Drupal Articles

In our last episode of enabling new modules via update.php, Steve McKenzie pointed me to a better method: module_enable(). A quick test found, however, that it didn't run the install files, and didn't rebuild the module files cache. So after spending 5 minutes in system.module, I found all the missing pieces. The example update function below will install and enable the new module, as well as rebuild all the css, node type, and menu caches.

I remember something a long time teacher said, "Nick, if you make a suit out of a gorrilla, the arms are too long." I forgot why that was relevent to the topic of theming menu trees.

Moving on, here's a nice little function I wrote to return a themed menu tree by path.

<?php
// will return all menu items under "administration".
print theme('menu_tree_by_path','admin');

// will return links to all node submission forms
print theme('menu_tree_by_path','node/add');

// return the correct menu array by path
function menu_get_mid_by_path($path) {
// oddly, menu_get_item accepts a path, but returns the parent id.

Back at ON Networks, we just finished upgrading from tinyMCE* to WYMeditor to power the textareas on the backend.

WYMeditor's main concept is to leave details of the document's visual layout, and to concentrate on its structure and meaning, while trying to give the user as much comfort as possible (at least as WYSIWYG editors).

...The end-user defines content meaning, which will determine its aspect by the use of style sheets. The result is easy and quick maintenance of information.

Today, we, the people of ON Networks launched version 1.0* of our website. Its built off of Drupal 5.2, and more than ready for 6.0 (please god, grant me the API improvements in 6.0 right now).

Since this is the first time I’ve introduced my company on my blog, I ask you forgive me for giving you “the pitch.”

We’re into online video.

We’re not idiots: we are not a “youtube 2.0… with tagging, ajax, and a bunch of fake content that is supposed to look like it came from real people”. (this seems to be the majority of online video startups)

Rather, we’ve decided that old media may actually have a few good ideas: say… professionally produced content, high production values, and video quality unmatchable on the internet (not counting subscription, and pay-per-view sites) . Oh, and letting you watch our videos on your ipod, iphone, tv, or screen, be it via rss, email , or appletv subscriptions.

Here is Backpack Picnic (sketch comedy), and Play Value (an exploration of the history of video games): two shows that really illustrate what we are after.

Our business model comes from an analysis of the structural weakness of old media. One way you could put it is, “We’re what NBC, BBC, and Fox would be if they could start their entire business over again.”

Our traffic and content is growing exponentially, and the daily bandwidth required to pump out our videos is measured in terabytes (tigs, as we call them in the office).

Anyhow, enough about us:

Thank you drupal. Expect a donation very soon.

*Nobody at the company is actually using version numbers, so I’m calling it 1.0