It turns out you have to do a lot of digging online to find some quality solutions for generating Microsoft Word documents in PHP. Both of these products have their quirks, but its usually all in how you setup your template. PHP Word http://phpword.codeplex.com/ This is a nice PHP library for updating doc and docx documents.

Inactive fields occur when active fields controlled by a feature are deleted from the feature and the feature is reverted on a database where the fields deleted are currently active. Here's how to delete them.

$fieldname = "";
 db_query('DELETE FROM {content_node_field} WHERE field_name = "%s"', $fieldname);
 db_query('DELETE FROM {content_node_field_instance} WHERE field_name = "%s"', $fieldname);

I wrote this snippet to clear out some nodes that I had imported that ended up being duplicates. I thought I would share.

$time = mktime(0,0,0,11,23,2011);

$result = db_query('SELECT * FROM node WHERE created > %d', $time);
while ($item = db_fetch_object($result)) {
  node_delete($item->nid);
}

I am a features user and if you are too then you will share my frustration when you find aspects of other modules that are not exportable, i.e. not capable of being packaged in your feature. Such is the case with the Auto Node Title module. However, this is to be expected right? Ctools module provides the api for making things exportable and we should know not every developer will go ahead and implement this in their module. So back to our discovery of the non-exportable. When we get to this point there are several options.

This is the example module I wrote for Drupal Camp Iowa. It demonstrates simple ajax requests inside a Drupal 7 custom module. You can find my slides for the presentation here. Enjoy.

Balanced Scale Media, LLC is beginning the search for a qualified PHP developer to learn Drupal and take part in the deveopment of Drupal projects.

Job Description:

Learn Drupal by doing!  Be able to develop custom modules and custom themes for Drupal 6 and 7 based on requirements documentation and design mockups.  Work hours are open.  Work is part time as needed.  

Requirements:

 

I've been asked to present on proper use cases for JavaScript in web development at the Iowa Drupal Users Group next Monday July 25th 2011. The over-user of JavaScript in web applications is the main issue. My talk will hopefully provide a clearer perspective on how to use JavaScript as a powerful front end development tool while holding on to good coding practices, design patterns, and performance. http://groups.drupal.org/node/163384

My latest battle with Drupal was overriding a select box that was a node reference. Intuitively I tried to simply update $form['#options'] with my array of custom data. No deal. After experimenting with about five ways to implement #after_build on both the form and the field, I realized that the type of a widget is something like 'nodereference_select' instead of just select. Switching the type back to 'select' allowed me to make the change. Wow. Lost a day to that one.

What is the paradox of Drupal? That often, the complex tasks are simple and yet the trivial tasks are difficult.

I learned from this comment on the api that user_save() will not save data to your profile_values table unless your profile field has the "Visible in user registration form" checkbox checked. Save yourself some pain.