A post soon to come will be an assessment of all of our modules (as previously stated, we have way too many; I'm certain there is plenty of overlap), but here is a great starting point.
4sitestudios.com has an excellent blog post (and I'm learning their blog is a good Drupal resource in general) on their Go-To Drupal 7 modules. We have a number of these working on glenwoodcc.org. Check out their list!
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Humble Beginnings
When I was hired by Glenwood Community Church in the summer of 2010 (this is me), one of my first big projects was to redo the church website. Based on the research of a couple of other church employees before I came on board, we knew some things going into the project. We knew we would want a Content Management System (CMS) to run it. We also knew we would need an outside vendor (because of the sheer scope of the project), but that once the initial build was done, we would want control of it. We did not want to have to pay a monthly retainer, nor have to run ideas/desired changes through a vendor.
After scouring the web for options, we decided that Drupal was the way to go. We liked the flexibility (especially the permissions system) and the sheer number of options. And free is an awesome price. I had had some exposure to Drupal and some of its concepts and was comfortable enough with basic HTML and CSS to be dangerous, but truth be told, a module-based PHP-based CMS was more than I would be able to build by myself then. Which is why I'm so glad for Mustard Seed Media (MSM).
They were our vendor in shining armor. "Mustard Seed Bob," as he is affectionately known around our church office, builds Drupal websites for churches and parachurch organizations. And that's it. Quite a niche. And he hooked.us.up. Perhaps I'll get into that story in another post (we really hit if off), but suffice it to say, I learned a ton from Bob, he gave us a great website at a superb price, and then handed us the keys. What a great service he has provided to us and our church body. If you're looking for a vendor to build your church website, there's no better choice than Mustard Seed. If you're looking for info on how to build your own Drupal website (church related or not), make sure to check out Bob's video podcast. 50+ high quality videos. I've watched at least 35 of them. Super helpful. They have played a key role in my development as a web admin and designer.
Fast forward to May 2013. My partner in crime, Christa, and I attended our first DrupalCon. We've been working for a while with the Drupal site MSM made us, making our own tools, installing extra modules as needs arise, making tweaks and improvements where/when we can. We knew there would be much to gain by attending DrupalCon, and we were right. It blew our minds. Practical tips, big picture theory, methodology. It really was something. That's its own post. But we left the conference knowing that we needed to upgrade (we were pretty sure of that beforehand) to D7 at least. Maybe even waiting a cycle until D8. There was too much available with Drupal 7 not too. We have grand plans. Who knows if the church leadership will approve them all, but the plans are definitely there.
And that's what I would like this blog to be about -- those plans. I want to talk about our current Drupal 6 setup and how we got to where we are. I want to talk about our plans for D7 or D8. I want to talk about the modules we have that can be tightened up (we have way too many at this point). I want to talk about content types and entities and how we can use them better (like how to build a church directory from Views and a Profile content type). I want to talk about responsive design and how to implement it when 23% of our church site hits come from tablets and smart phones. I want to talk communication theory liked we were introduced to at DrupalCon. I really want to talk about how to use a church website as a communication hub, not simply an online billboard for your church or just the place you upload weekly audio. That's my driving passion with this -- I want to think out loud for our own benefit (to have a place in writing to reference all these links and ideas and plans) and for the benefit of others who might be in the same boat. Drupal is a very powerful framework or platform on which some crazy awesome tools can be built. Tools that I think can help connect people and enhance relationships.
And to me, that's some pretty important stuff.
After scouring the web for options, we decided that Drupal was the way to go. We liked the flexibility (especially the permissions system) and the sheer number of options. And free is an awesome price. I had had some exposure to Drupal and some of its concepts and was comfortable enough with basic HTML and CSS to be dangerous, but truth be told, a module-based PHP-based CMS was more than I would be able to build by myself then. Which is why I'm so glad for Mustard Seed Media (MSM).
They were our vendor in shining armor. "Mustard Seed Bob," as he is affectionately known around our church office, builds Drupal websites for churches and parachurch organizations. And that's it. Quite a niche. And he hooked.us.up. Perhaps I'll get into that story in another post (we really hit if off), but suffice it to say, I learned a ton from Bob, he gave us a great website at a superb price, and then handed us the keys. What a great service he has provided to us and our church body. If you're looking for a vendor to build your church website, there's no better choice than Mustard Seed. If you're looking for info on how to build your own Drupal website (church related or not), make sure to check out Bob's video podcast. 50+ high quality videos. I've watched at least 35 of them. Super helpful. They have played a key role in my development as a web admin and designer.
Fast forward to May 2013. My partner in crime, Christa, and I attended our first DrupalCon. We've been working for a while with the Drupal site MSM made us, making our own tools, installing extra modules as needs arise, making tweaks and improvements where/when we can. We knew there would be much to gain by attending DrupalCon, and we were right. It blew our minds. Practical tips, big picture theory, methodology. It really was something. That's its own post. But we left the conference knowing that we needed to upgrade (we were pretty sure of that beforehand) to D7 at least. Maybe even waiting a cycle until D8. There was too much available with Drupal 7 not too. We have grand plans. Who knows if the church leadership will approve them all, but the plans are definitely there.
And that's what I would like this blog to be about -- those plans. I want to talk about our current Drupal 6 setup and how we got to where we are. I want to talk about our plans for D7 or D8. I want to talk about the modules we have that can be tightened up (we have way too many at this point). I want to talk about content types and entities and how we can use them better (like how to build a church directory from Views and a Profile content type). I want to talk about responsive design and how to implement it when 23% of our church site hits come from tablets and smart phones. I want to talk communication theory liked we were introduced to at DrupalCon. I really want to talk about how to use a church website as a communication hub, not simply an online billboard for your church or just the place you upload weekly audio. That's my driving passion with this -- I want to think out loud for our own benefit (to have a place in writing to reference all these links and ideas and plans) and for the benefit of others who might be in the same boat. Drupal is a very powerful framework or platform on which some crazy awesome tools can be built. Tools that I think can help connect people and enhance relationships.
And to me, that's some pretty important stuff.
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