Oh The Huge Manatee!
Author Image

Thoughts and technical notes from the field. I'm Campbell Vertesi, Global Partner Strategy ISV CTO for Red Hat at Microsoft, opera singer, and parent. These are the things that go through my mind.

The 3 skills you need to become a rock star developer Aug 04, 2017 A lot is made of so-called “rockstar developers” in any given language or framework. They have a seemingly magical knowledge of the language and API, finding obscure methods and writing best-practice code as if by instinct. I’d like to lift the curtain on this: it’s not that hard to be this kind of rock star. You can do it, too… even without a fancy computer science degree. If you know how to code in a given language, you just need 3 skills and some patience. ... ➦
Why no mainstream PHP speakers come to Drupalcon - and how we're changing that Jul 28, 2017 I’ve learned something incredible as the PHP Track Chair for Drupalcon Vienna. The Drupal Association has no way to invite PHP speakers to Drupalcon. This blew me away when I first learned about it. After all the work to bring mainstream PHP to Drupal core, after all the outreach to PHP-FIG, after all the talks Drupalists have given at major PHP conferences, how is this possible? You see, basically every other PHP conference covers their speakers’ travel and accommodation costs. ... ➦
That time I resurrected my Linux MacBook Pro Jun 17, 2017 In the airport last week, my laptop stopped booting. I have a 2012 Macbook Pro - yes, that coveted “last good model” - and it runs Ubuntu Linux. It’s my roving office as I travel the world to conferences, performances, and job sites. So when I started it up at JFK airport this week and got a gray screen of death, I was a little concerned. I tried starting into Startup Manager by holding the “Option” key. ... ➦
Better PHP === Better Drupalists: the PHP track at Drupalcon Vienna Jun 15, 2017

One of the best parts of Drupal 8 is our shift to enterprise PHP coding structures. With tools like composer and Symfony’s structures like Events and Dependency Injection, Drupalists are learning to be great PHP developers, and vice-versa. Today, the fastest route to becoming a rock star Drupalist is through PHP.

I’m one of the PHP track chairs for Drupalcon Vienna, and this year our focus is better PHP === better Drupalists. How can better PHP make your life as a Drupal developer easier?

 ... ➦
Stop waiting for Feeds module: how to import RSS in Drupal 8 Jun 07, 2017 How do you import an RSS feed into entities with Drupal 8? In Drupal 6 and 7, you probably used the Feeds module. Feeds 7 made it easy (-ish) to click together a configuration that matches an RSS (or any XML, or CSV, or OPML, etc) source to a Drupal entity type, maps source data into Drupal fields, and runs an import with the site Cron. Where has that functionality gone in D8? ... ➦
Stay for community Mar 30, 2017 The Crellpocalypse in the Drupal world last week has shaken the entire community. This event and its handling have called our fundamental values and structures into question. We’ve had fights on social media, calls for Dries to step down, and valuable contributors stepping away from the community. I have friends on every side of the situation, but all I can think is: This seems like the perfect time for a singing, dancing, spandexed pageant about the Drupal community. ... ➦
What Crell doesn't want you to know: how to automate letsencrypt on platform.sh Feb 21, 2017 If you believe the docs and the twitters, there is no way to automate letsencrypt certificates updates on platform.sh. You have to create the certificates manually, upload them manually, and maintain them manually. But as readers of this blog know, the docs are only the start of the story. I’ve really enjoyed working with platform.sh with one of my private clients, and I couldn’t believe that with all the flexibility - all the POWER - letsencrypt was really out of reach. ... ➦
Between the cracks of decoupled (Drupal) architecture Feb 11, 2017 In any decoupled architecture, people tend to focus on the pieces that will fit together. But what nobody ever tells you is: watch out for the cracks! The cracks are the integration points between the different components. It’s not GraphQL as a communication layer; it’s that no one thinks to log GraphQL inconsistencies when they occur. It’s not “what’s my development environment”, it’s “how do these three development environments work on my localhost at the same time? ... ➦
Writing Drupal 8 code for Drupal 7 Nov 05, 2016 A year ago I proposed a session for Drupalcon Mumbai and Drupalcon New Orleans, called “The best of both worlds”. It promised to show attendees how to write Drupal 8 code for Drupal 7 sites. I never ended up giving the session, but this week I got an email asking for more information. So in case it ever comes up again, here’s my own collection of resources on the subject. ... ➦
Developer options for replacing your old MacBook Pro Oct 31, 2016 The developer world is abuzz with criticism of the new Macbook Pro. After 4 years of waiting for an update, what we got has two less ports, slower memory and a worse GPU, is a vanity project that the core demographic of Apple’s customers probably won’t even use, in the final balance: merely consumer-level. It’s slammed as incompatible, absurd, and for pros… actually an insult. If you’re a developer in late 2016, and are in the market for a new laptop, there are some great options out there. ... ➦