Making image galleries with Drupal is not an easy task : there a dozens of modules, views and block specifications out there. Here is a list of modules I’ve tested on 6.15

• Image tools
  • working with images in drupal is immediately enhanced with the imagecache module that allows administrators to predefine actions for uploaded images : crop, resize, grey, and can be extended

• Working with file upload
  • Content Construction Kit has the ability to load multiple files per content type, with the FileField type (can be extended to ImageField for imagecachje integration)
  • the fupload module does a good job but the interface is strange  : it requires you to go beyond the node editing form to update images titles for newly created image nodes.
  • itweak is a nice file attachment module that integrates attachments with all content types, using the core upload module
• Displayin
  • LightBox
  • thickbox
• Other modules
  • Fast Gallery
  • Slide show Pro integration (flash)
• see also
  • revisiting galleries

I like gpEasy cms’ quick and easy interface : powered by jquery interactivity, gpeasy is full text cms that works without a database. It is in fact a set of includes that can be administered via privilege based backend that implements FCKEditor. Below is a sample of the drag and drop interface for pages ordering, a must.

Drupal’s new version (7) is in development and it features many improvements, most of them modules developped within the community. One of them is the Garland theme that allows customization of colors, enabling all theme variations including header shades. Another theme that works like that is the CTI flex theme, based on Zen, only available for drupal 6 as of now.

built as a small project, young but innovative, impress pages cms features inline editing with prototype powered drag and drop feature that allows easy building of pages with multiple components : rich text, simple text, html text, simple form builder, image gallery, amazing and promising ! Try it out on impresspages.org

The quote feature  is  an implementation of a shopping cart within prestashop framework, without the price : we have designed this feature for specific groups, for which we deactivate the price display on the shop.

• Deactivating price display for specific user group (below : group 2) is a long task that involves 2 different steps
  • in init.php : set the smarty variable around line 116
    1. $priceDisplayConfig = intval(Configuration::get(‘PS_PRICE_DISPLAY’));
    2. if($tmpCust->isMemberOfGroup(2)) $priceDisplayConfig = 3;

    And around line 155

    1. ‘priceDisplay’ => $priceDisplayConfig
  • use the smarty $priceDisplay variable in the templates to hide prices and change the “cart’ (panier in french) to “quote” (devis), example from homefeature.tpl
    1. {if $priceDisplay<3}{l s=‘Add to cart’ mod=‘homefeatured’}{else} Ajouter au devis {/if}
• Quote / Devis module and status :
  • Download and install the “devis” module Module Devis pour prestashop (200)
  • create the mails/devis.html and mail/devis.txt and change texts according to your business
  • create the order status “devis en cours” in BackOffice >> Orders >> statuses, check the created id (12 here) and add the following line to config.inc.php :
    1. define(‘_PS_OS_DEVIS_EN_COURS’, 12);
  • You can optionnally deactivate the order confirmation email in classes/PaymentModule.php, line 288-290, replace the send email to customer test by adding a new condition :
    1.         // Send an e-mail to customer
    2. if ($id_order_state != _PS_OS_ERROR_ AND $id_order_state != _PS_OS_CANCELED_ AND $customer->id
    3. AND $id_order_state != _PS_OS_DEVIS_EN_COURS)

Jquery §ui  and other libraries can allow you to build a modular web page. here is a list of interactive  layout solutions

• Jquery portlets
  http://host.sonspring.com/portlets/
• domnodes
  http://www.domnodes.org/wp/?p=9
• Jpolite
  http://www.trilancer.com/jpolite2/

w-script is a nice example of how a good development framework like codeigniter can deliver solid applications. W-Script is a simple wall paper script that comes free opensource with many functions, one them is the color indexing that allows searching colors in pictures.

http://www.wallpaperscript.net/

Create, publish, enjoy : this is the  mission line of ionize CMS, built entirely around Code Igniter, looks very promising as it comes with basic features : drag & drop pages tree, media navigator, permissions…

http://ionizecms.com/

while gmail is certainly one of the most professionnal email readers, I still like to sort messages in folders and sub folders the way I used to do in old outlook clients. Even though google tries to promote its wonderful search capabilities, argumenting they remove the need for hierarchical labelling, I can’t get it out of my mind, and I ‘m not the only one. As of today, is takes a few minutes to configure your PC / chrome navigator to process sub folders.

1. download the sub folders script from the adresse below and save it  to chrome’s directory :
   http://arendvr.com/folders4gmail/
   Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\User Scripts
2. enable user script on your chrome application by using the –enable-user-scripts command line tag,a s sexplained here
   http://arendvr.com/folders4gmail/

In spite of its remarquable popularity, Prestashop still suffers from a complex layout design that makes it quite hard to customize, especially when one  compares with the flexibility of zend framework layouts as they are implemented in Magento. This is why a shop built with prestashop often bears a strong resemblance with the default design, and designers find it hard to get away from the usual 3 column layout with rounded corners block that’s presented by default. Below you’ll find 10 shop sthat display a good work on prestashop, customized  to a level where  one wonders if this is still Prsetashop behind : yes  is it possible to do opensource ecommerce at a fraction the cost of setting up a Magento shop, and do it well too. It’ s intersting to notice that most of these  shops share the common love for the top horizontal drop down menu.

• Shops with free template by djcraft
  • http://www.photos-art-decoration.com/
  • http://grainmagique.free.fr/ipnotik/
  • http://photosalgerie.free.fr/wallcraft/
  • http://kamel.kelkoul.free.fr/prestashop/
  • http://ipno.tik.free.fr/blackwhite/
• Professionnal work of djcraft
  • http://www.biquinimodapraia.com.br/
• Professionnal work by Other designers
  • http://dedikate.com/eshop/
  • http://www.dieet-afvallen-lijnen.nl/
• Professionnal work by me (PoleOuest)
  • http://groupetournon.com/vpc/
  • http://prayandcomfort.co.uk/
• Nice try (find the bug on product category page)

• • http://www.sayann.com/

The power of Magento is great but it requires long days of learning and suffering to get through relative simple features, such as the now common front page slide banner. I had a quick look at magento free templates on google and was conquered by Magento ’s classic theme, the kind of  stuff that’s really given free of charge when I would have paid for it. It actually comes with an interesting development of Magento’s block systems, and demonstrates how to add a custom block between navigation and content : the prototype glider that scrolls images is defined a cms static block, which is then called in the home page CMS  custom xml definition, with a reference to the slider block that’s positionned in phtml files and declared in the xml layouts as a core/text_list type . Impressive stuff : that’s pure  magento design and illustrates how versatile the system is.

Links : 25 free templates for Magento