A Wealth Of Information Creates A Poverty Of Attention

Note · Nov 13, 2017 · Permalink · 1min read

Drupal 7 Migrate Taxonomy to Organic Groups

Organic Groups module for drupal, enable users to create and manage their own ‘groups’. Each group can have subscribers, and maintains a group home page where subscribers communicate amongst themselves.

A website of a federal client, that I worked on, had custom groups functionality, implemented using taxonomy. It became out-of-scale to manage that way, any longer and also they with restricted, by that. This module, crawls through each taxonomy term, create an organic group, based on those terms. Also migrate all users, posts, likes, comments, interaction history, … from being assigned to taxonomy term to being part of organic groups.

Project URL: https://github.com/bhar1red/Drupal-migrate-from-taxonomy-groups-to-organic-groups

Technology : Drupal

Project · Nov 10, 2017 · Permalink · 1min read

Drupal 7 Tags Cleanup

[comment]: # (Project should contain Summary, Description, Repo and Live urls, Screenshot or demo video and Tutorials( if any.))

One of the problems, user’s face is too-many similar tags. Since tags can be created by multiple people, there is a posiblity of two users, creating same tag, with a minor difference.

For example, informationTechnology, Information Technology, Information-Technology, information technology,… are all valid tags and mean the same. When a user wants to tag a content, they often gets confused with which tag to use.

This module, is created as a drush command, scans through such tags, identify which one to keep and deletes other tags. It also updates all content tagged with such similar tags to now tag to real one. For above example, Module would keep Information-Technology and delete all other tags.

Code is available as an open source module on github. All installation and usage instructions are mentioned there.

Project URL: https://github.com/bhar1red/drupal-7-tags-cleanup

Technology : Drupal

Project · Nov 10, 2017 · Permalink · 1min read

Prive is what we pay, value is what we get

I don’t usually get offended or irritated, but interactions like these, make me feel uncomfortable.

As you might already know, we are establishing a web-development firm and is currently looking for more projects. Met X, who is opening a new shop and called me to discuss his branding and development needs.

After a lengthy discussion on how we can improve his shop’s digital footprint.

X: So, how much would you charge?

Me: Well, I can’t say right away, need to analyze more, but for similar services, we are charging $***** for another client. (Wouldn’t reveal the price but it is in thousands)

X: Are you kidding? I can get it in Squarespace or Wix for less than a 100 bucks.

Me: well then, please go with it. (Stood up and started leaving.)

X: Wait! You still haven’t answered me for your price difference.

Me: I would like to remind a couple of things here

  • Web Development doesn’t mean just including a theme. It includes customization, SEO, SMO, Deployment/Hosting, Security, testing, content-entry, …
  • ‎Our discussion is not just development, but also branding and marketing which includes a lot more like the logo, lead generation strategies, content…

X: Well I can get them done for much cheaper prices on freelancer or fiverr. Looks like you are expecting way too profit margins.

Me: Imagine you have a medical problem. You can do your own research on the internet and use a house-therapy suggested by someone on Quora or go to a pharmacist, tell him your symptoms and let them give a generic medicine. But you would instead go to a doctor who does a thorough diagnosis, sometimes the problem is not what you thought it was, might refer you to a specialist if needed, treat as necessary, support you until you get healthy.

This is the same. It is your decision if you want to do your own diagnosis or consult a doctor but please don’t compare them.

X: Looks like you have got offended. All I am saying is you don’t have to spend or invest much, why charge …. money then?

Me: We do. We invest time, expertise and skills.

These kinds of interactions we all face every day, across multiple fields. As freelancers, recruiters, artists, photographers, models, copy-writers, mentors, … Thing is we don’t mind doing it for free for our friends or non-profit causes, but if you are adding value to your product/business, with our services, we do expect to get paid for the value we add.

Interaction · Oct 26, 2017 · Permalink · 2min read

There are always 3 sides to an argument. Your side, other side and the right side, which is usually in middle of the two sides.

Note · Oct 11, 2017 · Permalink · 1min read

Acquisition Gateway GSA

[comment]: # (Project should contain Summary, Description, Repo and Live urls, Screenshot or demo video and Tutorials( if any.))

The Acquisition Gateway is your workspace for acquisition professionals and federal buyers to connect with resources, tools and each other to improve acquisition government-wide.

This website is built in Drupal 7 and AngularJS, in a progress decoupled architecture. Aside from regular updates and changes, I have enhanced search functionality, developed custom modules to remove duplicate taxonomy and to create organic groups based on taxonomy.

Project URL: https://hallways.cap.gsa.gov

Technologies Used : Drupal, Apache Solr, Github, Amazon AWS, AngularJS.

Project · Oct 11, 2017 · Permalink · 1min read

Me: So what is one change or action, that you think would make a difference in a person’s life?

X: (After a minute of thinking) Have you ever asked or being asked by others, questions like what do you do? what are you doing? what next? what for? …

Me: Yes. Almost all the time…

X: If a person asks those questions to him/her self, it would make all the difference.

Interaction · Oct 9, 2017 · Permalink · 1min read

Met this amazing person, Mr. X at a conference, who turned his side hustle into his career recently.

Me: Any tips on transitioning a hobby into business?

X: Yes. But first of all, know the difference between a hobby and side project.

Me: ??

X: Hobby is something you are passionate about and do it for yourself. Side project is something you are passionate about, but do it for community, people, the world. Side projects can be made into business, because you are contributing where as hobby is just meant to be a hobby.

Me: Still confusing, could you give an example.

X: Yes. If you collect currency, because you want to have huge collection of them, it’s an hobby. If you are passionate about educating people about various currencies, and started collecting them so you can demonstrate, that would be a side project which could be turned into a career.

Interaction · Sep 30, 2017 · Permalink · 1min read