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In my previous post, Problem with Gallery Module for Drupal, I mentioned my need to modify data in the Drupal database table "variable". I learned the hard way the significants of the metadata contained in this table.

The table "variable" has two columns: name and value. The value field contains metadata indicating the type of data contained in the field. In my case gallery_embed_uri was:

s:26:"/test1/index.php?q=gallery";

The s:26 means string with a length of 26. So when I changed "test1" to "blog", I needed to also change "s:26" to "s:25" reflecting the shorter string length. Not doing so caused Drupal to fail in spectacular ways without good error messages.

I'm sure there is a reason for storing the length with the string value in the database, but I have not been able to find it online.

Other metadata types are outlined after the jump.

There is a bug in the Gallery module for embedding Gallery2 in Drupal.

When you install the Gallery module, you need to set the "gallery_embed_uri" to the location of the url of your main Drupal handler. (example: "/blog/index.php?q=gallery") If you change the url of your blog, while there appears to be a way to modify the gallery_embed_uri from the administration menus, it does not take. All links from Gallery2 items are to the wrong addresses.

In my case, while my main blog is in /blog/, I had a temporary location of /test1/ while I upgraded drupal and installed Gallery2. Once I was happy with the installation, I moved it to /blog/. Gallery2 continued to point to /test1/ no matter what configuration options I changed.

In the end, to fix the gallery_embed_uri, I had to modify the field in the Drupal database table "variable". Once I made the change in the database, Gallery2 started working perfectly.

Note: xmlsitemap uses the same gallery_embed_uri variable. Until gallery_embed_uri was fixed, all my Gallery2 items in my site maps were bad.

When I first installed Drupal, I had a hard time figuring out which modules I should install. Not knowing Drupal, I did not want to install something that would make my installation non-standard so documentation would be hard to find. I also didn't want to make it difficult to upgrade.

The main drupal index should allow users to rate the modules or maybe have a relative count of downloads to help point new people in the right direction.

Below, I list my favorite modules. The first 4 I would consider vital for any site.

1. Update Status - Lets you know when an upgrade to any part of your Drupal installation is available. This module is so important it has been included in Drupal 6.x.

2. CCK - Content Construction Kit - The basic building block to allow for the customization.

3. Views - I don't know how a Drupal site can be anything but a basic blog without views.

4. Pathauto - Automatically changes your URLs to configurable SEO compliant URLs.

Which is better - Drupal or Joomla? It depends on what you are trying to do and how much time you have to do it.

I have used Mambo, Joomla 1.0.x, Joomla 1.5, and now Drupal 5.x. When I thought I had to upgrade from Joomla 1.0.x to Joomla 1.5 due to server issues (I was wrong... but I upgraded anyways), I did research into the best / easiest CMS to allow me to have a blog and allow Adine to showcase her art.

At first I tried to install and configure Drupal. The learning curve is much, much steeper than Joomla's. After two days, I scrapped Drupal and installed Joomla 1.5. It took me less than a day to build my site in Joomla. I was happy with the results. That is until I realized that I could not get any type of SEO out of Joomla. And since I have given a couple talks on SEO, I was embarrassed for my blog to be that bad with SEO. I also wanted tags and comments. Neither one looked possible with Joomla 1.5rc3 at the time.