This is the second week of our current milestone and I am happy to say that we made a big progress forward. After working for a little while on this Drupal system with my team-mate, we realized that it was quite difficult to do a version control. One of the reason why this was so difficult is because we are working with two different operating systems. We faced numerous issues attempting to install the same system on my team-mate's Windows machine. When we finally got most of the functions to work, we have made many changes to the system that it made the version control process so much more difficult.
We then decided to host the system on a remote server. This way, both of us can make changes to the system simultaneously without having to worry about how to get the changes across to the other host. We will just have to make sure that we create back up copy periodically so that we could revert back to an older setting if need be.
After making the above changes, we decided to go ahead and work on the User/Admin activities. We began by searching for an appropriate Drupal module that are capable of this. We came across more than a couple of modules, such as Signup, webform, etc. The Signup module works closely with the existing module called Event, and it enables users to sign up for an event created by an administrator. This module seems to work perfectly well, however, we still need to figure out how to get this to work more closely to that of the mock up designs.
Another module we are experimenting with is called Webform. This module allows to create multiple field types. Using this module, we were able to create field types of an activity. The types that we made include start and end date, publish date, amount of kukui nuts earned, etc. We are still looking to find out a way to combined the above mentioned modules to create a system similar to that of the mockups.
Overall, it is a pleasant experience to be able to work on this system on a remote server. I feel that we are now much more efficient in our development. I hope keep up the work and finish the project by the end of the semester.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Preparing Drupal for Subversion
Have you ever wondered if you could put your web site/application running on a CMS up on a Subversion? That is what I have been working this week and I believe that I have come up with a solution.
The Drupal system, the Kukui cup app, that I have been working on now needs to be under a version control. One of the reason why I am doing this is because I am now working on the project as a group, rather than as an individual. Another reason is so that everybody else in the world can check this out if he/she desires.
My very first approach to version control my system was by putting it up on the subversion repository on my Google Project hosting website. This seemed to me, was the right way to do it at first. It turns out; however, that uploading all of Kukuicup system's content onto the repository requires a large amount of time. So much time that it seemed like my SVN client has stopped working all together. To my surprise, the size of the Kukuicup system happens to be around 21Mb, which I figure accounts for the painfully long upload time. I decided that this was not acceptable.
I realized after some thought that in fact we rarely make any changes to the web contents folder to begin with. The only time we make any changes is when we add new modules to the system or modify any of the CSS files. Therefore, I decided to simply compress the entire web contents folder and upload it onto the downloads section, which can be done with considerably less amount of time. The only remaining problem now is to figure out how to version control the database. I plan to achieve this by simply uploading the MySQL dump file to the repository. This would be useful since we will be making a lot of changes onto the database. The dump file is currently not uploaded to the repository for some security concerns, but I hope to have it up very soon. Following is an image of our Google Project hosting site.
Following is the link to the project site if you would like to check it out:
http://code.google.com/p/kukuicup-drupal/
The Drupal system, the Kukui cup app, that I have been working on now needs to be under a version control. One of the reason why I am doing this is because I am now working on the project as a group, rather than as an individual. Another reason is so that everybody else in the world can check this out if he/she desires.
My very first approach to version control my system was by putting it up on the subversion repository on my Google Project hosting website. This seemed to me, was the right way to do it at first. It turns out; however, that uploading all of Kukuicup system's content onto the repository requires a large amount of time. So much time that it seemed like my SVN client has stopped working all together. To my surprise, the size of the Kukuicup system happens to be around 21Mb, which I figure accounts for the painfully long upload time. I decided that this was not acceptable.
I realized after some thought that in fact we rarely make any changes to the web contents folder to begin with. The only time we make any changes is when we add new modules to the system or modify any of the CSS files. Therefore, I decided to simply compress the entire web contents folder and upload it onto the downloads section, which can be done with considerably less amount of time. The only remaining problem now is to figure out how to version control the database. I plan to achieve this by simply uploading the MySQL dump file to the repository. This would be useful since we will be making a lot of changes onto the database. The dump file is currently not uploaded to the repository for some security concerns, but I hope to have it up very soon. Following is an image of our Google Project hosting site.
Following is the link to the project site if you would like to check it out:
http://code.google.com/p/kukuicup-drupal/
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Nearing the End of Milestone 2
We are now about to hit the second wall of the semester. Having worked with Drupal for the past couple months, I would have to say that all the hardship and frustration was definitely worth it. I now am very confident at building a website using a CMS and I hope that I sometime in the near future, I would be able to use
what I learned out in the job field.
The above page is my homepage. I have changed the Login link from having two separate users (user and admin) to a single link, Login. I would also like to mention that the CAS login is now fully functional, meaning that it can now logout properly without caching the previous users' information.
Above image is an example of an admin user signing into the system. The user is now presented with options modify the content. The user can also navigate to the back-end administration page by clicking on the "Admin" tab at the right hand corner of the menu bar.
Above is my Google Project hosting website titled Kukui-cup-drupal. Its frontpage now has an example image of the system. I have also added two wiki pages: a developer's guide and a installation guide. In the downloads section, I have added the backup of the database created by a Drupal module "backup and migrate". This module is capable of generating backup copies of the developing site in case we decide to roll back due to an issue. We can also use this backup file to create a brand new copy of the system, which is another reason why the file is available for download.
what I learned out in the job field.
The above page is my homepage. I have changed the Login link from having two separate users (user and admin) to a single link, Login. I would also like to mention that the CAS login is now fully functional, meaning that it can now logout properly without caching the previous users' information.
Above image is an example of an admin user signing into the system. The user is now presented with options modify the content. The user can also navigate to the back-end administration page by clicking on the "Admin" tab at the right hand corner of the menu bar.
Above is my Google Project hosting website titled Kukui-cup-drupal. Its frontpage now has an example image of the system. I have also added two wiki pages: a developer's guide and a installation guide. In the downloads section, I have added the backup of the database created by a Drupal module "backup and migrate". This module is capable of generating backup copies of the developing site in case we decide to roll back due to an issue. We can also use this backup file to create a brand new copy of the system, which is another reason why the file is available for download.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Building the Dorm Energy Compettion
This week is a continuation of milestone 2. My web-page built on Drupal is certainly improving now that I have added additional functions and pages. Last week I had a lot of trouble getting the slide-show and the tabs-within-tabs modules to work. I am happy to say that both of the modules are now in working order.
Below are some of the pages that I created/improved on.
One noticeable improvement that I made into this page is the slide-show function. The module is currently set to rotate between 4 images of the UH dormitories. An admin user can easily modify the images by uploading the desired image onto Drupal through the use of Image module.
Another noticeable addition is the CAS login links at the lower right corner of the header section. Both of the links, User and Admin, links to the UH CAS login page where the user can login using their UH username and password.
Above is the resource page. I modified the sub-menus to appear just below the main-menu so instead of letting it sit on the left-side of the page which clutters it up unnecessarily.
This is the Energy Hub sub-section of the Resource tab. This page was a quite a challenge with Drupal. It contains two tabs-within-tabs modules which allows the user to switch between multiple nodes without reloading the entire page.
Above is the Kukui Cup page which simply explains what the competition is about, why should you compete, how to compete, etc.
This billboard page merely describes how you can win the competition, what the rewards are, etc.
This help page provides the users with a general information about the competition.
It is important to note that CAS login once again is in working order. Above page is where the user will be directed after clicking on one of the login links on any of the pages.
After logging in, the user will be redirected back to the homepage, which now contains some additional features such as MyEnergy tab. Moreover, the two login links at the header is now replaced with a logout link.
Below are some of the pages that I created/improved on.
One noticeable improvement that I made into this page is the slide-show function. The module is currently set to rotate between 4 images of the UH dormitories. An admin user can easily modify the images by uploading the desired image onto Drupal through the use of Image module.
Another noticeable addition is the CAS login links at the lower right corner of the header section. Both of the links, User and Admin, links to the UH CAS login page where the user can login using their UH username and password.
Above is the resource page. I modified the sub-menus to appear just below the main-menu so instead of letting it sit on the left-side of the page which clutters it up unnecessarily.
This is the Energy Hub sub-section of the Resource tab. This page was a quite a challenge with Drupal. It contains two tabs-within-tabs modules which allows the user to switch between multiple nodes without reloading the entire page.
Above is the Kukui Cup page which simply explains what the competition is about, why should you compete, how to compete, etc.
This billboard page merely describes how you can win the competition, what the rewards are, etc.
This help page provides the users with a general information about the competition.
It is important to note that CAS login once again is in working order. Above page is where the user will be directed after clicking on one of the login links on any of the pages.
After logging in, the user will be redirected back to the homepage, which now contains some additional features such as MyEnergy tab. Moreover, the two login links at the header is now replaced with a logout link.
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