Blog Archive: September 2016
How To Sync Drupal RSS Feed to Mailchimp
RSS is not dead, it's more than alive - nowadays it's used to sync content across services and devices.
After finishing installing push notifications for my blog I decided to re-check my e-mail marketing strategy. Wow, it's hard to compare actually - I got about 200 push notifications subscribers in less than 3 days, while my attempts of collecting e-mails turned out to be more gloomy - about 60 subscribers in 3 months (after which I stopped to collect e-mail addresses at all). Not to speak about crafting and editing each newsletter.
I decided to make my e-mail marketing strategy more simple and more aggressive. By saying simple - I would like to be it fully automated, by…
How to List Drupal Child Terms on Taxonomy Pages with Views
I spent a good amount of time at Monday's evening to actually figure this out. In today's Drupal Tutorial - How to List Drupal Child Terms on Taxonomy Pages with Views.
This issue has been on my table for about two years.
For the ease of this tutorial - here is basic setup. For a content type blog I have created pre-defined vocabulary - Category. Most of the category items are not related and are in linear format. But few of them are related and I have listed them as child terms.
Pre-defined category in Drupal
The tricky part is how to display child terms under parent taxonomy page - let's say a visitor is visiting parent category page - Tourism Objects and we would…
How To Setup Web Push Notifications for Drupal or Any Site using PushEngage
Push Notifications seems are hot and worth to invest trend nowadays. I have seen them around for about last 6 months in blogs, portals and other websites.
In fact I have always chose to block them, when popped in my Chrome Browser, as I think they might be annoying. On the other hand as a blogger with pretty solid audience (more than 55,000 unique monthly users) I have wandered maybe it's worth to explore them more and implement on my blog?! As I see it now - web push notifications could help me to increase repeat visitors and page views, that's the reason I finally opted in and implemented web push notifications.
In todays Drupal development series - How To Setup Push…
'Delicious Ravioli' on Tumanyan street in Yerevan
Delicious Ravioli on Tumanyan street in Yerevan, Armenia serves a traditional Georgian cuisine. Actually this is a typical khikali place and I still wonder why this place is called a Ravioli place instead of Khinkali, as in Russian language sign - this place is still called Tasty Khinkali. Strange.Anyway, as usually when abroad I search for a Georgian cuisine. Last time I visited Georgian Tavern in Tallinn, Estonia, today was Yerevan's turn. Another evening, another Yerevan restaurant. We visited Delicious Ravioli just shortly we returned from Khor Virap monastery complex.Delicious RavioliThis restaurant is located in basement, and you must look really carefully to find…
Khor Virap Monastery Complex in Armenia
The Khor Virap is an Armenian monastery located in the Ararat plain in Armenia, near the closed border with Turkey, about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) south of Artashat, Ararat Province. The monastery was host to a theological seminary and was the residence of Armenian Catholicos.Located some 30 km from nations capital Yerevan, Khor Virap is best reached by organized tours, personal vehicle or by hiring a taxi. I have kept contacts from good old taxi driver Tom, which we met first when arranged a tour to Etchmiadzin cathedral, Tom wasn't available today but agreed to send his friend Misha. Here is a catch - the reason we decided to…
Tashir Pizza (On Mashtots Avenue, Yerevan)
I first heard about Tashir Pizza back in Tbilisi (Georgia), the girls from local community informed that there is a famous Armenian pizza coming to the town - I had no clue what does famous Armenian Pizza stands for, so I visited my first Tashir pizzeria at Tbilisi East Point mall - read my review here: Tashir Pizza at EastPoint Mall (Tbilisi)Now, couple of months latter we were on a short few day trip to Armenia, and Tashir name popped up again, we were sitting at our cozy Park hotel room and decided to go for a walk and look for the brand. We hadn't to walk too long as first popped soon we left our hotel and headed to Mashtots Avenue. Tashir pizza on lively Mashtots avenue in…
Armenian Wedding
In today's Piece of Life photo series - Armenian Wedding, no not mine big fat Armenian Weddings, but a candid street photography from Yerevan.It all probably started at Yerevan's Brandy Factory, after visiting which we returned back to the old town by foot and noticed a crowd gathering near church. Yup, they were waiting for the bride and groom. So did we.. I quickly changed glass to telephoto and decided to experiment - yes your are right with the candid street photography. Wide apertures and amazing models. Wedding limousine Taxi driver without enthusiasm Wedding guests...and policeI captured both the bride and groom, but decided to keep their privacy and not to…
Yerevan Brandy Factory Ararat
This post is about Yerevan Brandy Company producing famous Ararat brandy.During my latest trip to Yerevan (Armenia) I had a free time and I decided to to visit Yerevan Brandy Factory. So, we just walked there by foot, and huge was our surprise when the girl at reception informed that tours can be arranged only by calling before - that's lame. But OK, if you are planing to make an indie trip to Yerevan Brandy Factory - make sure you contact them prior or you will be left with the same we got - wandering around at a small brandy kiosk at entrance, instead of taking a tour inside factory, observing all those oak barrels or even tasting brandy. Ararat - Yerevan brandy…
Yerevan Opera Theatre
It took me about 4 or 5 times to visit Yerevan, before I actually visited Yerevan Opera theater. OK, in fact I didn't even visited it, just passed by, but the Opera House is a popular landmark when wandering around Yerevan. Here is the fun fact - The ground-breaking of the Opera-Theatre took place on 28 November 1930 during the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of Soviet Armenia.Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet named after Alexander Spendiaryan in Yerevan was officially opened on 20 January 1933, with Alexander Spendiaryan's Almast opera performance. Yerevan Opera TheaterThe last time we…
How to Upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04 to 14.04 LTS
In this article I will provide simple instructions on how to upgrade Ubuntu 12.04 to 14.04.
In fact I didn't wanted to push for a server upgrade for a while, but decided to do it now, and not to wait when things will break completely. In fact I was working on a Drupal 8 site development and wanted to have it on more recent version of server, and so I opted to upgrade whole server. Following tutorial is inspired from How to Upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Backups
I highly suggest you to take a snapshot of your current server, before pushing for your upgrade. I have Linode backups enabled and before proceeding further I took a snapshot. It was pretty fast less than 5 minutes to…
How To Enable PHP Curl Ngnix (Good for Social share counters)
Today I was eager to install and enable really cool Drupal module for my blog - Social Share Counter, this module looked simple - all I had to do, just download, enable and a little bit tweak around.
From module creator (s)
This module gives the share counts for only Facebook,Twitter and more which has some excellent features in more elegant manner. If you have a website, then you definitely need this module.
Unfortunately, after I successfully installed and enabled this module I noticed that share count is not increasing for my articles (I had one article - with more than 5,000 shares and likes today, it felt lame seeing fat zero, while my default Facebook plugin showed it…
How to Upgrade PHP 5.3 to 5.5.9 on Ubuntu 12.04 to Support Drupal 8
That day finally have come and I've officially started a new project on my first Drupal 8 website. While my first attempts were about two years ago, but due to the lack of time and will to explore new things and configure new servers I proceeded just tonight (after a conversation with a long time customer we agreed to make a re-branded website and I was allowed to "experiment" with a Drupal 8 site)
I took me some time to get it running as I wasn't prepared for the Drupal 8 requirements, and one of them, is to run on at least PHP 5.5.
I have two linodes configured - one for this blog only and second for all the other websites. Both boxes are configured on Ubuntu 12.04,…
The Swan Lake park in Yerevan
The Swan lake park in Yerevan is a popular recreation area in the heart of Yerevan, located next to the Opera house in a 5 minute walking distance from main Republic Square.The Swan Lake park usually hosts various open air art exhibitions. - Ice-skate with many locals at the Swan Lake (next to the Opera House) during winter months.The huge guitar and piano at the entrance of the Swan parkI visited Swan park in the middle of March, it was still grey all around, but the green decors made it much better.SculptureSorry - can't tell more about it - probably very famous Armenian composer? Leave a comment if you have more information.Swan Lake parkNo water yet. I presume that during Summer months…
Postcards from Yerevan (Spring)
Back at the March 2016, we made a short, but very remarkable trip to Armenia and of course its capital Yerevan. In today's Piece of Life series - a day from Spring in the city of Yerevan.Republic Square in YerevanRead more detailed article about the Republic Square of Yerevan.View towards mount AraratArchitecture in Yerevan city centerSculpture in Yerevan's parkAdvertisement in YerevanPanoramic view of YerevanIn the background - Yerevan's brandy factory - Ararat, more on that in some of the future articles
Cathedral of Cadiz
Cádiz Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Cádiz, southern Spain, and the seat of the Diocese of Cadiz y Ceuta. It was built between 1722 and 1838. The cathedral was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1931. When visiting Cathedral of Cadiz, don't forget to climb up the bell tower and get some spectacular pictures from above, see: The Bell Tower of Cadiz CathedralCathedral of CadizThe Plaza de la Catedral houses both the Cathedral and the Baroque Santiago church, built in 1635.The church was known as "The Cathedral of The Americas" because it was built with money from the trade between Spain and America. The 18th century was a golden age…
The Bell Tower of Cadiz Cathedral
I don't know how many popular tourism objects in Spain's Cadiz there are, but the Cathedral of Cadiz and it's bell tower should be among them for sure.We visited Cadiz for couple of hours in June 2016, arrived here from El Puerto de Santa Maria by the ferry in the morning and left afternoon. There is a small entrance fee - EUR 5, which gives access both to the Bell tower and access to the church, audio guides are available as well. There is no lift to get up to the bell tower. The total height of bell tower is about 40 meters.Cathedral of CadizTried to apply the panoramic photography above. Not the best result, but somehow framed (fit) whole building in one frame.Cádiz Cathedral …
Postcards from Cadiz
My latest trip to Spain took us to the sunny and astonishing city of Cadiz. In today's Piece of Life series - a fraction, os simply Postcards from Cadiz.Square in CadizCádiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the province of Cádiz, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia.White arch in CadizCádiz, the oldest continuously inhabited city in Spain and one of the oldest in western Europe,has been a principal home port of the Spanish Navy since the accession of the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century. The city is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network.Cadiz, SpainSituated on a…
Port of Cadiz Bay
We used Port of Cadiz Bay (Puerto de Cadiz) twice - first for entering from El Puerto de Santa Maria, second for leaving back to, yes you re right, back to the El Puerto Santa Maria again.At Reina Victoria pier in Cadiz-City Basin, there is a metropolitan maritime station from Cádiz, that attends to the passengers between Cádiz, El Puerto de Santa María and Rota, with modern catamarans. It has it access from Sevilla square and it is five minutes walking from the center of the city.Inside terminal buildingPassengers leaving Port of Cadiz Bay terminalPuerto de CadizSee more: http://www.puertocadiz.com/opencms/PuertoCadiz/en/
Castle of San Marcos (El Puerto de Santa María)
While waiting for our ferry departing for Cadiz, we had a chance to visit a local fair in El Puerto de Santa Maria). I made some interesting photography here. One of the first tourism objects I noticed in El Puerto was Castle of San Marcos.Castle of San Marcos (also Castillo de Alfonso X El Sabio) is a medieval castle located in El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, Spain. The castle was erected as a fortified church by King Alfonso X of Castile. It was built on the site of a mosque of which the wall of the qibla survives.Front view of Castle of San MarcoThe castle was declared a national monument on 30 August 1920 and is currently…
Ferry from El Puerto de Santa Maria to Cadiz
The other day we arrived to El Puerto de Santa Maria just for one reason, we had red in some travel guide, that if approaching from Jerez to Cadiz, a nice option to have is to take a ferry leaving El Puerto and connecting with Cadiz.It took us some time to actually figure out where the terminal building is located and to find a free parking space for our rental car. Once we found both, we had some free time before ferry departing and luckily we got a chance to see a local fair, see Fair in El Puerto de Santa Maria.Yachts (boats) at Bay of CadizTerminal Maritima El Puerto de Santa MariaFor a timetable please visit: B-042 - Cádiz-El Puerto de Santa MaríaA bullWhile you are waiting for…