February 20, 2018
In my previous post I talked through setting up Content Moderation with a review state. In this post we will complete the process by sending email notifications via the Rules module when the moderation state is changed.
Install Rules # To enable the Rules module we first need to require it via Composer. Run the following from the command line in the root of your project
composer require drupal/rules Once this has run you can return to the Extend page and enable the Rules module.
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February 13, 2018
For Drupal projects I’ve always used the comprehensive suite of tools provided by Workbench. But when I started a new project and saw that Workflow is hopefully making it’s way into core it felt like a good time to try it out. One part of the project was the addition of notifications when Workflow states were changed. With the Rules module also receiving lots of attention I decided combining the two modules was the best approach.
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February 6, 2018
Producing a rough sketch on a piece of paper may seem more like the realms of a designer desperately trying to get an idea out of their head into a physical form to share with others but I find it can also help me develop backend code.
Planning # When starting a new bit of work I normally have the rough idea in my head of how I’m going to modularise the code and what functionality each piece will need.
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January 30, 2018
When we develop sites we start off locally and in a development environment. During the development process we continue this process as we evolve the design and functionality.
But there comes a point where the site we’re working moves to the stage where it will become the live site. At this point it’s preferable to move it to the live environment.
Configuration # We try and match development and live environments as much as possible but it’s not always possible to get exact matches due to various constraints.
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January 23, 2018
As I spoke about in the previous post about redesigns my work generally focuses on clients who have existing sites that need to be moved to a new Content Management System and have a new design applied to them.
Whilst this can have it’s advantages for design work by allowing the front end developers far more freedom with markup it has some challenges for the backend.
Discovery # Every database I have received have been from a different CMS, some have been MySQL and some have been Microsoft SQL database but all have required some discovery.
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January 17, 2018
I can’t remember the last time I was involved in making a brand new website rather than an update or redesign. Maybe it’s just the sort of work we are suited to at Headscape and you may find differently.
A redesign often brings with it different challenges to making a site from scratch, one of these is challenging the client to provide new types of content. By sharing a vision of how their site could be it encourages clients to improve their site rather than continue with the same old processes.
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January 8, 2018
Design kickoffs are great, it’s the start of the project, expectations are high, ideas are thrown around liberally and everyone is excited about what’s to come. So why should you bring along the person responsible fo database tables and code no one will ever see?
Get to know the business # Invitations to tender and design briefs are very useful documents to get an initial idea of what a business does and what they offer.
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December 12, 2017
I have a project in mind that needs internet connectivity but I won’t have access to WiFi so when I saw the Arduino MKR GSM 1400 with it’s GSM capability I thought I could use it to send my data over 3G.
Before I get to trying anything like that this is my experience using it for the first time.
Where do I put the SIM Card # I already had a SIM Card from GiffGaff to use I just needed somewhere to put it.
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December 5, 2017
In my younger days I worked in a surf shop where the owner was very hot on customer service. He liked us to greet every customer when they entered and left. To start with this seemed quite unnatural and the odd customer even seemed confused. In general though it did open up communication and people seemed genuinely happy with the interaction even when you said thanks to them for leaving empty handed.
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November 28, 2017
When I was younger I wanted to join a football team. I had visions of scoring the winning goal and being the hero. Unfortunately I turned up with a pair of goalkeeper gloves, one of the others on the team decided I must be a goalkeeper then. And that’s the position I played for many years, and I loved it.
Now I’ve been a backend developer for many many yeas and I love that as well.
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