art
In the last few months I’ve finished some pretty large drupal projects and thought I would share my top five tips for getting things rolling on your next drupal site. If you want a general overview of building drupal sites smashingmagazine.com just published the definitive post that I’ve read to date.
1. Adhere to drupal best practices from the start. Look forward to your site being around for a long while and set it up correctly. Even the basics, like taking advantage of using the sites/all folder to hold your non-core modules and themes can save you a lot of time down the road.
2. Make the website accessible to a wide range of people. It is easier to plan things like text-size controls, email-to-a-friend and print buttons when you’re in the design stages. Adding them in afterwards can look amateurish.
3. Give yourself time to input content and give it some TLC with proper formatting. Nothing is more boring than the same basic text layout on every page. With CMS’s half the point is having the same frame around your content so that navigation is consistent, etc. – but that doesn’t mean your text and image content has to be the same with every node. Float an image left, float it right, pull out an important quote and give it the bold+italic treatment. Don’t rush through this “final part” of the job – it’s very important.
4. Use some kind of design/development framework. Whatever works for you, but the point is to keep it consistent so that when it comes time to fix something or add a feature you can do it quickly. For most people just starting out with the same basic theme, like Zen, is enough. Later on though you might need to start keeping a folder of your regular modules, pre-configured modules, sample configurations of certain key theme components, and anything else you might need within arms reach. A note of caution though – make sure you check drupal.org for updates of the modules once in awhile.
5. FCKeditor – is the best editor there is, period. A lot of folks swear by tinyMCE but I think they’re just plain wrong. FCK has a built in file manager (that is a pain in the ass to configure but very worth it), a default CSS XML-based stylesheet associated with user-styles that is easy to override, but most importantly it has a feature tied into the text editor that shows block elements boundaries in your html structure which is of huge benefit to 99% of all users.
Just a quick note that my sculpture Astroturf Cocoon will be featured in the show Unreal Victoria at the Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria. The opening is tomorrow night, Friday August 8th from 7-9pm and will be open until August 13th. This show is curated by Kirk Schwartz, CAC Chair of Media Arts, in collaboration with MediaNet.
detail of Astroturf Cocoon
What a wild, wild week.
First the really big news – Grand Theft Bicycle has been accepted for a show at the Stride Gallery in Calgary. We don’t know when it will happen yet but I’d guess it will probably be within the next 6 months.
Then this morning I got an email telling me that this is box/this is machine has been accepted into the Bearded Child Film Festival (Minneapolis/Grand Rapids) and will play not just once but twice – how sweet is that?
And last but not least, Love&Olson are playing a semi-private gig next Tuesday Thursday evening at Discovery Coffee with our old friends i send data live. You can watch a blip from my preparations below or on Vimeo.
QC test from robotoverlord on Vimeo.
If you happen to be in Sydney, Australia on September 26 and happen to be near Sydney Olympic Park you should check out my short video work this is box/this is machine at the flEXiff film festival. If for some reason you can’t make it to the screening (ie. sickness, family emergency, you don’t live in Australia, etc.) you can watch it here. Thanks to Scott Amos and MediaNet for promoting the video.
Steve Gibson has uploaded a bunch of new photos and video to the EPI site from our gig in Zurich at Digital Art Weeks, you can check them out at http://www.telebody.ws/Exploding/
Above image copyright 2007 Ruedi Kuchen
5 screens, originally uploaded by robot.overlord.
The people of Zurich were visually manhandled by Scheinwerfer and Love&Olson, to the awesome sounds of Steve Gibson, robot_mixeur and Jackson 2bears.