Article about “e-heritage”, digitization of large-scale historical sites such as the Bayon Temple in Cambodia.
White paper to help clients define strategies and tactics for moving their web site to the content-management system Drupal.
A bottom-up rewrite of the previous version’s manual.
Adaptation of a user manual to act as a guide to potential software reviewers.
Article written for the publisher of my book, Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide. I wrote it at a time when Drupal 7 seemed primed for imminent release, but it ended up taking a year more. The article is still fairly accurate, though.
Feature story about sensors to monitor energy consumption and other environmental data in residences. (Published in Communications of the ACM.)
Took user manuals in Microsoft Word format and adapted them for online reading, which included new screen shots and some reorganization of material. The four manuals were ContentBarrier, Personal Antispam, Personal Backup, and FileGuard.
White paper that explores Drupal as an online publishing system for newspapers and magazines.
Adaptation of a manual for a Paris-based computer security company, with all-new screenshots and some new writing.
News story about the Association for Computing Machinery’s expansion into China. (Published in Communications of the ACM.)
Adaptation of a previous manual, with all-new screenshots and some new writing.
Adaptation of a previous manual, with all-new screenshots and some new writing.
I edited this while in college. The collection comprises three parts: Personal writings, academic writings, and an annotated “sourcebook” of support and social groups.
A how-to book for Drupal beginners.
I started writing it in 2009, then shelved it, then revised extensively in late 2010 as the pre-release software changed substantially. It was officially published about three weeks before Drupal 7’s release.
- Agent: Neil Salkind
- Acquisitions Editor: Wendy Sharp
- Production Editor: Nancy Peterson
- Development Editor: Robyn Thomas
- Technical Editors: Emma Jane Hogbin, Greg Knaddison
- Copy Editors: Darren Meiss, Scout Festa
Commissioned book, completed in 30 days and published without revisions (beyond minor copyediting).
(Retired by LinkedIn Learning — no longer available.) In almost seven hours of video instruction, Drupal 6 Essential Training (originally titled “Drupal Essential Training”) covers all the important aspects of installing, configuring, customizing, and maintaining a Drupal-powered website. Instructor Tom Geller explores blogs, discussion forums, member profiles, and other features while demonstrating the steps required to make Drupal perform. He also teaches fundamental concepts and skills along the way, including installation, backups, and updates; security and permissions; flexible page layouts and CSS; menu navigation; and performance monitoring and disaster recovery. He also discusses how to select and install the community-supported modules that further expand Drupal’s capabilities, and gives experienced PHP programmers tips on customizing page templates. Example files accompany the course.
Topics include:
- Understanding the inner workings of Drupal
- Creating stories, pages, blogs, forums, and polls
- Managing users and comments
- Setting and customizing themes
- Exchanging content via RSS
- Stopping comment spam with a CAPTCHA
- Launching a site and joining the Drupal community
(Publisher’s description.)
(Retired by LinkedIn Learning — no longer available.) Drupal’s built-in data presentation tools offer several ways for web designers to clearly and attractively package their data. In over six hours of video training, Tom Geller explains how Drupal handles data so users can set up intelligent structures and implement them with Drupal’s Content Construction Kit. Tom also shows how a data-driven web site can improve its interactivity by using geographic data to connect real-world addresses to maps. Exercise files accompany the course.
Topics include:
- Importing and manipulating data in Drupal
- Presenting date-formatted information in calendars
- Understanding Drupal’s data-query interface, “Views”
- Improving view appearances with grid, list, and table formatting
- Importing, exporting, and cloning views
- Extending views with arguments and relationships
(Publisher’s description.)
(Retired by LinkedIn Learning — no longer available.) Over two and a half hours of video that demonstrates changes to the Drupal 7 administrative interface and other enhancements that have come out of its three-year development period. This course covers its simplified installation process, new themes that will help kick-start design projects, the customizable shortcut bar that puts often-used commands in easy reach, update procedures that leverage its browser-based interface, and a new way of defining fields to create complex content types without additional modules.
Topics include:
- Configuring the new Dashboard
- Using contextual link controls
- Exploring new themes
- Reviewing the new modules
- Understanding the expanded block system
- Using images in content
- Allowing users to delete accounts
- Testing modules with the Testing module
- Building themes using Drupal Gardens
(Publisher’s description.)
(Retired by LinkedIn Learning — no longer available.) Over five hours of video training that demonstrates how to create and publish a complete web site with the powerful tools in Acquia’s hosted service, Drupal Gardens. The course covers how to leverage its pre-built page layouts and add custom styling, without having to learn CSS, using the Theme Builder tool, how to integrate rich site features, such as forms, surveys, and media galleries, and how to push content to Twitter and Facebook. The course also shows how to transition a Drupal Gardens site to a self-hosted Drupal site. Exercise files are included with the course.
Topics include:
- Creating and managing content and content types
- Embedding videos and other media
- Publishing and subscribing to RSS feeds
- Setting up blocks, banners, menus, and forms
- Managing comments and spam
- Tracking site usage
- Duplicating and deleting sites
- Adding custom domains
(Publisher’s description.)
Over seven hours of video training that shows how to get the most out of Drupal, the content management system (CMS) that powers over a quarter million web sites. The course demonstrates how to download and install Drupal, add content and graphics to a site, change layout and design elements, control visitor interactions, and expand the site’s capabilities beyond what’s available in Drupal core. Discussion of established best practices in each step to ensure that a site remains streamlined, secure, and up-to-date. Exercise files are included with the course.
Topics include:
- Comparing Drupal with other content management systems
- Understanding nodes
- Creating basic content
- Adding blogs, discussions groups, and polls
- Subscribing to RSS feeds
- Creating new content types
- Managing users, roles, and permissions
- Creating and modifying block regions
- Adding menus
- Extending site capabilities with modules
(Publisher’s description.)