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drupal

Why Drupal?

My choice of CMS is Drupal. It's an open source platform built for all sorts of sites from simpler personal blogs to more complexed sites. Because I know people seem to think other CMS' are better, I decided to list some reasons why I think Drupal is the best around.

A couple of years ago I tried a bunch of different platforms in order to find the best one for my needs. Before this I had mostly been building websites and some simple database or text file based content managements from scratch. Joomla seemed promising, but at the time it wasn't flexible enough and for some reason I found WordPress too difficult to implement. Drupal I got immediately. Of course since then all these platforms have changed and developed. Drupal is now way better than it was.

Drupal is flexible. It can be used for very simple sites as well as building something more sophisticated, like a full e-commerce site. There are thousands of modules available and more can be built if needed. A Drupal site is fully customizable, but you can get quite far with the basic installation as well. For a geek like myself Drupal is a great platform to tinker around as much as I can. Or as little as I want to.

Add-on modules include Views and Content Construction Kit (CCK) which can be used in imaginative ways for creating almost anything. I find new ways to utilize Views and CCK all the time.

Theming Drupal can be made difficult... Or very very easy. There are loads of contributed themes to choose from or you can build one from scratch. Starter themes, such as Zen and Fusion are there to help to get the theming on the way. Even more advanced theme frameworks are available, likes of AdaptiveTheme.

Making a Drupal site content easy to update isn't really that difficult. With different modules, including Views and CCK mentioned above, updating can be made extremely smooth for even less experienced web user. I recommend using one of the administration themes for (surprise surprise) administration and content editing. For instance RootCandy and my current favorite Seven are great admin themes.

And what does Drupal cost? Well, nothing. Drupal is a free open source content management system. The contributed themes and modules are free. Of course some third party plugins and themes may cost some, but that's the same thing with any other CMS.

If you want to see what can be done with Drupal and creativity, check out the interesting and cool examples on Drupal Museum and drupal sites network. Help with your Drupal is around the web. For those who like their instructions in video form DrupalCamp24x7 is filled with video tutorials (and is a good looking site as well).

Suomeksi (In Finnish): 

Syy miksi käytän Drupalia on se, että se on helppo ja joustava sisällönhallintajärjestelmä. Drupalilla voi rakentaa monenlaisia sivustoja, simppeleistä blogeista monimutkaisempiin verkkokauppoihin. Drupalin saa myös muokattua sellaiseksi, että sen sisällön päivittäminen on yksinkertaista jopa vähemmän kokeneelle netin käyttäjälle. Ja Drupal on tietenkin ilmainen. Jos haluat nähdä mitä Drupalin ja luovuuden avulla saa aikaan, tsekkaa esimerkkejä sivustoilta Drupal Museum ja drupal sites network.

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4 users have voted.
16 February, 2012 - 17:06 by Mervi

Drupal Comment Notify and AntiSpam

Today a friend told me that the comment notification system on this site is sending notifications on spam as well. I did some digging onto the subject and it appears the Comment Notify and AntiSpam modules don't work together well. The problem has been around since the year 2008! Because I want to keep using the TypePad AntiSpam I decided to give up using Comment Notify. I'm sorry to tell you this means no more subscribing for following comments.

This is my main issue with Drupal: Some of the slightly more advanced modules don't work together well and the developers don't seem to have much interest in even trying to fix them. It's not good press for Drupal in general and it may make even more committed users to make the switch to WP.

By the way, if you have any problems with this site, please let me know. I can only fix stuff I know needs to be fixed. I would appreciate your help so much. You can contact me in a couple of different ways.

Suomeksi (In Finnish): 

Kävipä sitten ilmi, että Drupalin Comment Notify ja AntiSpam moduulit eivät toimi kunnolla yhdessä. Jouduin siis suureksi ikäväkseni poistamaan mahdollisuuden seurata kommentointia sähköpostitse. Jos sinullla on ongelmia tämän sivuston toiminnan kanssa, otathan yhteyttä niin voin yrittää korjata ongelman. Arvostaisin apuasi kovin paljon.

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9 users have voted.
24 January, 2012 - 02:31 by Mervi

Working on Crêpes

Crêpes (www: <a href="http://crepes.fi">crepes.fi</a>)

The redesign of the website for Crêpes, a summer time café located to Helsinki Market Square, has been long overdue. In between of other stuff to do I finally took some time to work with it. Because the site is very small I wanted the design also be minimal, yet warm and sort of soft.

The site is still a bit under construction, but the main idea is already visible. Some design features may change as well as there's still some missing content. The English translation is also due. The café won't be open until the weather gets warmer and spring finally arrives, so half the content at this time is better than nothing. As usual the site is built on Drupal.

The design is heavily based on the Crêpes logo (not my creation), it's style and the green color. The background is filled with some delicious brown and beige, sort of "edible" colors. There's also a hint of strawberry red here and there. I was also aiming for a slightly vintage-y look. Let's hope spring will come soon with opening of Crêpes. Enjoy!

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1 user has voted.
5 April, 2011 - 00:40 by Mervi

TypePad AntiSpam does work

Cassettes

As you may remember, in the end of the last month I decided to give TypePad AntiSpam a try. There's a Drupal module which supports, in addition to a couple of other antispam services, TypePad AntiSpam. TypePad's version is free for all kinds of use, so in my current personal economy it was the best option. Besides it's Open Source, which I just like.

So far the TypePad AntiSpam has proved to work. Yes, there has been a couple of false positives, but so far no spam has leaked through. And the system learns each time a false positive is reported as ham or a comment is reported as spam.

The Drupal module is pretty easy to configure and the only thing you need is a TypePad account (free) and then fetch the API Key. The same API Key seems to work on multiple sites too, as I use it on two blogs. Unfortunately both my blogs get quite a little traffic and comments, so I cannot say how this works on more popular sites. If you happen to know more about this, please tell.

The TypePad AntiSpam is included to TypePad blogs and there are plugins for several different platforms, including WordPress, Joomla, Expression Engine and Movable Type. So if you are looking for a new spam filtering service for your blog or just want to try something else than Akismet for a change, I recommend to check this one out.

The image above is for tero who asked previously where the cassette picture has gone.

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2 users have voted.
11 March, 2011 - 23:55 by Mervi

The site of Tuesday #21

cu·te·ta·pe 010311

If you are looking for Japanese Washi Tape, crafty stamps or other little things for your handmade projects, have a look at cu·te·ta·pe (pronounced koo-teh-tah-pee). Texas based cu·te·ta·pe sells all sorts of adorable things and the prices aren't that scary either. Besides when I contacted the store to ask about something, promptly I received a nice and polite answer.

The site itself is very cute and crafty. It's designed with subtle colors and enough space to let your eyes rest. And I noticed it's made on Drupal, for which the store must receive extra points. Speaking of points: The purchases can be made without registering to the store, but registered users receive loyalty points, which can be used for discounts. See Fun Specials for more info about savings.

This post is part of The site of Tuesday series. See all the sites of Tuesday for more inspiration.

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1 user has voted.
1 March, 2011 - 16:44 by Mervi