Interview Tips

Came across a few good articles on how to prepare for interviews especially aimed at Google. These make very good reads even if you are not planning on attending any interviews any time soon!

• William Shields' experience with an interview for Google on CforCoding.com
• Stevey's blog post trying to get a job at google here
• Jeff Atwoods blog post Getting the Interview Phone Screen Right on his blog Coding Horror
• Jeff Atwoods blog post Why Can't Programmers.. Program? on his blog Coding Horror
• Jeff Atwoods blog post The Non-Programming Programmer on his blog Coding Horror
• Mike Lin's online tool for easier online interviewing at SeeMikeCode.com

Upgrade Drupal

Drupal core could get updates due to security / bug fixes / patches and it is very important that your installation of Drupal be kept updated in this regard. Here are the steps needed to updgrade a Drupal installation:

1. Backup current data
2. Download & unzip update file
3. Disable all contributed modules
4. Revert theme to a core theme
5. Delete all old files
6. Upload new files
7. Copy over the backed up folders
8. Re-enable contributed modules
9. Run update.php script
10. Re-apply custom theme

Now lets discuss each of the above steps in a bit of detail:

1. Backup current data
Backup your installation database using phpMyAdmin or any other suitable tool.
Backup the files and sites folders

2. Download & unzip update file
Download files for the upgrade and extract the contents to a temporary folder. On Ubuntu, I just double-click on the file to do this. On WinX platforms, this cannot be done directly - you will need to download & install the free & open source tool 7-Zip to do this. Now you should have the full install files extracted into your chosen temporary folder.

3. Disable all contributed modules
Log in to the Drupal admin and go to Administer > Site building > Modules or the Drupal path admin/build/modules. Disable all the contributed modules.

4. Revert custom theme to a core theme
If you have a custom theme, revert it back to one of the core themes. Log in to the Drupal admin and go to Administer > Site building > Themes or the Drupal path admin/build/themes to do this.

5. Delete all old files
Delete all the files in your installation main directory - this ensures that there are no clashes between existing files and new files.

6. Upload new files
Now upload the files extracted in step 2 above folder to the main installation folder on the server.

7. Copy over the backed up folders
Copy back the files and sites folders backed up in step 1 above back to their respective folders.

8. Re-enable contributed modules
Log in to the Drupal admin and go to Administer > Site building > Modules or the Drupal path admin/build/modules. Enable all the contributed modules that you disabled in step 3 above.

9. Run update.php script
Drupal provides a special update script located in the root folder of the install for maintaining the database after upgrades. Log in to the admin section with your admin id(usually having id of 1 and is the first account to be creaed). Then point your browser to http:///update.php and click on the Update button. The modules requiring database updates will have their appropriate DB update number selected in their drop-downs. For most cases, the defaults should be fine. The database update may take some time depending on the number of updates to apply.

10. Re-apply custom theme
If you had a custom theme, re-apply it now. Log in to the Drupal admin and go to Administer > Site building > Themes or the Drupal path admin/build/themes to do this.

Updating Drupal Module

With changes to the core modules or due to security / bug fixes / patches, installed modules may require to be updated. Updating (contributed) modules is very simple as the process has been kept very rudimentary. Here are the steps needed to update a module:

1. Find modules requiring updates
2. Disable the module
3. Delete all files of the module
4. Reinstall the updated module
5. Run update.php script

Now lets delve into each of the above steps in a bit of detail:

1. Find modules requiring updates
If you do not already have the Update Status module installed & enabled, get it from the drupal site http://drupal.org/project/update_status & install it. This module tracks which of the installed modules have updates available and provides handy links to download the updates directly. Once this is installed & enabled, go to Administer > Reports > Available updates or the Drupal path admin/reports/updates. This page shows which modules require updates to be installed.

2. Dsiable the module
Once the list of modules to be updated is known, go to Administer > Site building > Modules or the Drupal path admin/build/modules and disable those modules.

3. Delete all files of the module
Now delete all the files for these modules by deleting their corresponding folder in sites/all/modules folder in your Drupal install.

4. Reinstall the updated module
Now upload & install the files for the updated module just as if it were a new module. For details on how to install a new module, check out my blog post on Installing Drupal Module.

5. Run update.php script
Drupal provides a special update script located in the root folder of the install for maintaining the database after upgrades. Log in to the admin section with your admin id(usually having id of 1 and is the first account to be creaed). Then point your browser to http:///update.php and click on the Update button. The modules requiring database updates will have their appropriate DB update number selected in their drop-downs. For most cases, the defaults should be fine. The database update may take some time depending on the number of updates to apply - once this is done, the modules are all updated!

Installing a Drupal Module

Drupal is a very powerful CMS platform and has many modules to enhance it's functionality. Installing (contributed) modules is very simple as the process has been kept very rudimentary. Here are the steps needed to install a module:

1. Find & download compatible module
2. Unzip it locally
3. Upload files to your server
4. Read & follow special instructions (if any)
5. Enable the new module
6. Setup permissions (if required)
7. Adjust Settings (if required)

Now lets delve into each of the above steps in a bit of detail:

1. Find & Download compatible Module
Search for the module on the drupal site http://drupal.org/project/modules/. This page has a big list of available modules and you can search for required modules as well. Once you find the module that is compatible with the version of the installed Drupal core, download the compressed "tar.gz" file locally.

2. Unzip it locally
Once the file is available locally, extract the contents to a temporary folder. On Ubuntu, I just double-click on the file to do this. On WinX platforms, this cannot be done directly - you will need to download & install the free & open source tool 7-Zip to do this. Now you should have a folder by the name of the module in your chosen temporary folder.

3. Upload files to your server
Now upload this extracted folder to sites/all/modules folder in your Drupal install. This is the folder that holds all the contributed modules.

4. Read & follow special instructions (if any)
Check the module folder for "README.txt" or "INSTALL.txt" or similarly named files to see if this module requires any special steps for installation. If so, follow those steps to a "T".

5. Enable the new module
Log in to the Drupal admin and go to Administer > Site building > Modules or the Drupal path admin/build/modules. Look for the new module and enable it.

For most cases, you should be good by now. If not, then follow the below steps.

6. Setup permissions (if required)
Some modules need extra permissions to be setup for them to work properly. Grant the permissions as appropriate & required for the module to function properly.

7. Adjust Settings (if required)
Tweak the settings provided by the module (if any) to make it function as per your requirements. Mostly the provided defaults work good, but there could be cases where you need to change the settings to suit your needs.

Google launches Android App Inventor Beta

Ever wanted to create an app for your (or for that matter, someone else's) Android phone? But were lost in the sea of code & APIs that is required to be mastered?

Worry no more - for Google Labs has launched (but of course) a Beta version of the App Inventor for Android.

This looks like a glorified equivalent of the Visual Basic interface that was used to make many a (good & bad) programs. However the good part here is that you can make an entire program without even a single line of coding! To quote from the App Inventor site:

To use App Inventor, you do not need to be a developer. App Inventor requires NO programming knowledge. This is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app's behavior.

The App Inventor team has created blocks for just about everything you can do with an Android phone, as well as blocks for doing "programming-like" stuff-- blocks to store information, blocks for repeating actions, and blocks to perform actions under certain conditions. There are even blocks to talk to services like Twitter.

Here's to Google to open up it's platform for the young and the old alike for whoever may have the appetite and energy to create their own Android apps. Only time will tell whether this approach will yield better apps or not!

Fee jQuery eBook - 7/12 Only

Sitepoint is offering free download of the eBook jQuery: Novice to Ninja by Earle Castledine and Craig Sharkie here.

Amazon reviews are pretty good and the paper edition is priced at $35.60.