jcfiala's blog

Posted by jcfiala

I'm currently in the midst of setting up a migration from a pretty huge MS SQL database to Drupal, in D6. This migration not only involves Microsoft SQL Server, as I mentioned, but it also involves using mongodb, so we're basically touching three different databases here.

So, I've been using the 2.0 branch of Migrate for 6.x, because I was curious about seeing it again, and I know it worked quite well for Examiner. (Yes, they were doing Drupal 7, but it was still the same basic idea.) It's been going very well.

Today I updated to the 6.x-2.0-beta3 version of the code, and I had to make a couple small changes to my existing module. I'm reproducing them here, in hopes that it can prevent others from having trouble like I did.

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Posted by jcfiala

About two months ago, my wife Tammy and I were thinking of taking a trip to Vegas to relax. We were interested in sometime in October, and were comparing this and that, when somehow we ran across NeonCon, a Las Vegas based gaming convention that in it's fifth or sixth year. We're both fond of games, so we happily decided to delay our plans to the first weekend of November and attend. After all, as we noted, if we didn't enjoy the con, we could always go gamble.

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Posted by jcfiala

It's been showing up on a few geek-related infostreams on the net that 'Sherlock', the new Sherlock Holmes adaptation by Stephen Moffat, was something to check out. I didn't pick up at first that it was an adaptation of SH to modern times at first, but don't let that hold you back.

Apparently it's a three episode series, but with each episode 90 minutes or so long, it's more like a trilogy of films than a usual tv series. Oh, and it's good stuff too. Faithful to the original (Doctor Watson was wounded in Afghanistan) and full of nasty sharp writing, Sherlock is generally three steps ahead of everyone else, and is visibly annoyed every time he's got to step back and show us how he got so far ahead. This being a modern version of the character, a big part of the show is how different he is from everyone else is, and just how poorly he, or nearly anyone else, is handling that.

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Posted by jcfiala

I've recently been digging into the Aegir Hosting System, both because we're starting to use it at my current NREL gig, and because I've proposed to do a session on it at DrupalCamp LA. In short, Aegir allows you to easily administer a number of Drupal sites from a common site, itself built on Drupal. It's really slick, and a lot of the functionality is built on Drush. (Also see http://drupal.org/project/drush .)

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Posted by jcfiala

Wordcamp Boulder 2010

Wordcamp Boulder is set, naturally enough, in Boulder, which is a fantastic place to have a conference where the locations are spread out like this. Walking from room to room allows you to enjoy Boulder's laid back atmosphere and the eclectic stores spread around the Pearl Street Mall and the Boulder Theater. It's just a bit of a shame that two of the three locations that Wordcamp is using are overcrowded and standing room only! (Well, a shame for my back, at least!)

Signup was quick and easy, and although the badge they hand out is simple cardboard that you write your name on, they've cleverly printed it so that inside the fold is the schedule – also cleverly printed upside down, so it's easy to read when you're wearing it. The Boulder Theater is a lovely building, and I wish I had more excuses to go there.

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Posted by jcfiala

Here's where I'm posting the various files that I promised to deliver - these are the files I used in my DrupalCamp Colorado 2010 presenation on extending Solr.

Posted by jcfiala

One of the events I look forward to each summer is the Capital Hill People's Fair, a huge collection of food (most of it bad for you) and art/nick-nacks all crammed into the Civic Center Park. It's usually crowded, and was this time, and it's usually very warm, which is why Tammy and I were very happy to find the straw hats we'd bought at last year's fair to wear to this one.

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Posted by jcfiala

So, I'm finally back home after a week in San Francisco. The trip had two main reasons - one was to attend Drupalcon SF, the other to spend some time visiting my brother in law, Tim. Things went well on both fronts, and I got in some bonus treat as well.

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Posted by jcfiala

Talk given by Young Hahn - @younghahn on twitter.

This is a talk that focuses on three modules that were developed as part of Open Atrium.

Context triggers reactive behaviors on pages.

Basically, in the past putting content all on the same page was a pain. You have a snippet, say, that says 'This bit should show on blog pages', and you've got it spread throughout your site in half a dozen places. Context replaces this by having a system that asks 'are we in the blog section?'. There's also things like a global context, or a login context. (such as when an anonymous user is browsing).

Context is basically an additive system - a page can be in the global context, the blog section context, and the blog post context.

Note to self - do we need a page that lists all the blogs under all of their contexts for easier display?

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Posted by jcfiala

The sheer size of Drupal, and of DrupalconSF, was brought rudely to your attention as you walked into exhibit hall A, which looked to be about the size of room you would need to store a few decently sized airplanes, and saw the rows and rows of chairs set out for people to sit back and hear Dries talk about the State of Drupal.

In short, he thinks it's doing pretty good.

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