Using Drush to sync live and dev Drupal websites

This post describes how to use Drush to synchronise a live drupal website with a local development copy and vice versa, to synchronise an updated dev site back to the server version.  Following on from previous posts about Drupal this blog assumes that both a live server-based and a local drupal website are in place.

Part 1: Local Drupal7 on Mac OSX Lion
Part 2: Set-up Multisite Drupal 7
Part 3: Using Drush to sync live and dev Drupal websites

Set-up Multisite Drupal 7

In order to develop my website using Drupal I wanted a local version to work on off-line and a live version to periodically update with releases.  This post continues to tell how I achieved that by describing how to create a multi-site drupal installation having completed setting up Drupal 7 and AMP on my Mac OSX Lion.
Part 1: Local Drupal7 on Mac OSX Lion
Part 2: Set-up Multisite Drupal 7
Part 3: Using Drush to sync live and dev Drupal websites

Local Drupal7 on Mac OSX Lion

Having set up a website on a live server using Drupal I wanted to set up a local copy for development without risking stuffing up the live version.  This post describes how I set up Drupal 7 on my Mac OSX Lion/10.7.

Part 1: Local Drupal7 on Mac OSX Lion
Part 2: Set-up Multisite Drupal 7
Part 3: Using Drush to sync live and dev Drupal websites

Install Drupal Zen Theme

Now that I've installed Drupal, I decided to install the most popular and 'award winning' theme. That is Zen.  This is how you get Zen and get Zen working for you.

Raspberry Pi - play videos on your TV over home network

XBian is free software to turn your Raspberry Pi into a full function media center. This is my experience of installing XBian Media Center (XBMC) described in simple steps to follow yourself. I have updated this post as XBian becomes a more polished product. Once setup there's no faffing around or technical stuff to do. The major steps are
1) Install the XBMC Software
2) Configure Xbian/XBMC

Clean Up your Dirty URLs in Drupal

Having installed Drupal, the website building Content Management System (CMS), on a cloud server I had some issues getting Clean URLs to work.  This post describes how I got rid of my dirty URLs for Drupal hosted websites.

Dirty URLs

Default URLs for a Drupal hosted site include ?q= e.g. www.yoursite.com/?q=node/366 because it triggers a database query for what's after the ?q=.  Removing these characters, or at least not displaying them in the URL makes search engines friendlier towards your site and may increase your page's rankings.  A further step is to add aliases to pages so there is a human readable name instead of an id e.g. www.yoursite.com/barbie-girl instead of www.yoursite.com/?q=node/366.

Drupal basic concepts

Oh wow - Drupal as expected has a steep learning curve!  Once I'd installed it on a cloud server, here's what I first learned while clambering up the learning curve.  I've also written posts about specific (and general) stuff I've done with drupal.

Installing Drupal CMS

Now that I have started a business I need to have a professional looking webpage.  I also wanted to learn how to set this up myself using Linux as this skill may be useful in the future.  This post describes how I did that using a cloud Linux server and Drupal.

London's Technology Scene and Local Community

Social media is transforming London's underground society.  My experience of using meetup.com to build a community around shared interest in technology demonstrates both the impact of social media and the ground swell of technology in London's underground society.

Using Raspberry Pi GPIO Interface

I have a Raspberry Pi - this post is about beginning to explore it's control capabilities using the General Purpose Input Output (GPIO) port and is aimed at total beginners assuming that you have already got your Raspberry Pi up and running as described in my earlier post Fire up your Raspberry Pi.

Fire up your Raspberry Pi

I was loaned a Raspberry Pi.  It was brand new and still in its box when I got it.  This post is about how I breathed life into it. There are two main jobs to do: preparing an SD Card to be the Raspberry Pi's hard-drive and complete the initial setup.

I used my MacBook Air to do this so the process is Mac specific in some areas i.e. using Terminal.

Pibow: The Raspberry Pi Case

I didn't like having my much prized Raspberry Pi (loaned to me by a good friend) resting on a cardboard box looking cool but vulnerable to my quite regular drink spills and clumsy dropping of heavy and/or pointy items.  I wanted a box to put it in - so I got one.