Steve’s Blog

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to place a Twitter feed inside a block. You can then display that Twitter feed anywhere around your theme. There are many different Twitter options out there but most have a couple of limitations: They post tweets as nodes rather than in a block. If they post to a block, they require very complex setups normally involving creating Views. Thanks to Expedition Post, we’re going to suggest a much simpler way to show tweets in a block on your site. They’ve created a script that is very cleverly called “Twitter Block”.

One of things we often do for our training clients is simplify the admin area for them. There is a module that allows users to manage their site via a clean, dropdown menu. It has proven so popular that companies such as Acquia provide it by default to all their customers: Here’s how to install it: Step 1: Click here to download the latest version of “Admin Menu”. Choose the top link under “Recommended releases”. Step 2: Extract the files into a folder on your desktop. The folder will be called “admin_menu” Step 3: Login to your site’s files via…

Why Add a Sitemap? I’ll be honest and say that I don’t believe sitemaps improve your ranking in search engines. However, they do make sure more pages get indexed and that they get indexed more quickly. This article presents evidence that the difference is astounding: Google with a sitemap: 14 minutes Google without a sitemap: 1375 minutes Google with a sitemap: 245 minutes Google without a sitemap: 1773 minutes How to Add a Sitemap to Your Drupal Site Step 1: Click here to download the latest version of “XML Sitemap”. Choose the top link under “Recommended releases”. Step 2: Extract…

Why Block Spam Comments? If you site is new, this might not be too much of a problem. However, as your site grows, it will increasingly be seen as a valuable target for spammers. If they succeed in placing links on your site, they may get a couple of benefits: Search engines may rank the spammer’s site more highly Unsuspecting users may click on the link and visit the spammer’s site. Perhaps the best solution available for Drupal sites is Mollom – a module created by Drupal’s founder. It automatically filters out spammers who try to register, comment or contact…

What is a WYSIWYG Editor and Why Do You Need It? So your site users don’t have to use code. Its as simple as that. WYSIWYG stands for “What You See Is What You Get” … if you select some text and click the “bold” button, that text will be bold. If you select some text and click the “italic” button, that text will be in italics. There’s no messing around with HTML. That will be a relief to some of you and more particularly … your clients and site visitors.  

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to place an RSS feed inside a block. You can then display that RSS feed anywhere around your theme. We don’t need any extra modules this week as we’ll be using the core Aggregator Module: Setting up the Aggregator Module First of all, we’re going to set up the Aggregator module so that it can handle the RSS feeds for us. Step 1: Go to Administer >> Site building >> Modules. Check the box next to “Aggregator” and click Save Configuration. Step 2: Go to Administer >> click “By module” at the top.…