Drupal Asia Pacific Conference

Summary

New Drupal administrators and users can find the 2500 contributed modules highly intimidating. This session is a simple overview of Em Space's preferred default installation. We will also look at a couple of examples of how a complex module can be made redundant with CCK or a small piece of code.

Outline/Plan (may need shortening)

-- What does Em Space choose to use?
-- Em Space install profile.
-- Example decision: Event module vs CCK with Date.
-- What is "glue" code, when do we use it.
-- SimpleMenu, the theme-reliever
-- Lullabot's top 40 modules - compare and discuss

Goals/Outcomes

Share knowledge and general strategy for building a module list.

Presenter Info

Simon Hobbs has worked with Install Profiles and developed them for other companies. Em Space has a default preferred installation, and older version being available on Drupal.org.

Summary

Em Space use Case Tracker as our support system. Casetracker Services is a contributed module uses Services to allow Drupal sites to connect/integrate with a central Case Tracker support site.

Outline/Plan

-- Look at Case Tracker features and usage.
-- Go through Case Tracker Services, it's features and configuration options.
-- See how intermediate parties (like Design companies) can monitor client sites.
-- Use one service as a quick example of how to implement custom services.

Goals/Outcomes

-- Audience to understand the scope of Casetracker Services and get a little idea of what "Services" are in general.

Presenter Info

Simon Hobbs maintains Casetracker Services and uses it in conjunction with Case Tracker as a support site for Em Space.

Summary

This session will present some general ideas/areas for best practices in Drupal development/deployment and then will open the floor for a discussion session for people to offer their own tips, tricks, best practices and more.

Outline/Plan

-Dev Environment (IDEs, RCS, etc)
-Coding Practices
-Deployment/Rollout
-Team Structures
-Management practices (SCRUM, waterfall, ?)

Goals/Outcomes

The goal of this session is to share best practices between everyone to enhance our effectiveness as a whole.

Presenter Info

I will present a some starting points and then aim to be a moderator for this discussion

Summary

This session will cover what is new in Drupal 6 from an end user's perspective. This will include things like the new installer, user interface improvements, and how to go about upgrading your site.

Presenter Info

I am just an enthusiastic drupaler and hope to show off the new version.

*NOTE* I am looking for someone else that can help me with this presentation

Summary

Caching is one strategy that can be used to increase the Performance and Scalability of a Drupal site. This session will cover the various types of caches in Drupal, how to use them, and what the alternatives are. Topics include:

- drupal core caching: what is cached, how it works

- pluggable cache system

- using caching in (your) custom modules

- alternate caching implementations (memcache, apc)

- advanced caching module

- block cache module

- filesystem caching (boost, fastpath_fscache)

- bytecode caches

- changes between Drupal 5 and Drupal 6

Presenter Info

Simon Roberts has been using Drupal for about 2.5 years, and enjoys the challenge of producing high-performing and scalable websites using Drupal. He is a (sometimes) co-maintainer of memcache module, and is currently working on another large-scale Drupal site.

Summary

This session will cover short into to getting drupal working on postgresql, and then the usual steps needed to quickly get (your?) contrib modules working in postgresql

Outline/Plan

Bootstrap a drupal site into postgresql (creating dbs, users, connection permissions)
Quick overview of some mysql-only "sql" to avoid when writing drupal modules.
Pick a contrib module at random and make it go in Postgresql with minimal effort.

Presenter Info

Brenda is a "superhero of open source in Wellington" according to Wellingtonista. She's spearheaded the successful and very popular SuperHappyDevHouseAotearoa - a monthly hackathon where coders from across Wellington hang in one place and get their code on. Why this rocks is because SHDH is not about people from different companies competing or poaching staff, but about bringing together like-minded geeks to share knowledge, and that is just a little bit awesome.

Plus she has the largest collection of gadgets in the whole of Wellington, and is completely addicted to both Drupal and Coffee.