Drupal

I needed to add audio to a site to play some mp3 files.  The site is Drupal7, so I decided to check out how to set this up for HTML5 and Flash playback.

I found the Drupal7 module jplayer, which seemed the answer to this need.  I downloaded and enabled it.  I also had to get the jplayer jQuery code from jplayer.org and put it in sites/all/libraries.

I needed to add a photo gallery to a Drupal 7 web site.  I decided to try the media modules to do this, and found that it was much easier than I expected.  Here is how I did it.

I needed to change the way a View displays its results.  The Grid style was close, but the client wanted the display to be grouped by month.  (The view shows classes being held.)  I knew this type of modification might be happening for this web site, so I ordered Drupal's Building Blocks, by Earl Miles and Lynette Miles.  For those who don't know, Earl wrote Views and Panels.

There is a world beyond Drupal. For the past few years, I have worked exclusively with Drupal as the base for my web sites. But recently, several customers have asked for help with different platforms. Lots more to learn, and hopefully something useful for the customers who use other CMS (Content Management Systems).

I had to migrate a site from Drupal to BuddyPress/WordPress (BP/WP).  Fortunately, this involved only a bit of a complex site: users, their friendships, their avatars, and their blogs.  I researched how others had done it, but there were no programs or modules or plugins that really solved my problems.  So I developed a PHP program to do the heavy lifting.  
 

updated 4-17-2011
Well, actually, is there life beside Drupal? I have been using Drupal as my exclusive CMS platform for the last 4 years, and I really like it. But are there some times when it isn't the best?
 
I have a client who had a complex site built using Drupal. The people who built it customized it greatly, and then he fired them. I have been struggling to learn and maintain it. So he looked for alternatives and discovered BuddyPress, which is WordPress with a social networking plugin.
 
WordPress plugin == Drupal module

This is my procedure for backing up my Drupal sites. I have used it to backup and restore sites, so I have verified that it works. I also use it to backup a production site and restore it as a remote or local test or development site. In these cases, I also have to edit the configuration to account for differences such as the settings.php file or the CiviCRM settings that are site specific.

On the host site, create a directory backups and within that directory, create a subdirectory archives.

I needed to format the Ubercart catalog differently from how it is in the default distribution.  Specifically, I wanted to include the product description teaser in the catalog listings.  I found two possibilities:

I found a blog post at http://www.sevenshadow.com/blog/ubercart-customize-datagrid that described how to add a field for a short description.  That was a start.

One of my web sites requested that I add a video clip to the web site.  At the current time, they have no video files on the site.  I was looking for the easiest way to add the capability without requiring hard coding and it needed to support playing a flash file with a preview image.

Yes, I know that Drupal7 is just around the corner, but I am stuck around the prior corner with some of my web sites.  My largest, most complex site is still on D5, and I am starting a project to migrate it to D6.  I believe that all modules needed are finally on D6, although I plan to look to the future and not depend on some modules who took a really long time to mograte from D5 to D6.