Posts by theme: Modules
Recently, there was a minor flap about a security hole found in one of the modules that's part of the Drupal install running whitehouse.gov. The actual issue itself was rather uninteresting (if you give someone an "administer X" permission they can do evil things to your site; um, duh), and the only reason it attracted attention at all was sensationalist reporting by some online news sources, but it did bring up one interesting and important detail that many Drupal folks forget: You really shouldn't be using pre-release modules in production.
Of course, that becomes a problem given the number of Drupal modules that are in a pre-release state forever. Which is, of course, the underlying problem: Too many module maintainers are not being responsible maintainers.
Everyone knows the top-tier Drupal modules, but with over 5,000 modules available for Drupal it’s no surprise that many useful ones go unnoticed. As a public service to the Drupal community, Palantir is working to raise awareness of some of these unsung heroes.
In part 3 of our ongoing 5,162-part series, we present: Menu Block
The Menu Block module is a little-known module, but has actually been around since June 2008 and is our solution to the limitations in Drupal’s built-in site navigation.
Everyone knows the top-tier Drupal modules, but with over 4,000 5,000 modules available for Drupal it's no surprise that many useful ones go unnoticed. As part of its mission to raise awareness of these unsung heroes, Palantir is presenting this series of articles on modules that carry more than their weight in code.
In part 2 of our 5,046 part series, we present: Suggested Terms
Everyone knows the top-tier Drupal modules, but with over 4,000 modules available for Drupal it's no surprise that many useful modules go unnoticed. As part of its mission to make the web a better place, Palantir is presenting this series of articles on modules you haven't met that may yet get you a good night's sleep.
In part 1 of our 4,943 part series, we present: Flashy
At Palantir, we try to be "sustainable" in everything we do. Our office is made from mostly recycled materials and we strive for being carbon-netural. Our approach to employees is to avoid the "long hours and weekends" trap, because we don't want people to get burned out before their time. Our approach to Drupal theming is built around site sustainability, and allowing the theme to grow with the site as it evolves.
It also means building code that is sustainable. That isn't really a new concept; generally it's called "reusable code". But with how straightforward it is to bend Drupal in various ways with form alters and theme overrides, it's easy to miss a rather important little revolution in Drupal development that Palantir has embraced wholeheartedly: Sub-module building blocks.
The Quiz module has a venerable heritage. One glance at the list of previous committers indicates this. Many of the previous maintainers of the module now work on Drupal core. When I began maintaining it late last year, I found that list of names daunting. But there was work to do. While Quiz has been around since the Drupal 4.6 days, when I was granted access in September of last year, it needed a little attention.
I wanted to share how we've been working to improve it. In my time at Palantir.net, we've made two major releases of Quiz and added many new features.
At Drupalcon DC, Kent Bye from Lullabot interviewed me about Deploy module for the Drupal Voices podcast series. Deploy offers a potential solution to one of Drupal's most difficult problems - how to stage content and configuration between servers. Here's how it came to be:
Earlier this week I checked in Palantir's latest module, Kiosk. It's a simple little module, and I was rather surprised to find the name still free, but it actually shows off some interesting tricks.