8balldev

Introduction

This is a guide for setting up a Jenkins server on Ubuntu for the purposes of automating a Drupal 7 install and automated test process.

All commands assume you’re running Ubuntu 14.04 as root user (unless otherwise specified).

This was primarily put together to accompany a talk at Drupalcamp Brighton 2015.

Drush has saved my skin more than once but recently I'm finding that this little beauty below has helped no end in terms of refreshing a drupal site with the latest code based deployment.

git pull origin master;

drush @site-alias fra -y;

drush @site-alias updatedb;

drush @site-alias fra -y;

drush @site-alias vset preprocess_js 0 -y;

drush @site-alias vset preprocess_js 1 -y;

drush @site-alias cc all;

Finally had some time to review a few of the sessions i missed at last years Drupalcon UK and in the process came across an excellent presentation on Drupal 7 Distributions and Features. Can't recommend these guys enough - handy cheatsheet provided on their blog too!

As I start to migrate our sites to version 7 it seems the time is right to take the plunge into a full Distro for upcoming projects. 

Since my last foray into install profiles (nearly 2 years ago now), the use of Drush and Features has made for an excellent stable distribution & install profile platform.

Time permitting, I can see me building a collection of quickstart distributions which should ensure much quicker turn arounds on future builds!

Christmas is a weird time for a vegetarian, everyone is ranting about how awesome Turkey is and "don't you miss pigs in blankets". Well for me it's all about the roast vegetables anyway but you do need that centre piece. Found this recipe for Nut Roast last year and haven't looked back:

Top & Bottom 

1 large onion

30ml vegetable oil

1 dessertspoon cornflour

150ml milk (dairy, oat or soya all work well)

200g mixed nuts, ground (e.g. almond, pine nuts, cashew, brazils, walnuts)

½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

Salt & pepper

Filling

1 medium onion

4 tablespoons fresh parsley

Juice and grated rind of 1 lemon

6 tablespoons olive oil (or other vegetable oil)

150g stale bread

  Method

Pre-heat the oven to 190 C

Prepare a 1 lb loaf tin by lining it with greaseproof paper and oiling well. 

Make the top & bottom layer 

Peel the onion and chop finely

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the onion and saute for 10 minutes, until it softens, without browning

Add the cornflour. Mix well and cook for 2 minutes

Add the milk and mix well. Stir until it thickens

Mix in the nuts and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper to taste

Make the filling Method 1: using a food processor 

Put the bread in the food processor and 'chop' into crumbs. Put in a bowl on one side.

Peel the onion and chop it finely in the food processor.

Add the parsley and chop until fine.

Add the breadcrumbs and chop to mix well.

Add the oil and lemon juice and chop until it forms a paste.

Method 2: by hand 

Grate the bread until it resembles rough breadcrumbs. Put in a bowl on one side.

Peel the onion and chop it finely.

Chop the parsley finely.

Mix the breadcrumbs, onion and parsley together.

Add the oil and lemon juice and mix until it forms a paste.

Put half of the white filling into the bottom of the loaf tin and press down well

Use your hands to mould the herb filling into layers and cover the bottom layer in the loaf tin

Use your hands to mould the final white mixture into a layer to cover the herb filling. Press down well.

Cook at 190 C for about 40 minutes, until the top feels firm 

Playing with php form builder class (PFBC) today - amazing resource and should save me a ton of time encoding forms! Reached a bit of wall when it comes to templating:

$form->addElement(new Element_HTMLExternal('<fieldset>));

...for wrapping form elements in html tags.

About to jump into the LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) module for Drupal 7. The idea being to create a seamless Active Directory company Intranet implementation. Based on the module documentation and preliminary discussions regarding IP addresses and hosting situations this could be an out of the box scenario. Famous last words!