Home › Podcasts

Podcasts

#070: WYSIWYG ImageField

Module a Day

Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/wysiwyg_imagefield

The WYSIWYG Imagefield module allows your users to upload images through the WYSIWYG interface while cleverly hiding it in your node under a CCK field.

  • Who: Technical users
  • When: Use this module when you want to allow your users to upload photos and use it in the WYSIWYG but you still want the image tied to the parent node.
  • Why: There are many ways to upload an image and put it in the body of your node. This module gives you a different attack since it uses CCK fields but still interacts with the WYSIWYG

 

Theme song "i dunno" by grapes.

#069: Views carousel

Module a Day

Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/viewscarousel

The Views carousel module allows your views to displays information as horizontal or vertical JavaScript carousels.

  • Who: Technical and non-technical users
  • When: Use this module when you want to have data scroll from side to side or up and down and you don't want to mess with JavaScript
  • Where: Go into your favorite views and change the view style to be a Views Carousel.
  • Why: All the hip kids want interactivity with their website and this module will let your users click on shiny things and make the things go wizzing by through the miracles of JavaScript!

 

Theme song "i dunno" by grapes.

#068: Sub-path URL Aliases

Module a Day

Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/subpath_alias

The Sub-path URL Alias module maps "ugly" paths to more user and SEO friendly paths.

  • Who: Technical and non-technical users
  • When: Use this module if you don't want to see a URL like node/1/edit
  • Where: I couldn't find any way to configure this module
  • Why: Well, if I had to guess I would say it's more user friendly and hides things like the individual node IDs.

 

Theme song "i dunno" by grapes.

#067: CAPTCHA After

Module a Day

Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/captcha_after

The CAPTCHA After module allows you to only display the CAPTCHA after X number of failed attempts so normal users don't have to deal with CAPTCHAs.

  • Who: Technical and non-technical users
  • When: Use this module when you want to protect your site from spammers but don't want to trouble your users with CAPTCHAs. Note: This doesn't necessarily protect your site from spam, more from manual brute force attacks.
  • Where: You can modify the settings at admin/user/captcha/captcha/after
  • Why: Asking a user to fill out a CAPTCHA after X failed attempts is not unheard of. It makes sure you are a human and slows you down enough if you are trying to brute force a form.

 

Theme song "i dunno" by grapes.

Module A Day Weekly Edition - 2010-08-29

Module a Day Weekly Edition

Originally aired 2010/08/29 - 2010/09/04. Please see the original episodes for notes and discussion.

Episodes Covered:

 

Theme song "i dunno" by grapes.

#066: Faceted Search

Module a Day

Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/faceted_search

The faceted search module allows you to break up your default Drupal search into Facets (smaller pieces). These facets can then break down by content type, taxonomy, date and many other facets.

  • Who: Advanced users
  • When: Use this module when you have a ton of content in your site which makes it hard to find what people are searching for and you can't use Lucene API or Apache Solr.
  • Where: You can add environments and change settings at /admin/settings/faceted_search
  • Why: Larger sites almost require some form of faceting. When the search for ""Rodney Dangerfield"" returns 5k nodes you need to provide a better way to search for your users so they can find the content they need without going through page after page.

 

Theme song "i dunno" by grapes.

#065: filedepot

Module a Day

Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/filedepot

The filedepot module allows you to upload files to Drupal as well as configure permissions, mark favorites, broadcast messages and even version files. (It has a Windows client too)

  • Who: Technical users* (This is too generic, you'll have to listen to the podcast)
  • When: Use this module when you want to allow users to upload files and create folders and need very fine grained permissions as well as versioning.
  • Where: You can find your configuration options at admin/settings/filedepot and you can upload/modify files at /filedepot. I couldn't find any real CCK or WYSIWYG integration so /filedepot appears to be the only place you can access it from.
  • Why: Drupal does need a strong file manager that works well remotely with a multi-user environment. This module is a half step in this direction. If it could provide good CCK and WYSIWYG integration this module could be the de facto file manger for Drupal.

 

Theme song "i dunno" by grapes.

#064: CacheExclude

Module a Day

Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/cacheexclude

The CacheExclude module allows the site administrator to exclude specific pages from being cached. It works on a very simple pretense of changing one global variable.

  • Who: Technical users
  • When: Use this module when you have things like random views that change out per page view on a specific page but you want to allow the rest of the site to be cached (for non-logged in users).
  • Where: All you need to do is go to admin/settings/cacheexclude and enter in the URLs to exclude (with wildcards)
  • Why: Sometimes a page is too dynamic to be imprisoned by Drupal's default caching, use this module to free your page from the shackles!!!

Theme song "i dunno" by grapes.

#063: Heartbeat

Module a Day

Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/heartbeat

The Heartbeat module allows you broadcast actions that you've done on the site.

  • Who: Technical users
  • When: Use this module when you want to let your users see what other users are doing like saving nodes, adding friends, commenting, etc.
  • Where: You can configure this module by going to admin/build/heartbeat but don't forget it adds options to the user profile and you're going to have to work with views to display people's activities
  • Why: Personally, I blame Facebook for this one. Now all social websites have to broadcast every single movement you make.

 

Theme song "i dunno" by grapes.

#062: Activity

Module a Day

Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/activity

The Activity module allows you broadcast actions that you've done on the site.

  • Who: Technical users
  • When: Use this module when you want to let your users see what other users are doing like saving nodes, adding friends, commenting, etc.
  • Where: You can configure this module by going to /admin/settings/activity but don't forget it adds options to the user profile and you're going to have to work with views to display people's activities
  • Why: Personally, I blame Facebook for this one. Now all social websites have to broadcast every single movement you make.

 

Theme song "i dunno" by grapes.