The OSTraining Blog - Web Design News and Tutorials

Drupal Classes Starting in Tampa

OSTraining Drupal Tampa Classes Drupal classes are coming to Florida.

Over the last year we've been slowiy expanding up and down the U.S.. We now run classes from Chicago and Boston in the north, down through New York and Washington D.C., and Atlanta. Finally we're now heading all the way south into Florida.

Why did we choose Tampa? Two main reasons:

The city is centrally located in the state, within 4 hours of every other major city.
For several years we've been running a successful Joomla class in Tampa, working with a great training facility. It's right by the airport which makes it very easy for students to travel in and out.

Find out more about our Drupal classes in Tampa by clicking here:

Drupal 6 and 7: Author and Date Information

There was one small little feature in Drupal 6 that would routinely drive students in our classes mad. It wasn't a major feature but it was a major annoynance: controlling the author and date information. Some content on your site simply doesn't need to display the name of the author and the date the content was written.

Here's how to find the display settings in Drupal 6 and an explanation of how things have changed for the better in Drupal 7.

Drupal 7 Uploading Modules and Themes

In Drupal 6, uploading modules and themes was often troublesome for beginners. They would have to follow a confusing process:

Download the files
Uncompress them
Make sure there was a /sites/all/modules/ or /sites/all/themes/ folder on their site
Upload the files manually to the /sites/ folder. Few beginners remembered that folder name - they just uploaded to the /modules/ and /themes/ folder which would be more logical.
Go to Site building > modules and enable them

If you'd like to, you can still install modules the old way, but Drupal 7 also offers a much simpler process:

Drupal 7 Taxonomy Changes

Drupal 7 introduced many new changes. One of these involves Taxonomy, Drupal's way of organizing content.

Let's see what's changed with Taxonomy and what you'll need to do differently in Drupal 7:

Taxonomy in Drupal 6

How to Create a Frontpage Slideshow in Wordpress

This tutorial will walk you through step by step how to create a slideshow for the frontpage of your Wordpress site. We're going to use a plugin called (very logically) Frontpage Slideshow. Here's how to set it up correctly:

Install

First, go to the admin area of your WordPress site, click Plugins, then Add New and search for Frontpage Slideshow. Once you've found it, click Install now:

$220 of Birthday Presents with Your Joomla Training

It was 12 months ago when we officially launched our online Joomla training program; and since it's our 1st birthday, we are offering a very special deal.

Until midnight on Saturday, we are giving $220 worth of birthday presents to each person who signs up for a new subscription.

Here is the link to sign up and details of all the presents:

We're Teaching at DrupalCon Chicago

dcc2011 instructor We're happy to announce that we'll be presenting a pre-conference training session: the Absolute Beginners Guide to Drupal, at DrupalCon Chicago next month.

The class will be identical to our normal Drupal beginner class that we've run dozens of times across the United States. Attendees get all the handouts and resources we provide at a regular class, plus the six months of after-class support.

The major difference is that the training will be the day before DrupalCon, Drupal's major international event.

The classes will be held on March 7th at University of Chicago's Gleacher Center, located steps from the conference venue. DrupalCon Chicago itself will runs from March 8-10 and will "feature dozens of curated sessions and panels from some of the most influential people and brightest minds within the Drupal community and beyond, as well as countless opportunities for networking, sprints, informal conversations, and more."

You can find out more at http://chicago2011.drupal.org.

If you've already purchased your ticket: you can still go back and sign up for training.
If you'd like to attend the training but not the full Drupalcon: we have our normal Drupal classes in Chicago on January 31st and February 1st. We'll also be back in Chicago in late March.

Joomla 1.6 and Drupal 7 Demo Sites

Are you wondering what's new in Joomla 1.6 and Drupal 7?

Well, wonder no longer. We've set up demo versions of Release Candidates for both Joomla 1.6 and Drupal 7 for you to test.

Here are the details:

Restore a Wordpress Backup Using Automatic Wordpress Backup

Things are not quite right with your site. You have tried troubleshooting the issue for the last four hours and you are getting frustrated. Then you remember that you have been making daily backups of your site. The question is, "How do I restore my site from the backup?" This tutorial will take your through the steps!

This tutorial assumes you are using Automatic Wordpress Backup Plugin and that you have a backup ready to go. For instructions on how to create a back up please see the How to Automatically Backup Wordpress tutorial.

Access Automatic Wordpress Backup

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In your administrator section, go to Plugins >> Automatic Wordpress Backup >> Settings.

Restore

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Scroll down and go to the Restore from a backup tab.

Select the backup you wish to use and configure appropriately.

Restore from backup when finished.

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Select OK if you are sure you want to run the restore. A manual backup will be created prior to running the restore in case you wanted to revert back.

Once you click ok, it will run the restore and then refresh once completed. Give it time to complete the restore; the larger the backup file the more time it will take.

That's it! You have just restored your site!

How to Automatically Backup Wordpress

Backup! Backup! Backup! There are few things more frustrating than having to redo an entire site from scratch after a major issue occurs with the site, whether that be an unidentifiable error, a hacked site, etc. If you have a backup in place, you will greatly reduce your work and keep your sanity.

This tutorial will walk you through how to automatically backup your wordpress site on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule by using the Automatic Wordpress Backup Plugin and Amazon S3. Let's get started!

Install Automatic Wordpress Backup Plugin

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In your administrator section go to Plugins >> Add New.

In the search field type in Automatic Wordpress Backup.

Click Search.

Find Automatic Wordpress Backup. Make sure it is the right plugin by checking in the Description that the author is Dan Coulter.

Install Now.

Select OK.

Activate the Automatic Wordpress Backup Plugin

Select Activate Plugin.

Configure Access Keys

Click on Settings.

We need to get this information from our Amazon Web Services (AWS) Account.

If you do not have an account, you can register here (Please read all the terms and conditions):
http://aws.amazon.com/s3/

Or you can sign up for their free version here (Please read all the terms and conditions):
http://aws.amazon.com/free/

**Be sure to register and confirm your S3 account. If you get any errors in Wordpress that you do not have any account, it means that you have not completed all the steps for registration, which includes confirmation.

Log into your AWS account (http://aws.amazon.com/s3/). Scroll down to the Access Credentials section. Copy the Access Key.

Go back to your Wordpress site and paste the Access Key in the AWS Access Key field.

Go back to your AWS account. Click on Show under the Secret Access Key area then copy the Secret Access Key.

Go back to your Wordpress site and paste the Secret Access Key in the AWS Access Key field.

Choose Your Level of Gratitude and Save

Choose how you wish to support the developer(s).

Select Save Changes.

Create Bucket and Configure

Every object stored in Amazon S3 is contained within a bucket. A bucket must be unique, thus to ensure that it is unique you can name it yoursite.com-backup. Enter Bucket.

Configure appropriately.

Save Changes and Backup Now.

Check Your Backup

Click Refresh Now.

Your Manual Backup is completed and everything is setup for automatic backups as per your configuration!

That is all there is to it! Easy as 1-2-3!

2 Drupal Classes in Washington DC Every Month

Washington DC Drupal

Drupal is taking off in Washington D.C.

At the beginning of 2010 we were running our Beginner and Intermediate Drupal classes every three months in Washington D.C.

The classes became increasingly popular so that by summer and fall we were running the pair every two months.

In November and December we tried once every month and that worked too. So, that's becoming our plan going forward in Washington:

We're going to be running a Beginner and Intermediate Drupal class in the second week of every month.

Here are the first class dates for 2011:

How to Turn On the Drupal Search Module

Drupal's search module allows your site's users to search both the content on the site and also the registered users.

In order for your users to use the search feature, you must enable it first. Let's get started.

How to get your Drupal Site Back Online after Setting it to Off-line

Perhaps one of most frightening things for novice Drupal adminsitrators is finding out they forgot to set the site back to Online before logging out. In panic, they scream, "How can I get my site back Onine?! I can't even log in!!!!"

When the site is set to Off-line, there is no login at www.mysite.com, as there usually is. This is to prevent your sites users from logging in as maintenance is done. So let's quickly show how to log in.

How to Update a Drupal 6 Module

This tutorial will walk you through, step-by-step, how to update your Drupal module to a new version.

Please make sure you have fully backed up your site before proceeding.

Download and Extract the New Module

Go to http://drupal.org/project/modules and download the new version of the module, then extract the module folder. For more detailed instruction on how to download and extract, please visit the first few steps of our How to Install a Drupal Module tutorial.

How to Install a Drupal Module

This tutorial will show you how to install a module in order to add new functionality to your Drupal site. Modules are user contributed add-ons for Drupal which allow you to extend Drupal’s core functionality. Let's get started!

Post by Email to Your WordPress Blog

By default WordPress allows you to write posts on your WordPress blog simply by sending an email.

However, as the video below makes clear, that default feature is fairly limited.

In this tutorial we'll show you how to set up your blog so that creating your posts by email is both fun and easy. The solution is the Postie plugin.

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