Drupal Development
By Mike Mallett
on 28/11/2013
Drupal is a powerful web application framework and Content Management System. It is capable of serving high volume websites at incredible speeds. But a poorly configured cache setting can grind your web site to a halt, leaving impatient visitors waiting for pages. Excessive page load times will even drive some visitors away with the impression that your site has gone down. The most common recommendations for Drupal 7.x caching beyond the defaults provided in Core are APC, Varnish, and Memcache. Each plays its own specific role, and requires its own configuration settings to be reviewed by the...
on 20/06/2013
We're going to begin a small experiment in using Flattr to help support our work with the Drupal community. We've got a huge problem in the Drupal community in that we are either relying on volunteers to "scratch an itch" or on Drupal shops (or freelancers) like ourselves to fit it into one or more contracts to see that we have some way to pay for our time.
When the itch is no longer scratchy, or we're just too busy with other work to consider taking on maintaining projects that we, as contributors, have started, then projects become stale and out of date. It's relatively easy to set up a...
When the itch is no longer scratchy, or we're just too busy with other work to consider taking on maintaining projects that we, as contributors, have started, then projects become stale and out of date. It's relatively easy to set up a...
on 14/06/2013
When I told my dad I was working with Drupal he responded, “Hey, that’s what my company uses!” I shouldn’t have been too surprised considering he works for Amnesty International which has been using Drupal since 2007. In fact, a number of nonprofits have turned to open source platforms, specifically Drupal, to get information about themselves and their efforts available online. Here’s a look as to why so many organizations have made the switch:
Drupal allows an easy translation functionality - ideal for international organizations which require their information to reach a wider audience....
When I told my dad I was working with Drupal he responded, “Hey, that’s what my company uses!” I shouldn’t have been too surprised considering he works for Amnesty International which has been using Drupal since 2007. In fact, a number of nonprofits have turned to open source platforms, specifically Drupal, to get information about themselves and their efforts available online. Here’s a look as to why so many organizations have made the switch:
Drupal allows an easy translation functionality - ideal for international organizations which require their information to reach a wider audience....
on 11/06/2013
Accessibility is a very important topic here at Open Concept, as our own Mike Gifford is a champion for accessibility and an organizer for the Drupal Group on Accessibility. As someone with a background in both health and information studies, I understand the necessity of designing a website to cater to the diverse users who need to access essential information. With limited knowledge of where Drupal is at in regards to accessibility, I set out to learn about the issues and new developments coming out of DrupalCon Portland.
Jesse Beach - a member of Drupal’s accessibility group - gave two...
Accessibility is a very important topic here at Open Concept, as our own Mike Gifford is a champion for accessibility and an organizer for the Drupal Group on Accessibility. As someone with a background in both health and information studies, I understand the necessity of designing a website to cater to the diverse users who need to access essential information. With limited knowledge of where Drupal is at in regards to accessibility, I set out to learn about the issues and new developments coming out of DrupalCon Portland.
Jesse Beach - a member of Drupal’s accessibility group - gave two...
By Mike Gifford
on 10/06/2013
We did it! The Drupal community successfully fundraised to bring Vincenzo Rubano to DrupalCon Portland. Vincenzo is a blind Italian student that has been contributing to Core for the last year. This was one of the first successful crowdsourcing efforts in the Drupal community and we were really happy to show that it can work. This proved that Drupal developers and shops are willing to use alternative means to bring folks to DrupalCon.
The week went fast, but I wanted to highlight a few key elements of our discussions from the conference.
The first person we wanted to meet with was Jesse...
We did it! The Drupal community successfully fundraised to bring Vincenzo Rubano to DrupalCon Portland. Vincenzo is a blind Italian student that has been contributing to Core for the last year. This was one of the first successful crowdsourcing efforts in the Drupal community and we were really happy to show that it can work. This proved that Drupal developers and shops are willing to use alternative means to bring folks to DrupalCon.
The week went fast, but I wanted to highlight a few key elements of our discussions from the conference.
The first person we wanted to meet with was Jesse...
By Mike Gifford
on 08/06/2013
We did it! The Drupal community raised $5k to bring Vincenzo Rubano to DrupalCon Portland. This is an amazing accomplishment that demonstrates that crowdsourcing to support the Drupal community can work very well. Although it's been an idea that's been brewing for a while, we've been doing all that we could to bring Vincenzo to a DrupalCon.
Vincenzo is a blind Italian student who is just finishing high-school. In the fall he started contributing enhancements to Drupal 8. As a screen reader user, he has been able to identify & test problems and effectively communicate them through the...
Vincenzo is a blind Italian student who is just finishing high-school. In the fall he started contributing enhancements to Drupal 8. As a screen reader user, he has been able to identify & test problems and effectively communicate them through the...
By Mike Mallett
on 03/06/2013
DrupalCon Portland was held at the Oregon Convention Centre from May 20 - 24, 2013. I found out I was going in place of a coworker who could not make it about 5 days ahead of time. What a ride! Without much time to prepare my schedule, equipment, or fun adventures while on the West coast, I packed a laptop, some socks, and shot off for whatever might await me...
It was daunting at first - a busy week chock full of amazing talks, great opportunities to learn and discuss and socialize - all in front of me without a lot of run-up time. But I would say I made the best of it! As OpenConcept's...
It was daunting at first - a busy week chock full of amazing talks, great opportunities to learn and discuss and socialize - all in front of me without a lot of run-up time. But I would say I made the best of it! As OpenConcept's...
By Mike Gifford
on 25/03/2013
We really enjoyed the opportunity to be part of organizing Ottawa's first DrupalCamp. It was a great success, and as a platinum sponsor we were happy to see it take place. There were a lot of good presentations, but we'd like to highlight a few of them here on our site. The first is a great talk by Tom Erickson, CEO of Acquia talking about Drupal & government around the world. As an Acquia Partner, OpenConcept was really happy that so many of their team was able to come in to participate in this event.
It was also a pleasure to have Andrew Hoppin, CEO of New Amsterdam Ideas involved in...
It was also a pleasure to have Andrew Hoppin, CEO of New Amsterdam Ideas involved in...
on 15/03/2013
Laura Scott posted an excellent article at Pingv that makes the case which OpenConcept hopes every Drupal 6 user will immediately take to heart; it's time to be actively working on your website upgrade.
We excerpt and link Laura's article as she spells it out as well as anyone could, but we will underscore a couple of the main points:
With the impending release of Drupal 8 people still running Drupal 6 have only three options, one of which isn't actually an option at all, and another isn't really an option for most users either. The three options are:
Examine Drupal 8, start...
We excerpt and link Laura's article as she spells it out as well as anyone could, but we will underscore a couple of the main points:
With the impending release of Drupal 8 people still running Drupal 6 have only three options, one of which isn't actually an option at all, and another isn't really an option for most users either. The three options are:
Examine Drupal 8, start...
By Mike Gifford
on 13/02/2013
We were happy to see that at the end of 2012, the main website for the Government of Ontario(GoO) moved to Drupal 7. Their new site demonstrates that it is possible to have a visually interesting site that meets the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act(AODA). Many folks reading this blog post will know that the AODA requires a wide range of organizations within Ontario to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0 AA). WCAG is an International standard organized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), they are responsible for a number of standards for the Internet...
We were happy to see that at the end of 2012, the main website for the Government of Ontario(GoO) moved to Drupal 7. Their new site demonstrates that it is possible to have a visually interesting site that meets the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act(AODA). Many folks reading this blog post will know that the AODA requires a wide range of organizations within Ontario to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0 AA). WCAG is an International standard organized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), they are responsible for a number of standards for the Internet...