NixOS on the Desktop

NixOS on the server is a thing of beauty (check out my last blog post about Hosting Websites on NixOS), but after my Arch installation crapped out, I decided to take it further and also use it on my laptop as a daily driver.

Even though I was aware of the vast number of packages in the Nix repositories, I was still pleasantly surprised to find that almost all of my daily tools were available directly in the stable repository. Even Steam is just one line of configuration away!

However, a crucial work tool of mine, DDEV, was missing from the repositories. DDEV is a tool designed for launching local web development environments for PHP, Node.js and Python projects.

DDEV in the Nix User Repository

With a bit of help from a savvy individual named kraftnix in the Jupiter Broadcasting Nix Nerds matrix group, I was able to create a buildable package of ddev on Nix.

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses face a critical decision: to invest in their digital presence or risk falling behind their competitors. As a project manager and an account manager in various digital agencies, I’ve witnessed firsthand how strategic investments in a robust Content Management System (CMS) like Drupal can lead to substantial cost savings and long-term growth. Let's delve into how prioritising your digital presence and structure isn't just an expense, but a smart investment in your business' future.

Embrace the Brisbane Drupal community spirit! Know in detail about the Brisbane Meetup on September 5, 2023 of enlightening presentations, lightning talks, and networking.

Automated testing is the process of creating and implementing code to decrease the manual human effort needed during software testing. This vital approach plays a crucial role in modern software development, where specialized tools and scripts are used to execute test cases, validate functionality, and identify potential issues. By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, significantly reduces the manual effort required, enabling testers to concentrate on more critical aspects of the testing process. Embracing automated testing enhances efficiency, accelerates the development lifecycle, and ensures consistent and reliable results across various environments and platforms.                                                                                             

 

November 2023 will mark the second time in Drupal's history that a version's end-of-life date signals a true hard stop, with no possibility of extended support and no commercial vendors that are in a position to provide off-grid security maintenance and bug fixes.

The Drupal Devel module is an extremely useful module for developers. The Devel module in Drupal 9 includes submodules – the Devel Generate, Display Suite Devel, Search API Solr Devel, Webform Devel and mDevel modules. In this article, we will delve into the Devel Generate module and how to work with it. When building a Drupal website, you want to have a lot of content to check the overall display such as layouts, views, design. Content comes in different forms and so it becomes important to test the website out with dummy content before adding live content. Instead of creating dummy content for Drupal sites manually, wouldn’t it be nice to add them automatically? That’s where the Devel Generate module for Drupal 9 will come in handy. What does the Drupal Devel module do? Drupal 9 offers tons of helpful modules that can ease the job of a developer. The Devel Drupal 9 module has several useful features. As discussed previously, there are several modules that are part of Devel; One such is the Devel Generate module. Devel Generate is used for automatically generating sample or Drupal dummy content for sites like menu items, taxonomy terms, and nodes. This is helpful if you need to test or showcase your Drupal website with data like dummy users, content, images, and so on. Drupal Devel module can create it all for you in a moment. Devel and its associated submodules are meant to be used on local development environments and should not be enabled on live production sites. Getting started with the Drupal Devel Generate module Working with the Drupal Devel module is as simple as installing it. Let’s get started with the installation and how to use Devel module in Drupal 9.  Installing Installing the Devel Drupal 9 Generate module is like installing any other contributed module. I’m using the Composer to install it since it automatically installs all of the necessary dependencies. Open the terminal, within the project enter the following command. $ composer require drupal/devel Next, enable the Devel and Devel Generate module. How to use Devel module in Drupal 9 Now, let's generate Drupal dummy content using the Devel Drupal 9 UI  1. Go to Configuration. Here you will see a long list of options under Development. Choose Generate Content. Here we can generate dummy content for webform submissions, content, media, menus, terms, users, vocabularies. Let’s choose Generate content.  2. The Generate content interface offers a number of options to set before you hit GENERATE: Generate content for all content types or select for specific content type Check the checkbox if want to delete all content of a certain content type before generating new content Specify how many nodes to generate and how far back the node creation dates should go Specify the maximum number of dummy comments for each node that support comments Set the maximum number of words for the title of each node Hit Generate 3. You can see the list of dummy nodes generated by going to admin -> content 4.This is what an article looks like with a dummy title, image, and body content Helpful hint: If taxonomy and tags are defined, the generate content module will assign tags at random. If you create vocabularies and terms first and then generate the content, you will end up with more useful test data. Devel Drupal 9 module can generate vocabularies and terms automatically, but they will be in fake Latin. It’s better to create your own vocabularies and terms because it makes testing easier when you have a meaningful taxonomy to work with.

If you’ve ever worked a trade show, you already know the dirty little secret… ROI is hard to come by. For those who haven’t, you can do the math in your head - travel, hotels, the cost of the booth, swag and the tickets themselves. It’s such a large expense that to get that return on investment, you need to start putting value on non-monetary returns for any of it to make sense. That leads to something like “exposure” being worth $10,000 in your report to the VP of Marketing. “Surely the leads make up for it!,” you say to yourself in the mirror over and over while the panic sweats begin to make your hair itch.   But deep down in your soul, you know those leads aren’t going to get back to you. And that’s because they rarely do. Not to throw Glengary Glen Ross references at you, but the leads aren’t bad. The circumstances are. From an attendees perspective, they are meeting dozens of organizations just like you at these shows. When they get back to the office, they’re going to get dozens of emails and calls from people following up on the show. It’s too much. And in most cases, all you are is noise. Yes, you can be the one they follow up with, but to put yourself in that position is a whole other topic. I’m just laying out the common narrative after a trade show - you’re coming home with not much to show for it from a KPI perspective. Many companies have a booth at trade shows just to keep their name out there: What would people think if they didn’t show? Booth at DrupalCon Pittsburgh 2023 Reflecting on DrupalCon 2022 All that to say, Specbee has never had a booth at anything, but we’d always considered it. It wouldn’t be fair to our budget to try it without getting at least a little experience, so we decided to attend a DrupalCon in some capacity. The ROI plan was half an experiment in branding and the other half a bit of a “lay of the land” exercise. The big question being, what outcome is possible at this event? We knew education-wise, there’s a ton of value - the courses and topics are well planned and executed. This event is focused on users and growth of Drupal, so that’s the expectation. But is a booth worth it? Is the sponsorship worth it? We booked our hotels and flights to dip our toe in the water at DrupalCon 2022 in Portland to find out. But we couldn’t just show up. We had to do something to make some sort of mark. That’s where the DrupalCon Happy Meal was born. Snack break sponsors at DrupalCon Portland 2022 The sponsorship we landed on was for the snack table. Every few hours the trade show floor gets busy with folks between sessions and almost everyone stops to see what’s available food-wise. Now the key was to make this sponsorship more meaningful than a “Sponsored By Specbee” sign. As we thought about how people might approach the table we landed on the usability of a box they could put their snack in - what if it was an adult happy meal box? And the idea was born. We found a printer, designed a box that included games, jokes and trivia… Here’s the design itself (designed by: Gagana Girish)! The Happy Meal Box Not only was it fun and different, but it helped us create a memory for people. The feedback was fantastic. So mission #1 accomplished. We can make a mark at this conference. The only thing we found lacking in this premise was that we couldn’t spend much time with folks. I did see, however, that the booths were very often busy. So much so that it was clear that we should give a booth a chance for 2023. Unboxing Happy Meals and Fun SWAGging Our Way to Success at DrupalCon 2023 Cut to just before DrupalCon 2023. We are signed up for a booth. We have tickets for three staff members. The only thing we need is the guiding light of all booths: SWAG. Now, I don’t know if it’s like this everywhere these days, but at least 60% of the booths at DrupalCon 2022 were giving away T-shirts. So, yeah, we could have done that, but it didn’t feel like we’d be able to distinguish ourselves in our first DrupalCon. Instead, we had gym bags made with DrupalCon 2023 Free T-Shirt Holder printed on them. Stylish, stupid and practical - my favorite combo. Flaunting our Free T-shirt Holder But the bags weren’t the star of the show. Sure, you get folks coming up just to get their SWAG. I have no problem with that. That’s what it’s for. What we ended up with, however, was a connection with SO MANY new people. Fellow booth folks, Drupal users from all over the world, and, yes, leads. Good leads. The kind that we’re still in conversations with. Time will tell if we’ll get our official financial ROI, but I can tell you this: it was the best “trade show” I’ve ever attended. We’ll be back next year with a booth for sure. I really should get thinking about SWAG…