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aGov Distribution

• What is aGov?
• Previous next is the main driving force behind aGov
• Why did you create it?
• Features
  • Australian metadata standard
  • Workflow
  • Scheduled publishing
  • Site archiving
  • Integrating with an accessibility checker
  • Security features
  • Responsive

• Accessibility

  • WCAG 2 AA
  • Color contrast ratios

• What modules are you using?

  • Media
  • Blog
  • Honeypot
  • Panels in-place editor
  • Workbench

• Patched modules along the way to make them accessible

Use Cases

• Government Departments that want to get a site up quickly

• Is this only applicable to government in Australia?

  • Are there different standards for government agencies in Europe or America?

• Collaborating with Canadian distribution

  • Why can’t they just use aGov?

• Had an independent audit by Vision Australia

Future

• What’s in the future?
  • Shared infrastructure (taxonomy, etc.)
• Beta version of the accessibility checker is out, we’re going to improve that
• Possibly rebuild on Panopoly

Welcome to another Commerce Module Tuesday! Today we are looking at Commerce Product Add-on, maintained by Matt Robison who is the Vice President of Louisville Web Group. While I was at Drupalcon Portland, I was approached by two different individuals looking to do something that this modules makes very easy: Add a product as a checkbox on the add-to-cart form for another product.

(Video after the break.)

Few weeks ago I was contacted by Gaby Becker with some issues for the GCM module I maintain.
I was happy to help, and was even more happy when she wrote a post in her blog describing the whole process.
Currently the implementation described actually uses a combination of GCM with the Push notification module, but the most important thing is that it works, and their Webgrrls Events application now got "push notification" capabilities, backed by standard Drupal modules.
My plans are to continue enhancing the GCM module capabilities, while releasing an Android SDK which will make it simpler for developers to integrate between Drupal and Android.

I hope this post will be useful for others, and thanks again Gaby for the detailed information.
Regards,
Shushu

Ralates to: Drupal PlanetGCMPush notificationAndroidDrupal

It's Time to Get Your Cookies in Order

If you want to have a native, single sign-on solution that is deeply integrated into Drupal, there is really just one option: Bakery. If you aren't aware of the Bakery module, it is what creates single sign-on between sites like drupal.org and groups.drupal.org, as well as most of the DrupalCon sites.

If you're wondering why the module is called Bakery it's because it deals with the cookies, of course. A read through the module's code will introduce you to such cookies as the OATMEAL cookie, the CHOCOLATECHIP cookie, and a variety of others. I won't get into what they all do, but suffice to say that it's an amusing read.

Bakery is ideal for Drupal sites because it is capable not only of providing SSO, but also of syncing Drupal profile fields and user avatars — and handling some de-duping of accounts — on top of providing account proliferation across multiple sites.

Author Michael Cooper

Michael has created products ranging from auto-malls to CRMs and lead-management systems. After encountering Drupal in 2007, he fell in love with its ability to help him deliver exactly what his customers needed, on an accelerated time frame. When he isn't coding, he's spending time with his daughter and wife or writing science fiction novels.

This series outlines our project process  through the lens of our development of the new 4SiteStudios.com. In this post, we will discuss our process for developing a content strategy and user experience for our new website.

I tell the team here at 4Site that we are all strategists. We don’t just build websites for clients, we help them solve complex business challenges with creative content. We strongly believe that everything we design and/or build for a client should be informed by their content strategy.

We begin every client project with a Discovery and Planning phase. Our goal is to better  understand our client’s business goals; communications and marketing strategy; and the needs, motivations, and behaviors of both internal and external stakeholders. Once we are equipped with that knowledge, we co-design solutions with our clients, weaving them into every step of the process.

It was an interesting exercise of going through this process with ourselves as the client. We just wrapped up the planning phase of our new website, and want to share how things went to give you a sense of how we could partner with you on your next project.

Content Strategy at 4Site

The critical first piece of Discovery and Planning for us is developing a content strategy.  While most organizations have some form of content strategy when we begin working with them, we are typically developing a strategy for a specific campaign or helping the organization to rethink the strategy they have in place.

Coming out of this process, we provide clients with a Content Plan, which includes our high-level recommendations for solving their business goals through this project; audience assessment and user personas; key messages and message hierarchy; information architecture; content type definitions and models; and page inventory. At the conclusion of this phase, our clients understand how content will be organized, presented, and used to communicate their key messages throughout their new website.

Defining Our Need for a New Website

When we sat down to begin work on the new 4Site Studios brand, we realized our current brand is a bit bipolar. We operate as two separate companies - we have a large list of clients we do event videography and video production for, and a long list of clients we develop Drupal websites for, but there is very little overlap between the two. Most of our video clients don’t know we do content strategy and build websites, and vice versa. Seeing this as a hinderance to the growth of the company and expansion of relationships with existing clients, we set our main goal for the rebrand to establish ourselves as a full-service digital creative agency, not just a production house or a Drupal shop.

As most digital agencies, we quickly decided to use our new website as the place to tell the story of who we are as an agency and showcase the full breadth of services we can offer to our clients. We felt we the new website should quickly, and consistently, communicate our new brand to existing and potential clients, and showcase our work in a way that speaks to our capabilities as an agency.

We were in a good place when we kicked off the planning process. I had just completed developing a marketing and communications plan for the agency, which defined our business goals and objectives for the next year or so. We skipped the upfront steps of setting project goals and objectives because we wanted the new website to drive our larger business goals, not arbitrary goals we set for our new website.

After the team reviewed and gained consensus on our marketing goals and objectives, I performed a content audit and dove into Google Analytics to find out how people were using the site, what content was most popular, how people were finding our content, etc. It was bad - people didn’t spend much time with our content; there were tons of broken links and errors; content was not optimized for SEO; and there were lots of contradictions in messaging across pages. To make matters worse, the site was architected in a way that didn’t allow us to easily make any improvements to the website markup or page layouts.

After I met with the team to present my findings, we determined it would be quicker to go back to the drawing board and create the new website from scratch versus trying to re-architect the existing CMS. We had an entirely new brand, new target audiences, and a more focused set of business goals; the original website was not designed with any of this in mind. By building an entirely new website, which we will be building on our own distribution of Drupal, we can focus our efforts on creative execution rather than bug fixes and platform optimization.

Developing the Content Strategy for 4SiteStudios.com

I began our content strategy process by developing a set of user personas for the target audiences we defined in our communications and marketing plan. Through a combination of interviews with members of the team and colleagues in the industry; doing an analysis of our current and past customers; and a bit of social listening, I was able to get a good understanding of the needs of our potential clients, how they search for agency partners, and what motivates them to select a vendor.

I then mapped out brand pillars and statements to our audience needs to develop a messaging framework that would inform how we right content for key landing pages and informational content.  The idea behind it is to always talk about topics and ourselves from the client perspective. “This is your need and and here is our solution to your need.” Make our content about the reader,  not about us.  

Once I had the key messaging in place, and a good sense of what content was most important to our personas, I proposed a sitemap and page inventory to the team. This was possibly the easiest review I ever had of a proposed information architecture for a website. Two small changes, and we were done.

Lastly, I extrapolated from our marketing plan, existing content, and the new  information architecture the types of content we will need. Our content needs were fairly consistent with what we have on the new website, but the architecture needed to drastically change for easy of management and flexibility in presentation. I worked with our developer and site builder to define the key fields for each content type, and define relationships between them as necessary. I then developed recommendations for content portability using microcopy and SEO.

And, voila! Our content plan for the new website was done. Below is a copy if you would like to reach the entire thing.

4Site Studios New Website Content Plan from 4sitestudios

Last week’s SemTechBiz San Francisco was packed with insightful keynotes and sessions showing trends for semantic web technologies. The hot topics of the conference were Google’s, Yahoo’s and Wikidata’s Knowledge Graphs, as well as the adoption of schema.org, an initiative launched 2 years ago by the major search engines to standardize and promote structured data on the Web.

Gemma Rose Devanadera (Dublan) is a Freelance Web Developer with expertise in Drupal development and Agile development. A mother of 3 kids, she is active in organizing Drupal community events in the Philippines, having spearheaded the Drupal Pilipinas community since 2012. She loves mentoring people and inspiring young volunteers to become active in the community.

Gem is a 2003 graduate of AB Political Science at Arellano University, and is currently studying project management and marketing strategy. You can connect with her on Twitter as @GemDevanadera.

What is the Campus Tour?

The Campus Tour is like a roadshow and a seminar type of event. Recently, because of the demands of learning and interest in Drupal, our roadmap was changed from just doing the seminar for a whole day event to a half-day seminar and a half-day Drupal tutorial  that encompasses both the students, faculties and the IT administrations people of the schools.

Basically, the first Campus Tour was merely just a seminar. When Drupal Pilipinas started to reach out to different universities and colleges all around the Philippines, though, we have met so many needs that we can offer to the campus audience including training, support, mentorship program for both students and faculties, and career coaching for students.

Who else is involved with it? (Individuals, corporate support, government or other organizations?)

Basically it was us--the Drupal Pilipinas volunteers and mentors. Because of the Campus Tours events that have spread all over the community now, Microsoft Philippines has been our partners who provided us the venue and the freebies for participants for our events. Also, they provide WIFI Access now for the training needs.

Mozilla Philippines is a local community partner too, with Phil IT organization, Swiftsure Group, JOb and Esthers Technology, Smart Devnet, Globe Labs, Exist Group, Cloud Pinoy. We are soon to partner with other LGU’s Region 4 groups, UP Diliman, Lorma College, Bulacan State University, AMA University, DLSU Taft, Aklan State University, John B Lacson University, National University, and other small private companies.

What gave you and the other community leaders the idea to do this?

Actually this is the result of too much Starbucks, hehe, just kidding. I am the author of this idea, I learned that other groups have been doing it so why can’t we? But there is something lack on what they do in the roadshow, and I believe that the Drupal community would be able to handle it if we just work all together. At first I was a bit scared to my first attempt, because it was all just my plan but I am a risk taker sometimes and I am not afraid to do things because I trust those people around me that we can do it.

I have seen that there is a need for us to reach out those students in the campus audience to know about the open source technology, especially Drupal. And by doing the Campus Tour we can reach out to them and introduce them to the technology and encourage them not only to be active in the Drupal community but also to support other open source groups.

What kind of feedback have you gotten from participants?

From the first Campus Tours that we had it was just testing the water first but at least we tried to reach them out, and it was not bad. Then with the second Campus Tour and up to the present Campus Tours that we had recently in Bulacan State University, all of them were very happy and proud to tell us about how they learned so much from the trainings and seminars.

That is why we are trying to finish the website in order to put all the testimonial of our partners and Campus Tours attendees feedbacks for all of our roadshows. 

How do you think this program benefits, or could benefit, the people and communities involved?

This project will surely help the students to learn about Drupal technology, that this tool was amazing and they can learn so many things from managing their basic website up to the complex one. Faculties will also learn from this. If they became involved in the Drupal community they will get training, support, and resources from us which will enhance the way they teach students in the IT courses. It will open their eyes that there are so many open source technologies that they can use freely, and easy without spending too much money on it.

If we engage both the student and faculties to the Campus Tour and it would be regularly every year we might be able to establish a small chapter or group inside the campuses that will handle the next event properly for drupal trainings. Also one more thing, skills that will be added to them by the means of training, mentorship program that they will have in the community will equip them all in their IT career since Drupal is not only about Drupal but also recognizes PHP, javascript, jQuery, module development, theming, and now Symfony. It will help them to have additional IT skills and if they are passionate or interested to join the community later and contribute back then the community will have more contributors in the many fields.

What’s next for the Campus Tour?

After Campus Tour...Course Material project for the schools that are requesting us for some help over Drupal installation guidelines. Because most of the Schools now wanted to include Drupal in their Curriculum, one example is AUF Angeles University in Pampanga which officially made Drupal as part of their ACAD curriculum for 2013-2014, and Lorma College, AKlan State U, and AMA University all branches the leading IT School in the Philippines.

Next projects:

• Drupal Trainings for private and government sectors in Manila, first including LGU and small private companies

• IT Summit Conference in partnership with National University at SM Manila Mall Activity center on June 27, 2013

• IT Summit Conference for Region 4a at the Lyceum of the Philippines on August 30, 2013 in partnership with lyceum of the philippines.

• Drupal Camp Boracay 2014

Is there a site where people can go to learn more?

Yes there is now, Last year we don’t have yet, but this time the community is working together to finish the site and this is another project because the people who are doing the site now are all young Volunteers and some developers.

The site will encompass all the Drupal users group in the Philippines including Manila, Cebu, ILoIlo, Davao, Gensan, Aklan, Boracay, Mindanao and Baguio. The site will have all the complete list of Drupal members, along with video tutorials and slides, Q and A, community, Gallery, Events, Sponsors and partners, Blogs, Job post, projects, and sign-up form for volunteers in every event, and of course membership registration page.

We are hoping to finish this soon and we from the Drupal Pilipinas are very proud of becoming part of the Drupal Association Community . We are hoping to continue this advocacy and pass it on through generations to generations.

The Drupal Pilipinas site can be found at http://www.drupalpilipinas.org/

  Personal blog tags: guest blogcommunityPhilippines

Guest blogger Gemma Rose Devanadera tells of the inspiration, results, and future plans for Drupal Campus Tours in the Philippines.

Personal blog tags: guest blogcommunityPhilippines

DrupalCamp Austin 2013 is happening June 21-23!

DrupalCamp Austin is back! This is the event to learn everything about Drupal, the world's best open-source content management system and web framework. We'll cover everything from beginner-level site building to advanced design and development.

Register today before tickets sell out! Schedule

• Friday, June 21: Workshops, Web Leadership Day, and Geek Trivia Night (register separately)
• Saturday, June 22: Sessions, BoFs, keynote, workshops, and after-party
• Sunday, June 23: Sessions, BoFs, and keynote

Details

• When: June 21-23
• Where: Austin Convention Center
• Price: $65
• Schedule

Web Leadership Day (June 21): It's free!

Web Leadership Day is a new event that gathers voices from across the web for a single day of deep dives into the business and future of the web. We're calling on all tech companies — from agencies and dev shops to startups — to come together for a day of curated talks and Earth-shattering enlightenment.* We all work on the web. Let's make a better web, together.

This is a free event organized by DrupalCamp Austin. You do not need to register for DrupalCamp to attend — but we certainly encourage you to. :)

Register for Web Leadership Day!

*Earth-shattering enlightment not guaranteed.

AttachmentSize dca2013.png18.19 KB

Starting a new series

The Drupal 8 Multilingual Initiative was announced on May 9th, 2011 - 25 months ago. Since it's inception, the heroic efforts of people on the initiative resulted in about 400 issues resolved but there are still about 300 open to resolve. We have made huge advances in terms of multilingual support in Drupal 8 thanks to all these changes and you can still help to make it perfect.

I'd love to highlight some of the great improvements that we made to make you excited about what is coming and point out some related places where you can still help to perfect what we have so far. This is number one in a series of short posts to discuss these improvements.

Language first in the installer

Drupal 8 makes language occupy the prominent first step in the installer. And compared to Drupal 7 where you were presented with a wall of textual instructions as to how to locate and download a translation file, place into a specific directory and reload the page, Drupal 8 comes with the realization that these are all automatable tasks. So we show you about a 100 languages to choose from to install Drupal 8 in.

The new Drupal version also comes with highly improved browser based language detection capabilities, so it will attempt to automatically identify your preferred language for this installation based on what your browser tells us. So in most cases, you'll likely just hit the button to continue and not think much about this.

We not only present you with the list of languages, we also download and import the translations to your system proper. So all the steps you did manually before are now automated. The installer can also fully show up in right to left languages, such as when picking Arabic.

Also, if you pick a foreign language here, English will not be among your site's languages anymore either. Drupal 8's assumption is that if you install in a foreign language, you likely want a foreign language website without English showing up at all kinds of places as an option. Compared to Drupal 7 where English was not possible to remove.

During the week June 24th a mass of Drupal folks will converge on Dublin, Ireland for Drupal Dev Days. This year, in addition to the three days of DrupalCamp that is happening (June 28-30), there is also a week of sprints leading up to the camp, and to the Drupal 8 code freeze deadline. This is it. If it's going to be in Drupal 8, it needs to happen before the end of June.

read more

In the first post in this series we talked about the importance of adoption and how it can often be an afterthought in the process of building world class open source solutions. We delved into the topic of identifying your audience. That was a huge step in the right direction. For more information on identifying your audience see my blog from last week. Today, lets delve into the remaining 5 steps in the process starting with understanding the logistics and geography of your audience and constituents. 

2. Understand logistics and geography.

While DrupalCon Portland ended nearly three weeks ago, some of us are just now decompressing from the experience. Spending a week with 3,300 attendees learning about and contributing to Drupal was both inspiring and instructive.

read more

Download Podcast 107

Mike Kadin (mkadin), creator and head-referee from ModuleOff.com, joins Andrew Riley, Ryan Price, and Mike Anello to talk about his competitive Drupalizing web site, WYSIWYG in Drupal, the E#$@!prise, as well as some great picks of the week.

read more

If you need to create a custom views access plugin the reason for this will be to allow you to add custom logic to protect the access to your view.

Let's say you need finer access control to a view than roles and permissions. For example let's suppose you are storing properties on a user object which determine if certain user can see certain views independent of their roles. What we need to do, is to configure our views correctly with a views access plugin.

Working against the Views API:

You could load the user in the template file of your view and check for the property but this is not what we want to do. While this would work you would have to repeat this process in every template and you would not be able to configure it. It is also difficult to control and would result in a lot of maintenance.

Working with the Views API:

Views has this beautiful architecture in place that allows you to extend its base classes. If you start writing a custom views plugin the best thing to do is to examine another plugin of the same kind. For example check out the permissions access plugin. (tip: a good way to write plugins is to look at examples from views or other module implementing the same system)

The file:
/views/plugins/views_plugin_access_perm.inc

/** * @file * Definition of views_plugin_access_perm. */ /** * Access plugin that provides permission-based access control. * * @ingroup views_access_plugins */ class views_plugin_access_perm extends views_plugin_access { function access($account) { return views_check_perm($this->options['perm'], $account); } function get_access_callback() { return array('views_check_perm', array($this->options['perm'])); } function summary_title() { $permissions = module_invoke_all('permission'); if (isset($permissions[$this->options['perm']])) { return $permissions[$this->options['perm']]['title']; } return t($this->options['perm']); } function option_definition() { $options = parent::option_definition(); $options['perm'] = array('default' => 'access content'); return $options; } function options_form(&$form, &$form_state) { parent::options_form($form, $form_state); $perms = array(); $module_info = system_get_info('module'); // Get list of permissions foreach (module_implements('permission') as $module) { $permissions = module_invoke($module, 'permission'); foreach ($permissions as $name => $perm) { $perms[$module_info[$module]['name']][$name] = strip_tags($perm['title']); } } ksort($perms); $form['perm'] = array( '#type' => 'select', '#options' => $perms, '#title' => t('Permission'), '#default_value' => $this->options['perm'], '#description' => t('Only users with the selected permission flag will be able to access this display. Note that users with "access all views" can see any view, regardless of other permissions.'), ); } }

This is a clear example that we can use to start with. You can see there are some essential functions to create this plugin. Lets check our example to see which ones.

Create a file called mymodule_access_plugin.inc in the root of your custom module.

/** * Access plugin that provides property based access control. */ class mymodule_access_plugin extends views_plugin_access { function summary_title() { return t('Custom access plugin'); } // summary_title() /** * Determine if the current user has access or not. */ function access($account) { return mymodule_access($account); } function get_access_callback() { return array('mymodule_access', array()); } }

For the custom views plugin you need three functions. The summary_title to return the title. This is what you will see when you go to the views interface and you select your plugin. It will appear next to role based and permission based access options in the views interface.
Then we have our access method. Finally you must declare to views your custom access callback. You can pass arguments if needed using the array.

Now that we have our access plugin file, with our class, we need to tell views that we have created a new access plugin.

Two things need to be done. First in the info file you must declare the new file.

name = mymodule description = Custom code core = 7.x package = custom dependencies[] = views files[] = mymodule_access_plugin.inc

Then you need to implement a hook_views_plugins to tell views that there is a new custom access plugin available ..

/** * Implements hook_views_plugins() */ function mymodule_views_plugins() { $plugins = array( 'access' => array( 'test' => array( 'title' => t('Custom access check'), 'help' => t('This is a custom access plugin'), 'handler' => 'mymodule_access_plugin', 'path' => drupal_get_path('module', 'mymodule'), ), ), ); return $plugins; }

.. and finally our access callback ..

function mymodule_access($account = NULL) { global $user; $access = false; $account = user_load($user->uid); $optionfield = field_get_items('user', $account, 'field_option'); //In the future more values are possible so this is extendible //For now only +eur exists $allowed_values = array('eur'); $options = explode('+', $optionfield[0]['value']); foreach ($allowed_values as $allowed_value) { if (in_array($allowed_value, $options)) { $access = true; } } return $access; }

Here we are checking on certain values that are stored in a field of a user of certain role. When a user has these properties we want the callback to return true. This will grant access.

Now that you have this plugin you can start using it in all your views by going to the interface access section and select the plugin.

Tags: viewsaccesshook_access_pluginhook_views_pluginsdrupalplanet Tweet

We have finished the design and production of the first round of Walkthrough.it T-shirts, and they have already debuted at DrupalCon Portland.

The design concept pays homage to Star Wars and reflects on the popular Death Star funding campaign on Indiegogo. The front pictures the walkthrough Luke is going through to launch the Proton torpedoes that eventually destroy the Death Star, while the back sheds light on the decision of backers choosing our project over the ambitious Death Star campaign.

Knowledge Language English Thresholds, Code Freeze, Getting Features into Drupal 8, Criticals and Majors in DrupalCathy Theys06/11/2013 - 03:50

Instead of doing 2 things myself, I'm doing one and trying to make it possible for X others to do the same.

(OK, I might be doing more than one thing, but the sentiment is the same. grin)

I've been making a little noise about change records; posting instructions and encouraging people to take a stab at drafting the first versions for some change records. Why?

For many reasons, but one big reason is there are a few features I want to see get into Drupal 8 still.

Features?! Yep. There is still some hope of getting features in. I'm hoping for Add configuration translation user interface module in core, some issues from Refactor account workflow, ... and I'm sure other cool things.

...there are a lot of small, non-destabilizing features that would make Drupal 8 better. Especially for the kinds of iterative improvements that we would allow into 8.1 or 8.2, it doesn't make sense to hold those up until then, if we're able to get them into 8.0 without it delaying the 8.0 release date. To help with this goal, catch and I have discussed a plan for allowing some features to continue to be committed to core up until RC1, providing we are under thresholds.

-Dries from Code Freeze and Thresholds

More up-to-date information on where we are in the release cycle is in the Drupal.org release cycle page. The code freeze (API freeze) date for Drupal 8 is July 1, 2013... July 1 is quickly approaching.

What are the threshold numbers? We want to be below 15 critical bugs, 100 major bugs, 15 critical tasks, 100 major tasks

There is the possibility for new features, when issues are under these counts:

• Critical bugs, across D7 and D8: no more than 15 [We have 35, 0 RTBC]
• Major bugs, across D7 and D8: no more than 100 [We have 156, 8 RTBC]
• Critical tasks, across D7 and D8: no more than 15 [We have 39, 0 RTBC, 12 need change notification]
• Major tasks, across D7 and D8: no more than 100 [We have 156, 5 RTBC]

(Taken from Drupal core issue count thresholds docs page on d.o.)

What can people do?

We have a support system in place to help people and make that experience rewarding for the project and for the individual. Contributor task document pages help people figure out how to do what needs to be done.

You don't have to do a bunch, just picking one thing will really help. It is not hopeless!

Take for example change notifications. We really are making a dent in them already. Just in the last week, people have made 21 change records. Thanks ParisLiakos, larowlan, Gábor Hojtsy, Shyamala, tim.plunkett, fago, Wim Leers, patrickd, swentel, andypost, chx, Berdir!

• needs change notification 12 critical tasks need change notification and the Contributor task: Write up a change record for a Drupal core issue document helps anyone who has not make a change record figure out how to go through the process of helping make a change record.
• needs review 77 of the threshold issues need review and the Contributor task: Review a Drupal core patch document helps people get started reviewing, has a link to more detail on how to do reviews and xjm's review guide has tips too.
• needs manual testing 9 need manual testing and the Contributor task: Manually test a patch for a Drupal issue document helps figure out how to test, and also how to write up the results for posting back to the issue queue.
• needs accessibility review 4 need accessibility review and the Contributor task: Manually do accessibility testing of a patch for a Drupal issue document includes tools to help people get set up for accessibility reviews.
• needs issue summary update 84 need issue summary update and the Contributor task: Write an issue summary for an existing Drupal Core issue document gives a strategy for tackling issue summaries. Anyone can edit the issue summaries and it is more than just pasting in the html from the template, it is also making sure the information is there regarding the motivation, remaining tasks, etc. Another thing that helps issues, is adding a steps to reproduce, related issues and follow-up issues section to the issue summary. Issue summary updates are an investment, and take a bit of time, but they are worth it and are key to getting things moving in Drupal 8 (See: xjm's Help!).
• needs tests 49 need tests and the Contributor task: Write an automated test for a Drupal core bug document is a good starting point. Also helpful are: simpletest documentation for a start on using SimpleTest and xjm's presentation from MWDS on tests.

Coordination. So many people starting to work on so many tasks.

Pick an issue you want to work on, then add a comment on the issue saying what task you are about to start doing. (Typically the assigned field is only used when someone is actively making a new patch for an issue. For other tasks, like reviews, drafting change notices, issue summary updates, etc, making a comment on the issue is fine.)

Have questions?

It's ok to ask questions in a comment on the issue. It works well because people "following" the issue will see your question and can help you out.

Want real live support, from humans?!

From the irc bot factoid: core mentoring?

Want to contribute to Drupal core? Come to core contribution mentoring!  Two timeslots, (Tuesdays 02:00 UTC and Wednesdays 16:00 UTC) in #drupal. More info: http://drupal.org/core-mentoring, http://modulesunraveled.com/podcast/003-jess-and-core-office-hours-modules-unraveled-podcast. | Twitter: @drupalmentoring | Create an account at http://drupalmentoring.org

Or try the #drupal-contribute irc channel any hour of the day.

Recently, I had the special fun of migrating a new client’s site over to a new host. Everything was going smoothly and quickly until I got to the Files folder. It contained a 4-gigabyte hodgepodge of images, thumbnails, pdfs, known site backups and unknown site backups (Yes, unknown! I don't count the WordPress version of the site from six years ago as a "known about" backup). It got me thinking about one part of Drupal that I think many take for granted: The Files system. Drupal is three-part system: Database, Code and Files. When planning a site architecture, often the Files folder gets treated like the red-headed step child of the three; forgotten, neglected and rather ignored.

However, that’s not the way it should be. Drupal is a content management system. No matter what type of content, whether doc, image, or a PowerPoint on how many kittens and puppies it takes to make a good calendar, Files are just as much content as the text describing said cute kittens and puppies. And this type of content is much easier to manage then most people think.

I’m not talking about the Media module, a hopeful dream of the Drupal world that I still believe in and could still use some more loving. I’m just talking about what comes after "sites/default/files/..." When writing new content, we often upload files and images along with our post about how our cat fell asleep in the kitchen sink. Instead of just having all those images and files placed first level in the Files folder, why not have them go into a "blog" folder or a "fluffy" folder. That way we don’t need to look at 10,000 images upon opening the Files folder.

When adding a file upload field to a content type, you can set a default path to house the files that will be uploaded. Using tokens, you can create default path structures that handle all the folder architecture for you. I like to separate folders by content type, year/month/day uploaded, taxonomy term, and/or type of file. An example token setup for a default path may look like this: [node:content-type]/[node:created:short] or [node:content-type]/[node:nid].

The benefit is that whenever I go into the Files folder, I have instant information about the files contained inside. An image with the name of 348jkdldhisoj.png is not helpful to me, but if it’s located at say "sites/default/files/blog/may2013/img/cat_photos/348jkdldhisoj.png," then I have a good idea of what that image is. If you are naming a folder without the use of tokens, be descriptive as to what that folder actually contains. Don’t label it “images” and expect the world to know what that universally means.

The point I’m making is you don't have all of your files on your computer located on your desktop, do you? No, you have them in human-readable, ordered folders. When I’m looking for my legally downloaded episodes of Family Guy, I don't want to have to look through a folder that also contains clips of my sister’s cat getting scared by his own image in the mirror (although that one always makes me laugh when I come across it). So put the same thought into your Drupal sites/default/files folder. Your site, the cats of the web, and your local Drupal support guy will appreciate it.

On a current site in development I am using Ubercart to provide a renewable subscription service. To make the user experience clean, I wanted to protect the user from going 'shopping' to add their subscription. To do this I decided to use a rule to add the product to the user cart when the user is created by an administrator or when the subscription is cancelled or fails payment. I tried the Ubercart Rules module, but this is mainly for dealing with orders and not carts, and did not contain the needed add to cart rule.

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I've been looking at various LiveChat modules for Drupal sites and after testing a number out I finally found one I liked, Zopim LiveChat.

It's slick, quick and provides all the basic requirements plus a few neat additional things such as user stats, history, visitor lists, customisable sounds. If you wanted you could have unlimited chats for $11.20 a month or the full version for only $20 a month!

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