Drupal Expert Programmer & Consultant

[drupalexperts-blog]

5 Tips To Make Your Drupal Website Lightening Fast

Scenario: You installed Drupal as your website, it was working great at the start but with gradual additions of modules, blocks and changing your website architecture, Drupal which was lightening fast, became slow as a turtle. You have tried everything, from rebooting the server to increase of RAM but just can’t figure out, what is wrong.

This is the exact problem we are addressing below:

Drupal has emerged as a highly flexible framework that now runs the world’s heaviest and largest websites, Consider, NASA or the White House Website for example.. Still, many people are of a view that Drupal engine is a bit slow in performance. No big deal. When working with any large framework,and complex architecture it generally tends to slow down a little (like any other CMS Engine).

But unlike other CMS, Drupal with correct configuration and with sharp focus on certain specific optimization factors, the performance of Drupal based website can be improved handsomely.

How you Ask? Here are five simple but highly effective ways to speed things up on your Drupal site.

Server Configuration

Appropriate designing of server configuration plays a very important role in the scalability and performance of Drupal site. It should be designed in such a way that will facilitate us in scaling certain portions of it independently of other. That’s why, it is recommended to architect the server in a role-based way.

Web Server: Apache and Microsoft IIS. But Apache is recommended because most of Drupal has been developed on Apache.

Database Server: MySQL, and PostgreSQL

Front-End Cache: Varnish, potentially a CDN

Other Caches: Memcache (alternative caching mechanism for Drupal)

Other External Applications: Apache Solr server can be used to implement search functionality in Drupal and offload search traffic from the SQL database.

In addition, database server, web server, and disk space requirements can be easily handled with ease.  But meeting the PHP requirement is also a major problem where most of people generally fail. So, always focus on PHP requirement.

Caching

In case of Drupal, Caching is no different. Enabling Drupal's cache feature makes your site to start storing database queries and their results in a series of special files designed to hold cached data. As a result, your site will apply these pre-rendered queries and their results to load your website faster. No matter how many people visit your site, it will help you provide better experience.

Database queries

Extremely slow database queries make site loading time, more than a minute.  It is advised to use only those modules your website needs. Eliminate those modules which are not in use. Before eliminating any module from your modules directory, make sure you disable and uninstall it completely.

Handling heavy images

Heavy images can increase load time significantly, so make sure the images used in your site are appropriately optimized. Give every file a sensible name for easy readability, and compress images to a size that promotes easy loading, but also maintain acceptable quality for usability.

Avoid Using Unnecessary Modules

If you overcrowd your Drupal site with modules, sooner or later, you are going to experience a drop in performance. The best practice is to limit the number of modules as much as you can. Keeping the module numbers around 100 is always acceptable, but using them in hundreds can impact the performance significantly.

There are also many other ways to improve performance of Drupal website. We at OSSCube have expertise in taking a slow Drupal website and making it unbelievably fast. So, feel free to extend this conversation by comment below or just dropping us a line.

[drupalexperts-blog]

What’s most exciting and most popular about Drupal 8?

The whole Drupal community is excited the way Drupal 8 is shaping up, especially its more powerful and easy-to-use features than Drupal 7. There is still a lot of work to do ahead, but here are the popular features you will notice in Drupal 8 at core level.

Admin bar

For the Drupal 8 admin bar, all items familiar with in Drupal 7 have been compressed into a single ‘Menu’ Button with flexibility of docking the menu horizontally under the main bar (default), or vertically at the left side of the page.

Appearances

The default site theme that comes packaged with the Drupal 8 development release is 'Bartik 8.0', and 'Seven 8.0' as the admin theme. 'Stark 8.0' is also included, but disabled by default. There is couple of notable updates from user interface point of way, especially when you logged-in. The gear icons for block settings (seen in Drupal 7) have been replaced with a Pencil icon. Many of the inline admin links in Drupal 7 have been styled as buttons in Drupal 8.

New Core Modules

The menu item earlier named 'Modules' is now called 'Extend'. The new modules for Drupal 8 such as CKEditor, Email Field, Entity Reference Field, Picture, Telephone Field, and Views are quite exciting, but this is not a comprehensive list of all new modules.

Content Editing

Improvements to the Node Edit Form

There are several changes made to the node edit form. The best part is that it's responsive! The changes have been made in menu settings, path, comment settings, etc. in terms of their positioning. Now they have been moved to a right column. When you narrow down the browser window, those tabs move back to the bottom of the page. It’s quite slick and responsive!

'Create new revision' box now comes checked by default with new nodes

For the 'Authoring Information' tab, the date/time field now includes a date picker to enable you to avoid of hassle of copy/ paste the date time format from the field help

'Publishing Options' from Drupal 7 is now labeled 'Promotion Options', and doesn't contain a 'Published' checkbox anymore. In fact, that checkbox is gone entirely.

Whereas you had a simple 'Save' button in Drupal 7, there is now a twisty arrow to select between several save options.

On the 'View' tab of a node, the body field has its own pencil icon. The interesting option in that menu is 'Quick edit'. Basically it allows you to click on the body content to trigger an overlay dialogue with the same body field editor that you see in the node edit page.

Added Flexibility for Blocks

There is a great option of Custom block types. Just like a basic page includes a title and body field, you now have a similar model with blocks. A basic block contains the elements a title and body field. You have the flexibility to configure more block types with the same 'Manage Fields' and 'Display Fields' tabs that you've been using on your custom content types.

Built-in Contact Form

Now with Contact Form, you have the option to 'Add category' for the contact form as well.

Views

As seen in Drupal 7, creating a new view has the same initial interface, but the 'Create a page' box comes unchecked by default now.  If you don't check boxes to create displays in the view, a 'Master' display is added that doesn't have a 'Machine Name' option and/or value under the 'Advanced' section. Views in Drupal 7 functions the same way.  Another exciting feature is the flexibility to add custom view templates to the theme.  

There are many more changes have been introduced. Visit http://drupal.org/list-changes to check the complete run-down.

[drupalexperts-blog]

OSSCube Mobilizer - A Quick Video Tour 

[drupalexperts-blog]

Two amazing new Drupal modules that can make your job much easier

Drupal is now insanely becoming popular due to the collaborative effect of thousands of community members contributing every day. Without any question, there are hundreds of thousands of Drupal modules available to enhance the capability of this famous Open Source CMS. But, it’s also no surprise that when we need a sure-shot way, and there are a fair few modules out there to help create amazing end solution. And this was the reason behind the creation of below given Drupal modules. Let’s see what they are capable of doing.

If you need a quick solution for Drupal SugarCRM integration, the below module can help you go faster:

OSSCube Drupal/SugarCRM Integration

Installing OSSCube Drupal/SugarCRM Integration module, you don’t need to take the pain of writing lengthy code to turn your CMS and CRM into an integrated business solution. OSSCube Drupal/SugarCRM Integration helps you seamlessly integrate Drupal and SugarCRM into a more powerful business solution. And the best thing about this module— it can save your lots of time on mapping the Drupal and SugarCRM modules and their related fields, which is always a big integration challenge. Just try this newly contributed module, and improve your customer experience and lower your cost of doing business. Go here.

Next. If you need a quick mobile version of your existing Drupal 7 based website, you will love this creation.

OSSCube Mobilizer

This module is like a magic-wand that can help you create a mobile version of your existing Drupal 7 website in minutes without any complex coding. OSSCube Mobilizer provides a fast and easy way to create a mobile version of your Drupal 7 website no matter how large or complex it is today. You can customize the layout, add color scheme, edit menu and prioritize content for a more appealing mobile look, and, of course, with the flexibility of keeping one URL for all web, and mobile devices. Click here to convert your Drupal 7 website in mobile version.

So that’s the tale of how both of our modules work. Try them out! They’re amazing.

[drupalexperts-blog]

Top 5 Drupal Modules to organize your events with ease right from your website

Clamoring a solution to manage your appointments, social events, and to-do lists with ease right from your Drupal based website? Either you achieve this with new Drupal module development initiative to include this functionality, or can try contributed Drupal modules depending on your specific business requirements. In this blog, we’ve put together Top 5 ready-to-use Drupal modules that can be installed right-away. So give them a try and see how they can help you stay organized in a convenient manner, or treat them as an organizer of your personal or social events.

1. Calendar ToolTips   

Tired of bloated calendar programs? Too many features you are never going to use? Try this simple calendar system. Packed together with simplicity in mind, you can use this module to view a list of events occurring on that day. However, you would need to override theme functions and write custom PHP code to accomplish this task.

Take a tour -   https://drupal.org/project/calendar_tooltips

2. Event Calendar Module

Keep up-to-date with this dynamic and user-friendly event calendar module. From creating simple events to managing a chain of events, you can customize this module and keep a track of important events at one place. This module also provides you with state-of-the-art support for any events or meetings you are organizing. Everyone involved will be delighted to see its color-coded categories and flexible formatting.

Give it a try! http://www.osscube.com/blog/drupal-event-calendar-module

3. Spider Event Calendar

Spider Event Calendar is the next generation module that allows you to add unlimited number of calendars and unlimited number of events for each calendar. With a simple click on the date, you will see the events and their descriptions recorded for that day. You can also add images and videos to each event and make each event unique. However, you need to buy the Full version of the Spider Flash Calendar, if you wish to have a calendar with more than 3 events.

Have a look! https://drupal.org/project/event-calendar

4. Event Email Notification

Get notified well before the event starts. The Event Email Notification module will provide a drupal user the possibility to add an email event notification to an event. As a reminder, the notification email is sent at a configurable time before the event will start. This is a handy thing to have as the module periodically checks the upcoming events and will notify you if updates are available.

Explore it! https://drupal.org/project/event_notification

5. Pretty Calendar

As the name suggests, the Pretty Calendar module has some pretty themes with inclusive calendar features that can be easily downloaded and installed to give you a robust solution for your Drupal website. This module is a simple nice calendar module that displays the materials by date. This module creates new block "Calendar" and new pages "/calendar/YYYY/MM/DD" to display all nodes per day.

Try this out! https://drupal.org/project/pretty_calendar

Well here you have some of the cool modules that you can try and use for creating and managing your events on your Drupal website. Feel free to experiment with them and let me know about your experiences in the comments. If in case, your vast majority of requirements are not addressed with these Drupal core  modules, Drupal module development experts can help you extend and customize Drupal’s functionalities as per your exact needs.  

[drupalexperts-blog]

Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Drupal Consultant

Drupal Consultants vary widely in their skills and abilities. Some are at the top of the curve, while others have more recently jumped on the Drupal consulting bandwagon. To play safe, you must hire someone who understands your industry and the particular needs of your sites user. Therefore, when hiring a Drupal consultant you should consider several elements to help you realize your mission-critical business needs. Here in this article,we will be considering some of the most common mistakes made when hiring a competent consultant.

Consider the following list of common mistakes companies make when hiring Drupal consultants -

1.     Failure to explain your current business practices

Be it a custom check-out feature or a dynamic color change, just make sure your developer knows what ideas you have planned in your mind and they can deliver on those terms. Explaining how your business works on a day-to-day basis will help your developer come up with a plan, and well-executed strategy.

2.     Failing to specify the time frame of the work

Make sure to specify the agreed work and the project-completion time frame,signed by both the parties. You should have a clear and realistic communication with Drupal experts regarding deliverables, fees, and responsibilities.  

3.    Implementing recommendations lately

To make sure you get the maximum benefit for your organization,implement the Drupal consultant’s recommendations before they are lost in the organizational inertia of your business. You can ask your staff to report in a month on the progress they are making, and call for regular reports until the work has been completed. You can expect the consultant to take an equal interest in seeing that his or her recommendations result in benefits.

4.     Conducting incomplete research   

Avoid asking your developers to implement every single idea in your websites that has not been thoroughly evaluated. Avoid the trial and error method of implementing new ideas. Every project comes with unique challenges which provide opportunities to learn new things. Identify the challenges likely to be encountered during the implementation of the project and come up with solutions to those challenges.

5.     Being Price-Conscious

This is one mistake that many people often commit. Due to budgetary constraints, some business owners just look at the price of the services being offered when choosing which drupal consulting company to hire. This is a big mistake as choosing the cheapest option won’t always guarantee you the best services.Don’t make the mistake of using the cost of the services in choosing which company to hire. Evaluate multiple factors and then choose the best combination of price, services, and quality that will serve your mission-critical business needs.

Although the list of common hiring mistakes is exhaustive and several studies have been conducted in this regard. The risks will always exist, but being aware of them should greatly help.  

[drupalexperts-blog]

Drupal: Managing sophisticated web content quickly

Drupal is a powerful and most popular open source Content Management System (CMS) that allows users to update website content efficiently and cost-effectively. Moreover, as Drupal is specifically tailored to your needs, you will require less technical knowledge and training than with other CMSs. And once you start using it, you will realize how easy it is to update and manage the various parts of your website.  So let us just point out a few benefits of using Drupal’s content management system to make it easy to create and manage your site.

Organize and re-use 

With its powerful CMS, Drupal helps you to organize structure,find and re-use your content. Categorize with taxonomy, it automatically creates custom lists, creates smart defaults for content creators, creates user-friendly path urls, and associates content with other content on your site.  Moreover, whenever you want to modify the look of your entire website, you can do so easily by simply applying the content to a new template. There is no need to modify or even touch any of the site’s content.

Reduce Time to Market 

Using a robust CMS, you can create a web page in a matter of minutes and an entire website in a matter of hours.  Most content management systems provide an authoring tool to ease the task of content entry.And, once you enter the content, you can publish and manage the content almost effortlessly.  This will eliminate the need to make design changes on several pages and maintain consistency.  

Social Media Integration 

If your business has any Facebook, Twitter or any other social media account, this powerful CMS can link directly and automatically update and retrieve social content. And, being able to integrate social media account to your website will mean your web properties will be proactive and responsive.

Design and Display 

With Drupal's web development services, you can create a highly interactive experience that engage users and boost website traffic. By using an existing Drupal theme for your site, you can give an instant identity to your website.  And, if you can’t find the one of your choice, you can try designing your own which others can use, too.

Search Engine connection capabilities 

With a powerful CMS, you can easily connect your websites to other sites and services across the web. This can be achieved by using aggregation,feeds, and search engine connection capabilities. In addition, social networking integration is also widely supported to help you connect with a wider audience. Drupal web developers allow your site to interact with external media and file services in an easy way.   

Drupal empowers millions of people to create and manage sophisticated web content quickly. It gives your team the power to update your website instantly, without having to pay or wait for a third party to make every little edits. 

[drupalexperts-blog]

Hire a Drupal expert for your job?

Hiring a Drupal expert or Drupal 7 programmer has become more and more commonplace for businesses looking to develop sophisticated and robustwebsites, applications and social media networks. An experienced Drupalprogrammer can effectively deploy Drupal in your business environment withenhanced scalability and tackle the challenge of massive traffic loads. Theywill also optimize the system for enhanced performance with quick load time andempower you with flexibility to adapt new features, functionalities and designto align with your changing business needs. However, keep in mind that theprogrammer may not always provide the results you are looking for. Therefore,it is important to identify and hire a programmer who can deliver a quality job.  This article will allow you to screen a Drupal programmer best foryour job.

Committed, experienced and involved programmer

Your Drupal programmer will require special skills and experience,depending on the specific goals of your project.  To increase the likelihood of your project’s success, learn to ask the right questions, and research the abilities and approach of the programmers you are considering. For instance, you should consider the developers who have significant experience with Drupal framework, template creation, content management customization.  They should be well aware of the technical aspects of Drupal framework. Check their previous work and determine if they will be able to deliver the kind of work that you want them to do.

Check References  

A programmer who is recommended by someone you trust is more likely to be qualified and experienced. So ask your friends, relatives or colleagues in the business for any Drupal developers they might refer. Visiting Drupal communities can also yield promising results.

 Project and Quality Management Processes

Project and Quality Management Processes aim for standards that describe good practices, globally recognized credentials that certify project management expertise, and resources for professional development, networking and community.  Check whether your programmer is implementing Project and Quality Management Processes in his/her job.

 Open Source Contribution

 Seek an expert who actively participates in open source community.The one who actively contributes code and other open source capabilities willfacilitate the development and deployment of Drupal and answer all yourmission-critical needs.

 Communicative

The interpersonal relation is frequently underestimated, to agreat extent. Do you like the Drupal pro as a person? Can you communicate well,and feel heard when you voice concerns or ideas? This doesn’t mean you have tobe friends; maintaining a businesslike relationship is advisable. But you should sense a mutual respect. Maintain regular contact with your programmer,and keep tabs on the performance. Early identification and correction of elements that don’t meet your needs will save your time and cause fewer disruptions, while keeping the project on its timeline.

Drupal is a fully capable open source CMS for developing a webportal, a personal, departmental, or corporate website; an e-commerce site; are source directory; an online newspaper; applications and social media networks.  This CMS has been widely adopted by the world‘s leading businesses, biggest brands and even government organizations for building complex websites to handle huge amounts of traffic.  However, to use the full capabilities of CMS, you always need a right Drupal programmers who fulfill all above requirements.