Graphviz Noderef displays nodes as a Graphviz graph/map, with NodeReference fields as edges between nodes. This module is being actively developed, and is currrently pre-alpha. Feel free to use it on a production site, but don't be surprised if it breaks.

Install the module as normal. A new tab will appear on every node, which will include a map with options allowing you to change display settings. Currently, the module only displays node-centric recursive graphs (ie. graphs that start with one node, and work out from there, to a given depth).

The Graphviz Noderef Field sub-module provides a CCK field that shows basically the same map as the graph page.

To run this module, you need Graphviz Filter and CCK. The module also currently supports Node Referrer, but requires this patch: http://drupal.org/node/726450#comment-2668832.

read more

"Reference Links" allows custom Urls to be attached to nodes. Its use is seen basically for documentation pages on a site.

This module allows users to add links (internal or external) to nodes, that can provide further information about the current node. The important thing is that Users need NOT have edit permissions for the node. You can allow users with non-edit permissions to add/attach new links to nodes, when the page is being viewed normally.

Moreover, authorized users can also rate the links (this module uses Voting API for the rating part), and links are always shown in decreasing order of their average rating. All actions are performed via Ajax, and no page refresh is required.

If I try to summarize it, this module can provide a References/See also/Bibliography kind of links for nodes. You can control which content types you want the urls to be attached to.

The VoteSmart Webform module provides a legislative representative lookup widget as a webform component field. This widget queries representatives via the VoteSmart API. Resultant representatives with email address can then be used as webform submission recipients.

In essence, this module extends webform to be an e-advocacy tool, allowing site administrators to create robust and "free" online petition forms without developer intervention.

Future integration with the GeoAPI service coming soon. About GeoAPI, from their site:

GeoAPI services include a reverse geocoder; deep data about 16 million businesses and tens of thousands of points of interest; a writable layer for developers to annotate the world and do complex geo-queries; and location-enabled media layers (e.g., Twitter and Flickr). We've also recently added an iPhone SDK to speed up mobile development.

This project provides an API to more easily build hierarchical taxonomy trees programmatically. I've worked on multiple projects where I had to convert some data source to a taxonomy tree, for example a csv file or filesystem directory structure. I got tired of having to search through old code to reuse this functionality, so I committed it to Drupal.org in hopes that it will help someone else out as well. The goal of this project is to simplify the process of creating hierarchies so they can be built by passing structured arrays to the API functions. Further development of this module will happen on an as-needed basis or through patches submitted by the community.

Taxonomy Builder API is developed and maintained by Chris Pliakas. Original development of this module was sponsored by CommonPlaces e-Solutions, LLC.

Follow Chris on Twitter: @cpliakas
Follow CommonPlaces on Twitter: @commonplaces

The example below creates a simple hierarchy of Countries, States, and Cities.

<?php

// Replace with whatever vocabulary ID the terms should be added to.
$vid = 12;

// Hierarchy arrays.
$hierarchies = array(
array('United states', 'Massachusetts', 'Boston'),

read more

I have to admit that I've got it pretty good in the website spam department. The Mollom project, started by some of the same folks who started Drupal, uses content analysis to keep spam users from registering accounts on my site, leaving blog & forum comments, and using my site's contact form to spam me via email as well.

The only problem that I've really seen is the rise of spammers who will post blog comments containing text from the blog post itself, almost entirely unchanged, along with one or more links to their sites. Content-based analysis is of no use here, since the majority of the comment is actual text that I would want on my site -- after all, I blogged it!

Until now, I've been following all blog comments to my site via built-in RSS feeds, noticing spam comments some time after they were posted, and going back and deleting them. Drupal allows for comment moderation, but I want comments to go out there right away.

read more

Advanced Comment Trigger provides a new trigger category allowing automatic unpublishing of comments based on more fine-grained criteria than the default "new comment added" trigger. Currently, this module can unpublish comments based on the number of hyperlinks in them. It can also exempt this restriction for certain user roles or comments on certain content types. For example, all site admins could be allowed to post comments with hyperlinks without restriction, or all comments on forum topics could be allowed.

Future plans for this module include additional actions, such as emailing the post author or site administrator(s) or blocking the commenter's user account.

Users of this module might also be interested in the included exported View, which can provide an RSS feed of all of a site's moderated comments. To use, install the Views module, go to admin/build/views/import, and paste in the view source. Then view the RSS feed at comments/moderated/feed on your site.

In preparation for the Bringing it All Back Home: CMS Communities panel at SXSW, which I'll be speaking at on Saturday, I posed the following question on Twitter and in #drupal:

Which Simpsons character best represents the #Drupal community and why?

And the winner, in terms of number of responses, was...

Lisa Simpson

• Thinks she has all the answers to save the world but is so pathetically naive she never will. Yet you love her anyway. - TheRealCrell
• Underestimated, Intelligent, resourceful. With a wonderful singing voice. - bear_feet
• She is open minded and usually diplomatic :) - JCL324
• Logical, but not so popular. - DaftNinja

And here were the others. Feel free to comment too with your own. :)

read more

Wolfgang Ziegler (aka "fago") talks about the Rules module, and how it can be used by non-programmers to set up a series of events that are executed after certain conditional triggers happen. Fago claims that this is a more robust solution that Drupal's core trigger module functionality.

The Rules module in Drupal 6 is an evolution from the Workflow-NG module in Drupal 5, but renamed to reflect that it can do much more than just workflow.

There was also a Summer of Code project by klausi that integrated into the Rules package as the Rules Forms module.

Fago also talks about the future of Rules and how he plans on improving the APIs so that it's more extensible to add in loops and new features, and to have Features module integration with rules so that it's possible to and re-use rules.

This module use the global Solace API filter form to enable site-wide search form using the filter UI.

This module is a proof of concept of Solace API module usage. It might be really buggy, patches are welcome, feature requests too.

This module is based on Solace API module.

read more

This module extends the nodereference fields by providing a filter based searching engine in order to automatically fill it using the Solace API filters features as backend.

This means you can attach a SolR filter instance to node reference fields. Then, any node owner can enable and configure a complex SolR query using the Solace API simple filter form in order to configure the content the would want to see in their node reference.

Notice that this module only feeds node reference fields using on site content, so you might want to use this module side by side to the Feeds module.

read more

This module provides a full API to create SolR complex filters, using a nice AJAX (using AHAH) form. The UI was designed to be used by end-users quite easily, nothing such as views can do, but simple and quite efficient.

This module only provides needed API for other modules. If you are an end user, please look at this module list:

• Solace Node Reference : this module extends the feature by adding a complex nodereference fields auto-fill using the Solace filters features as backend.
• Solace Search : this module use the global Solr Assistant filter form to enable site-wide search form using the filter UI.

read more

You still have a week before you can personalize your conference schedule, but the time to sign up for one of the DrupalCon pre-conference events is now. This year, we have added all-day trainings to the already robust DrupalCon offerings.

The Drupal module Nodewords is a module that many people have come to love-to-hate - its SEO features are second to none, but a few buggy releases have left a sour taste with many developer.

read more

Project announcement coming soon...

Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), one of the leading international development contractors, has deployed Open Atrium to help its GIS team in Islamabad communicate with its office in Peshawar and headquarters back in Bethesda on a capacity building project. In addition to improving team communications, they decided to use Open Atrium to boost the project's transparency for USAID and to get a sustainability win by using open source software that can stay behind with the local team in Pakistan long after the mapping project is completed.

Below is a short Q&A I had with Andrew Ross from DAI's GIS office about his work and how Open Atrium is helping.

Can you tell us about your project and your team in Pakistan?

read more

As the web evolves, we evolve with it. The introduction smart-phones to the general public, in a mass, together with lower costs of cellular internet connectivity and availability of wireless networks, all lead to an increasing demand to supply mobile application, to go with a website or service. iPhone started the storm, and Android is catching up rapidly. Other mobile devices are not staying behind.

Few years back we were amazed by our possibility to be mobile, while staying accessible and reachable. Now, the net goes with us, anywhere we go, we are not only mobile, we are in constant connection to information, friends and services. All this information is usually saved on a server somewhere. On this server each one has an identity, assets that are associated with this identity, friends, pictures, preferences etc. Sounds familiar? Right - all of the above are native in Drupal.

read more

Drupal's "premier conference" is quickly approaching. This Drupal conference is known as DrupalCon and will be held in San Francisco from April 19-21, 2010. As with previous years, the unofficial theme of the conference is to "learn about all things Drupal". If the conference sessions aren't enough, the schedule is also packed with plenty of development, documentation, and training events that are being held the days prior to and following the conference.

Presently over 1500 people have signed up to attend the conference. The price of attending a DrupalCon has always been reasonably priced which is one of the reasons this conference always sees a high turnout rate. If you plan on attending the conference, I would urge you to buy your tickets to DrupalCon now. Procrastinators like me have been known to wait too long to register for this conference only to find out that the maximum number of available tickets for the conference has already been reached.

read more

Just a note to all kindly Drupalists and your followers. I'll be appearing at SxSw interactive to talk about Drupal in the Cloud, sporting an updated presentation which includes info on how we're using BZR to create a "cloud platform", where all that's going anyway, plus details about our forthcoming Mercury on-demand service.

I am looking forward to seeing all sorts of great folks in/around the conference. If you're going to be in Austin this coming weekend, drop me a comment and let's coordinate! You can mark the session on your planner right here.

For those unable to attend, there will be some video and other media, and my slides will be posted online as always. See you in the Lone Star state!