Rearranging the node form without breaking it
A practical look at tabbed editing screens, button placement, and the small layout choices that decide whether a form feels calm or chaotic.
Archive note3 min read
Personal engineering journal
A field notebook for open source work
Charlie Gordon writes about Drupal, automated testing, usability, and the people who keep open source moving. The notes are practical, opinionated, and written for anyone who has ever stared at a failing test at the end of a long day.
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Latest notes
Twelve entries on testing, content tools, and community work. Start anywhere; the archive keeps the older pieces together.
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02 A working method for automated tests in Drupal
How to plan a test, choose assertions, and keep a suite readable when the codebase keeps moving.
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03 On awesomeness, and why it belongs in a changelog
An essay about the vocabulary communities use to describe good work, and what that language does to the people doing it.
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04 Testing sprint field notes, second day
What the second day of a concentrated testing sprint looks like when the easy wins are gone and the hard questions arrive.
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05 Testing sprint field notes, first day
Setup, shared tools, and the social work of getting a room full of contributors to test the same code in the same way.
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06 Sponsorship and the practical side of a testing sprint
Travel support turns distributed volunteers into a room that can finish difficult work together. A note on why that matters.
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07 Open participation is a habit, not a launch
Thoughts on contributor programs, newcomer friction, and the unglamorous work of keeping a community open.
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08 Students, conferences, and the first contribution
Why a conference ticket can matter more to a young contributor than to a seasoned one, and how to make that first room welcoming.
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09 Configurable text filters and the case for point and click
An introduction to the idea behind Flexifilter: let site builders define text transformations in the interface instead of in code.
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10 Building a wiki with Drupal, one decision at a time
A calm checklist for teams that want shared, versioned pages without leaving their existing content system.
Archive note3 min read
Showing 10 of 12 notes
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Browse by theme
The notebook keeps a small, opinionated set of topics. Each one gathers the entries that belong together.
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Where to start
Three reading paths for three different reasons to be here.
For new builders
Find your footing
Content tools, shared pages, and the first decisions that make a site easier to live in.
For testers
Make the suite useful
Write tests that another person can read, trust, and extend without a meeting.
For community builders
Open the door properly
Newcomer paths, review capacity, and the difference between a welcome page and a welcome.
A notebook, not a brochure
This site collects working notes rather than sales copy. It is written by Charlie Gordon and kept as a static archive, with no trackers and no third party scripts.
Read about the notebook