Microblog

I am excited that DrupalGovCon is sold out with a stunning 600 attendees.

I wish we had an event of a similar scope here in Europe. While every governmental project is unique there's always room for the transfer of knowledge, ideas, or wishes.

As Joey Tribbiani once said 😉
"(...) through this having and giving and sharing and receiving, we too can share and love and have and receive."

In each of the European states, we have tons of projects that we as tax-payers have founded over decades. Looking at many projects I personally participated in we can greatly improve how we collaborate.

1. Rather than starting each project with a blank page we could start to accept the knowledge others already gathered. opensource can be a fantastic start for most projects. As a Drupal community, we already have plenty of talks, case studies, or even code distributions you can learn from - either from your local market or other European states.

2. Provide small but meaningful improvements. Maybe an inherited project doesn't fit the bill straight away and approaches things differently than what your project requires. Rather than complaining about that try to understand what was the reason someone approached it differently than you. Ask questions, and provide feedback. Finally, treat what you've received with tender loving care.

3. Share your incremental improvements with others. This is perhaps the most important step of the cycle as it enables one to keep iterating over and over. You will be surprised how often your past work not only impacts your future projects but can also positively impact the projects of others.

Meanwhile, I wish a fantastic conference to everyone coming to Bethesda this year.

A recent shift in Klarna's protocol since July, confirmed by a company representative, has led to significant discrepancies in the payment process. When customers choose the unbranded Klarna option (marked with a generic credit card icon), the company executes Authorization Holds for each payment attempt, regardless of whether the merchant approves or denies the order.

Furthermore, Klarna immediately completes charges for these Authorization Holds, which makes it possible for customers to initiate a Chargeback against merchants, even in cases where goods are not delivered or still in transit.

These actions challenge the guidelines established by Forbrukertilsynet, Norway's Consumer Authority*. Klarna, operating on behalf of merchants, concludes the charge and settles customers' funds in their own accounts, even when an order isn't approved by the merchant nor can be controlled by the merchant.

This new policy could introduce several complications for merchants:
- Limited Sales Opportunities: Customers may need to wait for as long as five business days to receive a refund for funds reserved by Klarna, inhibiting further purchases.
- Compliance with Consumer Authority Guidelines: Merchants must fulfill specific conditions to be allowed to take advanced payments.
- Potential Complications with Card Issuers: A higher frequency of chargebacks could result in additional chargeback fees and increased card fees for merchants.

* https://lnkd.in/d6ajspEH

This is quite an interesting discovery so I am raising it here for your awareness.

Customers paying with hashtag#Klarna are charged even when the merchant denied the purchase using Klarna's own validation callback, leading to a charge with no order being created. Moreover, each payment attempt results in a charge and the merchant has no means to void/refund them.

Has anyone ever felt that huge sense of accomplishment when a trivial yet tricky project starts to take shape? That's me right now!

So, here's the latest. I've managed to create a new theme based on the 'starterkit' to finally wave goodbye to our dependency on that 'classy' theme, which is not compatible with Drupal 10.x. One task off the list, eh?

But hey, that prompted an overhaul of the layout as well. I've moved from a single-column structure to a snazzier sidebar layout. While doing so I stumbled across this gem -- https://every-layout.dev/layouts/sidebar/ -- and it was a total game-changer for this makeover. Pass this on, it's a great find!

Last but not least, I've added support for. This will help structure the content of this microblog in a streamlined way, which is perfect since I am planning to cover such a wide range of topics.

Slowly but steadily, the puzzle pieces are coming together. Below snapshot of the current state of things.

In my exciting journey with Ny Media AS, I've been the architect behind cutting-edge e-commerce platforms, tailored for ambitious Nordic businesses. But change is a part of life, and now I'm on the lookout for a fresh challenge where I can put my expertise and enthusiasm to work.

I am deeply committed to nurturing long-term projects, savoring the growth and progress achieved over time. As a dedicated advocate of Free and Open Source Software, I firmly believe in its sustainability and transformative power to drive innovation. My aspiration is to help forward-thinking companies see the potential in FOSS and to assist them in cultivating and integrating this culture into their organizations.

Equipped with a passion for hashtag#Drupal, a scale-up mindset, and an in-depth understanding of the ecommerce sector, I'm eager to find a place where my contributions make a significant impact. If my skills align with what you're seeking or you know of opportunities that would be a good fit, please feel free to connect. I'm ready for the next exciting chapter!

Cross-posted from https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:709652078679396352…

To further enhance this micro-blog platform's appeal for both you, the reader, and myself, the writer, I intend to undertake a significant redesign. This will encompass certain features, about which I will share more details soon. In order to thoroughly document this mini project's stages, I find it necessary to include images in some of the entries, including this one, to better illustrate the progress.

The following phase involves introducing a new theme (learn more at https://www.drupal.org/about/core/blog/new-starterkit-will-change-how-y…). The updated look and feel will not only elevate user experience but also represent growth and innovation in my content creation journey. Your understanding and patience during this transition are greatly appreciated.

When it comes to navigating Drupal's admin, I can't recommend the Coffee module enough (find it at https://www.drupal.org/project/coffee). This impressive tool has boosted my productivity exponentially. It is, without a doubt, one of the most essential and effective modules I've ever used. By delivering a streamlined navigation experience, it enables users to work smarter, not harder, making it a game changer in Drupal operations.

Welcome to the first post of my blog revival series. I embarked on a substantial project and I'm excited to bring you along on this journey, sharing each step and how I tackled this formidable task.

Prior to entry #7, this blog ran on a single DigitalOcean droplet (grab my ref link https://m.do.co/c/6c6678f2ac68 for a 200USD credit), supported only by PHP7.2, Drupal 8.9.10 (indeed!) and exclusively Composer 1. The objective was a straightforward upgrade to Drupal 10.1.1, the most recent version at the time of writing, with no changes to visual or functional elements. Here's how I divided the upgrade process:

1. Upgrade to D8's latest version
2. Upgrade to Composer 2
3. Prepare a new droplet supporting PHP7.4 and PHP8.1, while retaining active 7.4
4. Upgrade to Drush 10 (from Drush 9)
5. Transfer the site to the new droplet
6. Upgrade to Drupal 9
7. Upgrade to PHP8.1 compatible dependencies and switch PHP version on the server
8. Upgrade to Drush 11
9. Change the admin theme to Claro
10. Upgrade to Drupal 10

Considering the extensive preparation, the upgrade process went relatively smoothly—this stands testament to the simple, lean nature of this site with only a single contrib module. However, a few key points emerged from this quick leap from D8 to D10 that are worth highlighting for similar future endeavors:

- Say farewell to Seven: https://www.drupal.org/node/3304670
- Note the config_sync_directory update: https://www.drupal.org/node/3018145
- If your webserver is Nginx, check this: https://www.drupal.org/node/2888767#nginx-php-fpm
- Classy is also a thing of the past: https://www.drupal.org/node/3305674

Stay tuned for more insights as we continue to innovate and improve in this exciting blog revival series.

It's time to bring some life back into this microblog. I have a host of ideas brewing for what I want to accomplish here, but I'll unveil them in due course. First, let's tackle some burning questions one might have:

- Do I plan on continuing with Drupal for this website? Absolutely.
- Will the source code be publicly available? Most definitely.
- Do I intend to create posts touching on a variety of topics? Yes, that's the plan.
- Will I be posting regularly? While I can't promise a strict schedule, I certainly aim to keep the content flow consistent.

In essence, although things might not be on a strict timeline, rest assured that exciting developments are on the horizon. Stay tuned for this reinvigorated journey!

Some time ago I decided it's finally time to move on from gmail powered inbox to something with more control of it, something paid. I've been using email address within my custom domain for a long time but all mails would end up in gmail inbox anyways. That model wasn't really sustainable and I decided that transition should go in steps:
1. Split custom domain email address from gmail.
2. Fade out gmail inbox usage.
3. Delete google account all together.
BlackFriday deals accelerated step 1 for me and after good deal of research I finally decided to choose one of the paid plans from ProtonMail (https://protonmail.com/). Why ProtonMail? Mostly because:
- It's been recommended by people I follow on Twitter
- I appreciate their focus on privacy
- They offered Visionary account with 2-years plan, many custom domains support, 5 email subaccounts (which I needed for my family anyways)
- Visionary account also comes with ProtonVPN account included which makes it a very good bargain (I had to change my VPN supplier anyways).

I have now successfully completed step (1) from the list above - been using ProtonMail as a primary inbox for over a month now - and the only thing I'm struggling with is more spam that gets through their spam filters than it was a case on gmail.

I am happy to see there are new additions to their services, such as ProtonCalendar, which should help me to fully migrate away from Google-owned services before I close my account (step 3).

Finally, a word of advice - invest in your personal domain if you haven't so far. It will cost just a fraction of your monthly spending (you'll subscribe for a year) and enables you to fully control which vendor you're using for your services - website hosting, email account, etc.
Even if you prefer gmail - let's be honest: it's one of the best email products out there - try connecting it with your custom domain either by purchasing GSuite account https://gsuite.google.pl/intl/pl/pricing.html account or using by using POP3 protocol https://support.google.com/mail/answer/21289?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDeskto…