Geshan's Blog

Control book outline form and menu for specified Drupal node types

2009-11-16T07:39:00.002+05:45

Drupal has a good potential to be used as a blog, forum (some what), wiki or any other dedicated web application or combination of two or more services. Drupal as a wiki, out of the box is a little weird. Problem is Drupal organizes wiki as book pages and books and book pages are related. Some people might not agree that book node/content type is a form of wiki but they can be used as one.

Problem:

The problem using Drupal book module and book pages as wiki is, the book page module adds book outline form part and the book outline menu as node/x/outline to all node types. All the node types do not need to be part of a book/wiki page. So this is the awkward part. I had to develop an application that had a wiki as a part with blogs and events as other services. So I faced this problem.

The Search:

Then I searched for the solution to show book outline form part and the book outline module in only specified Drupal nodes/content types. At the d.o (I hear this in all screencasts and podcasts - its Drupal.org ;) ) site I found this node: http://drupal.org/node/251798 - and a code snippet by mooffie. But the code was very basic and not configurable or flexible.

A Simple Move:

I decided to use the code as it was a solution to my problem but also thought to make a configurable module out of it. So the module is called nobookoutline now, I have not put it in d.o as I'm not confident of getting a CVS account :). Here is the download link for the module.

The Solution:

The module provides a user interface to select which node/content types you want to show the book outline form and /outline menu option to. Below is the screen-shot of the page you can see in Admin>> Content>> Book Outline Settings after you download and enable the module and login as site admin. you can access the page by going to admin/content/nobookoutline.

After you select the appropriate node types and click save the book outline form and the menu node/x/outline will only appear on the desired node types. Like below:

Below is a book node that has outline, other nodes will not have the outline menu unless they are selected in the configuration page.

The book outline menu appears only for selected node types.

Edited Code:

The code has been edited to accommodate the new configuration page and here is a snippet below:

<?php


/**
 * Implementation of hook_form_alter
 * @param $form
 * @param $form_state
 * @param $form_id
 * @return NULL
 */
function nobookoutline_form_alter(&$form, $form_state, $form_id) {
  
   if (isset($form['#node']) && $form_id == $form['#node']->type .'_node_form') {
      $node = $form['#node'];      
      // If it's not a book node, remove the Book Outline box:
      // now get settings as set.
      $nodetypes = variable_get('form_nobookoutline_nodetypes', array('book'));
      if(!in_array($node->type, $nodetypes)) {
        $form['book']['#access'] = FALSE;
      }
   }
}


/**
 * implementation of hook_menu_alter
 * @param $callbacks
 * @return unknown_type
 */
function nobookoutline_menu_alter(&$callbacks) {
  // We install our own access callback to check if node is book type
  $callbacks['node/%node/outline']['access callback'] = '_nobookoutline_restrict_outline_tab';
}

// Additional access control for the 'Outline' tab: don't show for non 'book' nodes...
function _nobookoutline_restrict_outline_tab($node) {
  $nodetypes = variable_get('form_nobookoutline_nodetypes', array('book'));
  
  if(!in_array($node->type, $nodetypes)) {
     
    return FALSE;
  }
  // Delegate to the original access callback:
  return _book_outline_access($node);
}


?>

What the code does is, it just restricts access to the form part and the menu link.

Conclusion

The module can be made better with permissions but is functional enough for now. Hope it solves your problem.

Using Drupal as a wiki will not be a big deal if this minor issue is resolved. Happy Drupalling.

Show Drupal blocks only on specific pages with PHP code

2009-11-09T08:45:00.011+05:45

Drupal blocks are the basic building elements of any Drupal page. Blocks are placed in block regions and they serve different purposes from showing a list of elements even to show a picture or a video.

Menus of the Drupal system are also blocks of special kind that show links to other drupal nodes/pages/url or external links. (I assume that you know about drupal blocks and how they can be shown or hidden on basic given conditions and also you have some knowledge of php.)

Having a look at a block's configuration page (Site Building >> Blocks >> List) and clicking configure aside one of the block descriptions there are various ways to control the visibility of a particular Drupal block.Some are let users control what they see, to show only to block to only specific roles.

The Need

In page specific visibility the first two options are quite clear, you want to show a particular block in some url and its sub URL like setting to option 2 : "Show on only the listed pages." and typing the following on pages:

blog - will show the block on siteURL/blog page only
blog/* - will show the block on siteURL/blog/any url - pages

But what if I want to show a block in one node type (or content type), then the need to choose the third option "Show if the following PHP code returns TRUE (PHP-mode, experts only)." arises. It does not need expert knowledge.

Scenario 1: For node types

After selecting the third option on "Page specific visibility settings", the logic is quite simple if TRUE is returned the block is shown if FALSE is returned the block is hidded from display. Lets say I want to see a the block only on story content type, then I can do it by pasting the code below on the PHP code option in page specific visibility settings.

  <?php
  // Only show if $return is true
  $return = FALSE;

  // Match current node type with story
  if ( (arg(0) == 'node') && is_numeric(arg(1)) )  {
    $nid = arg(1);
    $node = node_load($nid);
    $type = $node->type;
    if($type == "story") {
       $return = TRUE;
    }
  }
  
  return $return;
  ?>

In action:

You can further enhance it with multiple node types with use of the in_array() php function to show multiple node types. Or tweak it to fit your custom needs.

Scenario 2: For OG (Group) nodes

I had yet another problem I needed to show some specific blocks like group calendar, group blogs only to OG - Group nodes and only to group members. So I digged into the OG module and found two very good functions, they are:

og_get_group_context(): Used for things like setting current theme and breadcrumbs. - Check og module for more information or see it here.
og_is_group_member(): Check a user's membership in a group. More here.

So using these two functions I can show a block only when a group node is loaded and only to the group's members with the code below:

<?php
  $return  = FALSE;
  
  if ($groupnode = og_get_group_context()) {
        if(og_is_group_member($groupnode->nid)) {
          $return = TRUE;
      }
  }
  
  return $return;
 ?>

The above code could have been better :). Above code should also be put in the "Page specific visibility" of the block configuration settings page.

Better Use and Possibility

A better use of the above code I assume will be to make a module and call a function. The function will determine to show the blog or not. It will give a central control of the code else if one thing is changed like in scenario one if node type has to be blog from story it should be edited in all the blog config pages which is a very bad solution. So calling a function form lets say for now a custom_show_block module with function: custom_show_block_normal() will do the trick. Below is a screenshot in assumption that custom_show_block module has been created and custom_show_block_normal() function in custom_show_block module has code of scenario 1:

If the module will have setting to choose the node types and other things it would be great ;).

Conclusion

Block visibility with PHP is very flexible and customizable like other parts of Drupal. With block visibility for specific pages with PHP the need to show a block for specified condition will be easier. Happy coding.

Nepal is hit hard by climate change, lets go green - Blog Action Day

2009-10-15T20:10:00.007+05:45

In the past years Nepal has been hit very hard by the impacts of climate change. Being a land locked country and with places ranging from almost the sea level to the highest place on the planet, the country has great biodiversity and breathtaking landscapes. But rising pollution levels in the cities and low awareness about impacts of climate change has taken its toll mainly on the people who live in and near by cities.

A prominent problem Nepali is facing is global warming, due to which the glaciers are melting at an alarming rate. The whole himalayan range and the region is in danger due to the fast melt down of the ice in the region. The region is facing rise in temperature and it is adversely affecting the lifestyle.

Photo by Enderzero

The agriculture sector has also been hit badly , due to the climate change previously nearby Kathmandu (the capital city) farmers could grow apple. But now due to the climate change farmers can't grow apple as the temperature has risen in the past decade. Other agriculture products have also change in nature, a country that depends very much on agriculture this is big loss. Nowadays, plants like mango that did not grow in Kathmandu being cooler grows here due to the rising mercury. Mangoes only grew in terai (the hotter region) but now it grows in and around Kathmandu which is not a good sign.

Photo by: nromagna

There are lots of other areas that are hit by the climate change, untimely rain, persistent floods and landslides, prolonged summer, carbon emissions etc etc are all the outcomes of climate change. With better awareness level and better understanding of climate change, its causes and effects we can to certain level prevent the adverse effects and look forward for a sustainable world on the whole.

Small but good efforts have been made by the people like not using plastic bags may be a small thing but it will help in tacking the global problem of climate change. If we can just plug out our electronic appliances when we are not in our home it will also help to minimize the effects.

Photo by Barbara Rich

I truly hope we all can come together and tackle the global problem of climate change. It may be growing problem but small things we do can reduce the effects :). Support Blog Action day 2009.

Amazing High dynamic range (HDR) photos by Prashant

2009-10-14T20:15:00.001+05:45

YoungInnovaitons Private Limited is a company consisting of talented people. Among them Prashant Shrestha our own XHTML/CSS guru can work his hands greatly on the camera mainly the single lens reflex (SLR). He recently tried his hands on High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. See below and image that depicts the beauty of HDR.

Wikipedia defines HDR as "In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to represent more accurately the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight." And the images below gives you the feel what its all about.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Hope you like the pictures taken by the man himself - Prashant Shrestha. check out his flickr page at http://flickr.com/photos/prashant_sh.

Drupal is more popular than you may think

2009-10-04T08:24:00.006+05:45

Drupal is arguably the best Content Management System (CMS) available for free, it may not be as popular as Joomla mainly because of a steep learning curve but it is a solid system with lots of features out of the box. More features can be added on in the forms of modules and look and feel can be changed in the form of themes in Drupal.

Drupal has multiplied its users, audience and developers in the past years. In every Drupal Con we hear Dries Buytaert telling that he hand not anticipated the exponential growth and how everything has come to place with all the community members. Google Trends also shows Drupal is rising drastically:

With Drupal 7 code freeze already happened and we waiting for the best Drupal release ever Drupal has gained popularity than ever. Below are some of the statistics I got from Google Insights: The chart shows Drupal's search popularity in Google in past 90 days.

Statistics below indicate that Open Atrium is very popular, and drush the command line interface for Drupal is also in the popularity race.

Drupal is a very widely used and popular even among big enterprises. If you are searching for a Content Management System (CMS) Drupal might be the best solution

Pati patni aru woh TV show where baby comes with manuals like dolls

2009-10-03T20:26:00.001+05:45

Nowadays TV is infested with reality shows, people are singing, dancing, traveling thousands of kilometers to even marrying on TV. Some for money some for fame and some for I don't know what. But why are producers at NDTV Imagine going mad dragging innocent infants and babies who can't even speak in their new reality TV show “Pati Patni Aur Woh”.(The link has videos, behind the scenes and a forum as well)

I strongly object the concept of the show where I can't determine who are the bigger fools the parents who agree to give their baby to be mishandled by celebrities or the celebrities who think they can take care of other's baby who can't even talk.

Pati patni or woh, is a disgusting show on TV where real parents of the baby give manuals about the baby that has the likes, dislikes of the baby and even how to take care of the baby. I am still confused what do the real parents of babies think of their babies, I guess they think their baby is just a doll who comes with a manual on how to operate and they give the manual to the mad celebrities with whom the baby stays 24 hours. How can a baby who needs to be breast fed live with insane celebrities who have never raised a baby in their life?

The babies were crying like mad, couldn't even eat or drink, were even gasping for air and the babies were treated like dolls. On top of it a celebrity calls the baby is like a baby of a monkey who just keeps quite in her hands and starts crying as soon as the baby is separated from her. Why did she come to do a show without calculating the repercussions.

I was again amazed to see how a mother could see her baby crying on the monitor and cry herself helpless. In the first place why did she let her small baby get in the hands of those celebrities. I thought Bindass Dadagiri was inhumane but this is truly pathetic. Al least the people there are adults who can be said things but here the dependent babies can't even contest on what is happening on them.

Insane, inhumane and cruel, the celebrities don't even have time to fight with themselves to sort who's going to do what. I am not a child right activist but what are the child right activists who even objected on children acting on shows are allowing such a heinous show to run and air on TV. I want to make a really humble request “Keep the small babies who can't even speak out of the dirty drama of reality TV”.

Without doubts this was the most atrocious show ever, If this blog post can make a difference I hope the show goes off air and we don't get to see the nonsense on TV. The best thing if this show goes off air will be the babies will get to live with their parents and not go through the torture from the hands of those celebrities. When I Googled it,there has been other criticism about this show, I will really want it to go off air ASAP. You can watch the show on your own risk.

Pictobrowser.com elegant flash gallery for your Flickr and Picasa photos

2009-10-02T18:53:00.000+05:45

Surfing through some website, I found a good flash gallery that was displaying images. I thought it was a good gallery and then came to find out the images are ported from Flickr. So I just wanted to find out how was it made, to my delight it was work of Pictobrowser.com.

The PictoBuilder that lets you customize the flash slideshow kind picture gallery is also very easy to use. Just put your screen name, select sets or tags or groups and off you go to create your gallery. Its very easy to get a gallery in under a minute :).

Simple to understand and easy settings make PictoBrower a very good application to try out. Here is the gallery I created.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

I have got some suggestions and improvements for PictoBrowser. Here are some:

Enable choosing the cover picture, the one that displays at first
Enable reordering the pictures for better presentation.
No. of seconds to display a picture in the slideshow
If possible some subtle effects in photo transition in the slideshow
Integration with other photo hosting websites like Photo Bucket etc and Facebook or other social networking websites.

The flash interface to create the gallery is good. PictoBrowser is the kind of applicaiton I was searching for.

All in all, a very simple yet elegant flash image gallery for your Flickr and Picasa pictures. One you should try out and put it on your website.

Better the education sector with e-applicaiton

2009-09-05T20:50:00.010+05:45

In search for colleges/universities providing masters course I searched the internet for many colleges, a common problem in colleges or universities that are continents away from where I am is the lengthy application procedure. As per the college/university an international student had to send simple or even legally certified copies and that also via mail. And yes the G.P.O here in Nepal is not in a good state take my word on it.

A normal process would be check the requirements of the university/college and then download the application generally a PDF file. Then fill it which requires educational and lots of personal details. If need be write a formidable letter of motivation.

Then make a copy of all needed academic results and certificates, if need be certify them from the consulate or embassy or educational foundation or even a lawyer. Recheck things and go to the General Post Office (G.P.O) to send the things. Thank god, there are not as much people to post things and take other G.P.O services as in other government offices. Then wait for the university to email you that they received what you sent. Not only that there are lots of problems in filling applications like we have +2 they say high school etc etc.

But in this day and age of technology where many colleges/universities provide E-degree with E-learning why do they still follow centuries old technology of post. Yes, there are some colleges/universities which have e-application specially for international students in their website but many colleges/universities still require a student to post the application a wait at least a week to get it even via Express Mail Service (EMS).

There is a ray of hope, some select colleges/universities have online e-application which they also terms web application. This lets you fill you details on line and you just have to fill the basic details at one go. You can return back and fill other things and upload your documents as per the things allowed. One I encountered was simple yet effective, given below:
On the contrary, only a select few have the online e-application and a big problem is most universities do not accept scanned documents via email. I know there might be cases of forgery and things but it will be very easy for genuine international students to send their applications scanned via email even with his/her signature.

Three suggestions to colleges/universities

Accept scanned application and other academic documents via email.
If possible setup an e-application section in the college/university website
Have a virtual adviser who has all the information from small details to fill in form to the name of the professor like Dany here (click the link or ask Dany about Studying in Germany here).

Hope colleges/universities make their application procedure digital or at least accept scanned applications and documents via email, that will help applying for foreign university to be part time work which is almost full time now.

VIPRE a new antivirus and antispyware

2009-09-03T19:08:00.007+05:45

VIPRE with a snake (viper) on the logo and a unique slogan "Keep the bad guys out" seems to be a very good antivirus and antispyware solution. Developed by Sunbelt Software, VIPRE has won accolades and formidable reviews from PC Magazine and ZDNet. It is packed with lots of interesting features that will make you want to use it.

VIPRE is an Antivirus Software which claims it will not slow down your PC or laptop as other antivirus software do and will give full protection against email related threats. The comparison chart in the Sunbelt Software shows VIPRE will take up very less memory and will provide great after sales support by phone, email and chat.
The VIPRE Antivirus Software can be tried free of cost for 15 days trial without registering and if you register you get a key that works for 30 days. If you like the features provided by the product and want to buy the software you can do that as well. VIPRE antivirus costs $29.95 for a single PC, $36.96 for two PCs and $49.95 for three or more PCs. The cost seems to quite reasonable for the features provided by the product.

So the next time, you want to change your Antivirus Software to something with lots of features and small file sized updates, think of switching to VIPRE by Sunbelt Software.

Killing creativity with voice over traslation in television advertisments (TVC)

2009-08-22T10:03:00.004+05:45

Years back when we used to watch a good advert in India television channels, some weeks later the same advertisement would appear on a Nepali channel only change it would be voiced over in Nepal. And now after so many years the trend is there and why is it still there. We are killing our own advertisement industry.

There are some good adverts like the Jagadamaba Cement Advert (below) and Nepal Samachar Patra (below) but the voice over ads of Fanta, Fair and Handsome and a lot others makes me feel what do the Advertisement and media companies do here??

Translate the jingle and use some words you are done, no copy writing, no copy editing, no jingle composition, no model selection, no shooting. Just some video editing with voice over and the deal is sealed.

But again when I see voice over ads I think we can do better but we are not given a chance to portray our creativity. I hope we don't have to watch adverts like below in future:

I really hope this scenario changes and it changes soon. Let's vote for Nepali adverts by and for the Nepali people.

WPDesigner.com web host review blog with a difference

2009-08-14T21:26:00.008+05:45

Wordpress has been a blogging tool and a blog hosting service admired by a lot of users for its power and friendliness. Amongst many great websites powered by Wordpress, I found WPDesigner.com which is a web hosting review site and a Wordpress blog with posts on theming aspect of arguably the most popular blogging engine.

The homepage lists top 10 web hosting providers where again Blue Host tops the list as in other web host review websites. The site has a clean and elegant design, with good use of dark background and light foreground/font colors. The typography and usability aspect are also good and the funny mustache man adds the comic zing to the website.
The web hosting resources block on the right has great articles on web hosting and things to look for in a web host. Personally I liked the "how to choose a web host" post which talks about factors to consider when choosing a web host.

The reviews are based on price, server up-time, reliability, ease-of-Use, control panel and customer support or after sales support provided by the web hosts. As per me, the top 10 list is quite satisfying and I have also used some of the hosts in the top 10. Therefore I know the reasons why those web hosting companies are there in the top 10 list. The ratings of cost, feature, bandwidth, reliability given in the review is also justifiable. The review written is short but descriptive enough to cover the topic.
The other component of this website is the blog, all posts focus around great Wordpress themes, tips and tutorial to develop Wordpress themes etc. The blogs are well laid out and use of headings makes it easier to read the blogs. The posts are also written well short and up to the point. If there was some more description in some of the posts it would have been better.

All in all, it is a good blog. The web hosting review section is the best part of the website and the blog posts are also praiseworthy. I hope to see admirable websites like these in future.

First BarCamp Kathmandu #bcktm09 was energizing and revitalizing

2009-08-09T11:02:00.007+05:45

8th August 2009, Kathmandu, Yela Maya Kendra, Patan Dhoka witnessed a big flock of Kathmanduites from different walks of life to create share and advance ideas. Dominated by presence of youngsters the sessions registered at http://barcampktm.wikispot.org/BCKTM09_Sessions was under way when I reached there around 11:30 AM.

Jumping on a session invitingly titled "Collaboration amongst Nepalese IT companies/entrepreneurs for creating a strong IT industry in Nepal" was grabbing attention. The session presented by Bibhusan Bista (@bbista) was really good. The history laid out and the ideas presented was commendable.

While tweeting for the session (not from my twitter account), I was amazed by the views voiced by the participants. They were really frustrated with the Government policies, lack of implementation and loads of other things. I really think this session and idea of getting together to better IT industry in Nepal should be taken to next level.

Then after lunch, Rabindra Gurung's session on "BCC - Behavioural Change Communication in Nepal" was also very good. @rabinshres did put light on how it is being used and with the stats and touchy pictures he made his message clear. The discussions after the session was also very good and fruitful. But in all this we missed the "Twitter Analysis" session :).

Then after some time in the "Innovate a trance within-FOO-THE-FLUTE" session by Sunil Pariyar we just could hear some Flute being played which was amazing. Last session I tried to attend :) was "संस्कृत(Sanskrit) restoring the lost glory" but before the end I lost interest ;).

Anyway, it was productive and enlightening few hours. After all this if you are still confused what is barcamp then check the video below:

And yes the video below was on the bid day, well compiled and gives you a hint what happened at BarCamp Kathmandu 2009 :) :

I guess we will see more events like this promoting open culture, yes Software Freedom Day (SFD) 2009 being organized by FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) Nepal is also approaching near.

Drupal 7 Features to watch out for

2009-08-01T19:50:00.006+05:45

Drupal 7 is said to have a code freeze this September and as far as I heard Dries has no plans to release Drupal 7 until all the critical issues are resolved. Till today's date there are 332 critical issues to be resolved.
But none the less I am waiting for the killer release. Having look at the new shiny dashboard and the drag and drop goodness and all the hustle and bustle about file API and fields in core I really want to try out D7 ASAP. Recently I found a presentation about the features I'm embedding below:

Drupal 7 - Upcoming Features

View more presentations from beejeebus.

But the features in the change log are as follows:

Drupal 7.0, xxxx-xx-xx (development version)
----------------------
- Database:
* Fully rewritten database layer utilizing PHP 5's PDO abstraction layer.
* Added query builders for INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, MERGE, and SELECT queries.
* Support for master/slave replication, transactions, multi-insert queries,
delayed inserts, and other features.
* Added support for the SQLite database engine.

- Security:
* Protected cron.php -- cron will only run if the proper key is provided.
* Implemented much stronger password hashes that are also compatible with the
Portable PHP password hashing framework.
* Implemented a pluggable password hashing API supporting alternative
hashing and authentication schemes.

- Usability:
* Improved installer requirements check.
* Improved support for integration of WYSIWYG editors.
* Implemented drag-and-drop positioning for input format listings.
* Implemented drag-and-drop positioning for language listing.
* Implemented drag-and-drop positioning for poll options.
* Provided descriptions and human-readable names for user permissions.
* Removed comment controls for users.
* Removed display order settings for comment module. Comment display
order can now be customised using the Views module.
* Added additional features to the default install profile, and implemented
a "slimmed down" install profile designed for developers.
* Image toolkits are now provided by modules (rather than requiring a manual
file copy to the includes directory).
* Added an edit tab to taxonomy term pages.
* Redesigned password strength validator.
* Redesigned the add content type screen.
* Highlight duplicate URL aliases.
* Renamed "input formats" to "text formats".
* Added configurable ability for users to cancel their own accounts.

- Performance:
* Improved performance on uncached page views by loading multiple core
objects in a single database query.
- Documentation:
* Hook API documentation now included in Drupal core.
- News aggregator:
* Added OPML import functionality for RSS feeds.
* Optionally, RSS feeds may be configured to not automatically generate feed blocks.
- Search:
* Added support for language-aware searches.
- Aggregator:
* Introduced architecture that allows pluggable parsers and processors for
syndicating RSS and Atom feeds.

- Testing:
* Added test framework and tests.
- Improved time zone support:
* Drupal now uses PHP's time zone database when rendering dates in local
time. Site-wide and user-configured time zone offsets have been converted
to time zone names, e.g. Africa/Abidjan.
* In some cases the upgrade and install scripts do not choose the preferred
site default time zone. The automatically-selected time zone can be
corrected at admin/settings/date-time.
* If your site is being upgraded from Drupal 6 and you do not have the
contributed date or event modules installed, user time zone settings will
fallback to the system time zone and will have to be reconfigured by each user.

- Removed ping module:
* Contributed modules with similar functionality are available.

- Refactored the "access rules" component of user module:
* The user module now provides a simple interface for blocking single
IP addresses. The previous functionality in the user module for restricting
certain e-mail addresses and usernames is now available as a contributed module.
Further, IP address range blocking is no longer supported and should be
implemented at the operating system level.

- Removed throttle module:
* Alternative methods for improving performance are available in other core and
contributed modules.

- Added code registry:
* Using the registry, modules declare their includable files via their .info file,
allowing Drupal to lazy-load code as needed, resulting in significant performance
and memory improvements.

- Theme system:
* Converted the 'bluemarine' theme to a tableless layout.

- File handling:
* Files are now first class Drupal objects with file_load(), file_save(),
and file_validate() functions and corresponding hooks.
* The file_move(), file_copy() and file_delete() functions now operate on
file objects and invoke file hooks so that modules are notified and can
respond to changes.
* For the occasions when only basic file manipulation are needed--such as
uploading a site logo--that don't require the overhead of databases and
hooks, the current unmanaged copy, move and delete operations have been
preserved but renamed to file_unmanaged_*().

- Added aliased multi-site support:
* Added support for mapping domain names to sites directories.
- Added RDF support:
* Modules can declare RDF namespaces which are serialized in the tag
for RDFa support.

And, those are exciting new features as always a new Drupal release has lots of things to offer.

Let's wait for the Day Drupal 7 is finally released.

Drupal Meetup Kathmandu, the event to be in

2009-07-12T14:10:00.006+05:45

Drupal Meetup Kathmandu is an event aiming to get together all the Drupal Users in Kathmandu to discuss, share ideas and collaborate organized by YoungInnovations Pvt. Ltd. It is an event aimed at all the Drupal users, Drupal Developers, Drupal Themers and anyone who has embraced Drupal in any form.

Drupal Meetup Kathmandu (DMK) targets to be a monthly event (preferably every 2nd Sunday of the English month) where any Drupal user can put forward his/her views or knowledge about Drupal with like minded people who use Drupal and know what it is capable of.

Drupal has evolved a lot in the past few years and with Drupal 7 coming out in some time, we have a lot to expect from Drupal. If you know about Drupal and want to know how others use it then Drupal Meetup Kathmandu will be the right place to be at. If you want to know more about arguably the best Content Management System (CMS) then you must attend Drupal Meetup Kathmandu taking place on 19th July 2009.

For more information please visit the following links:

http://groups.google.com/group/drupalnepal/browse_thread/thread/92cc27fb718973cd - at Drupal Nepal Group
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=98550109885 - Register for the event on Facebook or email at drupalnepal[at]yipl.com.np.
http://drupalnepal.pbworks.com - Wiki

If you wish to attend this event please register at the Facebook event page.

Movie reviews I read are not satisfying

2009-07-05T18:55:00.005+05:45

Saturday morning, woke up late and what a day to relax as its a holiday. Then the usual thing flipped through a daily (let's not name which ;) but you can find out if you have seen it yesterday from the picture below). Then got my eyes set on a review a movie review, my eyes ran through it, it was not a long one but it left me dissatisfied for sure.
I am not a movie buff nor do I follow all movies but at times I do read movie reviews. I read movie reviews to know how the movie is and also to know how its written. As far as I read about reviews and how to write them a review should talk about all the aspects of the product/service the review is of. But to my surprise I don't know why, mainly the reviews I read in news papers are just not satisfying. Even some I read online are not good as well.
I believe people will flock the theaters if they find good words given by great movie reviewers/critic like Taran Adarsh.

Lets look at what regular reviews are focused on:

Some parts of the story is revealed
Some comments on central characters are made
Some suggestions on acting skills are given
Some dress up sense and fashionista advice is showered.
May be some things on the music, location and similar things.

I don't think it is justified, a movie is very big thing there are lots of people behind a movie. Why don't so many people even don't get mentioned for their work. I know all can't be listed but some major ones who don't appear on the screen deserve some compliments, comments and suggestions.

Reviewers/critics should also write about following things:

How well did the choreographer do?
How was the background music and were the songs aptly placed etc?
How well did the supporting characters supported the screenplay?
Any real flaws in the story?
How as the pace of the movie? how could it have been made better?
All other technical aspects editing, special effects use, sound things, camera angles?
Cast selection, comparisons etc...
the list can be endless but there are other things to write not just the central characters and the script/story.

Having said that, most people just read the regular reviews that I read. They just want to read how the actors look in the movie, whats the plot of the movie. I sense it is the reason such reviews are written and will be written.

Most reviews I read are like a rubber stamp, I may be wrong, there may be outstanding critics who see what most of us miss but I urge them to write it down as well. I guess this may being the change in writing better and ingenious review which stand out and do justice.

SLC Results 2065 out, frustrations in

2009-06-28T19:09:00.010+05:45

Just back from my work place I heard a news on FM, "SLC result 2065" is out and record high 68% passed this year. At the back of my mind a thought struck "Oh! my cousin sister also gave SLC this year". The news continued the results can be viewed online at www.soec.gov.np, www.moe.gov.np and www.doe.gov.np.

I rushed to my room and connected to the internet, to my surprise and utter dismay SOEC.com.np said "SLC result 2065 has not been published yet!" but still I punched in her symbol no. and the result was nothing. It was so slow I had to open the website in Chrome, trying over the same thing again and again I found out there was an unexplainable error. It was simple overload and I got a not found error in result.php. And yes MOE and DOE do not have SLC results or even the word SLC 2065 on their home pages.

Then after some minutes I got the following screen, oh my luck:

The site was suspended by the provided may be due to overload. So I sent a SMS to 7373 but here also no luck there was no sign of getting the result. Then I searched some news sites, then I found a news on The Himalayan Times website below:
But again they did not check the sites and wrote "The results can also be viewed by logging on to the websites: " I guess they forgot to write "After some hours" in that line. Another news told you can listen to the result Dialing 1600 on a land line and it said the result in not yet published. Man I had not tried this hard to know my own SLC result, I was lazying on my bed as at our times it was published in the morning 5 AM ;). Now already frustrated I checked twitter, after Michael Jackson people were tweeting about it but no one new an answer how to get the results.

My Frustration

Why "shout out loud" in media before the result is published.
Why don't people in media FM, online media check things before telling them out
Why is there no concept of load balancing on these sort of high traffic and high priority things. @bibstha man it must be done, lets do it.
There were 3 alternative sites none had a thing www.slc.ntc.net.np said " SLC 2065 Result will be available here as soon as it is published officially- Thank you".
The SMS thing and dialing 1600 was on no use.

Some Suggestions

Don't publicize things that you have not tried.
Don't publish results in the evening ;)
In result publishing make it a single/multiple text or HTML file where one can search easily not a database request just because in our system it times out.
Let the results of SLC be available via multiple servers or great load balancing 3 lakh 91 thousand is a very big number if around 30 % view results online its more than 1 lakh 17 thousand.
Use technology so that people have faith on it, not one that does not work when needed and people hate it.

And Yes if you need the result get the raw txt in zipped format at : https://files.getdropbox.com/u/547169/slc2065result.zip thanks to @jwalanta and also at http://ioelive.com/slc2065.

I don't know why I wrote this as this is a sheer waste of time, nothings going to change. But if someone reads this and can bring in even a small change I would be happy.

Get your website's SEO on track with KeywordPerformance

2009-06-24T20:30:00.006+05:45

SEO short of Search Engine Optimization has now become the buzz word in this web 2.0 world. With search engines like Google getting smarter, SEO campaigns should be left to the professional to reap maximum benefits.

If you take my word, SEO campaigns are like any other marketing campaigns, in marketing campaigns you target your audience, then make adverts be it print, audio or audio visual and start your campaign. In SEO you choose your keywords, apply some SEO magic and see your conversion rate get better. But major difference is push and pull marketing, in SEO the potential client is searching for you so you have more chances of converting the potential client to a client.

Searching for some SEO company I found KeywordPerformance.com a good one. They claim years of experience in search engine optimization and tell they have obtained long term search engine placement of keyword(s).
They aim to provide ethical search engine optimization which will organically rank you higher in search engines leading to maximum conversion rates and finally to more profit for their client. The SEO tools on their website like link popularity checker, server header checker and SEO glossary are very useful if you want to check your website's current SEO status.

The tips and articles about SEO included in the site come handy if you want to dig deeper into SEO. The main menu laid vertically with sub links poping up is good but if they could make it on hover rather than click it would have been better. They even provide a client login which deals with billings, website statistics and other things.

Keyword performance is an internet marketing firm which provides services like internet marketing, video SEO, search engine placement, search engine rankings etc. The sitemap page fully depicts the sections of the website and the pages in the website. A suggestion I would like to make is that if they had put some client testimonials it would have been better, as a visitor would know who has been their client and what the client's response to the service provided was.

They also have seo blog section, in this section they blog about SEO and related topics. I found the blogs in the SEO tools category interesting. The blog seem updated but I guees they can add more content to the blog section.
In relation to the design of the website, it looks average but it can be made better with some Web 2.0 things. They can work on the user interface, color combination and typography to make the visitor feel better and also uplift their own SEO ranking.

All in all, KeywordPerformace.com is a good website and I hope the company provides outstanding SEO services as it claims. The website can be made better. Hope you rank higher in all major search engines with good and ethical SEO practices.

5 great designed Drupal themes

2009-06-23T12:26:00.010+05:45

Browsing through some Drupal themes, I found some great designed themes for Drupal 6. I will let the themes speak for themselves :). Amongst them here are my top 5 picks in alphabetical order (links open in new window/tab):

Acquia Slate: is by made Acquia with TopNotchThemes. It is very flexible theme with 14 block regions and lots of cool settings. Like Acquia Marina it is a great theme for blogs as well. Get it at: http://drupal.org/project/acquia_slate
Agregado: is a very cool looking dark theme. It looks very clean and elegeant and will surely be a great fit for a blog. Find it at: http://drupal.org/project/agregado
Color Paper: Yet another great theme for a blog, it has different color variations as well. This theme looks good but the title area can be made better. I am using this for my blog at my Drupal site here. Get at: http://drupal.org/project/colorpaper
Magazeen: is yet another bloggish 2 column theme. The section below header is the USP of this theme. Clean, simple and elegant, this theme has a good color combination of dark header and bright body. You can make it yours at : http://drupal.org/project/magazeen
Waffles: is a theme based on Acquia Marina, looks somewhat like it. The header is different and there is a header without the girl ;). It is a flexible design, and with 15 block regions it gives you 1-3 column layout. Get the theme at: http://drupal.org/project/waffles

I hope you like my selection of cool and refreshing new themes for Drupal 6. Only one problem, almost all themes are for blogs, when will Drupal have great free multipurpose themes?

Grab your FACEBOOK username before someone else does

2009-06-13T08:26:00.005+05:45

To all the Facebook fans, addicts and users. You might be fully aware that now you can have a user name instead of the ugly URL that passed your user id ?id=123456789, which is cool. I guess this may be another bid of Facebook be similar to Twitter. In the last design change many had complains that it was too much like twitter mainly the wall thing.

Other things aside, I still have around an hour and half to go to get my username on facebook. So what will happen really then, see below:

(Image from Facebook Blog)

Let's hope everyone gets their desired username be it their own name, first name only, first and last name or a nick that identifies their web presence. So hurry up and grab your facebook user name at http://www.facebook.com/username.

UPDATE

I got mine :).

Enjoy your desired faceboook username and don't be left behind hurry up.

Advertise in a way that your audience understands

2009-05-31T21:37:00.006+05:45

Switching channels I watched some adverts (Television Commercials -TVCs) of Castrol lubricant, now its not just oil its liquid engineering. As wikipedia says "Castrol is a brand of industrial and automotive lubricants which is applied to a large range of oils, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications.

The Castrol brand is part of the BP Group of companies, but has retained its separate identity."

Liquid engineering is striking to know but the commercial below defines what's it very easily:
The video is here:

Then I saw a simple 30 second commercial, that tells you why spend more on oil and less on maintenance. Very simple advert put in a way and language that the audience will understand from the word go. Below see the ad.:

Last but not the least, I came across the ad. of Chuck Norris of India, Mr. Rajnikant. On a very light note, I once read "Ranjnikant can strangle you with a wireless phone", and I even read "Rajnikant can slam a revolving door." with this amazing intro of Ranjikant let's see what message he delivers in the Castrol ad. below:

I hope you also found the advert amazingly stupid and though animated but insane :).

But the point here is adverts should connect directly with the intended audience be it one who wants to understand liquid engineering, or one who wants to pay more for oil and less for the maintenance or even one who thinks Rajnikant is god. And yes the three ads have covered cars, trucks and bikes as well.

I'm not an Ad. guru or a marketing specialist but as a normal viewer I admire the above ads. and the way they are presented.

Load Shedding Schedule 20th May 2009, Kathmandu, Nepal

2009-05-20T18:37:00.004+05:45

Good news I guess load shedding is 8 hours a day, but 2 days are bad when the light goes for 8 hours continuously.

Anyways be the first one to get the schedule:

Get the file here:

Plan your things as per the new schedule.

Tweak and create new drupal themes like a pro with Drupal 6 Themes

2009-05-06T18:06:00.012+05:45

It's been some years I have been using Drupal, without doubts its one of the best free and open source CMS around. With pass in time Drupal has achieved new milestones and with Drupal 6 the themes/skin aspect of Drupal has also got stronger than the previous versions. The new Drupal theme system is great and to reap maximum benefits from this new and improved themeing system I recommend you Drupal 6 themes.

The written by Ric Shreves has 9 great chapters in its 2 hundred and 85 pages. Starting from the simple components of a Drupal theme and guiding you to the the complex theming of Drupal forms the flow of the book is quite interesting and enjoyable. The book takes you through a step by step journey where you as a designer with knowledge of XHTML and CSS will come out as a Drupal theming ninja when you approach towards the end of the journey.

A very good aspect covered by the book is that, with view of Drupal's modular architecture the book tries to highlight the needed cohesion between themes, modules, nodes and blocks. It tries to signify the point that themes can't be seen in isolation, though being distict and they are a part of the whole Drupal ecosystem.

The descirption of theme engines and PHP template is also admirable. In addition the book highlights the best way override and intercept default CSS files with new ones or custom ones. The usage of theme functions and overriding them will require some PHP knowledge but with this book by the side it will be easy. The description of all the theming functions in related core modules will be of great help to themers as they override the function they want to, to get the prefect look. The book's language and writing style is easy to understand and the screenshots at correct places makes reading this book a pleasure.

In chapter 6, page no. 148 the transition from Zen to Tao is the best part of the book. Zen is a great starting theme and book provides a systematic, step by step and hands on approach to transform Zen into a new theme. With the dummy content and links the theme development process is an enjoyable learning experience.

Chapter 7 to 9 deal with more advance topics like building your own theme, dynamic theming and dealing with form. The planning and visualization of your own theme has been put very well. But I guess these chapters are more focused to the developer and not only the designer. On the brighter side it give you a better insight on how Drupal themes are build, how to operate an existing or contributed Drupal theme and find out what is in it. Dynamic theme deals with targeting specific node or block or user. Like if you want to theme block with id 3 then here you get the details on how to do it. It helps is customizing a Drupal theme for those over demanding clients. The use of the Devel module has also been done, it will help you theme better.

The last chapter has the low down on how to make the forms look right and as you want in a theme. Forms are integral part of the Drupal CMS and theming them is very important to get the complete look and feel. With some overriding, custom code and help from modules and firefox add ons you will be able to theme the forms as you want them to.

All in all, this is a very good book and must for all Drupal themers who want to be Drupal theming ninjas. Have fun reading this book, you can buy the book here. With help from this book you will be able to tweak base themes to make them look cool or even make your own Drupal theme.

Egnyte corporate file sharing needs served

2009-04-19T07:04:00.005+05:45

Have you been wondering lately, how will your files be secure and backed up? Is there good backup and security policy for files in my company? Then relax a bit. You don't need to setup very expensive and resource demanding file servers, there are solutions that cater your file sharing needs. A feature rich name that stands out among these is Egnyte which is a file sharing software.
Egnyte is an easy to use file sharing solution which has needed features like storing, sharing and backing up files with focus on security and privacy. You will be able to search needed files, collaborate on same documents without the need of extra hardware or even human resource to take care of your file sharing needs.

Egnyte the file sharing software also offers a trial version of 15 days and if you like the service then you can use Egnyte. The cost for the service is depicted below:
The cost seems quite justified for the range of features provided. For your convenience Egnyte also provides access from mobile devices, here you can learn more about how mobile access to your files will help you reap more benefits. If you want to explore more about the service see this page which defines about the product demo.

Using these kinds of services one thing that always concerns customers is security. Egnyte confirms clients of hardware security, full access control over files and network security with very good encryption. This will make your decision to use this service easier.

Forget about buying a new file server, try your hands on new software as a service (SAAS) solution like Egnyte, you will be happy with the outcome.

Load Shedding Schedule 19th April 2009, Kathmandu, Nepal

2009-04-17T14:48:00.004+05:45

The new load shedding schedule, no comments this time.

Load Shedding Schedule 17thApril 2009 Kathmandu, Nepal Load Shedding Schedule 17thApril 2009 Kathmandu, Nepal geshan Load shedding new schedule.

Publish at Scribd or explore others: School Work Brochures & Catalogs information schedule

UPDATE: And some chages in Lazimpat and Patan, Sanepa area:

Intenet in Nepal is 34 times more expensive than in UK

2009-04-02T01:23:00.001+05:45

We Nepalis being tagged one of the poorest in the world pay one of the highest fee for internet, which is 34 times more than the United Kingdom and 10 times more then the United States. When fast internet be possible and available in really cheap prices like in the rest of the world?

Recently I glanced at an Ad. by Virgin Media boasting 50Mb/s speed at just € 50 a month, I was amazed. Using an internet connection that is just 125 Kb/s or 256Kb/s here in Nepal I thought those people in the UK are very lucky. Then to my surprise I saw this story at MyRepublica (they badly need a design change) telling Nepal Telecom go for next generation network for fixed lines. (Important information 1KBps= 8 Kbps, as 1Byte = 8bits)

*NC = Nepali Currency (Rs.)

With these two extreme points I kept thinking what may be the prices of internet in the world and what are we Nepalis and Kathmanduietes paying in comparision to the developed nations. I just got hold of some mind boggling data I'm presenting below:

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Spreadsheets internet prices

*If there are any mathematical errors, its because I"m amazed.

In the context when Wikipedia lists Broadband penetration as an economic indicator here - "Economic indicators include various indices, earnings reports, and economic summaries, such as unemployment, housing starts, Consumer Price Index (a measure for inflation), industrial production, bankruptcies, Gross Domestic Product, broadband internet penetration, retail sales, stock market prices, and money supply changes." why are we lagging behind on high speed but still cheap internet???

Due to the slow internet we are not able to upload and download big files. If a client sends a file more that 10 Mb we have to schedule our time to download it and on top of it the load shedding is shredding our productivity. Video conference and video chat is also out of our reach. Downloading video from sites like youtube takes ages. We are not able to take up work that require a fast internet connection as we are paying 10 times more than the standard competitive rates in the United States.

Yes we have around 2 dozen ISPs but all depend on the main provider NT (Nepal Telecom) and none are in the race to make the internet faster and cheaper. I guess they just are concerned of their profit and not the development of internet. Oh I almost forgot the government's plan of fiber optic highway is another distant dream.

Let's hope the ISPs in Nepal stop looking at their profit and help in availability of really fast and cheap internet that in turn can really boost Nepal's economy.

You can find all the related links at http://delicious.com/geshan/intenet_prices.