Christopher Torgalson's Blog Posts
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Currency Formatting javascript library available on Github
December 14, 2011 CommentsIn addition to all of the small modules we write for client projects, we also write quite a few small javascript libraries. Several times now, we've had a need for good currency formatting in javascript. On the most recent occasion, rather than re-use previously-written code that might or might not be a good fit with the current project, we decided to write a small, flexible, general-purpose, javascript currency formatter--something like PHP's money_format() function (though with far fewer options).
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RE Help Module on github
October 27, 2011 Comments
We write a lot of small Drupal modules for client sites. Often these modules just do a single, small job that makes Drupal slightly easier or more convenient to use. One of the standard services we provide for Drupal clients is an online help manual containing general Drupal information, plus specific documentation about how to use the various custom features we build on clients' individual sites. Recently we realized that, though we always provide access to this manual, we could make it more convenient for clients to access by placing a link to it directly in clients own websites. This module was the result. -
RE Mailchimp Extras module on Github
October 20, 2011 CommentsThis is another small module that was developed to satisfy a single requirement. In this case, the requirement was to insert data from specific Webform fields (first name, last name, email address and email opt-in only) directly to the client's Mailchimp account. The module isn't a replacement for a full-featured Mailchimp-management module, but at the time it was initially developed, no other modules we were aware of could satisfy the customer's requirement.
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Build a slideshow with Context and RE Context Libraries
October 18, 2011 CommentsOur reason for writing the RE Context Libraries module (see the blog post for more info) was to fully utilize the power of the Context module when creating javascript-dependent features using the Features module. Confused? It's actually quite straightforward. Note that though this post is exclusively concerned with the Drupal 6 versions of the modules concerned, everything it discusses is also possible in Drupal 7.
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RE Context Libraries module available on drupal.org
October 17, 2011 CommentsThe RE Context Libraries module is the latest 'official' module released by Raised Eyebrow. This is a small module that builds upon the excellent Context module and has promises to be a real timesaver when theming new Drupal websites.
The Context module's great advantage over Drupal's native Blocks module is that it dramatically expands the set of conditions that can be used to determine where blocks can be displayed. This enables us to build Drupal sites where the behaviour of blocks is quite sophisticated--for example, we might decide to display a block containing a list of upcoming events on event nodes or on nodes with a certain taxonomy term. On a stock Drupal site, this would require custom coding.
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Generic caching function for Drupal 6
June 24, 2009 CommentsOne of the pieces of the Drupal performance puzzle is caching. After weeding out a couple of very demanding sql queries in a busy Drupal site, we decided to make more use of Drupal's caching mechanisms to cut down some of the database load.
Back in 2007, Lullabot's Jeff Eaton wrote a blog post about caching including a sample implementation for a caching function. This function was almost exactly what we wanted, but we wanted something more generic—a function that we could use in multiple places in the same module or template.php file without modification.
