The Drupal FOSS CMS (Free and Open Source Software Content Management System) is considered to be the one of the most developer friendly CMS available. However, for those new to Drupal, something as "simple" as changing the text displayed after submitting a form can be daunting. Originally released in 2011, with Drupal 7, the Drupal Entity API defines different types of information stored and displayed in Drupal. When Drupal 8 was released, the concept was further refined into what's referred to as "specifically typed objects", meaning that each Entity is defined as having a specific set of information and operations that can be performed on it. As you might imagine, Drupal 8 Forms are used to perform operations on Entities, such as add, edit, and delete. When creating a form, a form handler is used to define which class should be used. So, when you want to modify the implementation of a form, you will need to extend the original ...

My life history is.... Unique.... My mother was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia before I was born. My father, a Vietnam vet seduced her and, POP!, there I was living in a shack in northern New Mexico. Not long after my birth, my father abandoned us, and my mother had to carry me 5 miles to the nearest highway in late fall to hitchhike back to Grandma in Los Alamos. We moved into an apartment in Albuquerque, while she tried to goto school and hold down a job. But is was no more than a year before is became clear that she was not capable of caring for me. So, off to live at Grandma's house I went. My Grandma was raised Lutheran. However, lost the desire to attend church several years prior. Because her life choices were limited by religion, she thought it would be best that I wait to be baptized by whomever ended up adopting me. I remember having my first thoughts about spirituality around age 5. I have vivid dreams, you see. Some would say that I am an astral plane walker. An...

With the latest version of WordPress comes with some pretty awesome sounding tools . The number of community and third-party plugins have continued to grow over the years and with that growth and WordPress core continues to change dramatically (*harum* Gutenberg *cough*). To keep up with changes, the WP Core devs have introduced a few new features that you may find helpful. Site Health Check Site Health Status Performance Checks Security Checks Site Health Info PHP Error Protection Additional Developer Updates Site Health Check (improved) The Site Health Check tool was first...

A few weeks ago, after having a lengthy discussion with a friend on facebook about forgiveness and reconciliation, I held my breath, scrunched my eyelids, and jumped into an abyss. I had no idea what to expect when I sent that initial message. But, I knew I had to. It was time. When I finally got the courage to peek through narrow slits and a haze of eyelashes, I was greeted with a pleasant extended exchange with a person I thought I had lost forever. After several weeks of conversation, today, I was asked a relatively simple question. One that you would think would have been asked and answered during the first couple of minutes. They wanted to know what I had been doing with myself for the last 20 years! I found it impossible to explain in brief and sitting here writing this now, I realize that I have spent much of my adult life telling close friends and loved ones about my childhood. To be honest, I still can't believe that I have lived more years since leaving Rocklin, CA ...

Recently, we published a support article on our knowledge base regarding how we have implemented security measures on Wordpress websites.  Because we think this information is valuable to everyone, we are elaborating here on the topic. Security is an increasing concern for Wordpress websites, especially since the rise of bad bots on the internet last year.  These automated bad actors may be doing anything from scanning your website for security holes up to an including performing brute force attacks on your login page.  So, don't let all your marketing efforts to drive traffic to your website by halted by these potential issues and follow some simple steps to improve security on your WordPress website today. NOTE : This guide is meant for shared hosting accounts.  If you have a VPS (Virtual Private Server), consider other/additional measures that work on the server or network level, specifically related to blocking malicious traffic, so that you can stop it BEFO...

Direct Message Marketing is all the rage , these days. Everyone has a phone in their pocket. So, naturally, the guaranteed delivery of your campaign through DMM means you spend less money on mass marketing efforts and have the opportunity of immediately opening a dialog. The Path to Success is Paved with Naysayers Anyone that owns a business has experienced resistance to DMM at one time or another.  Now, I'm not talking about the attempts that are simply ignored, I'm talking about the nasty, rude responders that cuss and block you.  A common immediate reaction to these tantrums is to consider it an exercise in scrubbing your friends list of negativity.  However, it can be easily turned into an opportunity.  Consider your target market.  Did the "friend" fall into yours?  Could you have changed the messaging in any way to appeal to this individual?  Even if the answer is a resounding "NO!", you can still discover some areas of improvement that may ...

Just like opinions, everyone has agendas. In fact, I would argue that agendas are an extension of opinions. You form agendas from opinions, and goals from agendas. This thought process is heavily engrained into our survival and communal genome as a means to help ourselves and others we care about to be successful. But, I would argue that where people clash is not in having opposing opinions, but rather having conflicting agendas. It is easy to see that an opinion is emotionally charged based on an individual's life experiences. However, because agendas are more goal oriented, the emotionally charged roots are often shrouded. Vince Gowmon makes some awesome suggestions on how to temper placing agendas on others in his nicely written article, Hold the Agenda of Others : "What I invite you to consider is that there are many circumstances where we can withhold our agenda for others just a little bit more. Perhaps you allow your staff to share more of their own ideas; in schoo...