CDMUG September 2010 Meetup

RSVP @ http://drupal.meetup.com/1

Location: THE OFFICE
1925 N. Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60647

Our September meetup will be held at THE OFFICE in Bucktown for the first time ever. THE OFFICE owner/host Lisa Fischer will be presenting and showing off her wonderful new office space for rent. In addition, Joel Finkel has been brought back to present.

Lisa Fischer will be presenting...."Drupal and Ubercart"- Discussion detailing Ubercart with Drupal integration. Modules to be discussed: uc_free payment, uc_coupon, uc_affiliate. Applied example/strategy: How do music/ebook download cards work and get configured?" 20min presentation based off AquarianRecords.com

Joel Finkel will be presenting...."We use Drupal Views to define how data are retrieved. Filters and Arguments refine (restrict) what data are returned. Usually this is pretty straight forward. I will present a more difficult case in which I had to create a lookup table that maps Gregorian dates to Torah Portion names and that then uses a returned Torah Portion name as an Argument to a View.

I will show how to build a module that, when installed, creates and populates a database table. I will demonstrate how to build a simple web service that is used to query that table. I will demonstrate how this is all integrated with Views to allow the user to enter a date and return only those nodes that are appropriate for that date.

A little background: Jews read the Torah (the first 5 books of the Old Testament) straight through each year. Starting at the beginning, each week we read the next Torah Portion. Each Torah Portion (also called a Parsha) has a name. The Jewish calendar is a lunar one, while the Gregorian calendar is a solar one. Therefore, a specific Parsha is not read on the same Gregorian date each year. When a child reaches 13, she or he has a Bat or Bar Mitzvah, and reads part of that week's Parsha. Now, what if I want to buy a gift for that child but only know the Gregorian date? I need to find the Parsha for that date.

This is where my module comes in. My client is an artist who creates gifts that are based on Parshas. But her customers only know the date of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Rather than code a very complicated algorithm to convert a Gregorian date to a Parsha name, I created a lookup table with 15 years of data. I created a web service that accepts a Gregorian date and returns the Parsha for that date. I use that Parsha name as an Argument to a View that retrieves products (gifts) that have been assigned that Parsha name as a Taxonomy Term.

Estimated Agenda
7:00 - Arrival and socialize
7:15 - Presentation: Lisa Fischer - "Drupal and Ubercart"
- break with Q&A
7:45 - Presentation: Joel Finkel custom module to convert a Gregorian date to a Parsha name
9:15 - group Q&A

The Chicago Drupal Meet Up group is proud to present at least two featured presentations about the hottest Drupal topics each month. We have room for about 40 people and all skill levels are are welcomed. If you are brand new to Drupal we recommend attending one of our free monthly training workshops.

We are looking for additional presenters who can present a 10 - 15 minute advanced topic. Or a 30 - 60 minute presentation. Always remember the projector is open for anyone to show off a project. If you have an idea or can present - contact Matthew or http://cdmug.org/contact

If you are not able to physically attend, join us virtually in our #cdmug IRC chat room on freenode. Members hang out in the chat room on a daily basis even when meetups are not happening. If you are unfamiliar with IRC view http://drupal.org/irc feel free to utilize our web based chat client @ http://cdmug.org/chat

All meetups will be in traditional CDMUG fashion. No dress code, relaxed attitudes, open ideas, laptop encouraged, remember business cards, and we will probably go for a beer afterward.

Contact us if you are interested in presenting, have ideas for the group, or have any type of feedback - http://cdmug.org/contact