- Drupal HackFest today AND Looking for work
- Creating Browser Specific Drupal Template Pages
- 4 reasons why I am going to the Smaller Indiana Bigger Ideas event June 24
- Day one of Drupal Camp WI
- Spent my Birthday at the CMS Expo
- Review of "Cracking Drupal ~ A Drop in the Bucket" by WILEY Publishing about #drupal Security
- Looking back at the 1st quarter of 2009
- Monday April13th Indiana Drupal Meeting on JQuery!
- Can't wait to present at the 2009 cmsEXPO
- 2009 Washington DC #Drupalcon Debriefing
Drupal HackFest today AND Looking for work
--1st the Drupal part then below is the personal part!---
In 3 hours I will arrive at the offices of www.problogservice.com at 5348 N. Tacoma, Indianapolis where we will have our 3rd Indy Drupal HackFest. Over 20 of us will get together from across Indiana and the Ohio cities of Cincinnati and Columbus. The purpose will be to spend 4 hours just feeding off of each other. In the past it has been mostly Drupal, But Linux, SVN, computer fixing, OS repair, etc. occurs as well.
This will be awesome!
----------------------------Changing Topics-----------------------
I found myself unemployed this week.
I was doing Drupal development for Slingshot SEO inc where I saw the completion of their first two Drupal launches. www.overtonind.com and www.genesisplasticswelding.com
The sites are very nice Brochure-Sites and the clients are happy. Slingshot decided to move away from client-site development and focus more on SEO and internal projects. A full time Drupaler was no longer needed.
The departure was sweet and I strongly encourage PHP programmers [not married to a CMS] to be on the look out for when Slingshot hires again!
I continue to serve my own clients and I've picked up another one wile courting many more. I even have a tentative opportunity to join a well known MidWest Drupal shop. More on that if it comes together!
PLUG PLUG PLUG
So... If you are in need of Web Development, training, or any of the geeky things I do... Contact Me!
Creating Browser Specific Drupal Template Pages
I have a client who absolutely insists that the ie6 layout and mouseover issues must be resolved.
I did some of the usual tricks but found that I needed to change the HTML markup in order to really get it right.
My decision? I needed to use a tpl.php template page that would only apply to ie6.
My front page at www.genesisplasticswelding.com has some background transparent png files that swap on mouseover. I could NOT get these to work in ie6.
So I went into the page-front.tpl.php and at the VERY TO I entered this lines including the opening and closing PHP tags.
<?php
$browser_ss = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
if(strpos($browser_ss, 'Windows') && strpos($browser_ss, 'MSIE 6.0')){
include'ie6-front.tpl.php';
return"";
}
?>
What does this snippet do?
Simple... It looks at the browser and OS and IF its ie6 then it INCLUDES a completely different template page. If that was all I did then it would proceed to process the remainder of the original page-front.tpl.php
SO.... I put in a
return"";
Once the templating engine hits that return statement, it ceases to do anything else with this document
Recap:
0 copy the normal tpl.php file to the ie6 name. For me I copied page-front.tpl.php to ie6-front.tpl.php
1 place the above php at the VERY TOP of the page for which you need to offer an ie6 version. For me the code went atop my page-front-tpl.php
2 change the include name to be something unique. Normal php template file names are not needed. You could just as easily call the file other.tpl.php [remember this is not part of the naming conventions of the php template system, we have made our own handlers for this. :-)
3 Edit your ie6 version and be as JIGGY As U WunnaBe! For me, I'm using inline styles, maybe even a table layout! Yes! I can do what ever I want because these pages will only be rendered for real live users STUCK with ie6. There is no google indexing of this or any other rank based operation.
Enjoy!
If you found this helpful, please drop a line. I'd love to hear how you got you out of a bind like it did for me!
Alternately... If you have a different solution.. I'm all ears too!
- Doug Vann
- www.dougvann.com
- www.twitter.com/dougvann
Comments
Hey thanks for writing this
by Nicolas (not verified) - 06/18/2009 - 09:04
Hey thanks for writing this up Doug, this seems really useful for those bugs you just can't get right, or where it would be easier and more time efficient to change the markup. Doing this with a preprocess function, even sweeter, thanks for working on this guys!
Awesome, but here's another example...
by fillerwriter (not verified) - 06/16/2009 - 09:59
At least for Drupal 6, anyway, using the preprocess functions. Haven't tested it, but it should work.
<?php
function [theme_name]_preprocess_page(&$variables) {
$browser_ss = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
if(drupal_is_front_page()
&& strpos($browser_ss, 'Windows')
&& strpos($browser_ss, 'MSIE 6.0')){
$variables['template_file'][] = 'ie6-front';
}
}
?>
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4 reasons why I am going to the Smaller Indiana Bigger Ideas event June 24
There is a rather interesting event coming up in a few weeks that I wanted to make you aware of.
http://smallerindiana.com/profiles/blogs/set-your-own-ticket-price-for
Smaller Indiana is a group I belong to at www.smallerindiana.com It is put together by Pat Coyle and runs on the NING platform. By the way. The Ning social publishing platform is quite nice. What Pat has done with it is truly amazing.
Smaller Indiana had the idea some time ago to do an event titled, "Smaller Indiana, Bigger Ideas." The event is taking place Wednesday June24th from 1pm to 5pm in The Athenæum Theatre 401 E Michigan [where I used to be the audio engineer] A number of the attendees and speakers will be heading downstairs to the Rathskeller afterward to socialize.
Why am I going?
Those of you who know me know that I am not one to attend the Ra Ra Ra events where we're told to Go Out & Get Your Dream Realized, etc. I have been to those and while they are interesting they are not practical. Nor do I necessarily want to hear someone go on and on about how they worked hard all there life and went from poverty to being a PhD in Astro Physics.
What I do like about the Smaller Indiana, Bigger Ideas event is that:
a] You can name your own price to attend. http://smallerindiana.com/profiles/blogs/set-your-own-ticket-price-for
b] Across the 4 hours I will hear many different kinds of speakers from different backgrounds with different messages. These people have something to say about BIG IDEAS and the role those ideas have had in their lives.
c] I expect to meet some fascinating people there. The "Guest List" published on the site, has some heavy hitters on it. While this is NOT the typical Networking Event, there will be opportunities for networking and if you know me, you know that I make time for networking!
d] IDEAS IDEAS IDEAS. I am full of ideas right now. I have spoken with many of you and I hear your ideas as well. I want to listen to the speakers and the attendees and the guests and hear what happened to their ideas. Look at the speaker list and tell me if you would listen to this guy or gal if you were standing in a long line at the bank. I know I would. I especially like the wrap-up at the end where John Ketzenberger: Business Columnists, Indianapolis Star will moderate a panel discussion among many of the speakers talking about what all was said. Check out the speaker list at http://info.smallerindiana.com/bigger-ideas/speakers.html
As mentioned. Smaller Indiana knows that times are tough and rather than have a 1/2 filled hall they have opened up seats for "Name Your Own Price." That's pretty cool actually. I may have to use that one some day for an event that I produce!
2008 ROCKED for me and my livelihood, my skill sets, my family etc. I am looking forward to getting OUT of my own bubble and listening to others talk about their ideas and experiences. Seriously. I am anxious to gain some new perspectives on what people are doing or have done.
Will you join me?
Comments
Awesome
by John S. (not verified) - 06/26/2009 - 12:38
the most exciting sounding part for me is the discussion panel at the end. unfortunately, i won't be able to attend as i'm nowhere near Indiana. but it sounds like a really cool experience and that you will have fun with it. like you said, networking is most important :). as far as 2008, that sounds like a blessing and am most happy for your successes and wish you the best for your future endeavours.
Seiko Ananta
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