With modules like CCK and Views developers rapidly create solutions with little custom module development. What if you need to deploy the same configuration of content types and views on multiple sites? The following example takes the power of the Views and CCK to create a sort of mashup module packaging your views and content type. I find this helpful time saver when having to repeat the same configuration on multiple sites.

I needed a programatic way to deploy and install Drupal sites using an installation profile. I  found that I could use an automated installation profile to create new sites with basic customization rather quickly. I wanted to take this one step further to automate the installation process programatically. Drupal 5 makes creating automated install profiles straitforeward.

I was looking for a way to customize the Drupal node edit pages for specific content types and I found this article from Lullabot. It gives a great overview of the different ways to customize or override the core Drupal form fields. I used this to modify an node edit page to create a simplified version of the form for less technical users so they would not feel overwhelmed with the many customizable options that Drupal provides for a node.

I was excited more effort going into Drupal command line tools. In the past I’ve had to develop my own tools for deployment and updating Drupal on the command line. Drupal currently has limited tools for the command line in versions 5 and 6. I’m not sure about 7, hopefully it will be better. This Acquia blog post offers a collection of scripts to help deploy and maintain Drupal sites as well as some other features. Thanks Acquia!