Web Design

My First Module

Right on the heals of my first Drupal.org submission comes my first module.  I've been working with Drupal for 7 years now but never had the need before.  There are almost 20,000 community-contributed modules on Drupal.org and I've always been able to make due with "standard" solutions, even if it involved a bit of php code inside a view, webform, or theme template file.

But as I've said before, my goal now is to become a better developer.  And to that end, I offer my first module: Format Headers.

The premise is simple: it offers CSS formatting for block and pane titles, and you can have different formatting for uppercase and lowercase.  Block and pane titles are simple text fields in Drupal and don't allow special formatting, other than what you can do in your theme, so this is a new function.

The backstory: several months ago I applied to work at a high-end web design agency.  I told them at the time that I had never come across a programming challenge that I was unable to beat.  At the time, it was true.  They gave me a demonstration project which I failed, partly because I couldn't figure out how to do special formatting on panels pane titles.  (This is well beyond what you can do with pure css.)  Then I got hired at another company, had a second kid, and life got in the way.  Now I've got some time, so I'm breaking through the wall.

Much like my first submission, professional pride played a role here.  The reason for this module existing is an edge case from a demo project that ended several months ago.  I have no idea how many people will need a module like this.  But I can once again say that I have never come across a programming challenge that I was unable to beat.