Talking Drupal Newsletter #467
#467 Config Actions System
Today we are talking about The Config Actions System, What it does, and how it helps with Drupal Recipes with guests Alex Pott and Adam Globus-Hoenich. We’ll also cover the Events recipe as our module of the week.
Topics
Explain Config Actions
Is this related to the Actions UI
How are config actions used in Drupal
How will the average user interact with Config Actions
What does non-desctructive mean
Where did the Config Action system come from
Future of the Config Action system
How can people help out
How does the Config Action system help with Drupal CMS
Resources
Guests
Alex Pott - alexpott
Adam Globus-Hoenich - phenaproxima
Hosts
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Nate Dentzau - dentzau.com nathandentzau
Module of the Week
with Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
This recipes allow for quickly adding a system to your Drupal site for managing and displaying events. This includes common requirements like a checkbox for all day events, natural language output of date ranges, and more. With just a little additional configuration, your site can also manage timezones per event, use recurring events, and more.ocumentation in the works
This episode is sponsored by
Upcoming Episodes
#469 Nate's Show. Recording September 24.
#470 Creating Recipes with Jim Birch. Recording October 1.
#471 Ripple Makers with Julia Kranzthor. Recording October 8.
#472 Access Policy API with Kristiaan Van den Eynde. Recording October 15.
Submit your questions here.
Submit your questions on the #TalkingDrupal channel on Drupal Slack or @TaklingDrupal on Twitter, @TalkingDrupal@Drupal.Community on Mastodon.
5 Questions with Josh Miller
Josh was our guest host for episodes 461 thru 464.
Josh is the Director of Web Development at Urban Institute, an organization founded by President Lyndon B. Johnson to provide “power through knowledge” and address pressing social and economic issues. With over two decades of experience, Josh is passionate about open-source, accessibility, and mentorship, having actively contributed to the Drupal community since 2008 / Drupal 6. Outside of work, Josh enjoys spending time with his family and cats, lawn care, and Lego.
What was your first Drupal website?
To be honest I don’t remember! But I do remember, very fondly, the websites that made me look at using Drupal back in 2006. I had spent roughly 3 months building a fully custom CMS for a dermatology client and was staring at another 6 months project solid on designing and developing a CakePHP website for a conglomerate of small independent health services. I was solving the same problem on each of these websites with the same structure and code: managing file uploads, building custom HTML forms that submitted to code that handled saving the image, resizing it if needed, etc. I felt like I was repeating myself and I knew that great programmers don’t repeat themselves. So after both projects were finished and launched, I started hunting for a CMS platform that I could understand, re-use, and decouple the obvious tasks (like building forms) with the less obvious tasks (like business logic).
In walks CCK and Drupal 5. With Drupal 6 being announced around the same time, I was smitten. I had to learn everything about this open source project. My time with CakePHP was significantly improved because of an IRC channel where the project maintainers were available and willing to answer questions. I sought out similar IRC channels for Drupal and ran into chx and webchick. Both blew me away with their kindness and openness. I was sold, this community was solving the same problem I wanted to solve: how do we stop repeating ourselves?
What did you go to college for and where?
I went to Purdue University in a sleepy town called West Lafayette, which was just west of Lafayette, split by a river. I studied Visual Communications and Design. I am a designer turned programmer! I loved my years in college, and I ascribe some of my 22 years in web development to my time at the college, but not because of the courses I took. Most of my time at Purdue, I spent working for $14 / hour as a web developer at the School of Agriculture in their Communications department. I learned how to be professional, and worked alongside programmers who shunned design as much as I shunned programming. Together, we learned our work was mutually beneficial and I grew a sense of the power that knowing how programming languages could make my vision become a reality. I learned what databases were and how to make relationships and content modeling. I had roughly three years of cheap student work, on real projects, that educated me more than four years of college courses did.
How do you maintain work-life balance?
I just got back from a three week vacation where my wife, my mother-in-law and my wife’s aunt and uncle traveled up to Greenland and Newfoundland on a cruise ship. It was beautiful and relaxing. I’m in a period of my life professionally where I feel a huge responsibility to the organization I work for, the people that my work impacts, and a responsibility to be present with family members. I don’t get it “right” but I do carve out 3-6 weeks a year where I can focus on my family and travel (which is something my wife loves and I’m starting to really treasure as well).
I simply remind myself that we are not guaranteed tomorrow, and that if I want a break, I should take one as often as I can while working, because I am the only one who can live my life, someone else will not live it for me.
I realized on this most recent trip something that I’ve heard others mention but only understand recently: I can afford this extravagant trip because cruise ships, airlines, and all of the infrastructure that makes it possible, is built on low wage service workers who can’t afford a work-life balance and may not have access to the same healthcare options as I do. I don’t know what to do with this realization, but it bothers me. I want us all to have an equal chance at balance.
What is your noise?
I have a 3.5 day list of Marvel music scores and noise canceling headphones. No vocals, real instruments and melodies, on shuffle replay for most of my day at a low-level. When the beat picks up, I tend to focus and work even harder.
What is your favorite fiction book?
This is an impossible question. I love most science fiction. The one that I keep coming back to that isn’t a part of a series (Dune and Wheel of Time, are both sadly hard to recommend because of the time investment needed) is Project Hail Mary. It’s an incredible space adventure and a wonderfully fun and emotional thing to read.
Contact Josh at @mrjoshmiller
Minifigure of the Week
by Nic Laflin
71008-2
This week I would like to share 71008-2 Sheriff! This is the 2nd minifigure in the 13th series of collectible minifigures. Released in 2015, the mustache alone makes him worth getting!
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