Drupal
An open source content management system
How to load panel pages from code
They will load faster, it's easier for deployment, and you'll be able have them under version control.
We all know that you can load views from code, and it is even recommended. But what about Panels pages? It is also possible. And actually, it's quite easy.
Let's say that you have reached a beta stage for these pages, and you are ready to start having these under version control so you can sleep better at night.
1. Create the module that will load these pages
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How to create a panels style plugin
Creating panels styles can be very powerful. You can define certain styles for your client to choose from, so they can choose what type of display the panel pane will be like. This way you keep the workflow clean, your code under revision control, your themer gets to keep his sanity, and your concious stays clear.
This article assumes you know about running panels, and more or less what the nomenclature is. You should know also that panels now uses ctools, which is is primarily a set of APIs and tools to improve the developer experience.
So, what we'll be doing here is actually creating a ctools plugin, to implement a new panels style. Sorry if I'm confusing you already, don't worry, it's actually quite straight forward, we want to be able to do this:
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How to create a CCK formatter
CCK formatters are pieces of code that allow you to render a CCK field content how you want. In Drupal 6 this basicaly means a theme function.
As an example, we will build a formatter for the field type 'nodereference'.
This type of field, which is part of the standard CCK package, allows you to "reference" a node inside another.
The formatter that nodereference has by default, prints a standard link to the referenced node.
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Handy new modules
Every day a ton of new drupal modules come out. I've found four very handy new drupal modules that have been released lately, mainly nice useability enhancements for the drupal experience.
Contact form blocks
The module makes your core drupal contact forms, available as blocks. Not much you may say, but wait, there is more: contact form categories will be represented by one block per category - now that's handy. You could present different contact forms in your templates per different content types, or whatever you can think of. Nice.
Check it out from the project page, play with it. Go on, you know you want to!
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DrupalCon Paris is coming!
The next DrupalCon will be in Paris, September 1st - 5th. I hope to see you there!
So, you are coming, right?
I have already bought my ticket, and if you want to save some cash (since you know you are coming anyway), you better hurry up and buy the ticket before July 12th to get the early bird discount.
DrupalCon DC videos
Well, If you haven't been living under a rock, you will know that the biggest Drupalcon to date has taken place lately, and if you were able to attend, I really envy you. If, like me, could not get that chance, there are very good news: The conferences were mostly videotaped, and are now on-line!
So the question you should ask is WHERE are they? Good news here also, this page has been regularly been updated as soon as the videos were being uploaded to archive.org. So, start downloading and watching the videos, because there are a ton of very good presentations there!
