iptc | drupal.org

This is very encouraging – this means that pictures that I have classified within Picasa, F-spot, G-Thumb, etc.

iptc | drupal.org
iptc is a module that will extract iptc caption and keyword tags from images added to drupal.
It depends on the image module.

It uses a plugin system to allow different libraries to be utilised to extract the data from
an image.

Currently it’s supporting the standard php functions, the exiftool binary, the exiv2 binary.

This module is sponsored by photoscout.co.uk

HOW TO: Drupal as database: A one to many scenario for displaying the data | drupal.org

HOW TO: Drupal as database: A one to many scenario for displaying the data
Drupal 5.x
The Scenario:

This scenario works from a point of view that a drupal node-type is equivalent to a database table. This scenario uses CCK, Views and Contemplate and optionally prepoulute to achieve its results. There are other scenarios and other modules that can relate and group nodes and node-types, which are not addressed within.

A good way to work a relational database with CCK

uBrowser | drupal.org

uBrowser looks pretty cool – allows the user to drill down quite quickly – pretty good for a taxonomic classification.

Has a demo on: http://www.ubercart.org/drupal_module_and_jquery_guides/ubrowser

Geo Module

The Geo Module looks like a great way to have full GIS support within drupal.

The geo module is the next generation geo-spatial module for Drupal. Like location, it provides storage for points, but it also supports the full range of OpenGIS Simple Features, such as lines and polygons. Geo takes advantage of spatially enabled databases (PostGIS and MySQL Spatial) for native storage, which leads to faster, more informational queries.

Geo is currently is early development, but much of the power of the system is very apparent. Feel free to download the code from CVS, but beware that support will be very limited.

How-to: Import data into CCK nodes (5.x) | drupal.org

How-to: Import data into CCK nodes (5.x) | drupal.org
How-to: Import data into CCK nodes (5.x)
Drupal 5.x

How-to: Import data into CCK nodes

Do you have data that you want to import into your drupal database, such that each row of data becomes a new node? Then this post may be for you. This originally stemmed from a comment in the forums importing data into CCK created node

There are two issues addressed by this post

European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT) | Vince Smith

European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT) | Vince Smith

EDIT is an EU funded Network of Excellence program with the goal of reducing the fragmentation of biological taxonomic research and coordinating an effort to facilitate taxonomic research using the World Wide Web. Within EDIT there has been much discussion about this can be achieved and I want to explain what my NHM colleagues and I have been doing as part of this project.

Good to see somebody else has been looking into these kind of things and sees the benefit of using pre-rolled CMS’s for biodiversity data.

Scratchpad Modules | EDIT WP6

Scratchpad Modules | EDIT WP6 lists the modules used for the species scratchpads. Definitely worth reading!

Googlemap | drupal.org

Googlemap | drupal.org More mapping – add location to nodes (specimens?) and these will be plotted on a map page

Googlemap.module integrates with the locative data added to Drupal’s native RSS feeds by location.module. Nodes in the RSS feed are plotted on a administrator-configurable map.

This module uses Google’s official mapping API (http://www.google.com/apis/maps/).

Carto – opengis web mapping | drupal.org

Carto – opengis web mapping | drupal.org – can also include google maps within widgets.

The Carto module makes the mappingwidgets framework available to nodes in Drupal. This enables the browsing of maps (available from opengis compliant web mapping services) in drupal nodes.

General functionality:

* carto filter to include mapping widgets in any drupal node
* default block for an overview map (with zoom in functionality) or a simple legend
* custom blocks can be defined using the carto filter containing any type of mappingwidget; e.g. a custom overview/legend block or a button-block.
* node type for specifying opengis web mapping services; block and RSS feeds for recently added WMS’es; ogc getmap/getcapabilities request can be done through drupal.
* RSS feeds for recent maps (per user or overall)

Additional info:

Mapbuilder | drupal.org

Mapbuilder | drupal.org – could be used to produce customised distribution maps

The Mapbuilder module integrates the Community Mapbuilder web mapping client with Drupal.

It adds the Mapbuilder context and configuration as content types and can produce the corresponding xml output to be used as input to a Mapbuilder client.
A filter is added for showing Mapbuilder clients inline.

Further developments are being done on the 5.x version of this module. Differences in functionality between the releases:
* support for xml schema for mapbuilder context: ViewContext or OWSContext

Services | drupal.org

Services | drupal.org may be a dream come true – integrate with existing web services – the sky is the limit.

The services module package was created out of a need for a standardized solution of integrating external applications with Drupal, specifically Flash and Flex applications.

Note: XMLRPC server support is included in this package. To enable AMF support for Flash and Flex, you must download and install the AMFPHP server module in addition to this module.

**More information and documentation coming soon!
Features:

* service browser
* manage api keys
* services are defined in modules using the service api
* servers such as XMLRPC and AMFPHP are defined in modules using the server api

Service modules included:

* node service
* user service
* taxonomy service
* system service
* views service

Server modules included:

* xmlrpc server

Sql authentication | drupal.org

Sql authentication is potentially useful to connect to external databases and retrieve records. Could be useful for connecting to the monocot checklist and herbarium catalogue – I’d much rather connect to these using an API though.

SQL authentication is a module that uses the external authentication methods in Drupal to connect to any other database.

Whether that is a PHPbb MySQL database, or another drupal site in postgresql does not really matter. It is fully configurable and easy to use. Multiple hashing algorythms are supported too, configurable in the settings interface.

Its user-end system is similar to the drupalID, with one difference: your data will not go unencrypted over the big bad web.

Upload previews | drupal.org

Upload previews | drupal.org

Adds image preview thumbnails to the file attachment section on node editing pages. That way, users can see what image they are dealing with instead of guessing it from the file name. To prevent ultra wide tables, a file is now spread over two lines with the first displaying the image and the filename and the second one containing the checkboxes for deletion and listing, as well as the file size information.

XML Sitemap (formerly Google Sitemap) | drupal.org

XML Sitemap (formerly Google Sitemap) will enable google to see GrassBase’s contents.

The XML Sitemap module creates a XML sitemap in accordance with the Sitemaps.org specification.

The module maintains a short change history for nodes in order to better approximate the change frequency. It calculates the relative priority of each node based on node type, number of comments, and promotion. It can optionally submit your sitemap to Google (support for other search engines will be added once they support the ping interface) whenever it is changed and can log when your sitemap is downloaded by a search engine.

This module was originally written as a part of the Google Summer of Code program.

Pathauto | drupal.org

Pathauto will generate nice clean urls that help with site navigation. The Category module has a category_pathauto module that becomes available when pathauto is installed, which will enable sensible link creation.

The pathauto module automatically generates path aliases for various kinds of content (nodes, categories, users) when no explicit alias is provided by the user.

Discussion group: Stay up to date on Pathauto Development and provide insight by subscribing to the Paths Group on Groups.Drupal

Version Compatability Note: You must use the version of Pathauto that corresponds to your Drupal installation (e.g. 4.6, 4.7, etc.) Pathauto currently has three branches that are being maintained to varying degrees.

* Pathauto for 4.6 will get “bug fixes” if it’s a really critical bug.
* Pathauto for 4.7 still gets bug fixes.
* Pathauto 5.x is mostly updated for Drupal5.0. You can follow and assist with 5.0 updating in the Issue Queue. The 5.x version is also the home to any feature development or changes in functionality, so it may break your site.

Markdown with SmartyPants | drupal.org

Markdown with SmartyPants will be useful to write easy to format page text. Insert links with [[square brackets]]

The Markdown with SmartyPants module allows you to enter content using Markdown, a simple, plain text syntax that is filtered into valid XHTML, and will automatically convert plain ASCII characters to their proper Unicode entities in context (“curly quotes,” et al.) using SmartyPants.

Existing import / export modules in Drupal contrib

Jeremy Epstein has developed an Import/Export API for drupal. In doing so he has also documented JExisting import / export modules in Drupal contrib

Import / Export API | drupal.org

Import / Export API | drupal.org
Very useful for importing/exporting species description. Still in beta mode, but will hopefully work.

The import / export API allows for the definition of data entities within Drupal. The definition system lets data entities be related to each other, and it includes a number of different field types. It also supports a system of import (parsing) and export (rendering) engines, for formats such as XML and CSV. Data entities are able to be exported from, and imported into, a Drupal site, for purposes such as backup, offline editing, data migration, and data transfer between Drupal databases.

This module is currently in beta mode, and testers are welcome. Documents such as specs, schedules, and status updates can be found on the wiki.

This is one of the Google Summer of Code 2006 Drupal projects.

OAI-PMH Module | drupal.org

OAI-PMH Module could be useful for providing access to species description nodes.

This module provides an Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), interface to the Bibliography Module.

Currently it only exposes metadata from the biblio module; however if there was demand I believe that it could be made configurable to expose other node types as well.

This module was inspired by and I have used some code from http://physnet.uni-oldenburg.de/oai/ writen by Heinrich Stamerjohanns.

SMTP support | drupal.org

SMTP support | drupal.org to allow grassbase to communicate with the rest of the world

This module adds SMTP functionality to Drupal. More specifically, the ability for your site to send mail using an SMTP server that requires authentication.

This module uses the smtp and mail class’s from PHPMailer.
http://phpmailer.sourceforge.net