Command Line Backups of Core Codebase Contributed Modules and Files
Earlier in this chapter, we took a full backup of the codebase by downloading a copy of the codebase via FTP. In this section, we will cover how to make code and file backups via the command line. We will also break our backup into three separate sections 2. Contributed modules, contributed themes, and the settings.php file These distinctions will be useful later in the chapter when we go over how to upgrade your site.
Organic groups access control
Organic groups Views integration this module requires the Views module, which we have already installed. Organic groups vocabularies this is provided by the OG Vocabulary module all other modules are part of the Organic groups module. Click the Save configuration button to save your settings. Upon enabling the Organic groups access control module, you will be prompted to rebuild the content access permissions, as seen in the following screenshot The content access permissions need to be...
The Blog Post Content Type
The values of the Explanation or submission guidelines are somewhat arbitrary while this section can be used to give instructions, it can also be used to have fun. Obviously, the rules of civil and appropriate discourse apply, but you can use these instructions to add a touch of unexpected flavor. Click the Administer Content management Taxonomy, As shown in the following screenshot, click the edit vocabulary link for the Keywords taxonomy we created in Chapter 3. Then, add Blog post to the...
Backing Up the Codebase
In order to create a back up of the codebase, use your FTP client to connect to your server. Ideally, for reasons of download speed and stability, this should not be done over a wireless connection. When the download is complete, you will have a full copy of your working codebase saved on your computer. Later in this chapter, we will cover using the command line to speed up this process, but, for those of you who want to avoid the command line, you can make adequate backups of your codebase...
Browsing the Issue Queue
Every module on Drupal.org has a project associated with it, and every project has an issue queue. The complete issue queue can be found at http drupal.org project issues, and the issue queue allows you to filter on specific modules. The projects associated with each module are used to track potential bugs and questions about the specific module. If you are having problems issues with a specific module, you can often find other users reporting similar issues. If you end up needing to post a...
Widget type text area multiple rows
Click the Save button this brings up the admin screen where you can configure the field. These settings apply only to the Brief bio field as it appears in the Profile content type. Rows Enter your brief bio. 500 characters maximum. Instructions to present to the user below this field on the editing form. Allowed HTML tags lt a gt lt b gt lt big gt lt code gt lt del gt lt em gt lt i gt lt ins gt lt pre gt lt q gt lt small gt lt span gt lt strong gt lt sub gt lt sup gt lt tt gt lt ol gt lt ul gt...
Learning Goals 1
By incorporating the student-generated links into your classroom plan you can achieve several goals 1. As students create resources that become incorporated into the daily work of the class, they get the opportunity to view themselves and their peers as active participants in their learning environment. 2. By using student-generated links to spark discussion, you reinforce the notion that all participants in the course students and teacher have a role to play in creating course content. 3. By...
Populate the Primary Links
In this step, we will add some useful links into the Primary links menu. As you populate the Primary links, think about the work your site members will be performing. You want your primary links to act as doorways to their most commonly-performed tasks. The process for adding menu items into the Primary links is just the same as moving them into other menus. As shown in the following screenshot, when editing an existing menu item, select Primary links as the Parent item. The maximum depth far...
Configure the Base Content Profile Settings
To configure the base Content Profile settings, click on the Administer Site building Content types link, or navigate to admin content types. Click the Edit link for the Profile content type. Then, click the Content Profile tab. The base settings allow us to configure how the node profile will be displayed on the user profile page. As shown in the preceding screenshot, in the User page display style section we have four options Don't display this content profile on the user account page only...
Configure the Audio Module
Now that we have installed the Audio module and its helper modules, we need to configure the audio module to support our needs. Click the Administer Site Configuration Audio link, or navigate to As pictured in the following screenshot, you will see three tabs across the top of the page Audio, Metadata tags, and Players. Home gt Administer gt Site configuration The current PHP configuration limits file uploads to 8 MB. Tfiere are two PHP ini settings, upload_max_filesize and post_max_size, that...
Edit the Settings of the Profile Content Type
As mentioned above, when the Content Profile module is enabled, it creates a new content type named Profile. To use this new node type effectively, we need to change the default settings. To do this, click on the Administer Site building Content types link, or navigate to admin content types. Click the Edit link for the Profile content type. The Automatic Nodetitles module enabled earlier in this chapter adds a new fieldset labelled Automatic title generation at the top of the administrative...
Enabling and Cloning the Backlinks View
To get started, click the Administer Site building Views link, or navigate to admin build views. As shown in the following screenshot, enable the default backlinks view. Default Node view backlinks default Displays a list of nodes that link to the node, using the search backlinks table. Once we have enabled the backlinks view, we want to clone it. So, we click the Clone link. Change the View name to conversations, and change the View description to Cloned from default backlinks view displays a...
My Unread Posts
The second menu item added by the OG Views integration module is the My unread menu. This menu provides easy access to a series of pages that track comments and discussions occurring within a site. To access the My unread posts page, click the My unread link shown by Item 1 in the preceding screenshot , or navigate to group. The My unread page shown by Item 2 in the preceding screenshot lists all posts in a user's groups that the user has not read. This page provides a central place where users...
Step Adding Fields
Once the content type has been created, we need to add fields. To add fields to content types, we need to install the Content Construction Kit, or CCK. Additionally, because we are creating a bookmark and need to store a link, we need to install the Link module. CCK can be downloaded from http drupal.org project cck, while the Link module can be downloaded from http drupal.org project link. Once you have downloaded and extracted the modules, upload them into sites all modules as described...
Using PHPMyAdmin as a Maintenance and Backup Tool
PHPMyAdmin comes with some useful, browser-based tools for backing up and optimizing your database. As pictured in the following screenshot, PHPMyAdmin contains a great utility for optimizing tables and also shows when these tables need optimizing. Structure SQL J Search pQuery gpExport gplmport Operations Privileges gDrop Select the checkbox to the left of all of the tables that you want to optimize, and then choose the Optimize table option as shown in the following screenshot Although you...
Setting the Defaults for Organic Groups
Installed OG and created group nodes Assigned rights to be able to create and edit group nodes Created a custom menu to make creating groups more intuitive Now, we need to configure the OG-specific settings. Click on the Administer Organic groups link, or navigate to admin og. As shown in the following screenshot, and as mentioned earlier in this chapter, there are two options Organic groups configuration, and Organic Groups Access configuration.
Creating an Extended Profile
Now that we have made all of the necessary adjustments to the Profile content type and the Content Profile settings, we are ready to have users populate their profiles. Users can fill out their profiles by navigating to their profile page, either by clicking on the My Account link or by navigating to http example.edu user when they are logged in. If a user has not completed their profile, they will be presented with a link to complete it. This screenshot is taken from the perspective of the...
Setting up the Video Content Type
In this chapter, we will cover how to share video using CCK and the Embedded Media Field module, available at http drupal.org project emfield. There are other methods available for processing, storing, and sharing video that we will cover later in the chapter. For general use, however, we recommend the use of Embedded Media Field, as it balances ease of use and flexibility. Install the Embedded Media Field Module Download the Embedded Media Field module from http drupal.org project emfield....
User Email Settings
The settings in this section allow you to customize the various notification emails that are sent out when users register for the site, forget their password, and so on. Customizing these emails help to create a more personal feel to your course, as the original email text is fairly bland. The full range of emails is shown in the following screenshot Drupal sends emails whene' er new users register on your site, and optionally, may also notify users aFter other account actions. Using a simple...
Create a Separate Administration Menu
The core Drupal navigation menu lumps the site administration options menu in with the non-administrative options. For users who have a limited set of administrative responsibilities, this can create a large number of options that can be confusing to navigate. To reduce screen clutter, we will seek to strip out as many unnecessary options as possible. Then, we will organize the remaining menu items in a way that makes sense. As we add and customize new menus and blocks, we will follow these...
Identifying the Goals of Your Profile
User profiles can be used for a range of purposes. On one end of the spectrum, a profile can be used to store basic information about the user. On the other end of the spectrum, a user profile can be a place for a user to craft and share an online identity. As you create the functionality behind your user profile page, you should know the type of profile you want to create for your users. Drupal ships with a core Profile module. This module is a great starting point, and for many sites will...
Creating the Video Content Type
When creating the video content type, we will refer to the process outlined in Chapter 3. When creating a content type you will need to 2. Add fields to the content type. In this case, we will add the field that will contain the embedded video. 3. Assign a taxonomy to the content type In this case, we will allow the video content type to be organized or described using the Keyword taxonomy. 4. Assign permissions to the content type In our example, both the student and teacher role will be...
Using Code Snippets to Track Student Progress
Code snippets are small chunks of PHP code that can be embedded in a page. Using PHP snippets offers a great deal of flexibility, but they should also be used with extreme care. To start, the right to embed PHP snippets should only be given to trusted users who actually know PHP. A poorly-formed PHP snippet has the potential to bring down a site a malicious user with the rights to use PHP snippets can also wreak havoc. However, when used appropriately, PHP snippets are a powerful tool.
Using the Core Profile Module
To use the core profile module, click on the Administer Site building Modules link, or navigate to admin build modules. In the Core - optional section, enable the Profile module. Click the Save configuration button to submit the form and save the settings. Once the Profile module has been enabled, you can see a user's profile information by navigating to http example.com user UID, where UID is the user's ID number on the site. To see your own user profile, navigate to http example.com user when...
Create a Menu for Groups
Once you have created the Class and Club content types, you can increase the usability of your site by moving the links for creating classes and clubs into their own menu. Although this step is not necessary, confusion can arise because groups are also content types. A look at the default navigation menu, pictured in the following screenshot, helps illustrate why. In the default navigation menu, all content types are grouped together in the same area. This can be confusing although Club and...
User Registration Settings
You can use these settings to turn registration off after an initial enrolment period. If you are allowing students to create their own accounts, you can enable account creation with no administrator approval required, and or no email verification. Then, once the initial enrolment period has ended, you can change this setting to only allow new users to be added by the site administrator. Additionally, you can use these settings to enter specific guidelines to present to users upon registering.