Funny Drupal modules that help us deal with the insane learning curve!
abhai
23 October 2023
Drupal is not the only community where software exists just because it either is funny or does something funny. For example, the Linux community has its own share of jokesters! I've talked about some weird distro's here, namely Ubuntu Satanic, Hanah Montana Linux, biebian etc. Many software have been named because of awesome puns or as an homage to a movie or TV series. Apache comes to mind. "A-patchy" server. Get it? Python is named python because Guido van Rossum was reading the published scripts from “Monty Python's Flying Circus”, a BBC comedy series from the 1970s. KDE does something I find very interesting. The browser that ships with KDE is called Konqueror, the terminal - Konsole, the text editor - Kate, the camera app - Kamoso, and the system monitor - Ksysguard. I kommend their konsistency. I Kould go on but let's get back to Drupal.
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Distro-Hopping: A fun way to find the perfect Linux desktop
abhai
19 October 2023
Setting up Drupal on ddev for drupal core contributions
abhai
28 September 2023
Drupal is an open-source content management system that relies on the contributions of its passionate community to thrive and evolve. If you're interested in contributing to Drupal Core, you'll need a development environment that allows you to work efficiently and effectively. One popular choice for creating a local development environment for Drupal is DDEV. In this article, we'll walk you through the process of setting up Drupal on DDEV for Drupal Core contributions.
Why is Drupal perfect for non-profits and NGOs?
abhai
31 May 2023
Drupal is considered a good CMS (Content Management System) for NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and Non-profits and is often recommended for their websites and technology products. Drupal is a flexible and powerful open-source CMS that offers a range of features and capabilities that align well with the needs of NGOs. The Drupal CMS, it's community and it's philosophy has uniquely evolved to fit this particular use case perfectly. Let's look at some of them closer.
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How proper SEO and the Drupal CMS helped my article be a Google featured snippet
abhai
30 May 2023
Proper search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and the use of Drupal 10 played a significant role in making my article a Google search featured snippet for the keyword "Solid Principles Drupal". In this article, we will explore how these factors contributed to the success and visibility of the article.
Software Design Patterns: Drupal's architecture and reusability
abhai
30 May 2023
Software design patterns are crucial tools in the field of software development, providing developers with proven solutions to common programming challenges. These patterns encapsulate the collective wisdom and best practices of experienced software engineers, enabling the creation of robust, scalable, and maintainable code. In this article, we will explore the importance of design patterns in programming, their benefits, and some popular examples of design patterns using Drupal in most examples, because I try to bring Drupal into everything.
Why being a back-end developer without ever writing any front-end code is a bad idea even though it is possible
abhai
8 May 2023
While it is possible to specialize in backend development without any knowledge of the frontend, it is not a good idea. Backend developers who understand the frontend can collaborate better with frontend developers, troubleshoot issues, and produce better quality code that is optimized for the user experience. With the growing demand for full-stack developers, having experience in both frontend and backend development can open up more career opportunities.
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Design patterns in Drupal
abhai
13 April 2023
Drupal follows best practices in software development by utilizing various design patterns. Design patterns are established solutions for common programming challenges, providing a structured and reusable approach to software design. In Drupal, these design patterns are used to ensure extensibility, flexibility, scalability and maintainability of the CMS. From the Observer pattern for event handling, to the Plugin pattern for modular functionality, to the Factory pattern for object creation, Drupal leverages a variety of design patterns to implement its robust architecture. This introduction provides a glimpse into the key design patterns used in Drupal CMS, which play a crucial role in shaping its modular and flexible nature
SOLID principles in Drupal
abhai
12 April 2023
As one of the most popular open-source content management systems (CMS), Drupal provides a powerful platform for building complex web applications. To ensure that Drupal projects are scalable, maintainable, and extensible, it is essential to follow best practices for writing modular and clean code. One such set of principles that can greatly aid in achieving these goals is SOLID principles. SOLID is an acronym that represents a set of five principles - Single Responsibility Principle (SRP), Open/Closed Principle (OCP), Liskov Substitution Principle (LSP), Interface Segregation Principle (ISP), and Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP). In this article, we will explore how to apply SOLID principles in Drupal development with examples.
How dependency injection works in Drupal?
abhai
12 April 2023
In Drupal, dependency injection is implemented using the Symfony Dependency Injection component, which is a popular PHP library for managing dependencies in object-oriented applications. Drupal is built on top of Symfony framework and leverages its components for various functionalities, including dependency injection
Why Ubuntu and Canonical drew criticism from many members of the FOSS community?
abhai
12 April 2023
As with any software project and organization, Ubuntu and Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, have faced criticism from the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) community for certain practices.
6 best linux distros for everyday use
abhai
12 April 2023
When it comes to choosing a Linux distribution, ease of use is often a crucial factor, especially for beginners or users transitioning from other operating systems. With the wide variety of Linux distributions available, it's important to understand which ones are known for their user-friendly design and straightforward user experience. In this comparison, we will take a closer look at popular Linux distributions such as Pop!_OS, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro, Fedora, MX Linux, Zorin OS, and Elementary OS, and evaluate their ease of use based on their interfaces, documentation, community support, pre-installed software, and overall user experience. Whether you're a seasoned Linux user or new to the world of open-source operating systems, this comparison will help you make an informed decision about which distribution may be the best fit for your needs and preferences.
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Drupal 10 upgrade and readiness
abhai
20 November 2022
As Drupal 8 and Symfony are approaching EOL and with the many improvements Drupal 10 is promising, it is time existing Drupal sites start preparing for a smooth upgrade to Drupal 10 when it is made available in December 2022! Let's see what's new and how to upgrade/migrate to Drupal 10.
A CDN cache warmer in Rust
abhai
15 November 2022
While using CDN caches like Cloudflare or Akamai and even for http caches like Varnish, it is important to "warm the cache" after deployments when the caches are usually cleared. This means sometimes manually loading up all the important pages for the first time so that it is loaded into cache. What if this could be automated through the sitemap using a simple CDN cache warmer.
Drupal security best practices
abhai
2 November 2022
I was recently looking certain random things for all Drupal sites that I know to see what information I can get from these sites and I was surprised to see that many of them do not have the basic Drupal security recommendations done. For example, I could tell the exact Drupal, PHP and Nginx versions in many cases. Some of the sites were on Drupal versions that were vulnerable. So I decided to write a checklist that if followed exactly will take care of at least the recommended best practices.
Dummy image generator
abhai
8 August 2022
Generate dummy images to use as placeholder in your dev, test, stage sites, web design etc.
Use cloudflare to speed up your Drupal site and save money
abhai
26 June 2022
If you're running a small Drupal site on limited space like I am, you'll probably not have more than 30 GB for hard disk space and maybe 2 vCPU and 2 GB RAM on your server. This could affect your Drupal site speed if there are a lot of images or even with time as the content grows, you'll have server load issues. I've optimized my site so much that the performance is 98-100 on most pages and still able to sustain a viewership of 250 - 500 views per day without the server freaking out.
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Generating placeholder images: Putting my love for photography and Drupal together
abhai
19 June 2022
It's been too many years since I've been dabbling in photography and even though I've clicked a million pictures, what comes out, is a fraction of it. Finally, I've put two of my passions (photography and Drupal) together and created something out of it.
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20 must have drupal modules for your Drupal website
abhai
24 April 2022
Drupal modules are extensions that can be enabled to provide additional functionality to your Drupal website. Because of the awesome community of Drupal developers, we have so many excellent Drupal modules contributed by them that we just cannot do without!
How to increase productivity as a Drupal Developer
abhai
24 April 2022
These are few things I picked up and still learning on my Drupal development journey that made my life easier. I love the architecture of Drupal but do find sometimes the amount of code to write, effort and learning curve a bit tedious. But these are all solvable issues. And I have solved them (more or less). Here are some tips for the same.
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New Drupal module: checkpost
abhai
12 January 2022
Create a node js websocket and secure it with let's encrypt
abhai
28 December 2021
This article basically describes how to create a node js websocket and secure it using let's encrypt. Because the wss differs from https, it's slightly tricky to do this directly on the node js server directly using self signed certificates which is why I'm using nginx in front of it.
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Why I decided to use Scaleway to host my Drupal website?
abhai
7 May 2021
This website https://abh.ai has been hosted on almost all of the major players in the cloud hosting business. I started out with Scaleway around 7 years ago when they were providing these small ARM options with 20GB SSD. It was the cheapest solution back then costing less than 5€. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a good solution. It was excellent! It was fast and reliable. But because it was ARM and at the time a 32-bit processor, many things like docker could not be properly installed. This is why I decided to look for alternatives, which eventually brought me back to Scaleway!
Setting up dev servers at home with Raspberry Pis
abhai
16 March 2021
This is a personal project of mine that has excited me a lot. I have always been obsessed with Single Board Computers (SBC) and the amazing things we can do with them. One of the most popular SBC is Raspberry Pi. They have pioneered the hardware and software capabilities for SBCs. Now we can run an Ubuntu server on any Raspberry Pi device. With Raspberry Pi, you can easily set up a server cluster at home and even host your own website, provided you have a strong internet connection and uninterrupted power supply.
