Consensus Enterprises: Aegir5 Roadmap Update: Planning & Estimation

The Road(map) so far Back in June, we submitted a Pitch-burgh pitch to seek funding to finally get Aegir 5 fully off the ground. Prior to that, we had been working to build a roadmap to push our prototype implementation up to feature parity and an initial release for broader community participation. In parallel to that, we’d been publishing this series of posts with the goal of culminating in a roadmap and action plan.

Specbee: The Basics and Beyond of CSS Units

In the world of web design, there was a need for a common language that could help designers and developers speak the same styling dialect. This is where CSS units, came into play. CSS units are like the measuring tape when you’re building a house, ingredients in a recipe for web design. CSS units are crucial for specifying the size of elements on a web page. Whether you want to set the width of a div, the height of an image, or the font size of text, CSS units allow you to express these dimensions precisely. In this article, we'll go over some of the most commonly used CSS units, typography, and some new CSS viewport units. Decoding CSS Units We use PX, PT, EM, REM, %, VW, VH, VMIN, and VMAX as CSS units. CSS units can be classified into two categories: Absolute and Relative units. Each of them serves different purposes and use cases. Absolute Units Pixels (px),  points (pt), and picas (pc) fall under absolute units and can be considered as fixed units, such as px. They do not change based on the context or the size of the parent element. For example, 10px always represents the same physical size, regardless of screen resolution or the surrounding elements. They are often used when precise control over element sizes is required, such as setting the dimensions of images or specific layout elements. Relative Units The %, em, rem, vh, and vw are relative units. Relative values are not fixed. They are dynamic and depend on something else, like the root element's font size or the browser’s default font size. They’re suitable for creating responsive designs that adjust to different screen sizes and user preferences. Relative units are commonly used for font sizing, margins, padding, and responsive layouts. PX ‘px’ is the easiest measurement to use. But there is a drawback. For example, when we use pixels throughout our site we implement media queries too. In this case, what happens when a user changes the default font size of his browser? Font sizes implemented with PX units will remain the same. As a result, the user’s font preferences won’t take place. Which is not a good user experience. So, using pixels for spacing and layout is fine but is not a good use for font size. ems and rems come to the rescue. EM 'em' values are dependent on the font size of its parent element. We may experience problems when working with em units due to the effect on the inheritance of em values. As all elements inherit the font sizes of their parent, em values compound linearly as the level of nesting increases. Example: Suppose you have a paragraph inside a element, and the font size of the is set to 16px, and the paragraph has a font size of 1.5em. In this case, the paragraph's font size would be 1.5 times the font size of its parent , resulting in 24px (1.5 * 16px). REM 'rem' values are dependent on the font size of the root element, Or the default font size of browsers. And if the font size of the root element isn't set, its value depends on the browser's default font size. Example: If you set an element's font size to 2rem, it will be twice the size of the root element's font size. So, if the root element's font size is 16px, the element with 2rem font size will be 32px (2 * 16px). Typography: Using px, rem, and em Typography in web design involves using various CSS units like "px" (pixels), "rem" (root em), and "em" (em) to size and style text elements for optimal readability and design consistency. Each unit has its own characteristics and advantages, and understanding when to use them is essential for effective typography. 'rem' values are relative to the root font size, This means that when the root font size is 16px, a value of 1rem would be 16px. This way we can have a different root font size for a different @media query. Making it scalable for each @media query. Since 'em' is dependent on the font size of the nearest parent, with em, we can control how the webpage scales on the modular level. New CSS Viewport Units Viewport units offer a straightforward way to size and position elements based on the dimensions of the viewport, providing a better user experience across a wide range of devices and screen sizes. A few new viewport units were introduced in March 2022, like svh, lvh, dvh, svw, lvw, and dvw . 'Svh' is used for the smallest viewport height that is visible to users. The smallest possible viewport height excludes the address bar which by default is included in the VH unit. 'Lvh' is used for the largest viewport height visible to the users. It includes the address bar and other interfaces provided by the user agent. 'Dvh' reflects the current viewport height. This unit excludes the user agent's interfaces. It reflects how much vertical viewport height the user agent's interface currently covers up. For example, it will change as the user scrolls down a page on small screens because the address bar moves out of your screen. Same as the Vh unit, We can add modifiers in VW turning them into more precise viewport units like svw, lvw, and dvw. Final Thoughts CSS units are the building blocks of web design, allowing designers and developers to control the size, spacing, and layout of elements on a web page. The choice of units depends on the design goals and responsiveness requirements of the project. When web designing, it's essential to strike a balance between fixed and relative units, using them strategically to achieve the desired visual aesthetics and responsiveness. If you’re looking for expert UI/UX design services, send us an email and we’ll get back to you soon! 

Talking Drupal: Talking Drupal #418 - Inclusive Hiring Practices

Today we are talking about Inclusive Hiring Practices, Disability Employment Awareness Month, and tips to improve your hiring practices with our guest Donna Bungard. We’ll also cover Organigrams as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/418

Topics
  • When is National Disability Awareness Month
  • What is the definition of Inclusive in this context
  • Why are inclusive hiring practices important
  • Have organizations been doing well with this
  • What is disclosure and how can it impact people
  • What can organizations do to be more inclusive
  • What tools can be used to improve hiring practices
  • Whose responsibility is it to address issues
  • Any closing thoughts
Resources

National Disability Employment Awareness Month Snow shovel cartoon Curb-cut effect

Race after technology Center for accessible technology Apple assistive tech

Guests

Donna Bungard - @dbungard

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Jen Lampton - jenlampton.com - jenlampton

MOTW Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - @mandclu Organigrams

  • Brief description:
    • Have you ever needed a way to define and display an org chart on your Drupal website? There’s a module for that.
  • Brief history
    • How old: created in Apr 2016 by PatrickScheffer
    • Versions available: 7.x-1.3, 8.x-1.3, and 8.x-2.3 versions, the last two of which can be used with Drupal 8, 9, and 10
  • Maintainership
    • Maintenance fixes only
  • Number of open issues:
    • 2 issues, neither are bugs
  • Usage stats:
    • 377 sites
  • Module features and usage
    • The module works by extending core’s taxonomy hierarchy management
    • You can organize who reports to who with a simple drag-and-drop, the same as any taxonomy hierarchy. For anyone who hasn’t used those, it would be basically the same as managing a menu structure
    • Once created, an organigram can be viewed as a dedicated page, a block, and a token
    • The 2.x branch uses Flexbox to achieve a CSS-only presentation that removes the need for any Javascript
    • Appears to have been built to serve the needs of the Dutch House of Representatives
    • I haven’t tested it, but I suspect that for a site with a very large organigram they need to build, tools like Client Side Hierarchical Select, built to make managing large taxonomies easier, are likely to work with Organigrams too

The Drop Times: Fish That Climbed a Tree

The internet is full of noise—by noise, I mean distraction. Many silly videos eat our time, making us idle and less productive. I confess, I, too, fall prey to it. One such day, while scrolling through YouTube shorts, this video came to my screen, wherein a person is seen cutting open a tree trunk, and lots of catfish fall through the openings.

How the fish climbed the tree and hid inside the trunk is not very genius to share. It was right after a flood, and when the flood water rose, those catfish could find a good hideout inside the tree through some crevice made by a woodpecker. But as the water receded, they couldn't get themselves out. As we know, catfish can survive with little water, and fortunately, the hollow tree was holding enough water for them to stay until the apocalypse came!

There is this saying often attributed to Albert Einstein, who supposedly remarked,

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid."

Like many other bogus quotes around education and personal genius, we can be sure that Einstein might never have said so. But then, there won't be any memes!

The two things I said have no direct connection with each other. The first one might be a staged video by content creators. The second one can at least be used as an allegory, even though the attribution is way off. But could a fish end up in a tree? Is climbing a tree an attribute of a fish? 

Of course, I am not discounting Climbing Gouramies and Mudskippers. There would always be anomalies. And there are urban legends! We are neither. 

The Drop Times is a news portal that celebrates everything good happening around Drupal. We aspire to be the voice of Drupal, reaching out to the wider world outside the Drupal Community. We are not an inward-looking medium but an outreach programme to promote the product and the community.

Communities function based on consensus among various stakeholders. They would have diverse political and cultural leanings, often contradictory. The presence of a mechanism that allows people to fall in line around a common minimum program sets apart a functioning community from those that don’t. It is like a school of fish, a flock of birds, or a swarm of bees that act as a single organism larger than the constituent units.

We align with the values that the Drupal community upholds. At the same time, we would like to limit ourselves to our primary mandate of celebrating Drupal both within and outside the community. We are also not geared towards anything other than this. We rest assured that the Drupal community is a mature FOSS community with formal mechanisms in place to address the different issues it runs into.

We are here to weave the community's good narratives and showcase them to the outside world. Let us continue to focus on that, like the fish in the water, unlike the fish inside a tree trunk trying to figure out how we ended up there or how to get out of there.

Yesterday, TheDropTimes (TDT) published an interview with Pierina Wetto, Marketing Manager at Last Call Media. Pierina also manages the Promote Drupal initiative, where she is committed to producing content and marketing efforts to promote Drupal outside of the community. Alethia Rose Braganza, former sub-editor at TDT, spoke to Pierina over a Zoom call in August.

Another major story we ran was this report on the "Non-profit Drupal" Community. In a conversation with Alka Elizabeth, sub-editor at TDT, Johanna Bates, co-organiser of the community, underscored the enduring preference of non-profits for Drupal, a testament to their commitment to open-source software.

We also brought you two stories on two modules that got some recent shine and glory.

The WordPress Migrate module from Mike Ryan serves as a vital tool for seamlessly migrating WordPress blog exports (in WXR format) into the Drupal ecosystem. The module integrated into Drupal 8's core is now compatible with Drupal 9 and 10.

The Visual Layout Suite (VLSuite) project, a content editing experience built upon Drupal Core’s Layout builder, released its latest release candidate version, 1.1.0-rc4, on September 21, 2023.

As usual, we echoed several blog posts from other companies, among which I am reintroducing a selected few in this newsletter.

Evolving Web published an article by Sebastián González Díaz wherein he lists 5 Useful Modules to Enhance CKEditor 5 in Drupal 10.

Matt Wetmore, Senior Director of Web Operations at Acquia, shared A Beginner's Guide to Installing the Simple XML Sitemap Module in Drupal. In the wake of Drupal 9's EOL, Acquia has published a guide for a smooth transition to Drupal 10.

Salsa Digital has published Kristen Pol’s self-help guide on Drupal website security. Divided into six parts, "Drupal Security — A Drupal Self-Help Guide to Ensuring your Website’s Security" covers the significance of security for online experiences, Drupal’s capabilities and initiatives, and, most crucially, the top 10 strategies for enhancing Drupal security. She has also listed the top 10 tips for Drupal website performance. John Cloys is helping us with directions to improve Drupal website accessibility through his three-part practical guide.

Ivan Zugec has shared insights on harnessing the power of Bootstrap 5 with Radix in Drupal. The video tutorial was published on WebWash's YouTube channel.

For those waiting to migrate their D7 sites to D10, Pantheon and ImageX have put together some guidelines to Boost Performance & SEO.

To build public sector websites effectively with LocalGov Drupal, read about Nomensa's webinar and watch the video. WebCurl has written about LGD Microsites that transform the digital landscape for UK Councils.

Head to Arocom's blog about Algolia, a robust search and discovery API that smoothly integrates with Drupal.

Dropsolid has published a blog post by Jasper Debaere about Connecting Drupal Content to Mautic Email Marketing.

Raghad Eid writes in Vardot about How Drupal's Atomic Design Enhances Web Accessibility and Empower Inclusive Education.

Droptica has published three informative ebooks available for free download.

Avi Schwab Sparks Drupal Community Dialogue on governance and transparency through his blog post.

Elsner Technologies lists 15 leading Drupal modules in 2023, authored by Tarun Bansal.

QTA Tech is talking about "Demystifying Decoupled Drupal with NextJS."

DrupalCon NA, scheduled from May 6-9, 2024, in Portland, Oregon, has opened its doors for session submissions. AIR FRANCE, KLM, and code-shared flights offer an exclusive discount of up to 15% for those attending DrupalCon Europe from October 17 to 20, 2023, in Lille, France.

Thanks to Ricardo Sanz Ante, the Behat workshop from DrupalCon Spain is now available on Metadrop's website.

Third and Grove has published Maximizing Drupal's Authoring Experience: A Path to Digital Success by Tara Arnold.

Alphons Jaimon of QED42 explores the application of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to enhance the capabilities of search engines.

Xandermar LLC LLC offers a pragmatic guide for Drupal 10 users on seamlessly consuming APIs with credentials. The method relies on Drupal's built-in Guzzle HTTP client library, ensuring a straightforward process for developers.

Acquia has launched Acquia Exchange—an integration hub designed to elevate the flexibility and extensibility of its Digital Experience Platform (DXP).

The list is overwhelming, and there is no dearth of stories to share. But there comes some point when we need to put a hard stop. Let there be even more stories in the coming weeks. Let us celebrate Drupal.

Sincerely, 
Sebin Abraham Jacob 
Editor-in-Chief, The Drop Times.

The Drop Times: Giving to Drupal sans Coding: Interview with Pierina Wetto

In an insightful interview with TDT, Pierina Wetto, Marketing Manager at Last Call Media, shares her remarkable journey with Drupal. As a non-developer, Pierina ventured into the Drupal ecosystem through a remote job and is currently involved with the Promote Drupal initiative, where she is committed to producing content and marketing efforts to promote Drupal outside of the Drupal community. It would be a lose to miss out on this enriching conversation about marketing, community engagement, and project management in the digital age.

The Drop Times: Migration from Drupal 7 Simplified as Acquia’s Innovative Tool Goes FOSS

The Drupal ecosystem has welcomed an invaluable addition as Acquia released its Acquia Migrate: Accelerate (AM:A) module as a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Designed to ease the often daunting task of migrating from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9, AM:A is now accessible to all users via its Drupal project page.
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