It’s a little ironic that I haven’t posted anything scince my timeline. The purpose of which was to keep on track with updates. Oh wait, I don’t mean “ironic”, I mean excessively detrimental. Yea, that’s it. In all honesty, I am a little behind, but my spirits are high. I have been getting extremely intimate with Drupal, and we are starting to understand each other a lot better. We are even finishing each other’s syntax. I’m seriously considering taking this relationship to the next level. Yeah, that’s right: I may end up putting “Drupal Developer” on my resume. I know it’s a serious commitment but I think we’re there.

In case you are reading this, and don’t actually care about my <insert euphemism for vomit-inducing/> relationship with programming, let me tell you what’s been up. I have installed and started setting up Drupal at collaborateArts.com. I am currently using a slightly modified deco theme, for no other reason then so I have something pleasant to look at while I am developing. The ease I have found at modifying themes is extremely encouraging, especially with the ‘Theme Developer’ module in the Devel suite. Thanks to my Pro Drupal Develompment book. I have not only been able to create a new module from scratch, but I’m also comfortable modifying the pre-existing modules. The only real discouragement with Drupal is the reality that while it’s easy to find a LOT of support for Drupal, Drupal Mods and Drupal Themes, it’s sometimes difficult to filter or find the latest updates for 6.x.

One sort of weird hurtle I found towards the beginning was when I couldn’t figure out how to implement some really simple PHP without creating a mod. As it turns out it’s a simple matter of turning on the PHP Filter pre-installed mod and adding administrator privileges to that input format. Drupal wasn’t trying to make it hard, they just didn’t turn it on by default, which I guess makes sense.

I have established profiles and the distinctions between a public and private/edit view of them. I have created a home page and put the latest registrations on it. I have modified the registration page with the help of the LogginToboggan mod and a little creative PHP to make it so the email address and username are one in the same. I am also forcing the user to start enter their first name, last name and major upon registration. I don’t think it’s too much, and it makes categorization later on a LOT easier. Any other profile info can always be added later. The site emails the user, with a random password, and waits for confirmation before allowing login.

The Deval suite also has a Deval Generate mod that I have done a great deal of modification to so that I can generate hundreds of random users at a time WITH profile information. This way I can see actual implementation of my site in progress.

I have also created a page for browsing the users. It categorizes them by Department then by Major. I was faced with a little uncertainty here, because I had to decide what constitutes a major. This obviously isn’t ACTUALLY up to me, but I was trying to determine how students would define their “major” in some circumstances. I essentially went through the Academics section of the UArts site and assumed every degree offered here (undergraduate + graduate) would be a good place to start. I also include “Continuing Education”, under a Continuing Studies department, and “(undeclared)”, under the UNDECLARED department. I will have to do some research to make sure this list is accurate and complete. Once again I want to include everyone with a UArts email. I think the current system accommodates most teachers but I wonder about other faculty, and students/teachers in more than one major/department.

I want to create a Search engine before I move on to the next phase of my timeline, so I’m a little behind. We saw a talk given by one of the founders of 37signals (I’ll try to find the link) in my Dynamic Web Development class that was…yeah, you guessed it: inspiring. I truly love their philosophies. I am also reminded that if I stay true to my epicenter, the profiles, and I’m still falling behind towards the end, it is an indication that I need to scale back and not sacrifice the quality of the product’s goals. Still, I’m pretty confident, and my pace with Drupal is not just speeding up, but accelerating.

I am considering doing some viral marketing for the site soon. Something along the lines of the collaborateArts logo on a small card with the text like: “Myth: UArts students from diffrent departments can’t get along” or “Myth: You don’t have anything to offer to students in other departments” or “Myth: Help is expensive”. The cards would not include a url, but I could place these around the school to peak interest, and when the actual posters come out the logo will be reminded them of their curiosity.


P.S.
Still only one other UArts user on Toggin.com. I’m not sure if I should find this encouraging or discouraging. My professor assures me that the distinction between the projects should be clear to anyone, but it still keeps me up at nights.