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45 minutes

Getting to grips with CSS

mcjim's picture
Submitted by mcjim on Mon, 07/28/2008 - 13:45.

Overview

There are many developers who can't stand working with CSS, but are occasionally forced to, and many site administrators who are asked to make small changes to a site's design, but don't know where to start. This session aims to cover the basics of CSS and how to use it to make alterations to your site's theme.
If there's interest, I'll follow up this session with a BoF to help tackle specific problems on your own sites.
Please let me know if there's something I've missed from the agenda.

Agenda

* What is CSS?
* I don't get the cascade: please explain it again.
* Using the cascade to target different areas of your page.
* FireBug to the rescue!
* Take apart page.tpl.php and put it back together the way you want it.
* Using template.php to make your life easier.
* Modules that can help.
* Dealing with Internet Explorer.

Goals

This session aims to cover the basics of CSS and how to use it to make alterations to your site's theme.

Requirements

Familiarity with Drupal, perhaps a rough idea of what's in a theme.
Some knowledge of HTML.
We'll be copying and pasting a little PHP, too.

Contrib module Usability

Erik Stielstra's picture
Submitted by Erik Stielstra on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 13:27.

Session recording

Placement
Session time: 
08/28/2008 - 09:00 - 08/28/2008 - 10:30

Overview
Usability is a big factor in the success of a website or a web
application. With some usability knowledge developers can improve their
modules.
I will show what changes have been made (and will be) to Simplenews and
Header Image modules (the modules I maintain). Along the way I will share
my thoughts and considerations regarding contributed module usability.

Usabiltiy is no rocket science, just applied common sense.

Agenda

* What is usability and why do we need it
* Common mistakes
* Simplenews and Header Image usability past, present and future

Goals

To make module developers, users and decisionmakers aware of usability
aspects of module development.
Resources

* Common sense
* Books: Don't make me think by Steve Krug

Report as inappropriate:
http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/mollom/contact/d6913aa9de19dc61

Securing PHP

meba's picture
Submitted by meba on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 11:41.

Overview

In this BoF, we will discuss practices for securing PHP from the Server Administrators view. This includes various web server settings, php.ini settings and demonstrations of less-known attacks.

Agenda

* Web server settings for PHP security
* See for yourself - demonstrations of weird attacks
* php.ini settings
* Discussions

Goals

After you walk away from this BoF, you will know more about PHP settings, how to secure it and most importantly: How to sleep better at night.

Support of drupal for RIA like Flex

sree's picture
Submitted by sree on Sat, 07/26/2008 - 20:22.

Overview

I would be talking about how drupal supports the RIA like Flex based applications.

Agenda

* Introduction to RIA
* Introduction to Flex
* How drupal supports Flex based applications
* Difficulties involved
* Future support

Goals

To make the people aware of the support provided by drupal to use RIA.

Resources

Flex based drupal modules.

Making a useful admin interface

sign's picture
Submitted by sign on Fri, 07/25/2008 - 21:03.

Session recording

Placement
Session time: 
08/30/2008 - 15:00 - 08/30/2008 - 15:45

Overview

Everytime I work on a drupal based project, I am thinking about users how they are going to add content, set up taxonomy, maintain site and perform other tasks without getting lost on their site. This session will try to showcase best practices in admin interface and I will try to show where rootcandy (http://drupal.org/project/rootcandy) project is at the moment and where it is heading.

Agenda

* Several scenarios how to make administration easier
--* TBC
* RootCandy theme/module project
--* RootCandy for developers
--* RootCandy for users
* Available modules that can improve administration

Goals

By the end of this session, attendees will see more possibilities in improving admin section and benefits of making admin section userfriendlier.

Caching and performance improvements

killes's picture
Submitted by killes on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 23:25.

Session recording

Placement
Session time: 
08/28/2008 - 15:00 - 08/28/2008 - 15:45

Overview

I've been asked to give a talk on the specified topic by the track co-chair. Since I am now running large scale Drupal installs for over two years (mainly drupal.org) I have learned a few tips about making your Drupal code run fast and not give your server a hard time which I want to share.

Agenda

* Drupal caching in core
+ Drupal 5
+ Drupal 6
+ Drupal 7
* Mistakes to avoid when programming Drupal
* Tips and tricks.
* Different cache backends.
* Other stuff (basic server config)

Goals

I'd like attendees to gather an understanding for why caching is important and the pitfalls that may occur.

Resources

General familiarity with Drupal is going to be helpful.

What is SimpleTest? and SimpleTest Automator: Automated Automated Testing

cwgordon7's picture
Submitted by cwgordon7 on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 21:35.
Co-presenters: 

Overview

Now that we have SimpleTest in core, the obvious step still remains: writing thousands of tests to completely cover Drupal core. But writing automated tests can take time, and with the sheer quantity of tests that need to be written, writing them manually is not altogether practical. The SimpleTest automator module aims at speeding up the test-writing process by allowing you to create tests entirely through the user interface.

Agenda

* What is this ugly SimpleTest thing doing in my Drupal core?
* How do you write a SimpleTest?
* What is SimpleTest Automator?
* What's the point of using it?
* What are its limitations (if it even has any)?
* Everyone will create and submit a test using the SimpleTest Automator.

Goals

By the end of this session, you should have basic knowledge of what testing is, feel comfortable using the SimpleTest Automator module to assist you in writing automated tests, and have already contributed one or more tests created using the SimpleTest Automator module.

Resources

http://drupal.org/simpletest
http://drupal.org/project/simpletest_automator

Drupal Development Workflow and Deployment Best Practices

Fintan's picture
Submitted by Fintan on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 13:10.
Co-presenters: 
Placement
Session time: 
08/27/2008 - 11:00 - 08/27/2008 - 12:00

Overview

At Drupal for NGOs in London, UK, strong interest was expressed in sharing development practices for Drupal development.

So let's do it!

We'd like to share some of our experiences and ideas with you, and find out how you guys deal with things like auto-deployment, developmen-staging-live syncing issues and the use of version control systems to protect and distribute your work.

Agenda

* We'll share with you our workflow and development best practices
* Hopefully you guys will share yours!

Goals

We hope everyone will walk away with more tools and techniques for deploying, and maybe come to some kind of agreement on best practices for Drupal workflow.

All in all I think this could be a very productive session.

Resources

We require no resources, but we might print out a little write-up regarding our experiences and techniques to hand out during the session.

Closing remarks

Kristof Van Tomme's picture
Submitted by Kristof Van Tomme on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 11:31.

Session recording

Co-presenters: 
Placement
Session time: 
08/30/2008 - 16:00 - 08/30/2008 - 16:45

Recap of the conference, farewell until the next Drupalcon.

Creativity and Programming

robeano's picture
Submitted by robeano on Wed, 07/23/2008 - 18:01.
Placement
Session time: 
08/29/2008 - 13:30 - 08/29/2008 - 14:30

Overview

Coding standards matter. Why? Because they free the mind to get to the more interesting bits of programming. Programming is more than just problem solving, and it is best when you can contribute patches and modules which provide the most elegant solution. With help from the audience, we can share our experiences of successes, rabbit holes, and hitting brick walls (and how to get past them too). This talk is aimed at programmers of all levels of experience.

Agenda

* Creative: it's not just for graphic and UX designers
* Code Quality: standards, coder, devel, api.drupal.org, code examples
* Creativity Killers: deadlines and budgets
* Rabbit Holes and Brick Walls
* Resources to Help You Stay on Track
* Further Reading and Recommendations

Goals

After participating in this talk, people will walk away with inspiration to write high quality code. In addition, more experienced programmers may take heart when seeing a beginner show their first contributions.

Resources

Recommended reading:
* coding standards - http://drupal.org/coding-standards
* http://api.drupal.org

Modules:
* devel
* coder