EngineersGarage has chosen Valuebound for support & maintenance services as well as to improve the performance of its Drupal 6 website. We will be working towards improving the site performance during peak traffic hours. Our initiatives are specifically meant to troubleshoot the issues faced by the website due to server overload because of frequent DDoS attack. We will also migrate the site to n-tier hosting architecture where web server and database will be deployed on separate locations. We will also be working on migrating the site to Drupal 7. Drupal 7 will help the website leverage new features with reduced number of modules and better performance to handle a web-traffic of 1.5 million page view per month.

About Engineers Garage

Engineers Garage is an innovative company which started its operations in 2010 with a mission to empower people with the technical know-how with its DIY projects and services.The company believes in constant ideation and the application of creativity to overcome technical hurdles as reflected in their products and services.

About Valuebound

Valuebound prides itself in being a boutique web services provider that keeps evolving with each project it undertakes. Valuebound is a key contributor to the Drupal community with a strong belief in having fruitful partnerships with our esteemed clients. We at Valuebound are committed to your business initiatives with our Enterprise level Web Solutions. Please contact us to know more about our service offerings.

The Configuration Management Initiative (CMI) has turned out to be quite a game changer for how the configuration settings will be managed and staged between different environments in Drupal 8. A Configuration Management System facilitates an ease of movement between the development, staging and production environments within a Drupal installation while minimizing the need to add extra modules.

In short the Configuration Management Initiative in Drupal 8 is set to solve some long-standing issues a Drupal 7 developer has been grappling with.

# A Unified Approach towards Configuration - Storage of Configuration as Files

An irksome issue with Drupal 7 is the different sets of standards followed by the modules in storing configuration. This often results in the configuration being scattered among database tables, variables and objects exported via CTools and Features, making it hard to detect where the relevant configuration is stored.The Configuration Management Initiative in Drupal 8 has taken care of all the hitches relating to the storage of configuration. The configuration will be stored in the form of human readable text files in the YAML (.yml) format.

# Improved Configuration Staging Capabilities

The Drupal 7 version relied on the Features module and the Features revert operation to have “staged Configuration”. The “import configuration” option available in Drupal 8 will let you import a single configuration file or even the entire site configuration with effortless ease. Although Drupal 7 offers better packaging capabilities, Drupal 8 outscores it with its “importing configuration option” which again is totally unfeasible with Drupal 7 features.

A version control system in Drupal 8 lets you keep track of your configuration changes.The import, export and synchronization of configuration on a site can be done via Manage > Configuration > Development > Configuration management (admin/config/development/configuration).

# Where are the Configurations Stored?

The new configuration system uses two directories to store configuration, the active and the staging directories. When settings are modified by a site administrator, the changes are stored in the active configuration in the database and can be exported back to the files when needed. When a module is enabled, the default settings are copied to the active configuration in the database. The default settings of Modules are stored in configuration files that are stored in config/install/directory in the module root directory.

Although the introduction of configuration management initiative in Drupal 8 is meant to streamline the configuration management, it does not leave the Features module irrelevant. A 3.x version of Features will be integrated with the new Configuration Management System to provide options like “export bundled functionality”.

Valuebound is committed to growth of Drupal & community. We will be publishing more about benefits of Drupal 8 and how your business can make best use of new features. Feel free to reach out to us if you would like know more about our contribution towards Drupal.

Contextual filters are extensively used in scenarios that require filtering based on a specific context, which is not feasible using the standard filters available in Views.

We applied a contextual filter in one of our recent projects,a CMS implementation for a higher education institution. The project involved the creation of a slideshow display on specific web-pages assigned to different departments in the college. All the pages shared a common taxonomy vocabulary (department) with a separate taxonomy term for each department(e.g. Architecture, Biotechnology). A content type (department page) was used to create all the department pages. The creation of views block (slideshow) for each department page was unfeasible hence a single block was used along with a contextual filter to solve the issue.

Step 1 : Adding a Filter Criteria

We began by choosing “Content Type” as the filter criteria for all displays.

Step 2: Selecting a Content Type

We specified the “Content Type” as “Home Slideshow”

Step 3: Enabling the Advanced View settings to configure a contextual filter

3.1 This was followed by opting for “Content: Has taxonomy term ID”

Step 4: Configuring contextual filter : Content: Has taxonomy term ID

Then we configured Content: Has taxonomy term ID by opting for “When the Filter Value is not Available”, while choosing to “provide a default value”. The option to “Load default filter from node page” was checked and the default value was sourced from the “Taxonomy term ID from URL”. This was followed by applying the changes.

4.1 This is what the View Block Configuration Page looks like after the changes have been applied.

4.2 There is an option to test the contextual filter by typing it into the preview window and then opting for "Update Preview". Here is what the preview for this case will look like:

4.3 If you are familiar with the use of SQL Queries it would be worthwhile to turn on the display of the queries in the View preview display to keep a tab on what views will be up to when they are called.

Step 5 : Saving all the Changes

Now that you have learnt to configure a contextual filter, the key to applying it permanently is saving all the changes in the end.

Settings that you should be aware of

# What to do when the Filter Value is in the URL?

The “Override title” option here helps you alter the view’s title in case there is a contextual filter value present. Meanwhile the “Override Breadcrumb” option allows you the option of overwriting the view name in breadcrumbs. The validators associated with contextual filters are meant to ensure that the filters fit in certain parameters. The Contextual Filter Validation system may have numerous validators like basic validation, content, numeric,PHP Code, Taxonomy term and user that can be selected.

In case the filter value does not validate, there are multiple options to choose from:

• Display all results for the specified field
• Hide View
• Return Summary
• Display contents of "No results found"

# How to allow multiple filter values while reducing duplicates ?

The Allow Multiple Values option inverts the filtering process by excluding the rows that match the filter criteria. This option allows several values for the contextual filters, as values separated by commas are interpreted by views as AND conditions while the values separated by plus signs are regarded as OR conditions. An example of allowing multiple values can be observed when several taxonomy term IDs are allowed to display the entire content marked with any of the terms.

The Reduce Duplicates option is meant to reduce the occurence of duplicate results due to repetition while filtering on multiple taxonomy terms. Although this option reduces duplicates effectively it makes the database query heavier. The standard functionality of a contextual filter can be effectively extended to cover filter ranges with the help of a module like Views Contextual Range Filter.

Valuebound is a key contributor to the Drupal community with a strong belief in having fruitful partnerships with our esteemed clients. We at Valuebound are committed to your business initiatives with our Enterprise level Web Solutions. Please contact us to know more about our service offerings.

We at Valuebound feel proud to be associated with an organization like ISKCON that is committed to charitable activities targeted at making major differences at a grassroot level. Valuebound will be redeveloping the ISKCON Bangalore website by upgrading the current Drupal 6 version to Drupal 7. This initiative is meant to make the website responsive and user friendly in order to improve user engagement.

About ISKCON

ISKCON (The International Society for Krishna Consciousness ) is a monotheistic movement that has captured the imagination of the masses worldwide. This movement is based on the spiritual teachings recorded in the Bhagvad Gita and is a remnant of the ancient vedic and Hindu cultural traditions. The ISKCON Temple in Bangalore is reknown for its serene surroundings and architectural beauty, figuring amongst the largest ISKCON temples around the world. ISKCON Bagalore has also been a prime initiator of the Akshaya Patra Foundation that ensures the implementation of the Mid-day Meal Programmes in Government and Government-aided schools across India.The vast international following ISKCON has acquired over the years speaks volumes about its international stature.

About Valuebound

Valuebound prides itself in being a boutique web services provider that keeps evolving with each project it undertakes. Valuebound is a key contributor to the Drupal community with a strong belief in having fruitful partnerships with our esteemed clients. We at Valuebound are committed to your business initiatives with our Enterprise level Web Solutions. Please contact us to know more about our services offering.

We proudly announce the release of Link Click Count, a Drupal module meant to track the number of clicks on specific links on a web page. This module helps you to monitor the web traffic, based on the number of clicks on a specific set of link fields on a particular web page.

Link Click Count gives real time information based on the user activity on any web page with link fields that may have internal or external links. This module can be a great aid in formulating an effective digital marketing strategy based on the user behaviour indicated by the clicks on certain strategic destination URLs on a web page. For instance, the count of clicks on a link leading to the Landing page on a website or download links for value-adding resources like e-books can help a digital marketer in fine-tuning their marketing automation strategies.

Installation Steps

The Link Click Count Module has three dependencies:

Link module
Views module
Views Distinct module.

These modules need to be downloaded and installed before enabling Link Click Count. The next step is to copy the entire Link click count directory to the modules directory (e.g. DRUPAL_ROOT/sites/all/modules) and enable the Link Click Count module at [admin/modules#edit-modules-fields].

Configuration

To configure the Link Click Count Module, the first step is to visit any link field setting page [admin/structure/types/manage/your-content-type/fields/]. The "Link Clicks Count Configuration" section has the option to "Save the clicks happened on this link", which will configure the module with ease.

You can download the module here.

The Link Click Count Module can be a simple yet effective tool for Website Traffic Analysis. As the results generated are easy to analyse without any technical expertise required to infer them, this module is particularly useful for people from non-technical backgrounds.

If you have any suggestions to improve the module further or if you would like to add a customized version of this module to an existing project or a venture in the offing, feel free to contact us. We at Valuebound are committed to providing you with enterprise Web Solutions meant to turbofire your business initiatives.

The appeal of a Web CMS (Content Management System) ideally lies in the business objectives it is meant to fulfill. While drawing up the blueprint of a development project it would be a good thing to evaluate a CMS based on its functionalities and ease of use.A management professional would preferably want a CMS that creates a workflow and facilitates access control. Meanwhile, a developer would like a CMS to be an extensive framework that supports new modules and integrates with ease with other enterprise services.

An enterprise level CMS has become crucial to the growth of an organization today as content marketing has evolved as a pivotal element in digital marketing campaigns.The inevitable question that would follow is, “How is CMS suitable for my business?” The fact of the matter is that an Enterprise Content Management System that is entirely flexible and allows for easy customization is worth every penny invested in it.A CMS comes with a central interface that facilitates easy editing and addition of different media before the content is finally published. Meanwhile a CMS that dictates the presentation of content and puts constraints on the design ultimately results in poor accessibility and an unsavoury user experience.

Open Source Content Management Systems like Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal have found preference over a plethora of CMSes available in the market today. The open source format of these CMSes has encouraged continuous improvisations over older versions through productive support from online developer communities. Although there are a multitude of reasons to use a CMS to develop a website, let us have a look at it from a business perspective.

Facilitates Frequent Content Updates on the Web Properties

Drupal has emerged as the top choice for complex websites that require complex data management for time sensitive content. Websites with a considerably large number of web-pages need a flexible framework to ensure easy movement of content. Drupal holds an exceptional capability of tagging, categorizing and organizing content which makes finding and reusing content on a site an easy task.

An enterprise level Website may need regular updation of serial content like blog posts, podcasts, press-releases and other value adding research material like white papers and e-books. This is where a CMS comes in as it saves you some precious time that you would lose updating the web content manually. An easy to navigate administration interface makes Wordpress a favourable option for small to medium sized websites that rely more on looks than functionalities to garner traffic. Joomla on the other hand lacks the SEO capabilities to make your content more searchable and requires the services of an SEO expert for the same.

Aids in Effective Content Management & Collaboration

Prior to the introduction of a web Content Management system, the content generated for a website was vulnerable to duplication and often gave the website a cluttered look with a lot of scattered content. The introduction of a CMS has facilitated the consolidation of the content into a single repository that in turn minimizes content redundancy and makes content-sharing easier. A CMS incorporates a workflow engine which in turn facilitates a collaborative effort by multiple contributors for content creation,editing and final approval before it gets published. A WYSIWYG Editor is a core feature common to all CMSes that helps in editing content in real time. An ideal CMS must be adept in handling external assets like downloadable files and images.

A CMS minimizes the security threats that may arise due to unauthorized access to the content on a website by assigning user privileges to authorized users who can edit and share the content by logging in through unique IDs. Different privilege levels assigned to the users ensures that a person responsible for content updation does not meddle with the main code files. An ACL(Access Control List) is again a vital component of an enterprise level CMS which makes sure that a list of permissions is granted to particular users for specific pages. The ACL support for Joomla is limited which makes it unsuitable for enterprise level websites inspite of its structural stability. Whereas Drupal has various modules like Content Access, Forum Access and Image Gallery Access that use ACL effectively.

Ensures Device & Platform Compatibility for the Web Properties

As web applications are being accessed through different mobile devices, a responsive design has become more of an imperative than an option. Mobile Content Management has become pivotal to the growth of a business online as web properties are being designed with responsive features for a better user experience on mobile devices. The ease of access, navigation and readability are important features that depend on a responsive web design that responds to a browser of any width to make the website accessible on any device.Drupal CMS is not just a content management framework as it doubles up as a web application framework too. Drupal is used as a framework to develop a variety of web apps today.

Effortless Customization Options at your Fingertips

The structural flexibility of a CMS architecture is a key element that determines the kind of features and functionalities that can be added to it. An easily customizable CMS must also possess an element of intuitiveness that makes navigation aand workflow easier even for a newbie. Drupal comes across as a highly configurable CMS that makes it easier for designers to come up with highly interactive and user friendly websites. The Drupal themes can be configured and customized with ease to make it accessible to the end user as well as the site-builders during the website development phase.

Wordpress too has a significant number of plug-ins and themes that make it a highly customizable CMS software for Designer Websites. Although the requirement of significant server resources to keep up with the future growth phase limits the scope of Wordpress as a customizable CMS. Drupal on the other hand is a champion in key areas such as performance and scalability as it comes equipped with a strong taxonomy and capabilities of tagging, categorizing and organizing complex content.

Web Experience Management

The task of engaging visitors at your website is equally significant as the marketing efforts that are put in to generate the traffic and direct them to the site in the first place. WEM (Web Experience Management) also known as WCM (Web Content Management) is an emerging personalization methodology that creates better user engagement on your website through a variety of tools that help in segmenting content and creating customized advertisements on web pages.

The WEM Module by Drupal CMS provides a range of functionalities like Event tracking, reporting and segmentation. Event tracking is a tool meant to track the user behaviour for your web pages, indicated by page views, logins and new user accounts. While the segmentation tool helps you segment your users based on the events they participate in, the reporting page helps you in monitoring the events on your website. This module can be a useful tool to analyze the performance of an online marketing campaign as it helps in tracking the user behaviour in real time.

Your choice of CMS must be reflective of the requirements of your business, which means it should not be short on features and neither should it go overboard with functionalities which might never come in handy. Although a CMS is prone to cyber-threats like hacking, the extensive support from the online developer community helps to plug-in the loop-holes and vulnerabilities through new security updates to future-proof and secure the websites.

A futuristic vision of how a CMS would accommodate your evolving business needs may serve as a criterion for selecting a scalable CMS for your web properties. We at ValueBound would like to contribute to your business initiatives through our enterprise Drupal web solutions. For more information Contact us

An overwhelming influx of a varied range of mobile devices has made it easier for people to access internet on the go as opposed to relying on desktop PCs alone. The global population, particularly the younger generation has taken to this growing trend with a promptness that is well-reflected in their possession of mobile computational tools of myriad brands and models. The student community undoubtedly forms the largest chunk of the consumer base for mobile devices. Meanwhile smartphones, tablets and phablets are on the verge of gaining a ubiquitous presence owing to the ever-increasing coverage of cellular and wifi networks.

Mobile computing has inspired responsive website designs for an effective and clear rendering of websites on mobile devices.The higher education sector has joined the mobile computing bandwagon as they have woken up to the incentivizing opportunities an official website with a responsive design provides. An optimal viewing experience that is consistent on different browsers and mobile devices can be achieved by incorporating an efficient Responsive Web Design framework. Ivy league Universities like the Harvard and MIT have heralded the change by opting for the Drupal Content Management System to manage their official websites and their mobile device versions.

Making the right choice : Responsive Web Design Vs. A Native Mobile App

The dilemma of choosing between a responsive web design and a native mobile application can be resolved by gaining clarity on the objectives an educational institution wants to achieve through incorporating both or either one of them. A responsive web design makes a site respond to different screen resolutions automatically on any browser or mobile device. It is ideally centered around prioritizing the website content that needs to be displayed first while pushing down the secondary or superfluous content.

Studies have indicated that an effective mobile deployment strategy for a University should preferably start with a robust mobile website followed by iOS and android apps. The increasing popularity of certain mobile devices and operating systems has led to the development of native mobile apps. These apps are specifically developed for a particular device, for instance apps created for Apple's iPhone series operating on iOS will find a widespread audience owing to the popularity of the brand.

Benefits of using a Native Mobile App.

A Native App has become an indispensable necessity given the constantly improvised tablets and smartphone models that are launched every year by major brands as well as the new entrants in the mobile device market . The better the features, the greater is the brand loyalty and a native app developed for such a brand is the best way to incentivize this hardware demand by tapping in the potential this consumerization of mobile technology offers. Native Apps can be acquired at online stores like Apple's App Store that sells iOS apps or at Google Play where the android apps can be dowloaded with ease. A major advantage of using a native app on a mobile device is its faster performance as it leverages the native functionalities on the device like file systems and camera.

The Drupal platform offers numerous tools for building native mobile apps. The Drupal Gap Module and the Mobile Application Kit can be a great help in developing native apps. Phone Gap, a native application wrapper meant for web content displayed on a mobile device, also supports the development of native mobile apps. Appcelerator Titanium is one such mobile app development tool that facilitates the development of both iOS and Android applications from a single code base.

Where does Drupal figure in the scheme of things?

According to recent research statistics, 71 of the top 100 Universities have Drupal based websites while 28 percent of all .edu sites rely on Drupal to power their sites. The higher education space can be highly complex with the websites carrying time-sensitive content that is shared by multiple contributors from different departments in an institution.The key reasons for Drupal to have emerged as the top choice for educational websites is its flexible architecture and the availability of thousands of add-on modules that makes customization of themes and addition of content and features effortlessly easier.

The educational institutions have eventually come to terms with an overwhelming presence of mobile devices and gadgets as it has practically infiltrated the classroom spaces. In an initiative to engage the students more effectively, the educational institutions are encouraging them to bring their own devices to the classroom. Tasks like scheduling courses, accessing course material, library books and even checking the grades have become effortlessly easier, thanks to a mobile workflow interface. The BYOD(Bring Your Own Device) initiative at the educational institutes is a strategic move to keep up with the changing digital landscape while minimizing infrastructure costs.

The Drupal modules specifically designed for higher education websites can be integrated with ease to improve the workflow for a seamless mobile browsing experience. A Drupal development environment can host customizable e-learning solutions and Learning Management Systems. The Drupal modules when incorporated into a Drupal Platform make it customizable to an institution's individual needs. Modules like Link checker,Breadcrumbs, LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) and OpenLayers are some useful additions to direct the students to the relevant information they are looking for. A competent mobile initiative depends on an institution's ability to commit resources for the creation and maintenance of a robust mobile environment.

A frantically changing mobile terrain requires the educational institutions to keep pace with the same if they want to ensure a relevant online presence. We at Valuebound will help you turbofire your mobile initiative with our enterprise Drupal Web Solutions. For more information contact us

Greytip, offering HR and Payroll Software solutions, has chosen Valuebound to maintain their Drupal based web presence. Valuebound will help the Greytip Website in transitioning from Bootstap 2 to a Bootstrap 3  based theme along with a responsive design for multiple devices. Additional functionalities keeping in line with the product offerings of Greytip will also feature in this upgrade.

About Greytip

Greytip has been providing HR and Payroll Software solutions since 1994. These products enable organizations to provide a wide range of employee critical services effectively, efficiently and quickly. Greytip provides solutions for all functions of a HR Department ranging from Employee Information Management, Attendance, Training and Payroll Administration. Greytip’s solutions are used by 2500+ organizations including 25+ Fortune 500 clients.

About Valuebound

Valuebound prides itself in being a boutique web services provider that keeps evolving with each project it undertakes. Valuebound is a key contributor to the Drupal community with a strong belief in having fruitful partnerships with our esteemed clients. We at Valuebound are committed to furthering your business initiatives with our unique Enterprise level Web Solutions. Please contact us to know more about our service offerings.

Valuebound has successfully developed an Educational Video Platform for Mu(μ) Lessons, using Drupal Commerce. We have used a number of contributed modules to build this site and are proud of the fact that this project was developed and launched in record time.One of the highlights of this site is the sharing of revenue with video authors who contribute videos to the site. The Students who wish to access these videos need to buy credits in order to view a certain set of videos together.These credits can be used to view videos of your choice for which points shall be deducted from your user account and transferred to the video author's account as online payment. These points earned by an author can be converted to cash balance by placing a request with the site manager. We have also developed a new module Vimeo Video Uploader to enable the option of uploading videos to Vimeo. We have contributed this module to the Drupal community and you can download it here.

About Mu(μ)Lessons

An educational video platform dedicated to providing virtual study material for Engineering students, Mu(μ)Lessons encourages the student fraternity to create explanatory videos based on key educational topics across different streams in Engineering. These videos are uploaded by individuals who are chosen to intern as Subject Matter experts at Mu(μ) Lessons and are made available to the student community at minimal pricing.

About Valuebound

Valuebound prides itself in being a boutique web services provider that keeps evolving with each project it undertakes. Valuebound is a key contributor to the Drupal community with a strong belief in having fruitful partnerships with our esteemed clients. We at Valuebound are committed to further your business initiatives with our Enterprise level Web Solutions. Please contact us to know more about our service offerings.

Recently we have developed a new Drupal module “ Registration invite”, for the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee Alumni Association site. The module is developed specifically to send invitations to all students who have graduated and are to join the alumni network.

The requirement was to allow users to become a member by invitation only. This module envisages creating a group of common interests with a unique URL assigned to each user of the group. By limiting new user registration to referrals only, this module aims to create a site of closed communities with semi-private accessibility.

With this potentially powerful module, the administrator can keep track of each user, both invitees, and referrals. The complete instruction process to install this module is listed below.

Installation steps

Module has two dependency

1. Invite
2. User Referral

Download and enable these two.

After installation of the above two modules, enable “Registration invite module”.

After enabling the module, you will get the settings “New user registration by invitation only” in the account setting page.

Once you have enabled this setting, registration will be open only for users who got invitation.

Invitations can be send either by the administrator or any user who is already a member of the site and has permission to send invite.

To send invite visit this page - http://yoursite.com/invite/add/invite_by_email. Email will be sent to all users who are invited to register on your site along with unique invite code. User can use this link to complete the registration process,

This module is best suited for those sites, where accessibility is confined to closed group.

Download the module from here. Registration invite

If you have new ideas to improve this module further or want to customize it for your own projects feel free to contact us.