workspaces for web application process
In Kalatheme in Kalabox on Pantheon for a minute about time, we pulled down a Kalatheme based sub-theme into a recently installed Kalabox on our laptop, so we could run it locally and work on the project using Eclipse or any other IDE.
In this article we explore a simple but realistic Git-based workflow for Multidev and non-Multidev topic branches of a Pantheon dev project.
Create a Kalatheme sub-theme project right on Pantheon
Pull it down to your laptop on Kalabox
Work on it in Eclipse IDE, for example
Kalatheme is a very convenient theme to use, and should be the default theme for Panopoly, with all due respect. Peruse its Drupal project page. Panopoly + Bootstrap 3 + Bootstrap themes + browser based sub-theme generator (<- Bootswatch, etc., etc.!) + views grids + reusable custom CSS classes that can be registered as optional in any panels pane + advanced stuff for the folks that, inline with Kalatheme philosophy, don’t like to admit they use it:Sass and Compass Tools.
More and more of my clients are using Pantheon to host their Drupal based web applications. This is not an ad, it’s just a fact. I’m finding more and more of my development work involves cloning Pantheon based workflow instances and coding and site building within that workflow, and I’ve seen how it has improved greatly over the years. Now I had to import a quite large Drupal 6 site for a client hoping for a trouble-free Drupal oriented hosting experience while we got on with the site renovation project. While the process was straightforward, and the necessary documentation is there (see References), I thought I’d share my experience as warm and fuzzies for others having to do the same:
In my book Leveraging Drupal I set out to wed what have always been my career basing best software development process practices with Drupal site building and development. Chapter 1 (possibly the only part of the book not immediately obsolete the moment it was published in February, 2009), entitled “Keeping it Simple”, describes the process you can practice in order to squarely face the varied responsibilities of getting a web app up and running. It names the steps you can follow towards fulfilling that goal. It is still freely downloadable as an example chapter. We will use it to gear ourselves towards implementing a properly prioritized backlog of stories in order to revamp AWebFactory.com .
Now, we could just say, as is increasingly the fashion, “we use scrum”, or “we use agile” and even provide the obligatory life-cycle diagrams. But how do we actually get to that? In what context are we even operating? The only fair starting point for any target app is: Why build it at all?
This is the first of a series of articles which will log the revamping of the AWebFactory company website and its migration to Pantheon, the “Cloud Platform for Drupal”, which will not only be host to live deployment, but which will also serve as a development platform.
So I signed up for an account on Pantheon, a free developer account to begin with. I went to https://www.getpantheon.com/ and clicked on Create Free Account. Filled out the details, received a confirmation account (curiously, even with GMail, which is pretty discerning about those things, it arrived in the Spam folder, so do check that when you create your account), and after validating my site when I was logged in (https://dashboard.getpantheon.com/login ) there was a sign on my dashboard offering a link to Create a site now.