Planet Drupal

There are some key files like robots.txt and .htaccess which are often tweaked for Drupal websites. These can be considered part of the 'scaffolding' of a site - they control the way the site works, rather than its content or design. Any new release of Drupal core that includes changes to them specifically mentions that they need updating, as those changes may have to be merged with any customisations made on your site. For example, there was a security release that added rules to .htaccess, which were essential for any site to incorporate and the template settings file, default.settings.php...

Update: Since writing this article the EOL of Drupal 7 has been extended from November 2021 until November 2022.

It’s here! June 3rd 2020 marks the official release date of the first production ready version of Drupal 9. It feels like Drupal 8 was only released a short while ago but it turns out it’s been 4.5 years already! The release of any new major version of Drupal is an exciting milestone in the project’s history and with a shiny new brand logo in place, Drupal 9 is ready to hit the ground running.

We are already well underway doing...

We've been busy recently, but that doesn't stop us at ComputerMinds contributing back to the Drupal community! For our latest multilingual website, we needed an XML sitemap with alternate links and hreflang attributes. This site uses separate domains for each language - for example, www.example.se (??) and www.example.no (??). Search engines need these alternate links to help them understand how to match up each translation of a page, which are distributed across these different domains. But this site is built on our existing Drupal 7 e-commerce platform that uses the XML sitemap project, which has no support for alternate links (nor entity translation...

I was recently tasked with upgrading jQuery from 1.9 all the way up the latest version of 3.x (3.4). And I seriously thought “There is no way jQuery is on version 3 already!”. How wrong I was. Thankfully I wasn’t the only one thinking this, a few of my colleagues were on my wavelength too! So yes, jQuery is really on 3.x and 1.x is actually really, really old! This article aims to help those of you in the same situation as me with some of the common pitfalls you may encounter. Some of this is semi-specific to Drupal 7...

So 2020 is in full swing, we are already midway through February and any new year’s resolutions you may have set yourself may have slipped … but why not set yourself a new resolution of keeping on top of your Drupal site maintenance? Even as a developer working with Drupal every day, sometimes you can forget some of the basics in regards to site maintenance, so I’ve detailed some of the most important aspects you should be mindful of below.

In case you're not aware, this year a bunch of us at CM are taking on a Drupal contribution challenge. Do go read about it!

I managed to squeeze in this contribution BEFORE the challenge started ? What a way to start the year!

We have a site that uses a large number of features to manage a large number of taxonomies, and I was tasked with rabbit-holing them all. That is, to make sure that if a user tries to visit any of their term pages, they just get a 404 page. Rabbit Hole is the answer, and lets...

We love making great websites, standing on the shoulders of the giants that have gone before us to make Drupal what it is today. Thousands of working hours from fantastic people around the world have gone into producing this digital experience platform. Many of those gave voluntarily for free, while many were directed by paying customers who gave back so the rest of us could benefit. Everyone stands to gain when innovation, graft and capacity are pooled together. All that functionality in your Drupal site has been written by a real person at some point, who considered it worth sharing...

Do you want to reach more markets and people? Do you want to tailor your content for clients from a range of locations around the world, without having to manage every single translation? Then the Language Hierarchy project could be for you! I wrote a while ago about how this module gives editors more power and flexibility without the extra effort that can come with each translation added to a site. Now Drupal 8 sites can use the project with confidence, as I produced its first stable release candidate for Drupal 8 last month! 

Thank you to all those that contributed...

We’ve recently given the dimplex.co.uk site a new face lift and stumbled across an interesting problem during development when it came to implementing the new product carousel on their product pages, more specifically, the handling of the images themselves.

The design brief stipulated that the transparent studio style product images required a light grey background behind them, giving the impression of a product floating nicely in the middle of a light grey surrounding.

We had 2 problems here:

1. A lot of the studio style product images didn’t have sufficient transparent space around themselves and we ended up with unsightly results; images would...

Does your site have an online store? Are you looking to have sales on during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period? Then read on - here are some quick tips to help you make the most of the sales period by ensuring that everything goes as smoothly as possible to make sure both your marketing and site are up to scratch.

Marketing / Promotion

You should have a plan in place for marketing your deals, otherwise how are people going to find out about them? This could include; promotions on your own website, promotion via social media (e.g Facebook...