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Drupal block/view tip - How to insert a block or view into your content area ($content)

Drupal block/view FAQ: How do I insert a Drupal block or Drupal view into my HTML content area ($content)?

There are several different approaches to this problem, depending on what you really want to achieve.

Insert a Drupal view into your HTML content

If you really want to include a Drupal view into your Drupal content, you can use the Insert View filter, as described on this Inserting Views page on drupal.org.

By Alvin Alexander on March 6, 2011

Surviving the Drupal learning curve (learning cliff)

Learning Drupal: I read someone recently refer to the Drupal learning curve as the "Drupal learning cliff", which is actually very appropriate. While a content management system like Wordpress seems to come out of the box ready to go, even with Drupal 7 you need to add your own WYSIWYG HTML editor, Media plugins, page title modules, and more, just to get a basic Drupal website off the ground. Things like this leave a new Drupal user scratching their head and asking "Why?"

By Alvin Alexander on April 9, 2011

Drupal help and support (free)

Drupal help documentation FAQ: Where can I find Drupal help, specifically free Drupal help and support?

By Alvin Alexander on August 5, 2011

Drupal 7 meta tags module - latest information

Drupal 7 meta tags FAQ: Is there a meta tags module for Drupal 7? (Or, what's going on with the Drupal 7 meta tags module?)

(Note: This article was last updated on March 24, 2011.)

Drupal 7 meta tags module information

Having just gone through the meta tags process with a Drupal 7 website on February 9, 2011, here's what I know:

By Alvin Alexander on April 4, 2011

Drupal front page meta tags

Drupal front page meta tags FAQ: How do I get meta tags to show up on the front page of my Drupal website?

After converting my website about living in Alaska to Drupal several months ago, I just realized that I made a mistake on the Drupal front page configuration, and forgot to specify any meta tags on the Drupal front page(!). Looking at it again now, front page meta tags aren't a really obvious configuration setting in Drupal, so I thought I'd briefly describe how to fix this problem.

By Alvin Alexander on May 7, 2011

A note on using Google Analytics

For a long time I resisted using a tool like Google Analytics on my websites. I don't know exactly why, other than to say I didn't think I needed the information. But these days it's one of the first things I recommend to website customers. Simply put, if you want to be successful -- and not waste your time -- you need to know what pages visitors are looking at when they come to your website, and how they got to your website.

By Alvin Alexander on July 16, 2010

A Drupal categories block PHP script

A lot of people have written me to ask how I generate the Drupal categories block on this website. There are probably a lot of different ways to generate a Drupal categories block these days, but the way I do it is with the PHP script shown below. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to look to see if there is a new Drupal categories block module/solution; I'm pretty content with what I have.)

By Alvin Alexander on July 11, 2010

Clean, minimalist Drupal themes

Minimalist Drupal themes FAQ: Can you recommend any Drupal minimalist themes?

As my website about living in Alaska starts picking up more readers, I've been thinking about changing the website theme to something "lighter". I just published the results of my looking around for clean, minimalist website designs, and in this article, I thought I'd share the results of looking for clean, minimalist Drupal themes.

By Alvin Alexander on December 13, 2011

A custom Drupal PHP block example

Drupal block FAQ - How do I create a custom Drupal PHP block, i.e., a Drupal block that is really a snippet of PHP code? (As opposed to plain HTML.)

One of the cool things about Drupal is that you can create and use blocks so easily, including custom Drupal PHP blocks. I use custom Drupal blocks for all sorts of things on my Drupal websites, including rotating Drupal block content, as I'll show in this example.

By Alvin Alexander on August 29, 2011

Drupal - how to place a block above (before) your Comments section

Drupal FAQ - How do I place a block above (before) the comments section (i.e., after the content body, but before the Comments section)?

I've always wanted to move the "What's Related" block on this Drupal website below the content, and above the Comments section, and I finally took the time today to do that. I was about to crack open my Drupal programming books, when I decided to search on Google first.

By Alvin Alexander on July 7, 2010