Drupal News, Tutorials, Opionions and How-Tos

Use the Masquerade Module to Test Drupal Roles

If you have a large Drupal site, you may have a large number of roles and users.

How do you know if a role is set up correct?
How you know if a user has the correct permissions?

Yes, you can create fake accounts for each user role, but that becomes very cumbersome if you have more than a couple of roles.

Yes, you can ask the user for their password, or reset if for them, but that's a painful process.

The solution is the Masquerade module which allows you to easily browse the site through the eyes of any user you choose:

Can't Find the "Install new module" Link in Drupal?

When developers install Drupal modules, they rely on Drush or version control to manage their work.

However, most ordinary Drupal users do everything through the admin interface. They install modules via the "Install new modules" link.

Sometimes that link goes missing. If you can't find your "Install new modules" link, here are four possible solutions.

Connect Drupal and Views to External Databases

We often get asked whether Drupal can show information from other websites.

In particular, people want to pull information and display it through Views.

The Views Database Connector module makes this relatively easy. Let's show you how it's done.

Use Rules to Build Drupal Membership Sites

We often have OSTraining members who want to build membership sites in Drupal.

There are a variety of ways in which you can control access to your content. We've covered the Content Access and Taxonomy Access modules before.

However, using the Rules module has several advantages for membership sites:

OSTraining Will Release 200 Drupal 8 Videos for Free

Yes, you read that right: we're going to release 200 free Drupal 8 videos.

We want Drupal 8 to be a success. One way we can help make that happen is to make reliable training available to as wide an audience as possible.

Back in April, we launched our Drupal 8 training Kickstarter project. The project closed in mid-May with enough sponsorship for 100 videos, but over the last 6 weeks we've been talking with more sponsors and now have backing for 200 videos!

Here's an overview of the all the free Drupal training, plus an introduction to the organizations who made it possible.

Drupal: What If Your Clean URL Test Fails?

By default, Drupal 7 creates URLs that look like this, "/?q=node/4".

This type of URL can be hard to read, hard to remember and may not be search engine friendly. The solution is to configure Drupal's clean URLs.

Drupal provides a test so you can see whether your site is ready for clean URLs:

Using Administration Menu and Shortcuts in Drupal

An OSTraining member recently took our recommendation and installed the Administration Menu module, which makes it much easier to navigate through your Drupal site.

However, after enabling Administration Menu, they found that they lost their Shortcuts menu. This is normally the grey bar under Drupal's default admin toolbar.

Here's how to use Administration Menu and Shortcuts together.

The Beginner's Guide to Drupal Security Releases

There was a Drupal security release this week.

This release managed to confuse several of our users, because it wasn't clear if they should update their sites.

Security release information is rarely, if ever, written in plain English. And these week's updates were additionally confusing because they only impacted some Drupal sites.

So here, upon request, is our plain English guide to Drupal security releases.

Allow Users to Delete Their Drupal Accounts

It's good practice to allow users to leave your site completely.

That means users should be able to delete their account entirely, together with all the data associated with it.

In Drupal, you can allow users to delete their accounts. Here's how the feature works:

Easily Apply Drupal Patches with Patch Manager

Have you ever updated your Drupal site only to suddenly have errors?

If you use Drupal regularly, this will happen to you at some point. One common way to solve an error is with a patch. A patch changes the code on your site, but only by editing a file rather than providing a complete update.

However, applying a patch isn't easy for non-coders. Many of the available instructions for applying patches ask you to use an application called Drush and to use command line instructions. These instructions can be intimidating, so we're going to show you how non-coders can safely apply patches using the Patch Manager module.

How to Add a Slider Search to Drupal

One of our customers was setting up a Drupal Commerce site and wanted to add a slider search.

Here's an example of a slider search in action:

There are a lot of steps involved in this process, but it's worth the effort. This tutorial will use the default search, without relying on Apache Solr or alternatives.

There's an Updated Drupal Logo for Drupal 8

Drupal 8 will ship with a new version of the Drupal logo, known as the Druplicon.

It's not the biggest news in the world, but this will make some people happy. The discussion about replacing the logo lists several design problems with the current version:

The 'freaky alien' vibe.
It looks a bit dated - it's 11 years old now.
Some people find it "sinister", or "mean".
The lighting on the logo is from top left which can conflict with other sources.
The color scheme is muddy and out-of-sync with "Seven" administration theme.

DrupalCon Los Angeles and Where DrupalCons are Headed

DrupalCon Los Angeles took place from May 11 to 15 and three of our team were there.

Three of our team joined over 3100 people who crowded into downtown L.A.

We'll recap our favorite sessions in another blog post, but here are some thoughts on DrupalCon L.A. and where DrupalCons are headed.

Help Us Create Free Drupal 8 Training Videos

Drupal 8 is just around the corner, and the Drupal community is excited!

We want to make sure that as many people as possible can use Drupal 8. However, many new Drupal 8 users will need training, which can be expensive and difficult to find.

So, we started a Kickstarter project to create Drupal 8 training and give it away for free!

Sounds intriguing? Watch the video to find out more ...

Views Calc - Calculations for Your Fields in Views

Views Calc is useful little Drupal module that allows you to perform calculations inside Views.

Views Calc allows you to perform Count, Sum, Average or Minimum calculations on a single field.

Let's see an example of how Views Calc works. To follow the example, you need both the Views and Views Calc modules to be enabled.

The State of Drupal 8: March 2015

Over the last few years we've been writing a regular series called the "State of Drupal 8".

We aim to give a short, plain English update for people who don't follow Drupal development closely.

So, here's the busy person's guide to the state of Drupal 8 in March 2015 ...

How Do I Get a Job in Drupal?

Are you looking for a job? Have you considered working in the Drupal world?

Several OSTraining members have. They wondered about the skills they would need and the income level they could expect.

To give you an overview of what it takes to make a living in the Drupal world, we spoke with Mike Anello. Mike is a long-time Drupal contributor, based near us in Orlando, Florida. If you've ever seen a Dries keynote address at a Drupal, Mike is often the person asking Dries questions at the end.

One of my key takeaways from talking with Mike - the Drupal jobs are out there, but companies are now expecting applicants to bring more than just Drupal knowledge.

Recover from a Lost Drupal Administration Menu

We've taught a LOT of people to use Drupal 7 over the last 4 years and one bug comes up more than any other.

When enabling large new modules such as CTools via the admin interface, it's not uncommon for other modules to become unpublished.

When those modules are unpublished, people often lose access for to the administration menu. Needless to say, that's not a helpful situation for beginners.

So, here's a quick guide to recovering from a lost Drupal administration menu.

Add a New Moderation State Tab to Workbench

drupal workbench tab One of our members was watching our video class on Drupal's Workbench module and had been getting it set up on their site. However, they weren't sure how to use the new moderation states they added.

They wanted to add a tab so that people could easily see the content in a particular moderation state.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to make that happen.

Google Maps in Drupal with the GMap Module

drupal gmap Several times in the last few weeks, OSTraining students have asked us about maps in Drupal.

The students wanted to set up directories that would show Google maps for each location.

They also wanted to create larger maps that would display multiple locations at once.

We recommended that the students use the GMap module. However, although that module is powerful, it is poorly documented and can be confusing to use.

So, here's a beginners guide to the GMap module.

Date and Time Formats in Drupal

drupal date format One of our members had this question for us:

"I'm using the Date module and I would like it to display morning as AM and evening as PM. At the moment it shows 15:00, but I'd like it to show 3 PM".

In this tutorial, we'll answer that question and show you how to set up Date and Time formats in Drupal.

Drupal File Access for Specific User Roles Only

drupal file access role By default, Drupal file fields have very limited permission options.

So, if you want to make some files available only to certain user groups, you'll need an extra module.

For some simple examples, we recommend the Private files download permission module.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to use that module to allow only logged-in users to download a file.

Manually Select Content for Drupal Views

drupal views select content Normally, Drupal views are set up to run automatically. In these situations, every time new content is added, Views will instantly update its displays for you.

However, sometimes, such as with a slideshow, you may want to manually control which content is shown.

One option to do this is the Nodequeue module. But, in this video, Robert Ring is going to show you how to manually select content without using any extra modules.

Filter Drupal Content Based on File Type

file filter One of our members asked an interesting question about Views.

They had a file field on their user profiles. In that field, the user could upload an image, an audio file, or link to a YouTube video. So far, so good. However, in Views, they only wanted to show that field if it contained a video.

Here's the solution to that problem. We're going to show you how to filter Drupal content based on the type of file that's attached to it.

How to Rewrite the Output of Views with PHP

Advanced Drupal Views Views is a very powerful tool that allows you to pull information from your database in many flexible ways.

However, there will be situations where the default options in Views aren't enough. The Views PHP module allows you even more flexibility.

In these two videos, Robert Ring, one of our Drupal teachers, shows you how to re-write a View using PHP.

How to Sort Drupal Views Alphabetically

drupal sort views alphabetically Alphabetical sorting is one of the most common ways people want to sort content in Views.

You may want to sort many types of content from A to Z, from staff members to business listings.

Here's how to add alphabetical sorting to your Drupal views.

A Beginners Guide to the Drupal Services Module

The Services module allows you to provide web services from your Drupal site.

Services is really popular and works with formats such as REST, XMLRPC, JSON and SOAP.

However, when asked about Services during a training class last week, I was realized that the students were asking me because there was little-to-no clear documentation available.

So, I sat down and decided to write a Beginners guide to the Services module.

Here's a 5-step guide to using Services creating a REST API for your Drupal site.

Drupal's Basic Cart Module: So Close, But ...

Basic Cart Module I wasn't sure whether to publish this review or not.

One of our members wanted a really simple shopping cart for Drupal. They found the Basic Cart module and asked me about it.

So, I set up and tested Basic Cart. Everything worked great, until the end when I realized there was no payment gateway. None. Basic Cart is a great little e-commerce store ... except it has no way to pay.

How to Use the Drupal Quiz Module

drupal quiz module The Quiz module is a sophisticated and flexible way to create quizzes in Drupal.

Quiz has many nice features such as Views integration, a jQuery-based timer, drag-and-drop ordering of questions and the ability to give weighted grades for answers.

Quiz allows you to create questions with multiple formats and has an API that allows you to add more.

8 Things to Know About the Drupal Security Issue

autoupdate or die By now you've probably heard about the extremely serious Drupal security issue from mid-October.

The Drupal security team issued a new warning two weeks later that, if possible, escalated the severity of the issue.

Here's an overview of the issue and its impact.

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