Quicktips

Sometimes page caching can get in the way of your site's functionality - even for anonymous users. In those rare cases where you don't want page caching used, there's a module that allows you to exclude certain pages from being cached.

The Cache Exclude module has a simple configuration page where you can enter paths and pages on your site where you don't want caching to occur.

It's a great and simple solution to a sometime annoying problem.

While Imagecache is a stellar tool to automatically create and display resized and cropped images on your site, sometimes a bit more control is necessary.

Imagecache cropping is an automatic process that crops from the center of your image. So, if the most interesting part of your image is in the upper-left, it will most likely be cut off at least partially in the resulting image.

Ever downloaded a module and noticed several obvious bugs? Often, you can look in the issue queue for a module and find fixes, code patches, and help with these problems. For certain modules, the maintainer of the code may not respond - he or she may no longer be developing with Drupal, may have changed his or her email address, or any number of other factors.

If you are a Drupal module developer, then the title of this Quicktip might be enough for a lightbulb to suddenly appear above your head.

I was banging my head up against the wall trying to figure out how to update a view's description (normally set when you first create the view) and I put the question out to the twitterverse and @_happygolucky_ came to my rescue with this link that simply explains that the view description is hidden behind the "tag" link on the view editing page.

(how's that for a run-on sentence!)

I recently had a client who requested an easy way to create image captions for images added to their content via WYSIWYG and IMCE.

One of the many wonderful and useful forums over at groups.drupal.org is the Similar Module Review group.

Edit: you can also use ctools

Is there too much text on your page? Do you need to allow users to un-clutter an interface, or hide some of the interface until your users need it? Don't go and grab any extra JavaScript, Drupal can do collapsible fieldsets out of the box!

However, there are some steps involved:

The HTML Filter that comes with Drupal core is extremely useful - it allows you to restrict the HTML elements that you allow your content creators to use in their posts. If you don't want them including images or JavaScript, no problem. The filter settings allow you to specify exactly what HTML elements they are allowed to use.

One of the most actively used administration pages on any drupal site is the main content administration page (admin/content/node). From this page, the site administrator can quickly get a list of all the nodes on their site as well as filter and sort the list in a variety of ways.

However useful you may find this, you may not be aware that the Views Bulk Operations module provides an even more useful main content administration page with the often requested "search by title" filter.

If you've done much Drupal theming, then you're probably aware that you can override the default node.tpl.php template file on a per-content type basis. For example, if you have a content type called "food", then you can create a node-food.tpl.php that will be used only when nodes of type "food" are displayed.

A full list of template suggestions can be found on drupal.org.

Exposed filters in Views are a wonderful thing. They allow your site visitors the ability to dynamically alter a view to suit their needs best. But what happens when you display your view in a block?

Exposed filters on View pages use URL querystring variables to pass the filter variables back to the server, but when your view is displayed in a block, this isn't possible.

Need to export data from your Drupal web site to Excel?

Use the Views Bonus Pack module - it gives you the ability to set your view's style to CSV, XML, DOC, and other formats.

Check it out!

I recently presented 45 Modules in 45 Minutes: The Best Modules You're Not Using at DrupalCon Paris. Here's a tip using one of the forty-five modules in my presentation.

The Better Messages module is a quick and simple drop-in module that will instantly give your site a bit of a "wow" factor by displaying all system messages in a floating CSS popup window over your content.

If you use CCK often, then you've probably at least once had to implement a select box where the user can select a year value. Sometimes they're used for birthdays, magazine issues, events, or even historical reasons.

You can easily populate the "Allowed values" textarea of the field's "edit" page, but how can you quickly set the default value to the current year (and not have to worry about changing it every year)?