Blog Archive: June 2018
Talsi Evangelical Lutheran Church
On the top of the abrupt Baznīcaskalns (Church Hill) stands the white masonry Talsi church – the dominant of the old town.It was built in 1567 and later rebuilt for several times. A transept and sacristy are attached to a rectangular, elongated building.Talsi Evangelical Lutheran ChurchThe square bell-tower is attached on the west side of the church, it has a pyramidal spire with a sphere, rooster and a cross. The church spire, the rooster, the tiled roof, the façade and the interior were renovated in 1996 – 1998. The relics of the church witness its history.The most brilliant among them are the epitaph of Fishers’ family (1794) that was carved in limestone and have…
Another Year, Another Barbeque
It has been already a tradition to feature the first barbeque of the year at our rural country house in the blog. See First Barbecue Festival in Our Newly Inherited House2018 is no exception, and it today's home remodeling series a few photos from the early Spring 2018Grilling season has just startedLast year we bought an extra huge grillCat enjoying such activitiesGrilling 2018
How To Embed YouTube video in Drupal 8 (CKEDITOR)
Now, there is one more reason I'm starting to enjoy Drupal 8, embedding YouTube videos in articles now are super easy, thanks to the simple and neat Drupal module - Video Embed Field
In this article, I will guide you through how to configure Drupal 8 built-in CKEDITOR to work with this module.
For another interesting YouTube module for use in Drupal views see Display YouTube videos on Drupal site with YouTube field module
Video Embed field creates a simple field type that allows you to embed videos from YouTube and Vimeo and show their thumbnail previews simply by entering the video's url.
Features
Responsive out the box, optionally make your videos scale…
How To Configure Trusted Host settings for Drupal 8 Website
In today's Drupal tutorial series I will talk about Trusted host settings, what they are and how to configure them.
In short, Trusted host settings protects against HTTP HOST Header attacks (prevent your site from thinking it is someone else).
Drupal 7 added a new feature into the core that is not user-facing directly but is sometimes called poor man's cron. The feature triggers the periodic tasks of a Drupal site like emptying log files, sending e-mails, and clearing out caches. This feature, when combined with dynamic detection of the "base url" (added in Drupal 4.7), can lead to some screwy situations.
Let's start with the oblivious, first noticed a warning in a Drupal 8…
How To Redirect in Nginx all Domain Name Versions to https://www
As you might already know search engines (Google) sees www.domain.com and domain.com as two separate domain names. If you are not using 301 redirects (www to non-www or vice verse)you might get penalized for duplicate content.
In Ngnix, there is a simple solution how to make such redirect happen, see: Ngnix Redirect To WWW
Now, things get a bit complicated when https versions are involved. See: Linode: How To Secure Nginx with Let's Encrypt on Ubuntu 12.04
Once your website has https enabled, technically speaking you might be dealing with for different domain names:
domain.com
www.domain.com
https://domain.com
https://www.domain.com
What we are…
How To Update Drupal Modules via SSH (Putty)
To strengthen Drupal websites security I decided to disable one-click automatic module updates from Drupal dashboard, unfortunately, it makes it harder not even for bad guys to compromise Drupal website but it also makes it harder for Drupal devs.
Now, there are several options you might choose instead, composer being a top of them. But for this article, I will write down how to update modules using SSH.
For Windows, we are going to use Putty:
From your Drupal installation go to the modules folder
cd /sites/all/modules
now, using wget download desired modules and extract:
sudo wget https://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/file_entity-7.x-2.21.tar.gz
sudo tar -xvzf…
Tapping Birch Sap in the Backyard
Can't decide on a new hobby? Think about tapping birch sap in early spring. Depending on the region you are located and availability of birch trees you might even enjoy this drink - a birch sap.In today's article a few photos from tapping a birch sap in early spring in our backyard using Libertu Birch Sap Kit.You can purchase this kit at sula.lv to get your own tree sap. If you have maple or birch trees in your yard or forest you can get juice very easy. Libertu Birch Sap KitBought this kit at the local DIY shop. It was a fun, trying to install it and trying to squeeze a juice from this birchPlastic bag for collecting birch sapWe left this kit in a tree for about two weeks to…
Securing Drupal Files and Folders (Chmod, Security Review, Hacked)
There are a couple of great helper modules for Drupal to learn more about failing security holes - Security Review and Hacked.
Security Review
The Security Review module automates testing for many of the easy-to-make mistakes that render your site insecure.
Security Review runs the following checks:
Safe file system permissions (protecting against arbitrary code execution)
Text formats don't allow dangerous tags (protecting against XSS)
PHP or Javascript in content (nodes and comments and fields in Drupal 7)
Safe error reporting (avoiding information disclosure)
Secure private files
Only safe upload extensions
A large number of database errors (could be a sign of…
Kitesurfing Pāvilosta
Seems Pāvilosta is a popular spot for kitesurfing among surfers from the Baltics. It was on mid-June 2017 we decided to visit lovely white sand beaches near Pāvilosta piers when I noticed some kitesurfer gathering. Seems there was a good wind that day.As I was equipped with my gear and a telephoto glass - I made some photography here. A piece of Life, after all. Kitesurfing in PāvilostaActually, I'm not sure what is the name of this activity - kitesurfing or kiteboarding. According to Wikipedia:Kiteboarding is an action sport combining aspects of wakeboarding, snowboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding, skateboarding and…
Pesto Cafe Review in Kiev
Pesto Cafe is a popular restaurant chain located in Kiev, Ukraine. We visited branch located near the Independence square (located inside the shopping mall Globuss). Actually, that was the closest restaurant from our hotel room at Hotel Ukraine,Pesto cafe serves classic Italian cuisine for pretty affordable prices.View towards Independence square from Pesto CafeBruschetta at Pesto CafeSalads
Grass Trimming 2017
It was back at the end of June 2017, we had just returned from about month-long travel (Turkey, Georgia, and Greece) to notice that grass have more than overgrown.I took my old pall - Edward The Trimmer and started my fight with the grass once more. Freshly cut grassIt's always a pleasure seeing such a nice scenery.Trimming near the flower gardenTrimmer in the rest
Varenichnaya Katyusha Restaurant in Kiev
Varenichnaya Katyusha (Вареничная Катюша) is another cool Kiev's restaurant, discovered by accident back in the Summer of 2017.Turns out Вареничная Катюша is a popular restaurant chain across the Kiev. But I didn't know that back when discovered it.We found this place after a night boat ride along the Dnieper river and before returning to our hotel room we were just wandering around for someplace offering a meal after the midnight. Varenichnaya Katyusha was open. It's hard to recall an actual location for this particular restaurant. In fact, it was pretty far away from city center, as we took a taxi to get back to the hotel room.Stylish interior, budget prices…
Building Drupal 8 Translation Project Management System From Scratch
There are many translation project management systems out there, some are better, some are not so good, some are for free or open source while others might be pricey.
Working in a close and good corporation with a translation company in Tbilisi, in the past, I have helped to set up many systems required for a smooth every-day work for a typical translation company.
Now I decided to see - could Drupal help us build a translation project management system, and surprisingly but after a little brainstorming and a few tests with actual Drupal I found - indeed it's possible to build a translation project management system for internal use of project managers…
Disco Boat Tours in Kiev, along the Dnieper River
Boat Tours in Kiev, along the Dnieper River kind of reminded me a popular track from early 2000 by Electric Six - Danger! High Voltage. Loud music, a lot of booze and hell - it's really cool.We were just checked in at Hotel Ukraine, had some rest after a flight and decided to explore Kiev by night. We went out from the hotel, around the Independence square caught a taxi and asked for some recommendations - boat tour was an idea from the taxi driver. We agreed, and soon we were taken to the place named River Port from where boats are departing.There are several places in Kiev where the boats depart. The most easily accessible by metro is the River Port (10 min walk from Pochtovaya Ploshchad…
Hotel Ukraine in Kiev Review
Hotel Ukraine is a 4-star hotel located on Independence Square in the heart of Kiev, this hotel offers air-conditioned rooms and suites with elegant décor. It is a 3-minute walk from the Maidan Nezalezhnosti and Kreschatik Metro Stations.We booked Hotel Ukraine at the end of July 2017, during my birthday trip to Kiev. We stayed here for some 4-5 days. For getting here from Borispol's airport we hired a taxi, which took us here for about EUR 10 - 20. Once on site, it took us some hour to actually check in, as it turned out the system was down at reception and our reservation was handled by hand (together with some other 30 people). The rest was a…
May 2018 Dividend Income Report - $140.35
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to mintos.com peer to peer lending website, by clicking on links on this page and by making an investment on mintos.com, I might earn affiliate income at no cost to you. Also, I'm not a financial advisor and I don't give you any advice, I'm just sharing my own experience. Investments in stocks, funds, bonds or cryptos are risk investments and you could lose some or all of your money. Do your due diligence before investing in any kind of asset.Interest income in May 2018From the Baltic stocks, Mintos.com peer to peer lending and from cryptocurrency lending on Poloniex.com I got…