Modules enabled on this copy of Drupal:

The colophon is a list of Drupal modules used to run this site. It's generated by calling the module_list() method, and iterating over the output, so it's a live reflection of what's running right now.

$modulelist = module_list( FALSE, TRUE, TRUE, NULL);

echo '

';
foreach ($modulelist as $amodule) {
echo '
• '.$amodule.'

';
}
echo '

'

$node_count = db_result(db_query('SELECT COUNT(nid) FROM {node} WHERE status = 1 AND moderate = 0'));

$comment_count = db_result(db_query('SELECT COUNT(*) FROM {comments} WHERE status = 0'));

$tag_count = db_result(db_query('select count(*) from term_data where vid = 3;'));

printf('There are currently %d pieces of content published here, and %d comments, tagged by %d keywords.',$node_count,$comment_count,$tag_count);

?>

Posts by Tags/Keywords

$vocs[] = 3; // id of the vocabulary of which you want to display a tag cloud
$output = theme('tagadelic_weighted',tagadelic_get_weighted_tags($vocs, 6, 5000));
print $output;
?>

We headed to Sibbald Flats for some camp-related fun this weekend. I took the chance to experiment with a MacGuyver Polarizing Filter for my camera - holding my sunglasses in front of the lense. I was surprised at the difference it made! Here's the "after" shot - rollover for the "before" version to compare. Blues are bluer, etc. and yadda yadda.

Not the best before/after comparison - I didn't use a tripod, and wasn't planning on making the comparison, so didn't line the shots up very carefully. Still, it's pretty easy to see the effect.

I've taken a bit of time to start unpacking things after moving blog apps from WordPress to Drupal. It's starting to feel more like home - it'll take me some more time to really feel comfortable here, though.

Thinks I've added to make things more like my old WordPress config:

• Spam.module - I thought it was orphaned at Drupal 4.6, but it's still alive and well. I'd used this on weblogs.ucalgary.ca with great success (not quite as good as Spam Karma 2, but good enough to let me sleep at night)
• TinyMCE - basically the same WYSYWYG editor used by WordPress, but it's customizable, and seems to be more stable.
• Atom.module - adds an atom version of the syndication feed, if anyone swings that way
• Audio.module - podcasting support. Not quite as cool as PodPress, but still pretty swanky.
• Commentrss.module - exposes RSS feeds for comments (all, by tag, or by post)
• Graphstat.module - for me. a stats tracker thingy that makes shiny graphs 'n stuff.
• Hall of Fame (hof.module) - mostly for me - another stats tracker thingy, similar to Popularity Contest for WordPress.
• indexpage.module - generates tables of contents for various content types
• Notify.module - sends email to notify of new content - not what I was hoping for, since it doesn't support multiple distinct anonymous users.
• Pathauto.module - generates the schwanky urls for new posts automatically, rather than the stupid, stupid node/24234 style urls
• recent_blocks.module - generates the "Recent Posts" block in the sidebar, combined with the number of comments, etc...
• search404.module - intercepts borked URLs and tries to convert them into queries to try to do something useful rather than just barfing out a 404
• syndication.module - supposed to expose all RSS feeds in one handy dandy location, but doesn't appear to do that.
• tagadelic.module - creates those Super Kool Tag Clouds all the cool kids are using. I'll add it to the Archives page eventually. It can also add a block in the sidebar.
• views.module - generates custom pages listing stuff. Basically a handy database query manager and result displayer. Handy.
• workspace.module - I guess just for me - to track all content posted by a user, in one handy location.

Things I'm still searching for solutions to:

Does PFF work with Drupal?
Hey, cool! It works! It even provides options to post from each of the content types that the blogapi.module is configured for...

After a couple of hours of running with Drupal as my blogging platform, there are some areas that are definitely behind WordPress as a pure blog-friendly system.

• Comments. Typical blogs have "name", "url", "email" and "comment" fields. Drupal has an optional "Subject" and a "Comment" field. It works, but makes it harder to follow contributions in a conversation - you have to remember to put your name in the comment each and every time you post. Not friendly I was a bonehead - there's an option to make this behave as expected, under admin/comments/configure.
• Subscrbing to comments. Email subscriptions to a post's comments is the most powerful and effective way to maintain a conversation on a blog. The "subscriptions" module would work, but it only understands Drupal's users. The vast majority of commenters (i.e., everyone but myself) won't have an account in this copy of Drupal, so Subscriptions.module is useless to them. Close, though. All it needs is Anonymous user support, with a way to provide an email address. Not friendly.
• CoComment support. Lacking. I'm going to miss that, at least until I figure out how to properly implement it. Not friendly.
• Flicker Photo Album. There's a Flickr module that claims to do something similar, but it just isn't working for me. So, in the meantime, the "photos" link in the header nav bar points directly to Flickr. Not friendly.
• Flickr photo posting. There's a FlickrInserter module, modeled after Tantan's excellent Flickr Post Bar plugin for WordPress (which, in turn, is modelled after the awesome Flock Flickr Post bar). For now, I'm copying and pasting HTML directly from Flickr. Not friendly.
• I miss PodPress. Have to find a comparable solution for Drupal. Not fatal, but it sure was nice.

Of course, it's not all cloud - there is some silver in there. I did decide to switch, after all, and am not regretting it one bit (yet). Things that are good:

I decided to just go ahead and make the jump to Drupal , migrating from WordPress . I'm sure things will be quite broken for awhile (I'll add redirects to hopefully hook up RSS feeds) but this will give me a more fully-featured CMS to drive my blog (and whatever other website geekiness I decide to put up here).

I realized that the WordPress features that were holding me there weren't really as important as Drupal's feature set, and likely could be replicated in Drupal with some creative application of modules and code. 

I've been spending so much time in Drupal lately that I've been contemplating moving my blog from WordPress to Drupal to take advantage of some of the flexibility in Drupal. I've even gone as far as migrating a copy of this blog, and it's basically working now - it may even look familiar.

But, I'm holding off on throwing the switch (I came within about 5 seconds of a full switchover, but finally decided against it). Why? WordPress is still nicer for individual blogging. Sure, it lacks the super-handy Book structure. And the better Menu and Page management. And a bunch of other cool stuff.

I just gave a demo of Drupal to the UCalgary "web content management system" workgroup - they're trying to figure out which is The One True CMS that will be supported by IT for use on campus by faculties and departments to easily manage their websites.

Previous sessions were given by advocates of RedDot, ADX Studio, Joomla, Ironpoint, and OmniUpdate. That's a pretty wide range of proposed solutions, from the high-end, high-cost "enterprise" options, all the way to free/open source options.

Drupal 4.7 has an amazing "Content Creation Kit" module available for it (apparently, the module drove much of the node redevelopment between 4.6 and 4.7). It lets you easily create new content types, on the fly, without touching any code. It provides a set of primitives, and you can assemble them however you want - even providing lists of acceptable entries.

This is similar to the Flexinode module that's been around for awhile now, but Flexinode was apparently a proof-of-concept hack that wasn't intended to be adopted as widely as it has been, and apparently has scalability issues. CCK is sort of like Flexinode, reloaded. There is even a migration path planned to help folks who are heavily invested in Flexinode to move forward to the "modern" way of doing things.

Dave, Patty and I spent 2 (and a bit) glorious days in beautiful downtown Lethbridge for the ADETA Interface 2006 conference. It was my first time to Lethbridge (aside from a blur seen from a speeding car that didn't leave the highway, back when I was a kid). We wound up spending some time exploring, hiking, and wandering around town (and the U of L campus).

The Interface conference was different than any other conference I've been to. It was much homier, with all of the attendees appearing to know each other already. This was my first Interface, so although I knew many of the names, I didn't recognize many faces.