Their previous system was a large Drupal 5 application managing 7 websites which we built in 2008 (and was one of our first Drupal websites). Inclind redeveloped beracahhomes.com under their custom Drupal 6 package, providing added functionality, a better administrative user interface, content delivery through XML services, billboard (rotating banners) management, and high quality video encoding capabilities. Leif Osmundson provided Beracah Homes with a new design for a fresh look and feel for the upcoming years. We’ve also implemented better search engine optimization tools to help Beracah Homes rank better amongst their competitors.

Before:

After:

Beracah Homes’ builders also have a Drupal package allowing them to manage their own website while receiving modular homes content from beracahhomes.com. The builders now have the flexibility of customizing their CMS to their needs without being conformed to the same system tie-in they previously had. It was difficult before to add functionality to one site without affecting the rest, but now all sites can scale without an issue.

Services XML, similar to our Drupal RETS implementation for Drupal real estate, allows Roger Collison (Vice President of Beracah Homes) to enter model home types, home specifications, floorplans and photos. That content is then sent to all builder sites so everyone has the same information without having to manage it themselves. This ensures that information on all the homes Beracah builds is accurate and up to date across all their websites without a salesperson in another branch having to remember to make the changes. This was a major functionality change that allowed us to decouple all the websites from a single application, providing them with the same content delivery feature while giving them room to manage their own site.

Custom Drupal solutions is what we do. If you have a website that is just idling on the internet and not doing much for your business, you are interested in getting your first website and not sure where to start, or you just need help managing your current website, give us a call at 1-302-856-2802 or stop in. We do free consulting to help you and your business on the internet.

Check out the new and improved Beracah Homes today!

PayFranchiseTax.com is the latest website from Harvard Business Associates. Harvard Business Associates (HBS) is located in Lewes, Delaware, but conveniently serve corporations through their 3 sites; Delaware Inc, Delaware LLC, and now www.payfranchisetax.com. PayFranchiseTax.com is super-clean, and the purpose is to be a quick, easy-to-use online paying system for Delaware business owners looking to pay their franchise tax.

Franchise tax is charged by some states, Delaware being one, to corporations with a filing obligation within that state’s borders, and is based on “net worth” versus income. This tax is mandatory for corporations within Delaware, and payfranchisetax.com is the most convenient way to complete the process.

The site also hosts a great deal of information for those who wish to educate themselves on franchise tax and looking to form a new company.

Accudyne Systems specializes in all aspects of custom equipment:

• Development
• Engineering design
• Fabrication
• Systems integration
• Start-up
• Support

We assisted in converting their old static HTML site into a content management powerhouse with the help of Drupal and custom Drupal module programming and provided them with a fresh new look for 2010 and beyond. Easy editing with CKEditor, eye catching images using our Billboards module, and an eye pleasing new design by Leif Osmundson.

Visit the new Accudyne Systems website, in your browser or iPhone/iPad! »

Their new Delaware Real Estate section is powered by our Drupal stack utilizing a custom in-house RETS module. Previous systems would receive listings once a day through a bulk FTP push from Offutt. Using RETS, Wilgus Associates can receive on-demand updates and data every hour.

This allows for the data to be arranged, mapped, sorted and listed in thousands of ways backed up by hourly data integrity functions to ensure the most up to date information, not to mention the worlds most flexible CMS to manage content with Drupal.

The new site also makes use of extensive search engine optimization work to help Wilgus rank better amongst their competiton. It also utilizes social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to help spread the word and allow users to share/bookmark listings in their respective services.

What is RETS?

The Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS) facilitates data transfer between partners in the real estate industry. Creating and improving RETS is a collaborative effort to simplify moving real estate information from system to system and simplify solution development efforts. As RETS usage matures and expands, MLS with geographic overlaps can create data-sharing policies that provide their members a single point of entry to search multiple MLS data sets.

Interested in RETS?

If you’re a broker or REALTOR, using RETS technology is the fastest way to get listings up and running on your website. Our RETS system for Drupal was built with flexibility, speed, marketing, and conversions in mind allowing us to quickly and effectively deploy it in no time.

Contact Inclind today at 302-856-2802 or email us at info@inclind.com for a free consultation on how your Delaware real estate website could benefit by using RETS.

About Wilgus Associates

The growth story of Wilgus Associates can be traced back to its origins as a staff of one in a one room insurance office located on the boardwalk in the Bethany Beach Bowling Ally. Since that humble and simple beginning, Wilgus Associates has grown to include three offices in Sussex County that offer a wide array of real estate and insurance services and now employs a staff of over fifty people.

Visit the Wilgus Associates website >>

Washingtons Green Grocer is the brainchild of John (Zeke) Zechiel and his wife Lisa. After identifying the need for better produce and deliverables versus store bought goods, John and Lisa planted the seeds for Washingtons Green Grocer in 1994. Every week, Washingtons Green Grocer provides customers with tentative lists of fruits and vegetables that will be available, and each customer can pick and choose what they would like delivered (yep, home delivery!) for that week through their online account.

Providing unmatched service and 100% dedication to custom satisfaction, Washingtons Green Grocer has been wildly popular and has exploded in the DC metro area. They currently serve all of Washington DC and the surrounding suburban areas in Maryland and Virginia from Severna Park to Arlington and all points in between north and south.

How does it work?

Every week, Washingtons Green Grocer selects 12 to 14 different fruits and vegetables and delivers them to your doorstep. On Friday’s, they email customers a tentative list for the next weeks delivery. If there is anything on the list you don’t want, you can log into your account and customize your box. For example, you can choose to receive only 7 items instead of the full box, or substitute items for other items. Each customer can choose exactly what they want and get it without fail every single week. You can also set custom schedules for delivery, such as every other week, or once a month, or schedule around vacation time. It’s all up to the customer!

Application

Such business growth commands the necessity of a powerful web application to tie all the logic together and keep things running smoothly. After getting tired of the shortcomings of their previous system, Zeke contacted us and we started talking about a full redesign of the front end and a re-architecting of the back end. After planning and mind-mapping the application to the last detail, Inclind began work on the project early in the summer of this year.

Their initial website was built on a rigid and inflexible Coldfusion system. The first order of business was getting all the existing data out and into the new system and giving it structure to make it easy to work with. As with all our sites, we begin with a base install of Drupal 6 to build from. Drupal is the best CMF (content management framework) available right now. Other packages that are simply CMS (content management systems- Plone, Wordpress, Joomla) are not as adaptable and flexible as Drupal.

To handle the business end of things, Ubercart takes care of the day to day transactions for customers. There are over 5,000 active customers in the system. To make it as easy as possible to get started, we ask for your basic information up front and allow you to pick your items for delivery. After your account is created, a staff member at Washington’s Green Grocer selects the most appropriate truck route for you and you will begin receiving deliverables on the next scheduled day.

At this point, a customer can login at any time and adjust their delivery schedule, items for delivery, or halt deliveries. Customers can also browse recipes on the site and submit their own. Washington’s Green Grocer promotes healthy eating habits and you will find plenty of recipes on their website for that.

Backend

Along with the new visuals and customer functionality, we needed to build and provide lots of cool administrative stuff into the backend for easy management of customers, data, and content.

We also needed to be able to actively map delivery truck routes through Google Maps on demand and be able to filter them in a variety of ways. This helps Washingtons Green Grocer visually assess their delivery routes, their customers, and orders. We also also extended on that to provide filtering tools to narrow it down further to specific routes, specific clients, specific orders or orders with specific kinds of products.

Washingtons Green Grocer staff also have a variety of reporting tools at their disposal for viewing customer trends, requests, future forecasting, and production reports.

Check out Washingtons Green Grocer today!

What is an LLC?

A limited liability company or a company with limited liability (abbreviated L.L.C. or LLC or W.L.L) in the law of the vast majority of United States jurisdictions is a legal form of business company that provides limited liability to its owners. Often incorrectly called a “limited liability corporation” (instead of company), it is a hybrid business entity having certain characteristics of both a corporation and a partnership or sole proprietorship (depending on how many owners there are). An LLC, although a business entity, is a type of unincorporated association and is not a corporation. The primary characteristic an LLC shares with a corporation is limited liability, and the primary characteristic it shares with a partnership is the availability of pass-through income taxation. It is often more flexible than a corporation and it is well-suited for companies with a single owner.

Delaware LLC is built on our custom Drupal CMS package. It was designed from the ground up by Creative Director Kevin Howett, and put together in a collaborative effort between newcomer Matt Oseland, Kevin Howett and Bryan Cordrey. Efforts were focused on a pleasing, business-minded design, effective search engine optimization, and funneling/encouraging customers to begin the process of forming an LLC in Delaware.

As Rick’s customers go to him and Harvard Business Services for their LLC/incorporation expertise, Rick came to Inclind for our expertise in clean, effective websites and powerful web application development under Drupal and our deep knowledge of content management systems such as Drupal. We also got to flex our system integration skills with Drupal, PHP and Coldfusion.

About Delaware LLC & Harvard Business Services

With more than 25 years of experience, over 20,000 clients worldwide, and offices in both the United States and Europe, Harvard Business Services, Inc. is the premier provider of registered agent and business formation solutions.

Rick Bell formed Harvard Business Services, Inc. in March, 1981. Competitors then were big and well established. But Rick conducted business with a philosophy that allowed Harvard not just to survive but to thrive, emerging over time to become an acknowledged leader in the business formation industry.

His philosophy focused on a highly personalized style of customer service, understanding that beyond the mechanics of forming a business there were dreams and aspirations. A customer’s individual questions and concerns were important and special, and that’s how they were treated.

Rick also decided that a customer’s business formation costs should be fixed, predictable, affordable, and customers should get a lot of value for their money.

After almost 30 years and tens of thousands of business formations later, that same approach is still the signature of our culture and way of doing business: speed, efficiency, expertise and affordability, all delivered with the Harvard legacy of personal service.

Headquartered in Lewes, DE, Harvard Business Services, Inc. today is the leading provider of business formation services. Along with the Harvard Business Services brand of fast, personalized service, customers soon discover a number of other traits that set Harvard Business Services, Inc. far apart from the rest.
———————————————–

If you have any questions regarding content management systems, Drupal, Coldfusion or systems integration, we are here to help. Give us a call at 302-856-2802, send us a tweet @inclindinc, or stop by our office. We have been the leading web development firm in the area for over 10 years running and have fourty years of combined web experience under one roof.

Lets take a look at how you bring in files as part of that node as well. From the previous example, before calling node_save($node), I call another function to process files. Name it however you wish. My module is called homes_sync, so my hooks and functions begin with that as per Drupal standards.

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homes_sync_get_files($node, $nid, $sessid);
// save the node object
node_save($node);

homes_sync_get_files() is passed the $node object and will return it after adding (or removing) data. To have a reliable file sync, we need to only update files if they are newer, and remove them if they no longer exist.

In this specific example, the project I am working on has two CCK file fields. One is for a floorplan (a PDF) and the other is an image field. In a node, there is only 1 floorplan, but can be up to 2 dozen images. If you had a more generic node that just has a CCK filefield of ‘client_files’ for example, your code would be slightly different.

Before we add any files to the node, the first thing we should do is compare the list of files from the remote site to the local site. We start that off by getting $files via xmlrpc, and loading the node object if $node->nid is present. If any are found on the local site, and not the remote site, we can safely remove them from the node object. The two arrays are iterated over and remove files if necessary.

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function homes_sync_get_files($node, $nid, $sessid) {
 
	$files = xmlrpc(REMOTE_SERVICES_URL, 'file.getHomeFiles', $sessid, $nid);
 
	// first, compare list of files from parent server with local files
	// if our local files has something the parent server doesnt have
	// it was probably deleted. so we need to unset it from the node object
	// when it gets passed back through node_save, cck should delete it proper
 
	if ($node->nid) {
 
		$current_files = node_load($node->nid);
 
		if ($current_files && !$files) {
			// we have files locally, but none on the parent server. 	
			// remove all
			unset($node->field_floorplan);
			unset($node->field_image);
			watchdog('homes_sync', 'Remote copy of @node no longer has files. Removing all local files for @node.', array('@node' => $node->title), WATCHDOG_NOTICE);
		} elseif ($current_files && $files) {
 
			// build comparison arrays
 
			foreach ($files as $remote_file) {
				$remote_files[] = $remote_file['filename'];	
			}
 
			foreach ($current_files->field_floorplan as $local_floorplan_file) {
				$local_files[] = $local_floorplan_file['filename'];
			}
 
			foreach ($current_files->field_image as $local_image_file) {
				$local_files[] = $local_image_file['filename'];
			}
 
			// now lets see whats missing
 
			if (is_array($local_files) && is_array($remote_files)) {
 
				foreach ($local_files as $local_file) {
					if (!in_array($local_file, $remote_files)) {
						// parent site does not have this file in the node anymore
						$files_to_delete[] = $local_file;
					}
				}
 
				if (!empty($files_to_delete) && is_array($files_to_delete)) {
					foreach ($files_to_delete as $key => $file_to_delete) {
						// CCK field arrays exist in node objects even if they have no data
						// we can assume if the first record is NULL, there is no data
 
						if ($node->field_floorplan[0] != NULL) {
							foreach ($node->field_floorplan as $file_key => $floorplan) {
								if ($file_to_delete == $floorplan['filename']) {
									watchdog('homes_sync', '@file file does not exist on parent server anymore for @node. Removing.', array('@file' => $floorplan['filename'], '@node' => $node->title), WATCHDOG_NOTICE);
									unset($node->field_floorplan[$file_key]);
								}
							}
						}
 
						if ($node->field_image[0] != NULL) {
							foreach ($node->field_image as $image_key => $image) {
								if ($file_to_delete == $image['filename']) {
									watchdog('homes_sync', '@image image does not exist on parent server anymore for @node. Removing.', array('@image' => $image['filename'], '@node' => $node->title), WATCHDOG_NOTICE);
									unset($node->field_image[$image_key]);
								}
							}
						}
						unset($floorplan);
						unset($image);
					}
				}
 
			}
		}
 
		unset($remote_files);
		unset($local_files);
	}

Now that we are through with our deletion process, we can begin processing the remote files. For each file id ($fid) we call xmlrpc and get all the data and the file itself and bring it down to our local site. Based on the file extension, we begin building a query so we can look to see if this file exists locally, and what its last timestamp was. We do this so we know if a file should be replaced or not. For example, if you have MyHome.PDF on your local site, and a new version is uploaded on the remote site, simply comparing file names is not good enough. With a filename and a timestamp comparison, you are certain that it should be processed.

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	if ($files) {
 
		foreach ($files as $fid => $remote_file) {
			$file = xmlrpc(REMOTE_SERVICES_URL, 'file.get', $sessid, $fid);
 
			if ($file) {
				// set filepath to save to
				// decode our content file
 
				$file['filepath'] = file_directory_path().'/'.$file['filename'];
				$file_data = base64_decode($file['file']);
 
				// set content type db table, and field to search on.
				// Load up the CCK field
 
				$filetype = explode('.', $file['filename']);
 
				if ($filetype[1] == 'pdf') {
					$content_table = 'content_type_homes';
					$fid_field = 'field_floorplan_fid';
				} else {
					$content_table = 'content_field_image';
					$fid_field = 'field_image_fid';
				}
 
				$file_details = array();
 
				// check if it's the same file coming over
				// only applies if the node exists in the first place. otherwise its a new import on a new home
				// if there is a file match we dont want to do anything but skip the creation
				// i think if you dont keep the node->file field prefilled, and returns those fields empty, it causes the file deletion on the server
 
				if ($node->nid) {
 
					$result = db_query("SELECT f.filename, f.fid, f.filepath, f.timestamp FROM {files} f
											INNER JOIN {%s} ctype ON f.fid = ctype.%s
										WHERE f.filename = '%s'", $content_table, $fid_field, $file['filename']);
 
 
 
					$file_details = db_fetch_array($result);
 
				}
 
 
 
				if ($file_details && $file_details['timestamp'] < $file['timestamp']) {
 
					// if file exists and has not changed remotely, skip it
 
					watchdog('homes_sync', '@file already exists for @home. Skipping.', array('@file' => $file_details['filename'], '@home' => $node->title), WATCHDOG_NOTICE);
 
				} else { 
 
					// save file
					// REPLACE because we can be certain we will not have duplicate files
					// so we will only ever receive unique ones here
 
					file_save_data($file_data, $file['filepath'], FILE_EXISTS_REPLACE);
 
					//write record in files table
					drupal_write_record('files', $file);
 
					$result = db_query("SELECT fid,filepath FROM {files} WHERE filename = '%s'", $file['filename']);
					$file_details = db_fetch_object($result);
 
					$file_data = field_file_load($file_details->fid);
 
					watchdog('homes_sync', 'Uploaded @file into @home.', array('@file' => $full_file['filename'], '@home' => $node->title), WATCHDOG_NOTICE);
 
					if ($file_data) {
 
						if ($filetype[1] == 'pdf') {
							$node->field_floorplan[] = $file_data;
						} else {
							$node->field_image[] = $file_data;
						}
 
					}
 
				}
 
 
			}
		}
	}
 
	return $node;
}

After the file is saved to the file system and database, field_file_load() is called to load the file data. With a populated array now, we can add that to our node object by simply putting $node->field_floorplan[] = $file_data or $node->field_image[] = $file_data to append the existing array with data. The $node object is returned, and node_save($node) is immediately called, and our node data and file data are saved. Just like that, we have a simple content distribution system from one parent site to potentially many remote sites.

This is just a simple example, your mileage may vary. We are utilizing this technology to hook companies together under different Drupal installations on different servers. Using Services you could also distribute Views configurations, users, and system settings.

We’re kick starting this year with some website launches and the hiring of web developer Matthew Oseland. Matthew came to us eager to collaborate on the cool stuff we work on and has a strong background in web development.

There are some ‘gotchas’ though if you develop custom Drupal modules like we do. During the install process, Drupal only bootstraps the bare minimum to get the job done. I’ve noticed that if a module’s install routine calls functions outside of the .install file, the expected result tends to fail because files other than .install are not included during this loading process. It seems there is a special case for the file to be included, or you have to specify in your install profile to explicitly include the file (which takes a lot of time to do). To be specific, I have seen this happen with Drupal Boost, Drupal Gallery Assist, and our custom module Billboard, which tipped me off to this problem. The issue has since been fixed in Boost (and Billboard).

For us, the issue was creating custom ImageCache presets during a module’s install routine. This worked perfectly if you were going to the Drupal Modules page and enabling Billboard. What happens was the hook_install() function fired, included a definition file, and created presets based on that file. This fails during a Drupal install profile, where you use a script to install and configure Drupal automatically. This same issue occurs in Gallery Assist, and here is how I got around it:

It was pretty apparent that the code needed to come out of the install function. However, I needed to be sure that where I put the code would be compatible to the module loading process, and I’d need to be sure ImageCache was both installed and loaded before running the following code. Otherwise it would error out, and no ImageCache presets would be created.

Drupal has a crucial hook for modules. hook_init() allows you to perform tasks every time the module is loaded. In this case, I wanted to tell it to run a function and check for two default ImageCache presets. If they didn’t exist, create them. This approach solves three issues:

1. Getting around install profile limitations
2. Provide default ImageCache presets for Billboard module when it is enabled
3. Recreate the ImageCache presets if they are accidentally deleted by the user (or developer )

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<?php
 
function mymodule_init() {
    mymodule_create_default_imagecache_presets();
}
 
function mymodule_create_default_imagecache_presets() {
 
    $default_size = imagecache_preset_by_name('mymodule-default');
    $thumb_size = imagecache_preset_by_name('mymodule-thumb');
 
    if (count($default_size) == 0 || count($thumb_size) == 0) {
        if (count($default_size) == 0) { 
            $mymodule_default_size = "600";
            $mymodule_thumbnail_size = "80";
 
            $presets = array();
 
            // Default size.
            $presets['default'] = array (
            'presetname' => 'mymodule-default',
            'actions' => array (
 
                  'weight' => '0',
                  'module' => 'mymodule',
                  'action' => 'imagecache_scale',
                  'data' => array (
                    'width' => $mymodule_default_size,
                    'height' => '',
                    'upscale' => 0,
                  ),
 
              ),
            );
 
            imagecache_preset_save($presets['default']);
            $presets['default']['actions']['presetid'] = db_last_insert_id('imagecache_preset', 'presetid');
            imagecache_action_save($presets['default']['actions']);
            imagecache_preset_flush($presets['default']);
            imagecache_presets(TRUE);
 
        }
 
        if (count($default_size) == 0) { 
            $presets['thumb'] = array (
            'presetname' => 'mymodule-thumb',
            'actions' => array (
 
                  'weight' => '0',
                  'module' => 'mymodule',
                  'action' => 'imagecache_resize',
                  'data' => 
                    array (
                      'width' => $mymodule_thumbnail_size,
                      'height' => $mymodule_thumbnail_size,
                      'upscale' => 0,
                  ),
 
              ),
            );
 
            imagecache_preset_save($presets['thumb']);
            $presets['thumb']['actions']['presetid'] = db_last_insert_id('imagecache_preset', 'presetid');
            imagecache_action_save($presets['thumb']['actions']);
            imagecache_preset_flush($presets['thumb']);
            imagecache_presets(TRUE);
 
        }
    }
 
    return;
}
?>

What that says basically is ‘hey, do our default ImageCache presets exist?’ if not, it will create them at runtime.

I have tested this a handful of times with positive results, and, it works with install profiles since hook_init() is called after Drupal loads. Food for thought for all you Drupal developers out there. If there is a better way to achieve this feel free to leave a comment.

From the award announcement,

We are pleased to announce that Drupal has won the Best Open Source PHP CMS Category in the 2009 Open Source CMS Award. This category featured a very close contest between the top three, Drupal, WordPress, and Joomla! in which Drupal ended up as the overall choice for the judges and the public.

This is the highest award that Drupal was eligible for in 2009. Drupal previously won for Best Overall CMS in 2007 and 2008 has been placed in the Hall of Fame. The winners of the Hall of Fame Drupal awards for best Drupal theme and best Drupal contributed module will be awarded Thursday, November 12th, 2009. The themes and modules nominated were selected both for the most used and for a diverse set of nominees.

We use Drupal exclusively for building customized, scalable high end web applications. It’s no surprise developers, designers and users keep voting Drupal as Best CMS for years in a row. There is nothing you cannot do with Drupal. Being a CMF (content management framework), it is not pigeonholed into any one particular niche like Wordpress (strictly blogging applications).

What has Inclind done with Drupal?

• Integration with Microsoft Dynamics SOP System into Ubercart for product importing and inventory management
• Integration with Ubercart and Drupal into UPS Worldship for rock solid quoting
• Integration with UPS Worldship for automatic label printing for commerce orders
• Integration with Amazon S3 services for synced failsafe CDN (Content Distribution Network) support
• Integration with Windows LDAP Protocol support
• Integration with Invision Power Board Forum for external authentication of users through Drupal
• Integrated Ubercart as a management application of customers with interval based shipping orders (drop shipment / bulk ordering)
• Built routing algorithms to track and route best delivery methods for truck drivers on to Google Maps
• Built over 100 custom modules to meet the needs of individual clients
• … with more to come

Who else uses Drupal? Check it out!

• AOL
• The White House
• Yahoo
• IBM
• Bob Dylan
• The Onion
• CNN
• Metallica
• United Nations
• jQuery
• Sony BMG
• Michael Jackson
• Ozzy Osbourne
• EA Games
• Star Trek Online
• Mastodon
• Warner Bros
• CKY
• MTV
• MTV2
• SpreadFirefox
• SpreadThunderbird
• Computer World