Jun
21
Grails, GDS and Gravity Step by Step Guide
Submitted by John on Mon, 21/06/2010 - 10:08
This guide shows you how to configure Grails to run with basic Gravity messaging over Granite Data Services.
The Groovy on Grails version used was Grails 1.2.1. The gdsflex plugin version used was a 0.8 working version.
Note capitals denote symbolic references, not literal characters e.g. GRAILS-PROJECT-LOCATION might be C:\wspace\messaging. So here goes:
Create Grails Application
grails create-app messaging
Import it into STS
Dec
23
Basic plumber site launched
Submitted by John on Wed, 23/12/2009 - 02:02
Just launched a one-page site for a local plumber in Valencia, called FGC Valencia, which stands for Fontanería Gas Calefacción Valencia.
Often small businesses would like web presence but can't pay for a major site design. A nice, simple, one-page site gets you up and running, and can always be later expanded if the client desires.
Oct
10
Turning Scripture References into Bible Text Pop-ups with Drupal
Submitted by John on Sat, 10/10/2009 - 23:50
Recently a chap named certain Walton contacted me to ask how how we got the bible text to pop up when you hover your mouse over scripture references on the Christian Assemblies International website:
Sep
4
Griffon GUI Builder Options
Submitted by John on Fri, 04/09/2009 - 20:54
Recently I experimented with Griffon with a view to replacing a Swing application created in Eclipse Visual Builder. Having got my head around Groovy and Grails already, I can say that it was fun. However not being much of a Swing programmer, the main problem I had was building a layout. I mean when you come from a non-Swing background, how are you supposed to build a layout for anything more complicated that the 3-widget panels that are in all the examples on the internet?
Jul
24
How to build a Java client to consume a RESTful Grails web service
Submitted by John on Fri, 24/07/2009 - 07:25
Question posted on the Grails mailing list:
I'm trying to build a REST client for my REST server (which I build
with the help of the Definitive Guide To Grails) using RESTclient.
I'm using the following code at the server side:
May
18
Drupal Themes Recommended by Consultants
Submitted by John on Mon, 18/05/2009 - 16:44
Recently the following question was posed on the Drupal consultants mailing list by Sam Cohen:
"I was hoping some of you... can share any theme suggestions, both contributed and commercial, that you think look the most professional."
In the interests of helping others and of promoting the best Drupal themes, here are the themes that got a mention, along with the highlights of the various comments about them:
Apr
17
Easy Way to Pick a Bad Web Host
Submitted by John on Fri, 17/04/2009 - 17:09
Let's face it - web hosting is profitable and the market is crowded with people vying for your dollar. You want to spend as little as possible but you want high quality hosting. The problem is that you only really find out who is good after you've signed up and invested the labour in getting things running on their servers. Sometimes it can be a couple of months in when some issues crop up. Here's a non-technical way to differentiate good and bad hosts:
Mar
10
Draft Magento Installation Video
Submitted by John on Tue, 10/03/2009 - 00:38
Tonight I created a really basic Magento installation video tutorial. I mainly did it to sort of test and hone my video creation skills, but I hope it helps a few people along the way. Sorry for the poor sound quality at times, and the umms, ahhs, and parts where I glance over things which may not be obvious. In the future I'd like to make more polished Drupal and Magento tutorial videos about more advanced topics.
So, without further ado:
Feb
24
Translation Anchor Text for Drupal: Optimise Your Language Links
Submitted by John on Tue, 24/02/2009 - 21:25
I’ve created a Drupal module which replaces the anchor text of links to node translations with the page title of that translation.
The Problem with Default Drupal Translation Links
One thing which milled around my mind a bit recently is the apparent SEO un-friendliness of the default way Drupal implements translation links. By “translation links” I’m referring to the links that appear at the bottom of any node that has translations. By default, with the translation icons module enabled, they look something like this:
Feb
23
Canonical URL Tag: No Mad Rush to Implement
Submitted by John on Mon, 23/02/2009 - 21:26
Recently the big three search engines teamed up and agreed on a format to help webmasters reduce duplicate content and its related disadvantages for their websites, being referred to in SEO circles as a “canonicalization tag”. Technically it’s not a tag but a value being applied to the rel attribute of the link element; if you want the gory details check the above link.
Feb
16
Creating Stylish Vocabulary Overview Pages in Drupal
Submitted by John on Mon, 16/02/2009 - 23:12
Recently we received the following request on the Christian Assemblies website:
Feb
8
Paste as Unformatted Text in Word and Office 2007
Submitted by John on Sun, 08/02/2009 - 00:54
Yep - it's one of those features that you need multiple times a day, but Microsoft didn't manage to create a direct shortcut for it! Of course they did have time to come up with a shortcut to display the Research task pane (ALT+SHFT+F7) - that thing you didn't even know existed.
Anyway the good news is they did include the next-best thing - a shortcut to paste special. It's ALT-CTRL-v. From there you can reasonably painlessly arrow to the "plain text" option and hit return.
Feb
3
An Investigation of Some SEO Firms and Practices
Submitted by John on Tue, 03/02/2009 - 13:31
I just stumbled upon the most original and interesting post I've read on SEO for a while. I quite like the way the author put some money in and did some real research to make a unique article. Here are my thoughts in response, which of course will only make sense after you've read the article in question...
Jan
31
The FSF Has Hijacked the Word "Free"
Submitted by John on Sat, 31/01/2009 - 01:11
I think the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has hijacked the word "free". To most people "free" means without cost. Of course in English it has a number of other meanings, for example a seat can be free. However the FSF uses the word to describe a restrictive form of licence that ensures that any person that comes into posession of such licenced software is free to do with it anything that the FSF thinks would be good.
