Flags at the Moscone Center entrance

Third and last day of Drupalcon, we continue to see interesting things.

Instant Dynamic Forms with #states

Presenter:
Konstantin Käfer

This is one of the most interesting improvements around the form API in Drupal 7.

It provides you with a method to create dynamic forms without writing javascript, and here 'dynamic' does not refer to the ahah features already present in Drupal 6, we are now talking about things like making new elements appear in the form when a checkbox is selected, without having to do any request to the server.

In code, the basic usage takes form of dependencies. You describe which fields depends on others, what kind of dependency they have and what's the action to run when the dependency is met.

It also servers to dynamically validate the introduced data, for example with phone or credit cards number formats, all this without making ajax calls, with javascript but without having to write javascript, just specifying regular expressions in the form API.

You can also change the 'required' property of fields depending on the values of others.

There is this other new concept called 'triggers' (not related to the triggers functionality in Drupal 6) which allows to do more advanced things but that require to write some javascript. Por example, disable a field when certain string is written on it.

Session page: http://sf2010.drupal.org/conference/sessions/instant-dynamic-forms-states

Advanced drush

Advanced drush session

Presenters:
Moshe Weitzman
Owen Barton
Adrian Rossouw
Greg Anderson

In this session we are introduced with a series of new features that are been developed around the drush command.

Aliases, very useful. Now you can execute drush commands over any Drupal install without having to be inside the site directory (sites/...) or having to specify a drushrc.php file. For example you can do: drush @dev status, where #dev is the alias defined in a global location which contains the config data for all your sites so drush knows which site you are referring to.

Remote sites. We can execute drush commands on Drupal sites located in other servers. Drush automatically access the server using ssh and executes the command. For authentication it's recommended (and its the default) to use the ssh public key system, although you can also force the use of passwords.

You can now run commands in several sites at the same time, using the alias @sites or a list of site aliases.

Aliases for commands. Example, alias cc for 'cache clear', you can even specify which cache you want to clear (menu, theme, page, etc), instead of all like its done in current versions.

Interactive drush shell, with aliases for the most used directories in a drupal install. It's like a drush shell, inside of it you have specific commands to jump to the different directories that you can find in every drupal install.

New 'hook' command that allows you to see the hook code. It first presents a list of modules that implement a given hook, you select one and it shows you the code.

They continue with a fast tutorial on how to write drush commands, hooks that you can implements, etc.

The first example is a command 'drush make.me-a-sandwich', which ends up showing an ascii sandwich on the terminal.

Session page: http://sf2010.drupal.org/conference/sessions/advanced-drush

The story of RDF in Drupal 7 and what it means for the Web at large

Videoconferencing the session

Presenters:
Stéphane Corlosquet
Lin Clark

One of the presenters of this session could not go to Drupalcon and got stuck in Europe because of the volcano, so she is connected by videoconferencing and she starts to explain some slides.

It may be hard to get when you are first introduced to RDF, but applications are very interesting.

She starts explaining some basic notions about RDF, introducing 'resources', ex: document, company, person. The different kind of resources and the possibility of describing properties about each one.

The presenters exposes using a comparative table the advantages of RDF over other meta markup formats like Microformats.

Drupal 7 has RDF capabilities integrated into core and some of the more popular RDF schemas are supported 'out of the bos', like foaf, soc, dc.

Session page: http://sf2010.drupal.org/conference/sessions/story-rdf-drupal7-and-what-...

Closing session and next Drupalcons

Morten announcing Drupalcon Copenhagen

They now make a review of the numbers that this conference has handled, even coffee galons have been counted. Economically they have moved amounts over the million dollars, having obtained profits over $300,000 that goes to the Drupal Association.

In the closing session they spend some time to announce where the next drupalistas meet ups will be.

Morten is in charge of announcing that the next Drupalcon will be in Copenhagen six months from now. The web is at http://cph2010.drupal.org. You can register starting today.

Drupalcon Chicago 2011 logo

And for the next year, again at the Unites States, Drupalcon will be in Chicago. The announcement is done by Tiffany Farris, from palantir.net, that will lead the organization. It seems that they are preparing a very original Drupalcon. They are going to lease several entire floors in a hotel in the middle of downtown and Drupalcon will take place there. Web: http://chicago2011.drupal.org

Party (aka. more networking)

San Franciso skyline

Like every night Drupalcon has organized a private party, this time at Mission, a little more far appart than the previous days, so they have setup free busses so people can go there and back. The club has three floors and a amazing view of the city skyline.

Related posts

http://oitdesign.ncsu.edu/2010/04/22/drupalcon-2010-day-three/