Drupal

My default Kubuntu install needed some tweaking to get Clean URLs working (in Drupal 5, Apache 2). This is a quick guide to getting this sorted for other users out there:

First off, the mod_rewrite module isn't enabled by default. To enable it, type
sudo a2enmod

and add rewrite as the module you would like enabled. (You can also enable the expires module which is also used by Drupal, but do it later).

Restart apache:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload

Check if the clean URLs test (in ?q=admin/settings/clean-urls) works. If not, jump to the /etc/apache2/sites-enabled directory and check what your setup is like. By default, you should just see the 000-default link here. (Backup first and) Edit the file:

Title says it all.

-K

[quote]After more than a year of development we are ready to release Drupal 4.7.0 to the world. More than five years, 13 major releases, 30+ servicing firms employing 100+ Drupal professionals, 300+ third party modules, and over 55,000+ Drupal powered sites later, Drupal 4.7.0 is finally here and it rocks![/quote]

Woohoo!

More here.

Expect to see some updates here soon!

-K

Another patch that didn't get into 4.7 was a simple (yet important) one that created an index for the locale database. The locale module can suck you dry in terms of DB calls, so this can provide a huge boost for a site using it. The index is added on a BLOB field named 'source' with a length of 30-40 (AFAIK, this number was just picked at random).

-K

Due to a session fixation patch, a usability bug has been introduced when a user tries to access multiple installations of Drupal on the same box (not necessarily multi-site installations). The user can only stay logged into one site at any point in time as the session ID and the related cookie is regenerated upon login.

Why the dearth of new stories in the last couple of weeks? Too much work and too little time. I have however, spent some time in the last week developing some new stuff for when Drupal 4.7 comes out. I will very likely upgrade quillem.com as soon as it hits RC status :)

-K

Added in a few updates to the site a couple of days ago:

• Added the global broadband comparison table.. *phew* this was a lot of work..
• Updated Hathway pages with the plans from their plan pages. Also amended my review to put them in a little more positive light as speeds have been much better off late.
• Removed Net4India from the broadband page and move it to the Other ISPs page. The responsiveness of their customer service divisions is just positively .. bovine :/

Site Update: Added the google sitemap module yesterday - looks pretty nifty, except I'm not too sure that it's handling node type priorities very well - not sure yet.

I'm also working on my first Drupal module, and intend to perhaps write a walk-through-or-two that outlines the basics of module writing. The online docs are (as is the norm with Drupal) just plain shoddy.

-K

If (like I was today) you're stuck with a Drupal site with Clean URLs enabled but mod_rewrite disabled, here's how you disable it via the database [Afaik there's no way to do this from Drupal itself, as you just can't login and navigate the site as all the URLs are clean URLs.. quite the catch-22 :P]:

Navigate to the variables table your DB, and view its contents sorted by the name field. The three rows that concern us are:
cache s:1:"1";
clean_url s:1:"1";
clean_url_ok i:1;

All three are stored in serialised form [as strings]. Cache will be set to 1 only if you have caching on, the same for clean_url. Edit each row so that the end result is as follows: