OSTraining Blog Post and Tutorials

The problem with many software applications is you can't make them your own. With Drupal, however, you have the option to override how Drupal does things. From altering a form to customizing the way your pages are displayed, Drupal provides options.

The concept of overriding something in Drupal can be made reality in several ways: Drupal's APIs, theme overrides, as well as overriding default configurations in modules. Whatever it is you need to do, the number one rule you should endeavor to follow is: don't hack the core (or a contributed module). Don't open the code files in Drupal and change them to meet your needs. There are better ways.

In this tutorial, we will focus on overriding themes.

About a week ago, my Twitter stream was overtaken by just one topic.

I follow people who work with many different types of web software. That day, they all had one thing in common. They were all tweeting about Ghost, a new blogging platform that was raising money on Kickstarter.

Ghost has no live demo and it's heavily based on two fairly obscure tools: Node.js and markdown.

However, it flew past it's Kickstarter goal inside one day and has now raised over £100,000.

Why is the idea of Ghost so popular with so many different people? Because it promised a renewed focus on simplicity. The truth is that in 2013 even web experts want simpler software.

Accessible websites allow users with disabilities to navigate the web and access information. A disabled user may be blind, have a motor disability, dyslexia, or a range of other disabilities that make web navigation difficult. Most users with disabilities will access the web using adaptive equipment, such as a screen reader or refreshable Braille display. Many will not use a mouse.

And these disabled users make up around 10-20% of Internet users in most countries, so creating websites with them in mind will have a positive effect on your bottom line.

A time consuming task for all software users is testing.

It takes time to find all the download links, to set up a test environment and to install all the additional software you need.

Simplytest.me is an ingenious solution for Drupal. Simplytest.me will install Drupal sites for you, as well as modules and themes that you want to use. Here's a brief introduction to this very useful site.

If you exclude the core plugins, All in One SEO Pack is the most popular WordPress plugin of all time, having been downloaded over 14 million times.

All in One SEO is so popular because it appeals to both beginners and experts.

For beginners, All in One SEO works out of the box with very little configuration needed. Also, as the name implies, it eliminates the need for multiple plugins because it contains many key features such as handling metadata and installing Google Analytics.

For experts, it offers a lot of flexibility for setting up your metadata and integrates smoothly with a wide range of other extensions.

We covered All in One SEO back in 2011. Here are 2 new videos tutorials to get started with All in One:

Joomla 3.1 is now available.

3.1 is available as a one-click update for all Joomla 3 users.

The major new feature in 3.1 is Tags. We wrote a detailed introduction and said that Tags "is one of the best new features to be added to Joomla in a long time."

In addition to Tags, there are some bug fixes and 7 security fixes, so we recommend that Joomla 3 users update immeadiately. If you have a lot of sites, try using Admincredible.com to update quickly and easily.

CSS is a simple language. It allows us to style properties of HTML elements using selectors. This makes it easy for beginners to get started with CSS.

However, as the size of your web projects grow, you end up repeating much of your CSS code. If you face this issue, then it's time to use a CSS preprocessor.

In this tutorial, we're going to explain what a CSS preprocessor is. We'll also introduce you to one of the most popular CSS preprocessors: LESS.

Moving a Drupal site to a new location on your server is surprisingly easy.

There is a simple 3 step process to move a Drupal site from one folder to another. In this tutorial we're going to show you those 3 steps.

If you'd like to move a Drupal site to new folder, we recommend using the Backup and Migrate module.

Recently, some of GoDaddy's servers have been producing a "No input file specified" error message when enabling Search Engine Friendly (SEF) URLs in Joomla.

This tutorial will show you step-by-step how to get your Joomla site working on GoDaddy's servers with SEF URLs enabled.

We're delighted to launch our latest class, "Simplytest.me".

With Simplytest.me there is no need to install an entire site just to test a new module or theme.

You can quickly and easily spin up a site with your desired module, theme or distribution and play around without any overhead.

You can even use Simplytest.me to apply and test patches.

J and Beyond, an International Joomla! Conference, is back for a fourth year.

From May 31st to June 2nd, Joomla! developers and site builders from over 30 countries will gather in Noordwijkerhout, near Amsterdam.

J and Beyond is one of two big international Joomla conferences every year, with the Joomla World Conference being the other.

We're happy to announce that Rod Martin, our Director of Online Training, will be one of the keynote speakers at J and Beyond 2013.

Websites used to be really simple.

No databases. No configuration. No complex deployment systems.

Perhaps until around the year 2000, most websites didn't use a database and simply stored all their data in files. 

Lately, some developers have tried to return to this simpler era, creating blogging software that only uses files. I've tested a few, and my favorite by far is Dropplets.

Dropplets is probably the simplest way to blog that I've seen in many years. It makes even WordPress look bloated by comparison. Developed by Jason Schuller, the man behind Press75 WordPress themes, Dropplets is a fun and easy way to blog. Here's how it works ...

The most important file on your Drupal site is the settings.php file. 

The settings.php is unique to every site and contains all of the important information that Drupal needs to run.

Inside settings.php you'll find everything from your database type and login details to your URL and multisite options.

This tutorial is your guided tour of settings.php. If you run a Drupal site, here's what you need to know about this vital file.