I wonder, if I install Gallery2 or Coppermine in a folder in the root of a Drupal install, Can I then use the plugin that I am currently playing with (ibrowser) to read the coppermine / Gallery2 directories?
Hmmmmmm…..I should first try a dummy directory and see if drupal will let me read from it first.
used in conjunction with a brige, will the users be able to use both systems with one login?
Note to Self: Go through the masthead pictures and organize.
I did alot of editing to the wren image. The copy that is currently being used is too sharp. I need to replace it with a softer copy. I also was sorking on fading the right side of the image to black or dark gray. I need to go through those and organize them.
Note to self: Compare the epublish module with the article module to see what each one specializes in.
Whichever Module pull the various works together into a Newsletter page is the one I want.
In Structuring the navigation using Categories / Taxonomy, should my approach be based on the assignments themselves or on Topics?
Can I have it both ways?
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essays
Projects
Assignments
Other Homework
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Topic 1
Topic 2
Topic 3
Topic 4
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It seems like the first choice can go into categories / taxonomy and the second choice can go into books.
For that matter, I can use the first choice for private navigation and the second one for public navigation.
I wonder if I can have it all?
Note to self: Look up or try out the views module to see if it can do all of this.
I am in the process of checking / investigating the various options for image uploading and image file storing.
A couple of weeks ago, I was playing around with the Drupal module, img_assist, but I’m afraid I can’t recall just what I did. I might still have that configuration on the ontheinternet.org site.
Note to self: Check and see if you still have the image stuff on the ontheinternet.org site.
Anyway, I found this way cool plugin to use. That is the one that I am currently trying to set up.
Note to self: Since the TinyMCE editor will be part and parcel of all Drupal installs, I should be installling it with each test site as a matter of practise.
Actually, once I have alll the TinyMCE components (plugins, setting, whatever) in place I should jsut keep a copy of the “works” in the zippereddrupal folder. Then I can jsut drag and drop for the isntall. Come to think of it, I could be doing that right now! At least Partially!
Note to self: Finish up with an eniche template.
Perhaps I need to create a checklist for Susan along with a test site and have her go through the site and check off the checklist, or perhaps rate it as to whether or not she will use the feature.
Create a test install.
The challenge is to have (by adding) two profiles for TinyMCE. One Profile allow for ALL INPUT FORMATS. this profile is for content creation only. The other profile is for comments. the WYSIWYG isn’t needed for this profile. Only a few (Limited) HTML formats should be allowed. Smileys might be nice. I wonder if Smileys would be a way for Susan to grade her papers or provide feedback. You know- a five “smiley” system.
I have found where you can adjust the TinyMCE settings. All and All, it is one slick program.
Reminder to self: Be sure to document any changes made to the base install for tinyMCE. (This is going to be tough!)
Node creation using CCK or using the “handmade” method–Is one superior to the other?
One thing that CCK allows you to make quite quickly are Nodes containign more than 2 fields. You can have more than just a title box and a content box. This can be a good thing! This will not only answer my needs quckly bu maybe I can use it in conjunction with another module I was reading about. The one that allows you to make charts with your data.
Note to self: revisit the Drupal module that allows you to create charts or table your data or whatever it does. Investigate out in cyberspace, what kind of plugins that might do this for us.
Also, Can CCK work with the category module? If so, then that will be some slick package.
I need to play around with Coppermine and/or Gallery2 bridges. Actually, the image gallery module for drupal works quite nicely. I am really not sure if there are advantages to using Copperming or Gallery2.
Note to Self: Try and find out what sort of advantages exist to using Coppermine or Gallery2 instead of the Drupal image module.
I need a way for users to select their images while in WYSIWYG. I am not sure what approach is the best. I should give Susan Something and just come back to this issue at a later date.
I have discovered a plugin to use with tinyMCE but I sure am struggling with it the first time around install.
First, I put the plugin in the wrong folder. At least I think I did. Second, I simply can’t find the file that the plugin inits are listed. I need to add this plugin to the list. I seems to be quite clear to all the users on the tinyMCE site and to all the users on the ibrowser site but it doesn’t make sense to me. The weblog I originally dicovered the plugin, the instructions aren’t all that clear in this area either.
I will try again with a clean install all the way around.
Bare-Bones Objectives
- Means of posting content to the site
- Student Content
- Teacher Content
- Site Content
- Means of uploading and maintaining files
- For viewing
- For downloading (rightclick?)
- Means of uploading and maintaining images
- For viewing in a library
- For inserting into content.
- For downloading / sharing (rightcklick?)
- Means of deploying quizzes
- Means of keeping private content private. As well as a means of changing private-public.
- Means of organizing content
- Means of navigating.
Additional Objectives
- Means of keeping content fresh.
- Means of creating a variety of content–Or additional content besides the student essays and articles.
- Blogs?
- Discussion boards? / Forums?
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I think I need to create a checklist for Sue and a test site so that she can test through her needs a step at a time.
1. create emails fo rthe students
- Finish my eniche template
- Take notes and make comments.
- Working with TinyMCE
- Create a test install
- The challenge is to have (by adding) two profiles for TinyMCE. One profile allows for all input formats. This profile is for content creation only.
- The other profile is for comments. The WYSIWYG isn’t needed for this profile. Only a few (limited) HTML formats should be allowed. Smileys might be nice however.
- An aside: I wonder if smileys would be a way for Susan to grade her papers! Or at least offer feedback using a five smiley score card of some sort.
- I have found where you cand the TinyMCE settings. All and all, it is one slick program.
- Reminder to self: Be sure to document any changes to the base install fo TinyMCE.
Image Issues
I need to play around with Coppermine and / or Gallery2 bridges. Actually, the image gallery module for Drupal works quite nicely. I am really not sure if there are advantages to using Coppermine or Gallery2.
I need a way for users to select their images while in WYSIWYG. I am not sure what approach is the best. At the very least, I should give Susan something for now and re-visit and address this issue at a later date.
Node creation using CCK or using the “handmade” method? Is one ssuperior to the other?
- One thing that CCK allows you to make quite quickly are nodes containing more than 2 fields. You can have more than just a title box and a content box. This can be a good thing! This will not only answer my needs quickly, but maybe I can use it in conjuction with another module I was reading about–the one that allows you to make charts with your data. I need to revisit that module. Also, can CCK work with the Category module? If so, then that will be some slick package.
Another question I have has to do with site structure and navigation. The book module allows the user to browse one book at a time using a book block. Can I acheive the same thing with the blocks using either Category or Taxonomy?
Drupal Install from cPanel is very easy. Far more easier than most folks realize I think. Here are my steps to a basic install. There are various ways to install Drupal, this is just my preferred way.
- Log into cPanel and navigate to your public_html or www directory using File Manager.
- From the www directory, upload your zipped copy of drupal.
- Unpack your zipped copy of Drupal.
- Delete your zipped copy of Drupal.
- Rename the unpacked Drupal folder whatever you want.
- While you are already here, go into the Drupal folder you just renamed and create another folder named ‘files.’ Give it 777 permissions.
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MY Base install for Drupal includes:
Modules
- tinyMCE
- This module turned out to be quite nice. Lots of buttons. It integrates nicely in Drupal. I haven’t tried the other wysiwyg editors. Well, I tried them all at one point but they all suffer from the inability to handle images in a convenient manner. Drupal has a couple of image modules that can help tinyMCE in this regard. They are listed below.
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I am in the process of installing and, hopefully, using a Drupal powered site. There is an incredeble assortment of modules that can be added to the base install. It is overwhelming! Thus the need for me to post my Drupal related notes here.
Doing so will give me the freedom to uninstall and reinstall Drupal when I screw it up.
Such a time has come to re-install. I installed the module called categories. This module comes with an assortment of ’sub’ modules that you can use. I am totally mixed up as to what I can do with this module and how to use it.
In Drupal, when you install a module, there are often multiple steps to configure the thing. Not that I am complaining. The learning curve to figure out what each module does and if it is in fact what you want is very steep.
With Wordpress, you can either create a post or a page. This arrangement works extremely well. I hav used both of these features and like them both. In Drupal, you can have a page, a blog post, a story, a book, ectera When to use what can take some time to get used to.
Anyway, I can go on and on. Needless to say, I should have been keeping notes way before now. I have alot of extra work ahead of me in order to document what I have done.
In addition to Wordpress, I have been playing around with Drupal as I am seriously considering it as an alternative to Susan’s Science Site.
In the course of creating dumonty.com, a drupal learning and testing site, I have discovered a couple of very cool plugins.
First, for a text editor, tinyMCE seems to do just about all the commercial plugin does.
I am using tinyMCE at dumonty.com. Now, I had tried all the opensource text editors before but I ended up going with a paid license that I use for this blog as I found the opensource projects lacking in the image manipulation area.
An end user should be able to insert an image into her text by clicking on the image icon and having the option to view and select an image from her image library or upload and select image. She should be able to do this without having to remember a path. She should be able to do this without a placeholder and she should be able to set the margins or padding between the image and text. If these features can’t be implemented then the way to achieve the same results should be clear.
This is where the the various opensource packages seem to fail.
However, when I adding tinyMCE to Drupal on the dumonty site I was quite please with all the features that came with it. No, the image feature doesn’t work quite the way I would like but Drupal has some wonderful image modules that allows for at least some of the requirements I am looking for. Those modules combined with tinyMCE have produced a great package.
On a whim, I took a few minutes to explored the two leading opensource image galleries, Coppermine and Gallery2, and discovered a couple of suprise plugins.
I am investigating the various “Site Builder” technologies offered on the web these days.
My reason for looking into this is the need to have a “central” way to create or edit web pages.
The areas I need filled include:
- ease of use for beginners.
- Scalabity or the ability to port to another product as the end user outgrows.
- XML should make this need easy enough.
- PHP ability
- I should be able to expand functionality by adding PHP modules as needed.
- MySQL ability
- Flat files will work for small sites and it has its place. I prefer using MySQL database for lists.
- Security
- I would like to see a system where authentication is passed from the software to htaccess in order to upload–write to directory. This would be allow 622 settings on all directories.
- Image and file upload both simple and more compex
- Just a simple upload button is a good feature for NOOB
- The ability to create subdirectories in order to organize or categorize is good for a more advanced user who needs to categorize.
- The ability to use Cascading Style Sheets is important to me.
- The ability to add templates. Either my own or purchased ones.
- Editors are all pretty similar. This is actually the least of my concerns.
For one reason or another, I consider these sites to be above average in design and layout. They are worth emulating.
I am sure that the rest of the site is as nicely done.
This site doesn’t have spectacular WOW features. It is very appealing to me however. It is worth studying to see what works and what doesn’t.
Wordpress Category Navigation–one way to skin a $cat.
My Goal–navigation forward and back in my Web Blog site.
I wanted to display a front splash page which included a little a synopsis of the site’s purpose as well as links to my main or top level Categories.
From any of the Category pages, I wanted the visitor to know location–where she/he was relative to the whole site. I also wanted anyone to be able to drill down into the categories and still retain links from the upper lever categories and never loose the site logo.
Dynamic Category Highlighting in Wordpress 2.1X(?)
I was searching
Wordpress.org for an easy way to assign a unique class or ID to the current-category for formatting reasons. Specifically, to highlight the current category to use as a navigational tool for the site visitor. Wordpress allows “current page” assignment quite easily–without any additional code to your templates, but the searching on wordpress.org came up blank for categories. Well, as such the case with me, I happened to be viewing one of my source files and low and behold!
Wordpress was automatically assigning a current-cat class to the current category. What a great find!
Developing a weblog beyond the default install can present the blog developer / designer with certain dilemmas from time to time.
The wordpress.org site has tons of information. It is sometimes tough finding exactly the “just right” answer or fix to such dilemmas.
Currently, I am working on a site “littlespiderweb.org” which is/will be incorporating both posts and Pages. (For a discussion that distiguishes the difference between a post and a page in a wordpress blog, see
http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages .)
The site’s purpose is to document my NYC trip(s.) My trip planning pages will utilize Pages–not posts. However, I would like to implement the Pages with posts–using them as comments or perhaps reminders to myself. I would also like to use posts as a diary and journal–comments on my thoughts–for my actual trip.
To make a ”seamless” transition between a Page template and a single post template, I decided to try naming post categories that are duplicates to the Main Page titles.
If someone clicks on a link from a Page to a single post, I want to preserve the title of the original Page to use as my search query for the category to display.
These are the links that provide the “how to:”
Update 06/03/06: Apparently, I am not the only one with this idea of using a page name in conjunction with category names so that I could round out the wordpress features. If I find the discussion again, I will post it.
As alluded to in an earlier post, I am trying to fine tune the navigation on my “littlespiderweb.org” site so that both Pages and posts display related content. The first step was to duplicate the name of my parent Pages as categories.
On “littlespiderweb.org,” I decided to organize on a trip by trip basis. So, in addition to naming a Page “May 2006,” I created a category “May 2006″ as well. All my posts for this trip will be put into this category.
The idea is, that when someone visiting the web site clicks on the Page named “May 2006,” the system will not only display a list of all the children pages to “May 2006,” but display a list of all posts in the category “May 2006″ as well.
The templates that I am using to achieve the desired effect is one specific page template that I named “lookingback.php” and the “single.php” template. Both of these templates started out as copies of either home.php or index.php. Both of these templates are identical. The reason for both of course is due to the Wordpress defaults in handling Pages and posts.
Here’s how…
Web Links
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Domain Name Registrars
Domain Name
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Web Hosting Articles and Talk
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Opensource software
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Your Own Web Server Info
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Free Hosting
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Freeware
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WordPress Codex & forum
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Wordpress other
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Creating a Web Presence
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HTML
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Not Free Hosting
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CMS/blog/wiki other than WP
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Scripts
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Web Writing how to
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Links to aid in learning your way around this aspect of the web.
Web Hosting Reviews at WHReviews.com helps emmensely with a “short list.” Articles and discussions on this site explain why cheap hosting isn’t necessarily the best value. Rather, Reliability and Debendebility are.
Having experienced various multiple down times — as well as continuous data losses –with affordablehost.com in recent months, I now have a better understanding and better appreciation of these points. WHReviews.com is definately worth the reading time if you are trying to figure it all out.
Web hosting discussion forums also are a big help. Number One on my list is webhostingtalk.com. This forum is very busy and very active. You will find all the hosts that care about their business on this forum. It is a great way to learn more about the web hosting world.
I can count on finding an answer to my question just by using the search feature.
I use namecheap.com extensively but not exclusively. Their service is outstanding. I needed help once and got a reply and resolution within an hour. Service was very freindly and helpful. Managing your accounts is very easy with their user interface.
I use domainsite.com as well.
Much of this focuses on web standards. One site I visited earlier today discusses in depth (for a beginner that is) the visual communication aspects to consider. Talks about conventions and how to use them.
This list will continue to grow I am sure.
For a kick off, here is an excellent link that I just happened onto by jumping from one site to the next. Valuable resources:
This one has a list of first rate sites:
Web usability site that is amazing with its content:
The above sites then led me to this:
Here is one with a ton of snippet ideas to mull:
This site is the best site to determine color names.
You can click on the name and see the other colors on top of your chosen color. Very useful.