problems "cloning" a Drupal site

Had a site that I wanted to have 3 iterations of -- to use as multiple sandboxes --

I had them in subdomains -- and copied the database -- but the copied sites didn't look like the original --

I could not find any reason for the discrepancy and in truth I don't even now know what was causing the problem -- but I did find a way to get the three sites back into step...

Found a solution to my problems --

I logged in as admin to the Drupal sites --

then I ran

update.php -- nothing was shown to have updated --

after update I ran

cron.php

and voila

or is it eureka??

either way -- the sites look like they should ---

why -- I don't know ---

so there it is --- now -- when I compare the 3 sites --- varying in name something like the sites below --

ALL IS WELL

http://rslts.example.com

http://rslts3.example.com

http://rslts152.example.com

Getting those neat drop down menus to work in Drupal 6 Acquia Marina theme

I had some trouble figuring this out -- nothing new about that -- but I got it to work -- which is always a good feeling..

Don't Get Fracked

There's "natural gas" locked in Devonian shale formations deep below the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale have commercially viable amounts of gas but extraction has to be done using a new extraction method called "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing. Clean water is taken and combined with sand and a number of chemicals known and unknown to fracture the shale and keep the cracks open to allow the gas to migrate to the well bore and come to the surface.

Keep in mind that other things come back to the surface besides the sought after and valuable natural gas. Brine laden with a number of undesirable metals such as barium and perhaps radioactive chemicals are brought up. Currently there is no safe place to dispose of this water that comes back. For this procedure there is not a problem because a 2005 act excluded hydraulic fracturing from having to meet the standards set by

The Clean Water Act - passed by Congress while Nixon was in office

The Clean Air Act - passed by Congress while Nixon was in office

The Clean Drinking Water Act

These laws were major advances in protecting the environment we all share.

Why tolerate natural gas extraction if the process had to be excluded from these important acts?

Read more at

http://advocates-for-Morris.blogspot.com

Phone number searching tips

I tried putting in phone numbers as

800-555-1212

and as

800.555.1212

but when I went to search for them they would not show up...

I tried

800x555x1212

and

800m555m1212

both worked

my preference if for the

800m555m1212

If you are using a "smart phone" with just a phone keypad m is easier than x because if you press 1 time on 6 you get m

to get x you have to press 9 twice.

Drupal 5.x Search vs 6.x Search

Sometimes it seems like I am just searching for the perfect search.

I have a site that has close to 7,000 nodes of resource contacts. All the contacts have a phone number. I can jot down a phone number and have it exactly right. In Drupal 5.x I could search on the phone number and just go right to that resource.

I upgraded to Drupal 6.16 from Drupal 5.22 and the search died.

That was bad news for me and the usefulness of my site.

I would put a phone number in the search box and get almost every node in the site in the output.

So I searched all over drupal.org and the web via google.com and tried to learn what had changed to kill my search from Drupal 5.x to 6.x.

I never did find any documentation on the change that did me in, but in the Drupal handbook at the link below

http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/search/

I found the following

"If you're looking for an exact phrase, enclose it in quotation marks."

Now there's an idea - put your search keyword in quotes. That wasn't necessary in 5.x searches -- but apparently it is necessary in Drupal 6.x searches.

I was doing things like adding the Custom Google Search Engine module and the Search Lacene API search - but it was all unnecessary.

The power of quotation marks was all that I needed.

Lost my search function on Drupal 4.7

Here's the scenario -

I was moving an old web site -- and saw the huge number of searches and thought that they were bloating up database. I cleared out the searches and search index file.

Guess what?

When I tested the search in the new installation I got very few or no hits.

What to do?

I did a number of searches on the problem.

Like

Drupal 4.7 search broken

Drupal 4.x search problem

Drupal 4.7 search won't work

nothing seemed to work out

I tried editing a few posts and running cron.php after each edit. Those posts showed up in the search.

Then reading another bit of advice - I saw that I go to

Admin
Settings
Search

and if you change the number of letters you use as a minimum the site is reindexed.

I changed the number a few times - also I set the number of nodes reindexed in each cron to 50.

After doing that enough times to cover the whole site I had my index restored and working.

Good news -

Right?

Right!

If You Ever Need Any Birchbark

Sometimes you need some birchbark or teasel or corn husks - for a craft project - so where do you go to get something like that.

http://countrycraftsupplies.com/


That's the place!