WPMu Development for Education

Making WPMU work in education, one hack at a time

Archive for the 'Technology' Category

Easy path to installing a local copy of Drupal

Posted by Randy on 15th March 2010

When learning and developing web sites with a content management system like Drupal or WordPress it is generally recommended that you install a test version on your personal computer.  This releases you from the complexities of connecting to a remote web server and allows you to focus on learning and/or developing.  The only trick is the process generally requires finding, installing and configuring the web server, using My SQL to set up a database and a database user, download the CMS software, then install and configure it — with plenty of opportunities to go wrong.   Now the stack installer from Acquia gives you basically a quick, scripted install to get you up and running quickly with Drupal.

Downloads | Acquia

Acquia Drupal is a free, packaged Drupal distribution that provides a quick on-ramp to begin building Drupal websites

Installing Drupal 7 with the Acquia Stack Installer | Acquia

Step by step instructions on how to install Drupal 7 with the Acquia Stack Installer.

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On Twitter 2010-03-11 :

Posted by Randy on 11th March 2010

  • User feedback at Yale to inform library catalog redesign http://bit.ly/bBh8Ws #nc 2010 #
  • Web log data is most useful when you approach with specific questions – i.e. are users accessing a specific web page feature? #nc 2010 #
  • Yale Library uses User Testing and Market Research Software Morae http://bit.ly/8Xtznm #nc 2010 #
  • NJVid – New Jersey Digital Video Repository Partnership for educational institutions – http://bit.ly/cjYyrr #nc 2010 #
  • NJVid – consortium model to host owned and license commercial video – reduce costs, improve service http://bit.ly/aGsNoX #nc 2010 #
  • NJEDge.Net – runs njvid.net – Working Groups include video resource and video services – http://bit.ly/dg2EVK – #nc 2010 #
  • NJVid – users can segment videos into virtual clips that can be annotated and shared http://bit.ly/aIvtxl #nc 2010 #
  • NJVid-Digital Video Repository-success due to strong initial involvement of users in working groups – http://bit.ly/9gPplE #nc 2010 #
  • NJVid.net utilizes open source incl. Fedora Repository http://bit.ly/aTSfjm – video stored raw and delivered to user in Flash video #nc 2010 #
  • VUE http://bit.ly/b5w3h5 works with NJVID.net meta data (via Fedora) allowing visual mapping of video details and relationships #nc 2010 #
  • Is Shibbolize a verb?It is for educational institutions in NJ as they build common user identity verification http://bit.ly/c7iIBf nc-2010 #
  • I find on-line writing, aka 'blogs' still useful-RT @egarofoli: @wedaman blogs strike me as being very old tech. #nc 2010 #

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On Twitter 2010-03-10 :

Posted by Randy on 10th March 2010

  • Planning day at #nc 2010-Collab. Framework to share IT knowledge looks good-institute-wide help system at MIT at 8:30 #
  • Everyone be sure to stop by the WordPress roundtable at lunch today — I'm the host! #nc 2010 #
  • #nc 2010 web page should list sessions organized by speaker as well as the regular time-based schedule #
  • #nc 2010 Share IT knowledge framework session just getting underway #
  • #nc 2010 For IT shared knowledgebase which behavior is preferred – browsing or searching? MIT favors searching. #
  • Barriers to collab./self-imposed (not good enough)/unease with public info/ if I write about it I might have to support it /time #nc 2010 #
  • In workplace knowledge base less-than-perfect contributions need to be encouraged-they are good enough #nc 2010 #
  • Collab. knowledgebase presentation here: http://bit.ly/cMil4A #nc 2010 #
  • Knowledge Centered Support (KCS) methodology informed MIT's shared knowledgebase system – http://bit.ly/9J9BpX – #nc 2010 #
  • New usability book from guru Steve Krug — Rocket Surgery Made Easy – http://www.sensible.com/rocketsurgery – #nc 2010 #
  • U of Virginia working on Sakai function to pull in content from external web 2.0 like WordPress #yam #nc-2010 #
  • Vue is also open source vue.tufts.edu – and a flexible way to pull in things like tweets and represent data graphically #nc 2010 #
  • Vue.tufts.edu also integrates semantic web analysis w/OpenCalais #nc 2010 #
  • All you WordPress folks at #nc 2010 – come join me at the lunch roundtable #
  • Fellow #nc 2010 twitter team – can we all meet for a photo? How about at the afternoon refreshment break — 4pm at the back of the hall? #
  • At Email in the cloud #nc 2010 – Boston C. contrasted with UMass Boston #
  • Group votes staff-fac email mission critical – student email mostly nice but not essential #nc 2010 #
  • UMass Boston migrated student email to MS Outlook Live #nc 2010 over xmas break #
  • #nc 2010 Twitterers – we will meet for a photo at the reception tonight at 6 – look for @wedaman – you can't miss him – pass the word #
  • Last session of the day – all good but I'm ready for a nap! #nc 2010 #

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On Twitter 2010-03-09 :

Posted by Randy on 9th March 2010

  • Gotta get through a budget meeting this morning-boo-then its off to Providence for #NC2010 Yah! #
  • RT @DrupalEdu: http://bit.ly/aYXUBb has been launched! #yam #
  • Starting the travel east, towards sunny Providence and #nc 2010 #
  • Enjoying a fish dinner at the bar of Providence's historic Biltmore hotel. #
  • Restaurants should be required to feature local musicians in the background music-at least 1 in 4? Let's support local art-locamusicavore #
  • The blackberry browser sucks – but websites should still deliver mobile browser-specific versions-low on graphics high on readability. #

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On Twitter 2010-03-07 :

Posted by Randy on 7th March 2010

  • I won an Orchid from the CT Orchid Society booth at the Van Wilgrens Spring garden show. Nice too. Will post photos later. #
  • Here is the Odontoglossum that I won today — ain't it pretty! http://flic.kr/p/7HRRCL #

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On Twitter 2010-03-05 :

Posted by Randy on 5th March 2010

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On Twitter 2010-03-04 :

Posted by Randy on 4th March 2010

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A follow-up on use of WordPress Surveys plugin

Posted by Randy on 3rd March 2010

I wrote early last month on an employee workplace feedback tool we launched using our WordPress MU installation and the Survey plug-in.  Overall the plugin worked well.  Here is a screen shot of one of our forms:

The main issue was a problem in the table that holds the responses.  The field that stores the user answer is limited to 255 characters, but no limit is enforced on the form.  And when users are invited to submit free form comments they quickly exceed the 255 limit.  The result is that a number of the responses were cut off in the database, and some of the user response was lost.  Not the nicest thing to realize after the fact, but luckily the fix is easy.

To make the alteration change open the plugin’s surveys.php  file and find the create table section.  Right around line 101 you’ll see the code that creates the surveys_result_answer table.  Alter the ‘user_answer’ column to use the blob data type — you’ll see it is set to a text(255) type, which is too short for many users.

CREATE TABLE {$wpdb->prefix}surveys_result_answer ((
`ID` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
`result_ID` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
`answer_ID` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
`question_ID` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
`user_answer` blob NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY  (`ID`),
KEY `question_ID` (`question_ID`),
KEY `answer_ID` (`answer_ID`),
KEY `result_ID` (`result_ID`)
) ;

This small change fixes that problem.  The only other note is we used this tool on a members-only site.  I’d want to give it a thorough security check before using this on a public site.  I did note the user-text was escaped, so it looks like some protections are in place.  But these days you can never be too security conscious.

Surveys < Plugins < WordPress < Tools < Bin-Co

Surveys WordPress plugin lets you add surveys to your blog. You can let the visitors take surveys and see the result from the admin side. The user who take the survey can enter their details at the end of the survey – or leave it as an anonymous result.

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On Twitter 2010-03-03 :

Posted by Randy on 3rd March 2010

  • Social networking helps the creative process for knowledge workers-not a time waster after all http://bit.ly/cCk8cS #
  • Getting serious with Drupal – working through Drupal 6 Social Networking from Packt – going pretty well so far – powerful stuff! #

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On Twitter 2010-03-02 :

Posted by Randy on 2nd March 2010

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