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LocalGov Drupal Beta Sprint 6 Notes
A tired but productive team is ready for a well-deserved break, but first a little update on progress before we pause, including integration with Open Referral UK, and default publishing workflow on a fresh install of LocalGov Drupal.
LocalGov Drupal Beta Sprint 5 Notes
Catch up on progress and reflections from the team as Sprint 5 of the LocalGov Drupal beta project comes to an end.
LocalGov Drupal Beta Sprint 4 Notes
Reporting from the front line where work continues at a fair pace.
LocalGov Drupal Beta Sprint 3 Notes
More good progress on LocalGov Drupal with working groups starting to gain their independence.
LocalGov Drupal Beta Sprint 2 Notes
Lots of activity and good progress on multiple fronts, but are we in danger of peaking too soon?
LocalGov Drupal Beta Sprint 1 Notes
The band is back together, and we've got a new horn section! Sprint 1 of 10 LocalGov Drupal Beta sprints just finished and we're buzzing!
Catalyst Resource Hub - Sprint 5 weeknotes
User testing is such fun! There are always things to learn from watching people using your product.
Catalyst Resource Hub - Sprint 4 weeknotes
A belated update on our work on sprint 4, evolving the resource content type and adding landing pages and basic pages.
Catalyst Resource Hub - Sprint 3 weeknotes
A shorter sprint this time due to bank holidays but we made some good progress on the front end.
Catalyst Resource Hub - Sprint 2 weeknotes
The main focus for this sprint was the “resource” content type, the main content structure around which the whole site hangs.
Catalyst Resource Hub - Sprint 1 weeknotes
A quick wrap up from the first development sprint on what is now known as the Catalyst Resource Hub project.
Guidance repositories: Discovery Playback
The discovery phase wrapped up with an action packed 2 hour playback session with all 7 charity stakeholders plus interested collaborators.
Guidance repositories weeknotes: Week 4
A roller coaster of a week, including charity stakeholder interviews, collaborative wireframing and prototyping, culminating in 7 user testing sessions on Thursday to test an early prototype and gather valuable feedback.
Guidance repositories Weeknotes: Week 3
Agile Collective are working alongside CAST / Catalyst on the alpha phase of a reusable service platform for publishing guidance to professionals. This week has seen a flurry of activity as we pushed forward on two fronts: interviews with charities and the ramping up of our design process.
Guidance repositories weeknotes: Week 2
Week 2 on the guidance repositories project has been a quiter week, as we organise charity stakeholders to join the discovery process.
Guidance repositories Weeknotes: Week 1
Agile Collective are working alongside CAST / Catalyst on the alpha phase of a reusable service platform for publishing guidance to professionals. As part of the project-wide commitment to open working and transparency we’ll be publishing weeknotes telling you what we’ve been up to.
How to set up a Linux development environment in Windows 10
How to set up a Windows 10 development environment using WSL2 and Ubuntu 20.04
DrupalCon Europe 2020 - Finn's daynotes - day 1 morning
Finn shares his highlights of day 1 at DrupalCon Europe, which is remote this year, kicking of with Gitlab, Thunder, Documentation and admin UX.
Integrating Salesforce with Drupal
We're agnostic about the CRMs and other systems and services that our clients use, but we've seen a steady uptick in requirements for Salesforce integration from our clients and others like them in recent years, so thought it might be helpful to share some of our experience.
Building a static site with Nuxt, using Tailwind and Typescript
Exploring how easy it is to get started with a Vue.js-powered static site, using Tailwind and Typescript, and looking at the community-made modules that further extend the functionality to PWAs and more.
LocalGov Drupal - Sprint 4 notes
Agile Collective is working with developers and managers at Croydon Council, Brighton & Hove City Council and a growing number of other councils to refactor existing Drupal 8 code and configuration into a more generic Drupal Distribution for UK councils, aptly named LocalGov Drupal. In the spirit of the Local Digital Declaration we are working in the open and publishing our sprint notes as we go. We've just finished sprint 3.
How to run Drupal’s Nightwatch tests in Lando
Setting up Lando and Drupal to run Nightwatch tests can be hard. This post attempts to break it down and provides a guide to getting set up.
LocalGov Drupal - Sprint 3 notes
Agile Collective is working with developers and managers from Croydon Council, Brighton & Hove City Council and other councils to refactor existing Drupal 8 code and configuration into a more generic Drupal Distribution for councils, aptly named LocalGov Drupal. In the spirit of the Local Digital Declaration we are working in the open and publishing our sprint notes as we go.
LocalGov Drupal - Sprint 2 notes
LocalGov Drupal is a new open source Drupal distribution that we are working on with Croydon and Brighton & Hove Councils. We're 2 sprints in, gathering pace and sharing our notes here.
How to run Drupal’s PHPUnit tests in Lando
Setting up Lando and Drupal to run PHPUnit tests can be tricky. This post attempts to break it down and provides a guide to getting set up.
COVID-19 and our transition to remote working
As of today we have completed our transition to 100% remote in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Sharing Drupal code between UK Councils
Most UK Councils have very similar requirements for website publishing systems, so we are delighted to be involved in active and open collaboration between councils to share code and knowledge towards a shared Drupal publishing platform.
Our review of 2019
2020 used to feel like the future, right? Robots doing all the work while we kick back and relax, world peace, jetpacks, oh hang on…
Attending dotCSS and dotJS conferences 2019
In December 2019 I attended the DotCSS and DotJS conferences in Paris. Here are some quick notes and opinions on the conference for people who might be interested in attending future events.
Writing Accessible Content: Part 2
Clear and useful guidelines for writing accessible content, focusing on images and alt text.
Writing Accessible Content: Part 1
Part 1 of a series covering accessibility from a content writer's perspective. Part 1 focuses on understanding how people access the web, readability, headings and links.
Top 10 reasons to use Drupal 8 now
Drupal 8 is in a great place for new projects, and future upgrades will be far less involved. Moving from Drupal 7 or another CMS to Drupal 8 may feel like a big step, but it is an investment that will pay you and your organisation back, both in the short term and for many years to come.
Web accessibility
A brief introduction to web accessibility and the new legislation for public sector bodies. It's more exciting than you think.
New website, new technologies
Our new website uses a lot of interesting new technology. It is built using the JAMstack methodology (JavaScript, APIs, Markup) which means that Drupal is used for content management, Drupal then serves this content using JSON API (now in Drupal core) and this API is consumed by Gridsome to build the front end.
Drupal with Varnish caching and HTTPS using Nginx and Let's Encrypt
Varnish is great at serving pages to anonymous users at high speed but it doesn't speak HTTPS so if you want to use Varnish and provide your site over HTTPS then you need to use something to do HTTPS and proxy the traffic to Varnish.
My work experience at Agile Collective
I spent one week at Agile Collective learning the fundamentals of building a website with Drupal and have been given a great introduction to the world of web development.
Supporting Drupal Websites: A Timeline
We have supported more and more Drupal websites over time and have learned a lot while doing so
One week with the Agile Collective team
Spending the last week at work experience at Agile Collective has given us the insight on how agile development works when implementing websites.
My Drupal 8 apprenticeship (part one)
I started my apprenticeship 2 months ago with no knowledge of Drupal, co-ops or agile development methodologies.
Work experience at Agile Collective
"Only one year ago I didn’t really enjoy programming. Now I’m considering going into Computer Science for my future career." Toni reports on her fortnight of work experience at Agile Collective.
A week at Agile Collective
I’ve been working at Agile Collective for the past week for my work experience and overall I think it's been great! A major plus is that the office is right next to Atomic Burger...
Learning Web Development with Agile Collective
Switching careers from teaching English to web development was a daunting prospect at first. My impression used to be that the majority of people working in the sector would have predominantly computer science and mathematics oriented backgrounds, and without a qualification in either, I wasn't confident that my ambition would ever become a reality.
Design impulse tests
A quick way to start the conversation about visual design.
Could the next Uber be a platform cooperative?
Could a large platform, like Uber, be owned and controlled by it's members, thus ensuring the profits are distributed equitably, and how can it attract funding?
Open 2017 (day 1)
Finn reports on the Open 2017 conference - a two day conference about Platform Cooperativism.
Cooperative Technologists (Co-Tech) first conference
Something has been brewing in the tech co-op community: the idea of meeting up and sharing ideas between co-ops working in the same space, and possibly finding ways to work more closely together.
Drupalcon Dublin, Day 2 – Prenote, keynote and group photo
The first day of sessions at Drupalcon starts with the 'prenote', the keynote and the group photograph.
Drupalcon Dublin, Day 2 – afternoon sessions
Notes on the sessions I attended in the afternoon: Configuration management, theory and practice | Super Collaborative Design Processes | Does Drupal need a Platform Co-op? (BOF)
Drupalcon Dublin - Day 3 - JSON API, Scrum Drupal Nirvana , Al Jazeera, CI with Gitlab
Notes on the sessions I attended on day 3 of Drupalcon: Keynote | JSON API | Scrum Drupal Nirvana | How Al Jazeera built a future-focused Digital Platform with Drupal 8| Continuous Integration to automate your Drupal workflow
Drupalcon Dublin, Day 1 – Community Summit
The first day of Drupalcon includes paid training, the Business Summit, and the all important Community Summit.
Responsive images and manual cropping in Drupal 8
A look at how responsive images, sliders and cropping works in Drupal 8
Our identity, part 1: Mission and Vision
We sometimes ask ourselves 'what is it all for?' Not every day, but every now and then. And how we answer determines what we do next.
Big Co-op Clean
Our small contribution to Co-ops Fortnight and our local environment
What's new in Drupal 8 theming?
An overview of the main changes to the Drupal 8 theming layer, with a collection of technical details that can help you begin working on a Drupal 8 site.
Thoughts on Drupal Camp London 2016
Matthew Fletcher experiences Drupalcamp London for the first time.
Case study: Behaviour-driven development (BBD) using Behat and Drupal (Forest Desk)
Using behaviour-driven development to rapidly describe, implement and test a news management platform.
Collaboration & Community: the story behind World IA Day’s new website
A client's perspective: A tale of international collaboration
Introduction to front-end ops
Front-end ops focuses on the processes and automation of developing and theming websites from the perspective of a front-end developer.
Drupalcon Barcelona
Finn visits Barcelona for Drupalcon 2015
Drupal beginnings
Avigail writes about her first steps in web development as Agile Collective's latest apprentice.
Co-operatives Congress 2015 - Day 1 Friday
Once again I find myself in Birmingham Town Hall, with my colleague Maria, ready for the annual Co-operatives Congress.
Cooperative Visioning & Strategy Weekend #1
Agile Collective attempt their first Visioning & Strategy weekend...
Worker Co-op Weekend 2015
Youlbury Scout Camp in Oxford hosted the 2015 Worker Co-op Weekend, an event for worker co-operatives to come together to share experiences, learn from each other, bond, socialise, network and have some fun.
One way to deal with the Drupal 8 beta to beta upgrade cycle
Using the config management system and an install profile with content imported from Google Spreadsheets
Building a Theme in Drupal 8
My adventures in starting to theme with the new and much improved Drupal 8
jQuery UK 2014 Takeaways
From jQuery 2.0 to Nodecopter demos, a roundup of the top takeaways from the Oxford based tech conference.
Code Club - Term 1
Last Thursday, Aaron and I started a new code club at my daughter’s primary school in Oxford, with Agile Collective generously sponsoring our time and resources to do this
Code Club
After-school clubs to bring code to the next generation!
UK internet censorship and what to do about it
You might have heard about the new legislation...
Drupal Apprenticeship: New beginnings, nice legs and the evolution of humanity
Not only am I Agile's first apprentice, I'm also the first girl on the team. I arrived on Monday morning to find that the guys had cleaned the office in preparation for my arrival - I'm not sure whether to feel honoured or worried.