Drupal
The 'Drush' of the Matter and Other Drupal Musings

I'm a Front End Drupal Developer / Themer / Site Builder and admittedly have been slow in adopting tools like Drush and Git for my workflow. Not because I didn't want to but only that I am very right-brained, so the command line / Terminal to say the least has not been my friend.
Screencast: Creating and Theming a Node Photo Gallery with Drupal 7 and Colorbox
Recently, I designed, themed and developed a new site for my photography, High Rock Photo. The obvious choice for this new site was to use Drupal 7. I wanted the ability to easily create node galleries and this screencast shows you how to create and theme a node photo gallery using Drupal 7. I will also point out what modules are needed and make reference to those that would have been used in Drupal 6 and are now integrated into core in Drupal 7.
My Favorite Resources for Learning Drupal
Recently on Twitter, one of my followers asked me for some resources and links for learning Drupal. I thought that would make an excellent blog post. When I first started learning Drupal, I watched screencasts and read all the relevant books I could get my hands on. I found screencast tutorials especially helpful as I was actually watching someone else configure and use Drupal on the admin side. There are many resources out on the web including dedicated websites, books, and even feeds on iTunes.
Using Drupal Views Arguments to Show Results Only When a Filter is Used
Recently I was configuring a Drupal view for a client's website that consisted of the user inputting a zip code and distance to find a store near them. I was using an exposed proximity search filter with a postal code in combination with the Gmap and Location Modules.
How to add a block region to a node page in Drupal 6
As a Drupal themers / front end developers, we are always asked to push the envelope of what's possible with design and theming. With Drupal 6, custom block regions are usually added in page.tpl.php which is normally outside of the actual page node content / comments. It would be above, below content or in sidebars typically. Occasionally you have the need to add a block region within a node area. This comes in handy especially if you are using a custom themed node page that uses CCK fields, e.g., "node-[custom_content_type].tpl.php". To accomplish this there are a few steps involved.
Screencast: Tracking File Downloads in Drupal 6
In this video, we explore how to track file downloads in Drupal 6 using the Filefield Download Tracking, CCK and Private Download modules. I'll also show you how to do this using a hybrid public / private file system.
This is a great way to allow site owners to track file downloads on a Drupal site. Typical use cases are sites heavy with documentation that take the form of PDFs, Word Docs, Tar files and other types of files. The site owner can see which users are downloading specific files and when they download them. There is also nice integration with views out of the box.
Below you can also find resources for modules used in this tutorial.
Theming Unique Home Page Elements in Drupal 6 with $is_front & PHP

Ask 10 Drupal Themers how they would accomplish a task in Drupal and you just might get 10 different answers. Most likely those 10 different ways of accomplishing the task would all be valid and unique. This concept would apply when theming a home page element in Drupal; there are several different ways of going about this. For example, you could use page-front.tpl.php, Panels, Context, the front page module or custom body classes -- well the list goes on.
Add an Auto Reply Email Message to a Drupal Webform with PHP
We are developing a Drupal site for a client and were tasked with adding an auto reply email to the user who submits a web form on the site. I thought for sure that the Drupal Webform Module we are using would have this function built in, however it did not.
With a little research and digging, it was trivial to add some post processing PHP to the Webform Module. We are using Webform 6.x-3.2 but this should also work with any versions of Webform 6.x-2.x.
Screencast: Adding CSS Suckerfish Drop Down Menus to a Drupal 6 Theme
In this video, I demonstrate how to add CSS Suckerfish Drop Down Menus to an existing Drupal 6 Theme.
NOTE: On an iPad or other mobile device and cannot see this video: try the direct link: http://vimeo.com/14254948
From Joomla to Drupal: One Year Later, a Switcher’s Tale (part two)
In the first part of this series, I covered what my experience has been so far during the past year that I have switched from being primarily a Joomla developer to a Drupal developer. In summary, the experience has been extremely positive and enlightening. In fact there seems to be no end to Drupal and what can be done with it. With Drupal I feel like I am building a true web application, not just a web site which Joomla does.

