In Drupal, users can accidentally lose content on node add/edit forms by clicking the "More information about formatting options" link and browsing to a new page. That's not so good.

Haven't posted to the Dotted i blog in a while, but am hoping to get back to it before long.

Lots of projects afoot. There's some Drupal module work, a huge site underway for my day job (which I hope to cull some write-ups from eventually), and then Twitter.

In the last few months I've gotten into Twitter, and am enjoying making connections with others and tossing off small observations and having info exchanges... You can catch me at http://twitter.com/mlsamuelson.

Like in the 1979 Steve Martin comedy "The Jerk," where the main character launches into a joyous, "I'm finally somebody!" when a delivery man drops off a new phone book with his name in it, I've made this post to exclaim I'm quoted in the "Drupal in Libraries" issue of Library Tech Reports!

The markItUp module for Drupal is now available for download, though there is still need for some polish, minor instructions, and for me - or some other interested party - to figure out why the live preview stopped working with the upgrade to the markItUp jQuery plugin version 1.1.

I've been sick these last two weeks, but working as much as my constitution allows, on the markItUp module for Drupal. markItUp is a jQuery based plugin that adds code insertion buttons to affected textareas.

Just had my first patch towards Drupal 7 committed. It was as simple usability fix that involved nothing more than the deletion of 3 lines of CSS from Garland, but still, it's exciting.

http://drupal.org/cvs?commit=108679

This is a list of some of our favorite Drupal modules. It will be updated from time to time.

Pathauto - automatic creation of path aliases based on your settings.
http://drupal.org/project/pathauto

Token
http://drupal.org/project/token

BUEditor - add markup to posts via buttons (and you can add your own!)
http://drupal.org/project/bueditor

Imagefield + imagecache
http://drupal.org/project/imagefield
http://drupal.org/project/imagecache

Views - query builder
http://drupal.org/project/views

CCK - content construction kit
http://drupal.org/project/cck

Today I finally found a use case for querying multiple databases.

Within 1/2 hour of each other I had two different individuals affiliated with a Drupal site tell me that pages which were there yesterday weren't today. Investigation into the site didn't turn up anything but broken links.

I wanted to know how wide-spread the issue was. I mean, were the pages dropping like flies?

A wish come true:

http://www.drupalbook.com/node/118

A second edition of the excellent Pro Drupal Development book is slated for early summer, and will cover Drupal 6.

I've posted previously on attending Drupalcon Boston Day One, and included some notes. Most of my notes come close to being transcriptions of the presentations, so I thought it would be better to link directly to the session pages, rather than post the rest of my notes, to complete the cycle:

Day One

Report from Formal Drupal Usability Testing at the University of Minnesota Libraries

Dries Buytaert keynote