Savas Labs

Using XHProf to profile your Drupal module

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Second part in a series of how to use XHProf effectively within a VM for a Drupal website. Continue reading…

Installing XHProf to profile your Drupal module

Thu, 26 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

First part in a series of how to use XHProf effectively within a VM for a Drupal website. Continue reading…

Drupal 6 retires today, now what? Part 4: Upgrade to D7 or D8?

Wed, 24 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Part 4 of a series investigating what options you have with your Drupal 6 site as EOL has now come. We discuss whether Drupal 7 or Drupal 8 make sense for your site. Continue reading…

It actually is 2016, your site is running on Drupal 6, now what? Part 3: the options

Mon, 25 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Part 3 of a series investigating what options you have with your Drupal 6 site as EOL approaches. We discuss what your options really are given the many difficult decisions you are likely faced given your organization's budget, level of risk and tolerance for it, and other business priorities. Continue reading…

How to subscribe users to MailChimp lists in a Drupal custom module

Fri, 22 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A demonstration on how to use Composer Manager and the MailChimp PHP library to simply and easily subscribe users to mailing lists without using the MailChimp contributed module. Continue reading…

It's nearly 2016, your site is running on Drupal 6, now what? Part 2: the risks.

Thu, 10 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Part 2 of a series investigating what to do with your Drupal 6 site as EOL approaches. This post takes a deep dive into the risks specifically. Continue reading…

It's nearly 2016, your site is running on Drupal 6, now what? Part 1: The overview

Tue, 24 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Drupalized Web Mapping @ NACIS 2015

Thu, 05 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Sassy Drupal theming: a lighter version of SMACSS

Fri, 28 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

It takes some forethought, but a well-organized theme means code that is modular and easy to maintain or pass off to another developer. SMACSS principles are becoming more and more widespread and can be applied to a Drupal theme. At Savas we've picked out what we love from SMACSS and simplified the rest, creating a stylesheet organization method that works for us. In this post (part 2 of my three-part series on Drupal theming with Sass) I'll go through our version of SMACSS and link to real examples. Continue reading…

Sassy Drupal theming: Setting up Bourbon and Neat

Fri, 21 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

When Savas built a custom Drupal 8 theme, we needed to include a grid framework and chose Bourbon's Neat for its ease of use, its light weight, and the library of useful Sass mixins provided by Bourbon. In this post I detail how to set all of this up and use Compass to compile SCSS. Continue reading…

When Drupal database sanitization isn't enough

Tue, 04 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

One of the most embarrassing and potentially costly things we can do as developers is to send emails out to real people unintentionally from a development environment. It happens, and often times we aren't even aware of it until the damage is done and a background process sends out, say, 11,000 automated emails to existing customers (actually happened to a former employer recently). In the Drupal world, there are [myriad ways](https://github.com/chrisarusso/Tilthy-Rich-Compost-Website/commit/64a558e2) to [attempt to address](https://github.com/chrisarusso/Tilthy-Rich-Compost-Website/blob/master/scripts/sanitize.php) this problem. We discuss how to use a drush hook on the `drush sqlsan` command to ensure proper sanitization while using the `user revision` module. Continue reading…

Building a map in Drupal 8

Mon, 06 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Adding a map to a Drupal 7 site is made easy by a variety of location storage and map rendering modules. However, at the time of this post most of these modules don't have an 8.x branch ready and therefore aren't usable in Drupal 8. Since Savas has recently taken on a Drupal 8 mapping project, we decided to use the Leaflet library within a custom theme to render our map and the Views GeoJSON module to store our data. In this post we'll add the Leaflet library to a custom theme using the new *.libaries.yml file, write a little Javascript to create our map, and pull in map points via a REST export view. Continue reading…

Implementing a CTools multi-step form in a block

Tue, 23 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

No one likes long forms. They're overwhelming to look at and it's easy to lose your place. Multi-step forms are a way to simplify data collection and make your users' lives easier. Drupal's Form API combined with the CTools module provide a solid platform for building a multi-step form. There are [many wonderful guides](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ctools+multistep+form) on how to build a CTools multi-step form in Drupal. But as far as I can tell, all of the guides assume that the form will live on a page — which makes sense, as that's the most common use case. On a recent project, though, a client asked us to create a multi-step form using only a block, so it could be placed on a page using Panels. It turns out this is pretty straightforward but as it's not well documented elsewhere, here's a quick guide to what you need to do. (Note: I created [an example module on GitHub](https://github.com/savaslabs/ctools_multistep_form_block), so please reference that as needed. This post is just covering the highlights.) Continue reading…

Drupal 8 Theming Basics

Wed, 10 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Theming in Drupal 8 means a lot of changes for current Drupalers. These updates make Drupal more accessible to non-Drupalers and more modular, semantic, modern, and fun for everyone. Right now, documentation is scarce and often out-of-date, so I've collected all that I've learned while building my first Drupal 8 site. Since most contributed base themes don't have an 8.x branch in a useable state at this point, Savas created a custom theme based on Classy, Drupal's new base theme. I'll step through the process of creating a custom theme and walk through the basics of Twig and Twig debugging. Continue reading…

Drupal 8 development environment using Docker, Docker Compose, and Bowline on OS X

Thu, 23 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I explain how my team used Docker, Docker Compose, and Bowline to spin up consistent local dev environments on OS X as part of a Drupal 8 contrib module sprint. Continue reading…

Savas supports the Drupal Association

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Drupal is a thriving FOSS project, and one of the main organizations moving it forward is the Drupal Association. Today, Savas is proud to have become a supporting member of the Drupal Association. Continue reading…