Thoughts that Count
Recent Posts
The Hacker and Hustler: How to Code a Great Company
It all starts with a great idea, something you think will change the world. What’s next? Well, for Dries Buytaert, the creator of Drupal and a hacker by trade, he wanted to take his great idea and build a company around it.
Drupal was his college dorm side project, initially created as a sounding board for himself and his classmates. Drupal was slowly gaining traction and adoption, but it wasn’t until Dries had to spend many late nights helping MTV with its Drupal sites that he had the big idea. Why not build a company around Drupal support, helping brands better leverage this open source... More
Posted on
Saturday, March 8, 2014
by Ryan MacInnis
Saturday, March 8, 2014
by Ryan MacInnis
Keeping Pace with DigitalDisruption.com
Here are some of the past week's highlights from DigitalDisruption.com, Acquia's portal for examining the impact of digital disruption.
T-Commerce? Meet tvbay
If you tuned in to this year’s Super Bowl, you saw H&M’s commercial that enabled viewers to make purchases through their television based on what David Beckham was wearing during the clip.
This new, “t-commerce” platform is something that brands are exploring, but few are delivering because smart TVs that enable these transactions are still in the early stages of... More
Posted on
Friday, March 7, 2014
by Ryan MacInnis
Friday, March 7, 2014
by Ryan MacInnis
SXSWi Top Tips Part 2: Once You’re There
Welcome to Part 2 of my SXSWi Top Tips series. If you missed it, check out Part 1 which covers how to prepare before you arrive in Austin; it’s not a conference where you can just throw some clothes in a bag and go.
So now you’re packed, you’ve done your research, and you’ve got a plan. Great!
Now get ready to throw it out the window.
Part Two: Austin
1. The Panels: Quality Speaker Trumps All - So now you’ve arrived in Austin, you’ve checked in to your hotel, gotten your badge and now you’re off to check out your first... More
Posted on
Thursday, March 6, 2014
by Derek Peplau
Thursday, March 6, 2014
by Derek Peplau
Lukas Smith on open source communication, PHPCR, and more
Part 1 of 2 - I had the great pleasure of speaking with Lukas Smith at SymfonyCon Warsaw in December, 2013. Lukas is a major contributor to open source and is involved in a range of projects, including the Symfony framework, Drupal, and many more. He is one of the 50 most active contributors on GitHub. Thank you, Lukas!
How do you contribute so much?
About his contribution he says, "I don't know how I got to that number. I try to comment on tickets, try to network people, to encourage them to talk ... I guess it's mostly commenting. I guess I do... More
Posted on
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
by Jeffrey McGuire
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
by Jeffrey McGuire
Financial services is changing, and staying the same.
Post financial crisis, Financial Services Institutions (FSIs) are determined to change. Their motivation lies not just in regaining the trust of a public that has shored up the industry, but also the same goal that they have always had, to find new ways to create products and sell products to generate return for their shareholders.
FSIs have always grasped the nettle of innovation. In my career I’ve seen that they are often the first to deploy cutting edge technologies to gain competitive edge. You could argue that it was the drive for innovation (but without transparency) that provoked the... More
Posted on
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
by Jim Shaw
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
by Jim Shaw
Drupal: Une plate-forme unique, des possibilités sans limites
Bonjour à tous,
L’objet de mon post aujourd’hui vise à revenir sur certaines des synergies entre Drupal et Acquia. Vous connaissez probablement Drupal, le CMS open source le plus déployé par les grandes entreprises dans le monde, et vous vous êtes probablement aperçu qu’autour de Drupal s’était créé un très vaste écosystème d’acteurs divers (la communauté Drupal, c’est plus de 1 million de membres!). Acquia est un acteur essentiel de cet écosystème, par son expertise technologique ainsi que les... More
Posted on
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
by Cyril Reinhard
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
by Cyril Reinhard
Using Adaptive Images in Drupal
Cross-posted with permission from Outlier.com
Responsive, mobile-first web design is the latest trend to take hold of the web design community, and with good reason. With the advent of the mobile OS as a mainstream portal through which people are increasingly connecting to the internet, the needs of these users--and those of the relatively nascent tablet market--are becoming increasingly important. But rather than creating "mobile" versions of websites, which are often riddled with compromise, responsive... More
Posted on
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
by Kathleen Martin
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
by Kathleen Martin
5 Mistakes to Avoid on your Drupal Website - Number 4: Infrastructure
In previous articles in this series, we’ve covered the areas of architecture, security and performance. All of these aspects are affected by your infrastructure from the time of development to deployment.
Infrastructure covers the stack your website lives on, including the server, the database and any software layers, such as Varnish or Memcached which... More
Posted on
Monday, March 3, 2014
by Heather James
Monday, March 3, 2014
by Heather James
Survival Tips from a SXSW Pro: Part 1
No matter how you approach it, SXSW is a vast matrix of possibilities spread over several square miles of Austin and environs over several days. To get the most out of it, you need to prepare early and thoroughly. In the immediate gratification era in which we live, I wish I could simply tell you, “There’s an app for that.” But while there are many apps which will make your life easier (and some which will be indispensable at least for the Interactive portion), there’s no substitute for doing your homework for this one.
What follows are a few pieces of advice I’d give you if you were going... More
Posted on
Friday, February 28, 2014
by Derek Peplau
Friday, February 28, 2014
by Derek Peplau
Keeping Pace with DigitalDisruption.com
Here are some of the past week's highlights from DigitalDisruption.com, Acquia's portal for examining the impact of digital disruption.
Today’s Brand Must Think Like a Publisher
Content is king. But as the line between publishers and brands are blurring, all brands find themselves in both the content and the commerce games.
As brands, we are sometimes wary of pushing content on our customers. In my experience, however, customers are much less worried about the blurred lines, and much more interested in getting that they want when... More
Posted on
Friday, February 28, 2014
by Ryan MacInnis
Friday, February 28, 2014
by Ryan MacInnis
Drupal 8 Configuration Workflows using Git
This blog post is a textual representation of the video shared yesterday. If you are visual learner, watch it. If you are in a hurry, read this blog :). Peter's video also shows how configuration_log module can be used to materialize all config changes in Prod so they may be easily integrated back into the codebase. That is not covered here.
The following commands are our current best thoughts on how folks will move configuration across environments using Git and... More
Posted on
Thursday, February 27, 2014
by Moshe Weitzman
Thursday, February 27, 2014
by Moshe Weitzman
Today’s Brand Must Think Like a Publisher
Content is king. But as the line between publishers and brands are blurring, all brands find themselves in both the content and the commerce games.
As brands, we are sometimes wary of pushing content on our customers. In my experience, however, customers are much less worried about the blurred lines, and much more interested in getting that they want when and where they want it. As Alexis Maybank, founder of Gilt Groupe described it,
"If I go into a Restoration Hardware store, for instance, I understand they're selling that product, but I'm not just interested in seeing rows of lamps on... More
Posted on
Thursday, February 27, 2014
by Liza Kindred
Thursday, February 27, 2014
by Liza Kindred
Moving Your Drupal 8 Configuration from Local to Server and Back
Update: a textual representation of the first half of this video has been posted.
Two weeks ago I had a great opportunity to spend a few days working with Moshe Weitzman (moshe weitzman), Justin Randell (beejeebus), Alex Bronstein (effulgentsia), and Stéphane Corlosquet (scor) to look at the challenges and best practices for using the new Drupal 8... More
Posted on
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
by Peter Wolanin
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
by Peter Wolanin
Four Reasons I'm Excited About Attending (my first!) SXSW 2014
Next week I'm attending my first ever South by Southwest in Austin. I'm pretty sure SXSW is the first conference I've ever *attended.* I've worked many conferences either as an exhibitor or speaker, but I've never experienced a conference as an attendee. I'll bring my comfy shoes, plenty of charging devices + cables, lots of business cards, and as much energy as possible to stay out past my usual bedtime of 10pm!
Here's what I'm most looking forward to:
Hearing from the Hacker and the Hustler
I'm really looking forward to watching my colleagues Tom Erickson and Dries... More
Posted on
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
by Tom Wentworth
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
by Tom Wentworth
You’re Already In The Content Game
Whether the size of your content team is 50 people or zero, you’re already in the content game. If you’re not publishing content, the chances are good that your customers are creating it on your behalf.
The Content Around Us
Apple has no social media presence to speak of. As of this writing, however, there were 173,411 photos on Instagram tagged #applestore and 6,859 tagged #geniusbar. (For the record, there were also six tagged #geniusbarmyass.) While it can be great to have ardent fans of your brand posting flattering content about your brand, that isn’t always what happens.
Trader Joe’s... More
Posted on
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
by Liza Kindred
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
by Liza Kindred
Ryan Weaver and Jeffrey A. McGuire compare notes on Open Source
Ryan Weaver is the single biggest contributor to the Symfony2 framework's documentation (which is excellent, check it out!), a self-described Symfony evangelist, and lead at KnpUniversity.com, makers of fantastic PHP tutorial screencasts like this one on using Composer to include PHP libraries in Drupal 7.
This is part 2 of a 2-part conversation with Ryan Weaver from... More
Posted on
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
by Jeffrey McGuire
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
by Jeffrey McGuire
Acquia lance Acquia Lift: les expériences digitales nouvelle génération
Bonjour,
J’ai le plaisir de vous annoncer le lancement d’Acquia Lift, une plate-forme d’optimisation qui permet aux équipes marketing de transformer les expériences digitales qu’elles offrent à leurs clients et ainsi augmentent la génération de revenus en ligne.
En quelques mots, Acquia Lift permet aux équipes marketing des entreprises de délivrer le contenu le plus adapté et personnalisé à chaque visiteur via le canal approprié et ainsi augmenter les conversions et donc le chiffre d’affaires généré. Acquia Lift offre... More
Posted on
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
by Cyril Reinhard
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
by Cyril Reinhard
Using Drupal to Support Web Accessibility in Higher Education
Web accessibility in higher education is not a new topic. For over 15 years most institutions have been working to insure that their web accessibility adheres to the standards and protocols set forth in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1998 (even though 508, as written, does not automatically apply to institutions of higher education, even those that receive federal funding). And certainly before the benchmark of 508 came around colleges and universities have been leaders in making sure that technology usage around campus supported the diverse needs of the entire community. In fact... More
Posted on
Monday, February 24, 2014
by Chris Hartigan
Monday, February 24, 2014
by Chris Hartigan
Drupal 8 Module upgrade workshop at Drupal Developer Days in Szeged
Gábor Hojtsy, Jesse Beach (jessebeach), and Jess (xjm) will lead a Drupal 8 module upgrade workshop during Drupal Developer Days in Szeged, Hungary.
Now is the time to start upgrading contributed modules... More
Posted on
Monday, February 24, 2014
by Jesse Beach
Monday, February 24, 2014
by Jesse Beach
5 Mistakes to Avoid on your Drupal Website - Number 3: Performance
Performance is crucial for providing a great user experience. If the site is slow or balky, even great functionality won’t keep the site visitor engaged.
Photo: The Bad place by NeilsPhotography (CC BY 2.0)
Best Practices
The first action for improving performance is analyzing what the website is doing. With the answer to this question, optimize as much as possible, then implement caching.
Analyze—Tools:
Devel for viewing database queries which run on... More
Posted on
Monday, February 24, 2014
by Heather James
Monday, February 24, 2014
by Heather James
Keeping Pace with DigitalDisruption.com
Here are some of the past week's highlights from DigitalDisruption.com, Acquia's portal for examining the impact of digital disruption.
Streetline Wants to Make Smart Cities a Reality
Do you remember the last time you struggled for what seemed like an eternity to find a parking spot? One way streets. No right turn signs. If only there was a better way to find a parking spot. Well, Streetline believes they have the answer. Streetline uses sensors to deliver parking availability data to their app, informing users not only about the... More
Posted on
Friday, February 21, 2014
by Ryan MacInnis
Friday, February 21, 2014
by Ryan MacInnis
Ryan Weaver on synergies in Drupal, Symfony2, and PHP
Part 1 of a 2-part conversation with Ryan Weaver from SymfonyCon Warsaw 2013 in which we touch on the great Symfony documentation and its team, discovering the power of community in open source (instead of doing it all yourself), Symfony2 components in Drupal 8 bringing the two communities together, the advantages (present and future) of loose coupling in Drupal 8's architecture, the next big thing, and more!
Ryan Weaver is the single biggest contributor to the Symfony2 framework's documentation (... More
Posted on
Thursday, February 20, 2014
by Jeffrey McGuire
Thursday, February 20, 2014
by Jeffrey McGuire
Announcing Acquia Lift
Topic: DrupalAcquiaToday, the web is not just about publishing content anymore. As the web evolves from content management to digital experience management, it's about understanding visitors' interests and preferences, and figuring out how to deliver them an optimal personalized experience. Many... More
Posted on
Thursday, February 20, 2014
by Dries Buytaert
Thursday, February 20, 2014
by Dries Buytaert
Introducing Acquia Lift: Website Personalization for Drupal Made Easy
Today’s an exciting day for Acquia with the launch of our new product, Acquia Lift. Acquia Lift is a new personalization product designed specifically for Drupal. There are lots of personalization products in the market, and you may even be using one today, but if you are running a Drupal site, you need to take a look at Acquia Lift.
Here are four reasons I’m excited about Lift:
1) Acquia Lift is designed for Drupal
With Acquia Lift, marketers can easily create, iterate, and optimize content directly within Drupal,... More
Posted on
Thursday, February 20, 2014
by Tom Wentworth
Thursday, February 20, 2014
by Tom Wentworth
Don’t wait to migrate. Drupal continuous migration
Whether you are just moving to Drupal or upgrading to a new version of Drupal, if you are starting with an existing website, you are facing the same problem: Your migration timeline. It will take you significant effort to move everything you have to the new system and you cannot play catch-up all the time. That’s why many people are opting for continuous migration. What does that mean? Run the migration project in parallel to your existing website effort and migrate gradually, page by page and URL by URL. New functionality is done in the new system, old functionality stays until it’s time to... More
Posted on
Thursday, February 20, 2014
by Jakub Suchy
Thursday, February 20, 2014
by Jakub Suchy
Pages
Blog Series
Posted on Friday, April 11, 2014
by Nick Veenhof
by Nick Veenhof
Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2014
by Wim Leers
by Wim Leers
Posted on Tuesday, March 25, 2014
by Alex Bronstein
by Alex Bronstein
Posted on Tuesday, March 18, 2014
by Joe Fender
by Joe Fender
Posted on Thursday, February 27, 2014
by Moshe Weitzman
by Moshe Weitzman