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Suggest A Topic For Drupal For NGOs

Robert Castelo's picture
Tue, 24/03/2009 - 10:27 — Robert Castelo

We'll soon be kicking off a new season of Drupal For NGO events, and I'd like to suggest a new format...

The demonstration at one of the last Drupal For NGOs by Macmillan Cancer Research on how they created a sophisticated social network site without writing a single line of code was really impressive. Knowing which modules to install and how to configure them can get a project quite far, and as part of each Drupal For NGO event Id like to suggest we focus in depth on one topic and go through it in detail.

For example:

  • SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
    Image Handling
  • Video Handling
  • Events
  • RSS Aggregation and Syndication
  • Content Editors (WYSWYG) Compared
  • Registration and Collecting user info
  • Workflows - Content creation + Moving configuration from staging to live
  • eCommerce
  • Intranets
  • Campaing Repository, building a pattern library for campaigns

What other topics would you like to see covered?

Let's compile a list, turn it into a poll, and make the most popular topic the focus of each new event!

Groups:

Comments

Tue, 24/03/2009 - 11:26 — dln

Dreaming in Drupal

  • CiviCRM, and linking CRM membership to Drupal LogonIDs (as an alternative to OpenID)
  • using OrganicGroups and the many related and piggy-backing modules
  • relating the eCommerce modules which could be utilised for revenue/subscription/donation collection, to the financial services offered in the UK
  • expanding Drupal search using Apache Solr/Lucene
  • practical theming and how to shoe-horn an existing logo, color scheme, 'brand', etc, into a Drupal-driven site
  • ...and the perennial, how CCK and Views can change your life and make everyones' dreams come true!
PS new photo suits you R!
Tue, 24/03/2009 - 11:35 — eff_shaped
eff_shaped's picture

Fantastic idea!

Love it. I am setting up my first site and need all the practical advice I can get. I'm particularly looking into whether CiviCRM is suitable for a small org like mine, or if I can get the same functionality from a bunch of alternative modules.
Tue, 24/03/2009 - 12:34 — MJR
MJR's picture

CiviCRM and the AGPL lawyerbomb

Like all the topics. Only other topics I'd add are fundraising integration and email list integration. About other comments: can NPOs honestly use CiviCRM until we know whether they're liable for the cost of letting everyone download CiviCRM directly from them? That's a big unanswered question from the AGPL. -- MJR Cooperative webmaster for hire: ask on my contact page, or directly.
Tue, 24/03/2009 - 13:59 — dln

OT: What?

Worse than a lawyerbomb is FUD. From where do you have the idea that a CiviCRM user is liable for the cost of "everyone download[ing] CiviCRM directly from them"?
Tue, 24/03/2009 - 15:32 — MJR
MJR's picture

reading the licence terms

Trying to repost in correct position - sorry all (login link didn't preserve context): I got the idea from reading the licence terms. Specifically, section 13 "your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it [...] access to the Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge" which is the difference between drupal and CiviCRM. Seeing as CiviCRM installation involves modifying civicrm.settings.php, that applies to everyone. It's not yet clear whether linking back to civicrm.org and providing the local modifications is enough to satisfy that. Does that explain it clearly enough? -- MJR Cooperative webmaster for hire: ask on my contact page, or directly.
Tue, 24/03/2009 - 19:06 — dln

Keep looking (but not on the dark side, Luke)

The above is an unattributed quotation from the Affero GPL, as used (and required) by CiviCRM. More effective would be to look at CiviCRM's own take on the matter which thoroughly allays such concerns, if only we would read that far. Rather than have Robert's page hi-jacked (further), I have blogged a response (with attributions and links to relevant sources) at http://www.drupal.org.uk/affero-gpl-civicrm-a...
Tue, 24/03/2009 - 15:15 — jp.stacey
jp.stacey's picture

Minimalist Drupal

One step on from picking the right modules: Bootstrapping the bare minimum for people thinking about development would be really handy. If you show people the Drupalish way of working (module hooks, preprocess theme hooks, APIs etc.) then they can develop within the framework rather than reinventing the wheel, and reduce the amount of leg-work they have to do.
  • "How do I add my own Javascript / CSS onto a particular page, so I don't have to deal with this 'Drupal' nonsense?"
  • "What's cacheing? How does it work? When doesn't it? What do I have to look out for?"
  • "How do I modify the login form?"
  • Creating a database table and add/update/remove records in it
  • Importing content, taxonomies, user accounts, content types, views etc.
  • Avoiding storing PHP in the database: why and how
(Rob, you seem to have something on your face... uh, never mind.)
Thu, 26/03/2009 - 10:22 — Robert Castelo
Robert Castelo's picture

Configuration

That brings up an important point, who are these meetings aimed at?

For me they are very much about empowering non-technical staff working in NGOs to implement and manage their websites by knowing which modules to use and how to configure them.

So I think we should be focusing on demonstrating what can be done with available modules.

Thu, 26/03/2009 - 10:23 — Robert Castelo
Robert Castelo's picture

Red Nose

Phew, managed to pry that red nose off, now I can breathe properly again!
Thu, 26/03/2009 - 16:23 — Robert Castelo
Robert Castelo's picture

Moved...

The poll has opened, start voting now!

http://www.drupal.org.uk/drupal-ngos-topic