We recently had the chance to rework the blog for Onbeing.org. While there are several improvements like adaptive images via Drupal’s Picture and Breakpoints modules, more structured and portable content, and a templated design/look, I want to focus on the decision that developers face in almost any Drupal project: use contributed modules or write custom Read more →
MPR Developer Blog
Behind the scenes of public radio on the internet
Archives for June 2013

I can’t believe I haven’t done this sooner. The inline APM logo (the one I use the most for the national shows) is now out on common… now in SVG form! http://common.publicradio.org/apm/assets/APM_inline_logo_optimised.svg If svg for the web is new to you, and (for all you non-local yokels) you missed Justin‘s tech talk on it, you Read more →

How do you embed media from may different providers into a blog post and deal with it gracefully across devices? We look at how oEmbed, embed.ly, and some home-baked goodness solve this thorny issue. Read more →

This week we shifted our advertising system from Open Ad Stream to Google DFP. From the business end of things, this resulted in improved content targeting. From the technical end, it meant improved performance, reliability, and maintainability. Read more →

ievms is an automated way to download and configure Windows testing environments for IE6, IE7, IE8, IE9, and IE10. The full download is a hefty 37GB, but it’s still faster than doing it all by hand. I was able to get all virtual machines installed on an external USB drive in 78 minutes on my Read more →

When migrating from our old blogging system to Wordpress, our URL structures changed, occasionally resulting in 404 errors. Such errors are typically mitigated with redirect rules. Google Webmaster Tools will notify you of errors, but with days or weeks of lag time. I wanted immediate notification. Read more →
Its no secret that Drupal relies on Mysql heavily. It can run dozens or even hundreds of queries on a single page. Generally Drupal’s philosophy is a large number of database queries per page load is fine as long as the queries are fast. This usually works fine until your one or more queries are Read more →
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672531/the-future-of-technology-isnt-mobile-its-contextual My first reaction to this was “meh.” But then it got me thinking more and more about the amazingness of Evernote. It does contain a lot of my personal thoughts, aspirations, and inspirations. Imagine if they leveraged that… http://wp.smashingmagazine.com/2013/05/29/tips-tricks-testing-wordpress-themes/ Some great tips and links in this one for the budding WordPress dev in your Read more →