Notes on Drupal, the web, and building things.https://jimbir.ch/en-ushttps://jimbir.ch/blog/kevin-thull-aaron-winborn-award/https://jimbir.ch/blog/kevin-thull-aaron-winborn-award/If you've been to a Drupal camp in the last few years, you've probably seen Kevin sprinting from session room to session room, making sure every speaker hit the big red record button.Mon, 14 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMTDrupal Communityhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/bootstrap-carousel-multiple-value-field/https://jimbir.ch/blog/bootstrap-carousel-multiple-value-field/Building on last week's Paragraphs carousel, here's how to drive a Bootstrap Carousel from a field — handy for a Featured Image field doing double duty as hero and Open Graph image.Fri, 09 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTDrupal Developmenthttps://jimbir.ch/blog/bootstrap-carousel-paragraphs-twig/https://jimbir.ch/blog/bootstrap-carousel-paragraphs-twig/A similar approach to the multi-column section, this time for a slideshow — giving content admins an easy way to add a carousel to any page.Fri, 02 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTDrupal Developmenthttps://jimbir.ch/blog/styling-views-exposed-filters-d8/https://jimbir.ch/blog/styling-views-exposed-filters-d8/Theming the HTML select to look consistent across browsers is a task unto itself. Here's a CSS-only approach applied to an exposed filter on a view.Fri, 19 May 2017 00:00:00 GMTFront Endhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/multi-column-paragraphs-bootstrap/https://jimbir.ch/blog/multi-column-paragraphs-bootstrap/One Paragraph bundle that renders a 2-, 3-, 4-, or 6-column layout — each column able to hold any of the bundles you define.Fri, 12 May 2017 00:00:00 GMTDrupal Developmenthttps://jimbir.ch/blog/holistic-seo-drupal/https://jimbir.ch/blog/holistic-seo-drupal/Holistic SEO is where content, marketing, technical best practices, performance, security, and user intent come together to make the ideal URL on a given topic.Fri, 28 Apr 2017 00:00:00 GMTSEOhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-podcast-guide/https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-podcast-guide/I read a lot about Drupal and the web — but I learn even more when I listen. A big list of Drupal podcasts to subscribe to for the commute or the treadmill.Mon, 11 Apr 2016 00:00:00 GMTResourceshttps://jimbir.ch/blog/bootstrap-navbar-d8/https://jimbir.ch/blog/bootstrap-navbar-d8/Teaching myself Drupal 8 theming from an empty folder on top of core's Stable theme — and getting the Bootstrap Navbar working far more simply than in Drupal 7.Thu, 18 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal Developmenthttps://jimbir.ch/blog/changing-order-drupal-7-media-module-file-browser-tabs/https://jimbir.ch/blog/changing-order-drupal-7-media-module-file-browser-tabs/I am working on a site where the client requested that the Library tab be the first tab in the Media module's File browser pop up. While this is a seemingly simple request, it is one that I have ne...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/clean-google-docs-html-programmatically/https://jimbir.ch/blog/clean-google-docs-html-programmatically/We are often tasked with entering content into the CMS' we build for our clients. Cleaning up the HTML of those documents is always a chore, no matter who puts them together. I figured out that I s...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupalhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/cleaning-your-local-drupal-installations-new-year/https://jimbir.ch/blog/cleaning-your-local-drupal-installations-new-year/If you're like me, your development and staging servers get larger and larger as time moves on. The end of the year break is the perfect time to get organized, archive projects that are no longer n...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupalhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-anchor-menu/https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-anchor-menu/Back in the olden times of the internet, we had really long static HTML pages. In order to make the page more organized, we would make a table of contents at the top, linked to the content below us...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-google-analytics-google-webmaster-tools-setup/https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-google-analytics-google-webmaster-tools-setup/At first, I dismissed the need for yet another module. I have always added the Google Analytics code straight into a template file in various other CMS and static sites I have been involved in over...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-hide-sticky-and-promote/https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-hide-sticky-and-promote/Promoted to front page? Don't worry about that, we don't use it. That was the phrase I heard from a developer on the first site I was tasked to theme. I had asked what the "Promoted to front page"...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-importing-tweets-drupal-using-twitter-module/https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-importing-tweets-drupal-using-twitter-module/Why would you want to import tweets into a Drupal site? For one, I want to own the content I create. Unlike other social media sites, Twitter allows great access to the content I create on their pl...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-integrating-disqus-comments/https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-integrating-disqus-comments/When choosing whether or not to have commenting on your site, one of the factors that I always discuss with clients is whether or not the site has a need for logged in users. If the site has users...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-offsite-backups-backup-migrate/https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-offsite-backups-backup-migrate/At the time of this writing, just under 300,000 websites use the Drupal Backup and Migrate module. It is an great tool for moving databases from production back to staging and development servers,...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-organizing-field-group/https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-organizing-field-group/The Drupal Field Group module has been on my Essential Drupal list since I first learned about it, and with 200,000 installs, I am certainly not the only one. Field Group lets you add the common CC...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-panels-page-manager-existing-pages/https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-panels-page-manager-existing-pages/I plan on doing a more in depth article on how I've been using Panels instead of templates or contexts for laying out this Drupal 7 site, but I feel like I still have more to learn. Until then, I w...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-panels-page-manager-user-pages/https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-panels-page-manager-user-pages/By default, Page Manager has the User Profile Page (/user/user-id) and the User Edit Page (/user/user-id/edit), but there are a few user pages that are missing, most obvious will be the login page.Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-scheduling-posts-scheduler/https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-scheduling-posts-scheduler/The scheduling of posts was the first things I noticed that was missing from Drupal after moving over from Wordpress. Thanks to the Scheduler Module, we have that functionality back, with more cont...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-simplify/https://jimbir.ch/blog/drupal-7-simplify/The Drupal Simplify Module is a big help removing cruft from the eyes of the administrator in the Drupal UI. Simplify allows you to hide certain fields from the user interface on a global basis, or...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/dude-where-are-my-templates-using-drupal-7-theme-developer-find-way/https://jimbir.ch/blog/dude-where-are-my-templates-using-drupal-7-theme-developer-find-way/The first line of the description of the Drupal Theme Developer Module says that it is "Firebug for Drupal themeing". I couldn't agree more. This is the ultimate tool when you need to find out whic...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/essential-drupal-global-redirect-module/https://jimbir.ch/blog/essential-drupal-global-redirect-module/The Global Redirect module ensures that we will have the best possible technical output from Drupal for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It is available for Drupal 6 and Drupal 7, and it looks lik...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupalhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/essential-drupal-stage-file-proxy/https://jimbir.ch/blog/essential-drupal-stage-file-proxy/We can easily checkout code from our git repositories for our local, development, and staging servers. We can get a database from the live site through Backup and Migrate, drush, or a number of oth...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupalhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/essential-drupal-style-guide-module/https://jimbir.ch/blog/essential-drupal-style-guide-module/Site builders and front end themers rejoice at the greatness of the Drupal Style Guide module. This module creates a page on your Drupal 6 or Drupal 7 site, displaying all the common html elements,...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupalhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/googlebot-cannot-access-css-js-your-drupal-site/https://jimbir.ch/blog/googlebot-cannot-access-css-js-your-drupal-site/There was a time when search engine bots would come to your site, index the words on the page, and continue on. Those days are long past. Earlier this year, we witnessed Google's ability to determi...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupalhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/integrating-drupal-cloudflare/https://jimbir.ch/blog/integrating-drupal-cloudflare/The super smart lead developer at Xeno Media first brought the Cloudflare service to my attention as it was integrated with one of the hosts we were using. We experimented with a site that was expe...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupalhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/login-destination-sending-us-where-we-need-go/https://jimbir.ch/blog/login-destination-sending-us-where-we-need-go/Rare is the site where the user who logs in, and needs to end up on their User page. This is the default behavior of Drupal. It makes sense if you are making a community or social media type websit...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupalhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/manage-drupal-7-configurations-using-features-built-features-builder/https://jimbir.ch/blog/manage-drupal-7-configurations-using-features-built-features-builder/Most of us have been using the Features module for configuration management in Drupal 7 for years now. This is not what the module was originally intended for, but it has allowed us to move variabl...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/midcamp-2016-recap/https://jimbir.ch/blog/midcamp-2016-recap/MidCamp 2016, the Midwest Drupal Camp was a roaring success. We had 36 Sessions and 1 keynote were spread across the University of Illinois at Chicago's Student Center West. All of the sessions wer...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTCommunityhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/no-more-usernames-setting-drupal-7-email-login/https://jimbir.ch/blog/no-more-usernames-setting-drupal-7-email-login/Sorry, the user name 'Super Incredibly Good Looking Jim' is already taken... I don't need another username. I really don't need another username on a site that I am not going to have a public profi...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/no-more-view-pages/https://jimbir.ch/blog/no-more-view-pages/Views has long been one of the magic pieces that makes Drupal my CMS of choice. Views allows us to easily create queries of content in the UI, giving great power to the site builder. When you first...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupalhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/search-most-optimized-image-drupal-7/https://jimbir.ch/blog/search-most-optimized-image-drupal-7/I have been on a performance kick lately, trying to optimize the delivery of caching and delivery of pages to users from Drupal. It seems like the biggest piece of every site I work on are the imag...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/submit-your-sessions-midcamp-2016-midwest-drupal-camp-chicago/https://jimbir.ch/blog/submit-your-sessions-midcamp-2016-midwest-drupal-camp-chicago/MidCamp is returning to Chicago, Illinois on March 17th through the 20th, 2016. We will be returning to the University of Illinois at Chicago, this time, on the west side of the campus. MidCamp is...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTCommunityhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/using-ckfinder-organize-image-uploads-content-type-drupal-7/https://jimbir.ch/blog/using-ckfinder-organize-image-uploads-content-type-drupal-7/As you may have noticed, /sites/default/files can quickly become a pretty busy place in your Drupal installation. When creating image or file fields, we can add folders in the Drupal UI to organize...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7https://jimbir.ch/blog/using-drupals-environment-indicator-help-visually-manage-dev-stage-production-servers/https://jimbir.ch/blog/using-drupals-environment-indicator-help-visually-manage-dev-stage-production-servers/There are days that I work on half a dozen different websites. I'm sure some of you are in the same boat. We make client edits and change requests with rapid efficiency. We work locally, push to st...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupalhttps://jimbir.ch/blog/using-fences-page-manager-optimize-html-markup-drupal-7/https://jimbir.ch/blog/using-fences-page-manager-optimize-html-markup-drupal-7/I have been searching for a way to make Drupal output cleaner, lighter, more semantic HTML since I started theming. We all know Drupal core, and it's many contrib modules have a tendency to inject...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTDrupal 7