links for 2010-02-01

Deployment is one of my biggest bugbears with Drupal. So much important work is done in hellish checkbox configuration interfaces, breaking what decades of programming has developed as the most effective way to track changes, work as multiple developers on a project, and version control. (i.e. SVN)

There is no way to track what you did to get the damn thing working, which combination of checkboxes and modules actually worked. Then you have to repeat it all from scratch on the live server. There are various strategies and modules out there designed to solve this problem, but none so far have been satisfactory. This looks promising, and I'll have to try it, although I am nervous of putting an entire project's deployment strategy into a third party module. And it still seems to rely on a manual export process, which is a bit clumsy.

For the time being we are doing as much in code as possible – building custom modules with hooks and alters instead of using things like Views.

Smashing Magazine love to put everything into a numbered list. Here's a useful collection of resources for making wireframes. (35 resources to be precise).

Expressing dynamic behaviour and a live interface on static paper is always going to be difficult.

In my experience, wireframes are deeply misunderstood deliverables and they are difficult to get right. I have seen a lot of poorly produced wireframes that add complexity and confusion rather than helping define the interface part of the user experience. The biggest problem I see is inconsistency and lack of meaningful annotation, which leads to too much brain power dedicated to decoding and interpreting the wireframe when it comes to producing designs and functionality.

The difference between federated and delegated authentication explained… Twitter OAuth API is a federated authentication system, much like visa is a federated payment system. Facebook Connect is a delegated system, like in-store cards. The way I understand it, Twitter is a platform to build social apps on, Facebook Connect is a social platform you plug into.