 2.x version of Display Suite is still in active development at the time that this video was published, but we want to make sure you know the changes that are coming when the new version is finally released. This video is very important to view if you are using Display Suite version 2 for the first time and have watched other videos in this series. It covers UI changes/updates as well as feature differences.