Organize your inbox

Well, this only works with outlook email at the moment, but here is the claim:

…information will become much easier to find. When a new email arrives, the sender’s full communication history appears in the Xobni sidebar, including past conversations, attachments and contact details. Xobni also includes a blazing fast email search tool..

I first read about this free software in june’s issue of wired. . Sounds great, hmm? Basically, it helps you manage your inbox — but only in outlook (at least at the moment).

Review Library Technology Reports: Drupal in Libraries

As some of you know, I’ve been working with Drupal (opensource website content management system) for a while. I’ve built several websites in it, from an arts website to my portfolio.
I’ve also become part of the Drupal group on campus, just a group of like minded folks interested in Drupal.

At the first meeting I was asked (volunteered?) to demo the admin interface of Drupal and talk a little bit about Drupal. Using my brief Drupal overview which I put together for a few interested folks in the Libraries, I started fleshing out my documentation to encompass a wider audience.

As I was working on my presentation documentation, I was fortunate enough to receive the May/June 2008 issue of Library Technology Reports (ISSN 0024-2586), Drupal in Libraries by Andy Austin and Christopher Harris. Surprisingly enough, we covered a few of the same library sites as drupal examples, but the real value of Drupal in Libraries is that for each example site, there is an interesting interview from the library, which covers questions such as favorite features, challenges, and more of the new Drupal driven website.

Drupal in Libraries also provides a basic overview of terminology, which is easy to follow, even for a newbie to Drupal. Modules featured are discussed in more extensive detail than my list of most useful Drupal modules.

For those of you who are interested in Drupal and how it can be used in libraries, I definitely recommend Drupal in Libraries and of course, in a shameless bit of self promotion, you can read my Drupal writings, too.

Expression Engine security vs. drupal

Nice outline of pros and cons of two security models (closed vs. opensource), expression engine (ee) vs. drupal. Of course, lullabot also is closely tied to drupal, so take it for what it is worth.

http://www.lullabot.com/articles/drupal-and-expressionengine-security-models

Most useful Drupal modules

I thought I would crosspost some of what I consider my most useful Drupal handout information from my demo and presentation for the UGADG. Of course, this doesn’t include the demo part at the moment! Maybe I will screencapture that part and add it in later. Another thing for the todo list! Anyhow, you can see the handouts here

..and now to the top ten (plus):

• Book: Built in (core) functionality to create a book-like structure with table of contents and linking pages. Pages can be hierarchical, too.
• BUEditor: HTML editor. Available at http://drupal.org/project/bueditor
• CCK (Construction Kit): Create new content types and more with non-standard fields. Available at http://drupal.org/project/cck
• Clone: Easily clone (could be useful if manually migrating a website). Available at http://drupal.org/project/node_clone
• Front: Create a splah page, flash based intro page, or create a front page which has a distinct and different feel from the rest of the website. Available at http://drupal.org/project/front
• Image: Useful in creating an image gallery; note content from third party applications (flickr, youtube, etc.) can be crosswalked via rss or modules. Available at http://drupal.org/project/image
• Metatags (aka Nodewords): Add meta information to a page. Available at http://drupal.org/project/nodewords
• Nodeteaser: Create a teaser for a node that’s different from the standard “first paragraph” Drupal teaser.Available at http://drupal.org/project/nodeteaser
• Panels: Preformatted templates for the content areas in Drupal.Available at http://drupal.org/project/panels
• Pathauto: Specify URLs that aren’t just node/xxx — say, /2008/blog/title-here. Another option is using mod_rewrite in apache. Available at http://drupal.org/project/pathauto
• Sidecontent: Adds a sidebar to pages. Available at http://drupal.org/project/sidecontent
• Upload: Built in (core) functionality to control the type of uploading allowed.
• Webform: Create webforms to solicit feedback from users. Available at http://drupal.org/project/webform
• Views: Build lists of content and present them in whatever format and order you want. Create custom lists, tables and teaser lists. Available at http://drupal.org/project/views

Import HTML: import html from existing website. Information available at http://cvs.drupal.org/viewvc.py/drupal/contributions/modules/import_html/import_html_help.htm?view=text&revision=HEAD

Access control & users:

• Captcha (or Recaptcha) - Antispam. User types in the text of a word. Available at http://drupal.org/project/captcha
• Diff: allows a wiki-like comparison of revisions (Drupal does have a built in ‘track’ feature for each user). Available at http://drupal.org/project/diff
• LDAP Integration for authenticating using a LDAP directory. Available at http://drupal.org/project/ldap_integration
• Organic Groups: granularity of user privileges (access levels; restrict content) which could be useful in hosted blogging or a large scale website with multiple content contributors. Available at http://drupal.org/project/og
• Secure pages: Adds https to login, admin pages. Available at http://drupal.org/project/securepages
• TinyMCE: wysiwyg editor for creating content. Need TinyMCE editor (third party, opensource) loaded first; then module. Available at http://drupal.org/project/tinymce

Extras:

• Ad module: Rotating javascript ad banner. Available at http://drupal.org/project/ad
• Blog: Built in (core) blog functionality.
• Bibliography: Create and publish scholarly works. Available at http://drupal.org/project/biblio
• Community Tags: Allows users to create and assign their own tags to content. Available at http://drupal.org/project/community_tags
• Gmap: Build a googlemap for a single institution, library branch or a combined map with all of your locations. Available at http://drupal.org/project/gmap
• FAQ + fivestar: FAQ gives you a content type specifically for FAQs with the option to format how those questions are shown. Fivestar adds a a “rate this” block of stars underneath any content type you specify. It’s an instant FAQ section, and if you always categorize your questions, you’ll quickly put together a large FAQ section organized by topic. Available at http://drupal.org/project/faq and http://drupal.org/project/fivestar.
• Forum: Built-in (core) functionality for user forums.
• MARC: Import MARC formatted records (e.g., library catalog) into a node. Available at http://drupal.org/project/marc
• Nodequeue: Easily create lists of nodes, e.g., a list of book reviews which can incorporated into a block on the site. Available at http://drupal.org/project/nodequeue
• Poll: Built in (core) polling functionality. Easily create polls, surveys, quizzes, etc.
• Profile: Built in (core) fuctionality to create customizable profiles.
• ImageCache: Make as many copies of an image you want at any size depending on location or anything else you specify. Available at http://drupal.org/project/imagecache
• Scheduler: Publish and unpublish articles at a set time. Available at http://drupal.org/project/scheduler
• Tagadelic: Tag Cloud module. Available at http://drupal.org/project/tagadelic
• Thickbox: A jQuery plugin that gives you very sleek photo popup/slideshow functionality. Available at http://drupal.org/project/thickbox
• Workflow: Provides an alternate means of controlling information placed on the site, e.g., must be reviewed before published. Available at http://drupal.org/project/workflow

Drupal Modules Finder http://drupalmodules.com/module-finder

Thanks to:

Top 10 Drupal Modules http://webpodge.com/2007/02/22/top-10-drupal-modules/;
Drupal4Libraries Listserv, Amy Qualls-McClure (Huntsville - Madison County Public Library); Cary Gordon Cary Gordon (The Cherry Hill Company, http://www.chillco.com); Ken Newquist, (Lafayette College, https://ww2.lafayette.edu/~soapbox/blog/newquisk) and Leo Klein (The Chicago Librarian, http://www.leoklein.com)

See resources for more links.

Tables + CSS (and captioning an image)

For those of you who use CSS in web design (or have been following its evolution), you may remember the battle cry of “tables are dead” from a few years ago, which was soon followed by rallying cry “Long live tables!”

According to the thinking (and gurus) at the time, EVERYTHING that could be done with a table could be done with div layout and a little creativity. In spite of the fact that tables can easily resolve some very tricky problems and can be styled with CSS, tables are still kind of a dirty word in web design.

I’ve had a few attempts to go tableless; some very successful, some not so successful. My least successful tableless adventure, happened in 2005. As part of a class project, I decided to create a tableless and very graphics heavy website. The tableless part was easy until I decided to embed flash. Without a table to control the size output, there was no way to force IE and firefox to render the flash movie the same. Believe me, I searched high and low. Nope, not doable. Because the “lesson” or project challenge that I was supposed to be learning was tableless layout, I was stuck with a website that doesn’t render perfectly in IE and firefox (although to be honest, most people couldn’t see the problem).

A table would have been the easy answer. Although I shy away from tables, I do find they still have value in web design, as I re-discovered just recently.
For the magazine (and the pacercms dev group), I’ve been working on the rss feed output. The original feed outputted the summary (the first feed image), but my goal is to output the whole magazine in a readable format, including images, links, and proper line breaks.

The easiest way to fold the images into a rss feed is through an embedded image (as in my new version of the feed). However, with an embedded image, there is no easy way to caption it. Sure, alt tags and names can provide popup and additional info, but I need to be able to easily and visibly include copyright info, author info, etc. AND have it show up in the feed in context, not at the bottom or top of each item.

Tables to the rescue! Using the caption tag, I am able to add both a caption and locate it below the text (actually, in my case, an image). I am also able to style the table so that it renders the same in each article: the placement will be the same, the padding will be the same, etc.

I can’t believe how easy this is and I also can’t believe that I had forgotten how useful tables are.

http://www.aurora-il.org/table_test.htm

the always wonderful, alistapart.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/practicalcss/

new art, new writings, latest issue of moonshine is available!

For those interested, the latest issue of moonshine, a magazine of the southern arts is available
online (& free) at
http://www.moonshine.southerncreativity.com

(moonshine is run on pacercms opensource newspaper & journal software; for more info about that), drop me a line.

details:
————————-
It’s not just the weather that is hot. Take a break and check out some smokin’ work from Southern writers & artists. It’s so hot, it’s cool. Read, see, and listen!

oRiGiNaL ArT
James McCallister goes to Ask the Ducks, while Jasmine Rizer’s serial, “Tough Love” concludes. Lisa Taylor comments on Barbecuing for Jesus and Mccabe Coolidge begins the first of The Seven Questions.What haven’t you done that you’ve always wanted to do?

Sandy Vanderbleek tests the headwinds of reality while Gilbert Head visits Five Flowers in Summer and The Alley of Dreams, Revisited. John S Moon is on Night Watch and Russell Lee Hale II gives us Gypsy Hearts.

sTuDiO ViEwS
Studio views features Hannah Leatherbury’s audio interview (podcast) with abstract painter Liisa Salosaari-Jasinsk (courtesy of the Southern Arts Federation). Plein air painter Sandra Babb braves the heat and is Eating Up the Profits.

cReAtiVitY
robin fay continues to explore creativity (pt. 5), with artist interviews focusing on the medium and its impact on artwork; Carmela Cattuti explains What is soul focus? and Dorothy Birch provides some tips for An Inspired Summer.

tEcHnOLoGy & aRT
Donna Rosser aka the Barefoot Photographer provides practical tips and advice for photographing artwork in Digital Images of Your Work.

cULtuRe oF aRT
What have you done with your vacation photos? Amber Moore is here to help with ideas in Vacation Memories Make Great Art. Diane Moran shares her story of her travel to New Orleans: creating artwork, fundraising and more in post-Katrina New Orleans in the The Heart of Art.

mUsIc maTtErS
Music matters features an audio interview with Jazz Vocalist/Composer and Educator, Nnenna Freelon (from Hannah Leatherbury, courtesy of the Southern Arts Federation).

bOoK rEViEwS
Need some quality reading for your summer reading list? Check out these offerings:
Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist by Nancy Goldenstein
reviewed by Jasmine Rizer; Little Things: A Memoir in Slices by Jeffrey Brown
reviewed by Andrew Shuping; and Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005 by Robert Hass
reviewed by Heather Kline.

mOrE
Check in with a Short Girl comix, book reviews, work from the Southerncreativity gallery (@ Flickr), art announcements & calls for entries.

Online workshop XML in Libraries

Nifty little online workshop about XML in Libraries — very well organized and easy to follow. Covers the basics of XML to writing XML, with lots of exercises.
http://infomotions.com/musings/xml-in-libraries/

drupal and libraries

| View | Upload your own

Presented at Computers in Libraries 2008 conference

Link

HP, MIT bolster DSpace open-source archives

Kind of old news at this point (it’s been floating around in my inbox!), but I find it interesting that someone from the Internet Archive has been appointed the director of the DSpace Foundation. Verrry interesting…

—————–

Users of DSpace digital-archiving technology will now receive help and support via a not-for-profit organization set up by the creators of the tool, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Hewlett-Packard.

Announced Wednesday, the DSpace Foundation will provide support to more than 200 institutions around the world that use the open-source online tool to manage their digital document archives, HP and MIT said.

The organizations also announced that Michele Kimpton, formerly of the Internet Archive, has been appointed as director of the DSpace Foundation.

more at

http://tinyurl.com/546xrm

Friday fun — image editing online, new browsers & more

Flock aims to take searching and browsing on the ‘net social. I dunno, sometimes I’m not interested in being social — I just need to find something quickly.

IE8 is now in beta and sounds like it will be rolled out with new versions of Windows and sounds like they will continue to move down the standards compliancy road.

Firefox 3 is beta, too and has been hyped as nexgen searching (whatever that may mean).

Google suggest is kind of cool but kind of annoying (sometimes I just want to find things and I don’t want to be bothered.) Of course, at some point, it will just give up with trying to help you, too.

Seven online image editing tools in case google’s picassa is just not enough.