Blog

Disabling the node page

Posted May 17th, 2008 by nrambeck (2 comments)

The default homepage for a new Drupal site is the /node page that lists all content types that are marked to be promoted to the homepage. It's easy enough to change the homepage to a certain node (like a simple page) or a more customized homepage.

Organizing Drupal Modules

Posted May 16th, 2008 by nrambeck (5 comments)

When setting up a new Drupal project it’s important to organize your code, especially when working with teams. In Drupal, most or your core code will be in the form of modules. We typically organize our modules into 3 folders:

Modules go in the sites folder 

jQuery Enter to Tab

Posted May 12th, 2008 by nrambeck (0 comments)

An intranet web application we’ve been working on involves a lot of data entry. One feature that helps when typing in a large number of small numbers is being able to use the enter key like the tab key. Instead of tabbing over to the next field on the list, you simply press enter. It’s a small difference, but it’s easier to reach, people are used to it from Excel, and over enough time, it makes a big difference.

XAMPP Apache Service Conflict With Skype

Posted December 29th, 2007 by nrambeck (0 comments)

I have XAMPP installed on my PC Laptop for the occasional development I do when on the road. A while back I was trying to startup Apache through the XAMPP Control Panel, and Apache would attempt to start, but would always fail.

I finally realized that the culprit was Skype (must be a port collision). I just closed Skype and Apache started right up. As soon as Apache is running, I can open Skype back.

Hope this helps for any of you googling this issue online.

Thunderbird Quickmove Extension

Posted October 27th, 2007 by nrambeck (0 comments)

I recently installed Stuffit Expander on my Windows machine to open a .sit file from a client, and during the installation it wiped out all of my application settings including all my email settings for Thunderbird (thanks Stuffit, I didn't really have anything else to do that day anyway).

PHP Meetup - Drupal Basics

Posted August 10th, 2007 by nrambeck (0 comments)

Last night I gave a presentation on the basics of Drupal at the PHP Meetup group in Columbus Ohio. I am attaching my very simple Powerpoint outline to this page and will list here links to some of the modules we discussed during the presentation.

The CCK module (Content Construction Kit) is one of the most popular Drupal modules and allows you to easily create complex content types without the need to do any programming.

Using Launchy to Launch Web Projects

Posted August 2nd, 2007 by nrambeck (0 comments)

I’ve been using Launchy, a free application launcher, for almost a year now, and cannot rave enough about it’s ability to increase my productivity as a developer. Launchy is a tiny app that runs in the background, ready to launch not only your application, but also documents, media, batch files, help files, websites, file directories and more. You simply type Alt+Space (or Ctl+Space) and up pops a tiny window that allows you to type in the program, file or directory that you want to open.