High Performance Drupal Meetup

The next High Performance Drupal meetup is meeting once again at Filter Digital (http://www.filterdigital.com/), a digital solutions agency in Culver City, on February 19, 2013. Those interested in attending this meetup remotely are welcome to join us via WebEx (http://groups.drupal.org/node/282243#webex).

At this meetup, we're featuring a presentation on Behat Overview and Real World Examples (http://groups.drupal.org/node/282243#featured-presentations).

Our meetups follow a basic format and start off with Drupal news and announcements, local job announcements, raffle prizes and full-length presentations. As always, we'll also have community Q&A, during which time anyone in attendance can ask questions, divine answers from the crowd and give brief, 5-10 minute-long presentations known as lightning talks.

We're soliciting additional presentations and lightning talks for this meetup. If there's a topic that you'd like give a presentation on, please leave a comment below. Likewise, if there's a topic that you'd like to learn more about, you're welcome to make a request in the comments below. Thank you!

Also see http://groups.drupal.org/node/282243#agenda for details. We'll finish off the night with more networking and a Drupal After Dark (http://groups.drupal.org/la/glossary#drupalafterdark) at 8:00pm.

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

http://groups.drupal.org/files/filterdigital-72x72.gif (http://www.filterdigital.com/)Light food and refreshments will be served throughout the evening courtesy of our food, drink and venue sponsor, Filter Digital (http://www.filterdigital.com/), a digital solutions agency. Filter Digital's client list spans global brands and Fortune 100 companies to startups and boutique firms. Let us help you create a digital solution that fits your needs!

http://groups.drupal.org/files/larks-90-82.png (http://www.larks.la/)Our video conferencing and raffle prize sponsor for this event is Exaltation of Larks (http://www.larks.la/), a Drupal strategy, consulting, development and training company with a team of Drupal experts in Los Angeles. We create fun websites, mobile apps, virtual worlds and e-commerce sites. Follow us at @LarksLA (https://twitter.com/LarksLA) to learn more about our Drupal services and upcoming trainings.

http://groups.drupal.org/files/dl_scale_logo2.png (http://droplabs.net/)This event is being organized with help from Droplabs (http://droplabs.net/) (@Droplabs (https://twitter.com/Droplabs)), a collaborative classroom and coworking space in Downtown Los Angeles. We're quickly gaining a reputation for being the only coworking space around with a with a low-cost business model (http://droplabs.net/about/services-and-prices): come work here and use our tables, chairs, WiFi and conference room with a low, daily or monthly membership fee and only pay more for the extras, such as 24/7 access, equipment rental and a locker for your belongings.

What to Bring

Just bring your laptop, your business cards or whatever else you need. You're also welcome to bring some light food, sodas or beers to share with others at the meetup.

Light food and refreshments will be served throughout the evening by Filter Digital. Please sign up by clicking the Sign up (http://groups.drupal.org/node/282243#signup) button below to help us get a head count. Food is not guaranteed for those who don't sign up.

Do you have a job announcement? Bring a copy of your job description and several business cards for our "take a card, leave a card" table.

Join us on WebEx and Twitter!

To join the meeting, use the following URL and password:

URL: https://meetings.webex.com/collabs/meetings/join?uuid=M1G6KV2NUIRNFPTT2W0YDWFDCU-2J4J&epwd=51157c46477d7e7354235f
Meeting number: 191 577 591
Meeting password: uu828emk

During the meetup, the event organizers will be monitoring Twitter for feedback and questions that mention @DowntownDrupal (https://twitter.com/DowntownDrupal).

Agenda

Our meetups follow a basic format and start off with Drupal news and announcements, local job announcements, breakout sessions, lightning talks, raffle prizes and full-length presentations.

As always, we'll also have community Q&A, during which time anyone in attendance can ask questions, divine answers from the crowd and give brief, 5-10 minute-long presentations known as lightning talks. We'll finish off the night with more networking and a Drupal After Dark (http://groups.drupal.org/la/glossary#drupalafterdark) at 8:00pm.

For any changes to our agenda, stay tuned to this meetup announcement or click the Sign up (http://groups.drupal.org/node/282243#signup)button below (or both!) to be notified when the agenda has been updated.

6:00pm
News and Upcoming Events
• Interesting events listed at http://groups.drupal.org/events
• Job announcements

6:55pm
Start of WebEx Meeting (http://groups.drupal.org/node/282243#webex)

7:00pm
Raffle Prizes!
Featured Presentations and Lightning Talks (http://groups.drupal.org/node/282243#presentations)
Behat Overview and Real World Examples

8:00pm
Wrap-up, Clean-up and Close-up
Drupal After Dark and more networking (http://groups.drupal.org/node/282243#drupal-after-dark)

Breakout Sessions

We have several spaces available for breakout sessions. This is an opportunity for a open, multi-track format where we break into groups and discuss a variety of topics. Each breakout session is led by a volunteer who picks the topic, picks the space and can optionally report back to the larger group in the form of an announcement or lightning talk.

Featured Presentations and Lightning Talks

Behat Overview and Real World Examples

Behat is an easy-to-use BDD (Behavior Driven Development) tool allowing users to create quick and powerful behavior tests. What makes Behat especially easy is that test are written in natural language such as "Given I am on /user" and "When I press Log in". Extending Behat tests to include custom functionality is easy both through the use of Object Oriented Features and Extensions.

One powerful extension for use with Behat is Mink. Mink gives Behat the ability to control headless browsers or browser controllers such as Selenium, Goutte, Sahi or Zombie.js directly within your BDD tests. This makes frontend testing just as easy as backend testing. See Watchdog magazine's Behat and Mink (http://drupalwatchdog.com/2/2/behat-mink) article for more on the subject.

Behat is the brainchild of Konstantin Kudryashov and supports a growing community of 40+ contributors. Behat is seen as a rising star for Drupal testing with the Drupal.org project having committed to using Behat. With Drupal 8 including partial Symfony 2 framework integration and Symfony 2's native integration layer for work with Behat, Drupal developers are taking a much closer look at the framework as the future opportunities for easy repeatable BDD tests within Drupal are growing.

Daniel McDermott (@dannymacom (https://twitter.com/dannymacom)) is a freelance Drupal Developer based out of Ventura, CA. He currently works with Exaltation of Larks (http://www.larks.la/). His current area of focus is Behat, Vagrant, Drupal Commerce and all-you-can-eat sushi.

We're soliciting additional presentations and lightning talks for this meetup. If there's a topic that you'd like give a presentation on, please leave a comment below. Likewise, if there's a topic that you'd like to learn more about, you're welcome to make a request in the comments below. Thank you!

Raffle prizes! Collect them all! Must be present to win! (Some may be available for remote attendees).

Raffle prizes at this meetup have been provided by Exaltation of Larks (http://www.larks.la/). Our raffle prizes often include discount codes, magazines, DVDs, books and tickets to attend professional, paid Drupal trainings. We are always grateful to our sponsors for their continued support.

If you have any items you'd like to donate to the raffle, please contact any of the organizers at the meetup. Thank you!

http://groups.drupal.org/files/filterdigital-googlemap.png (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=FILTER&aq=&sll=40.818333,-96.87337&sspn=48.504772,76.816406&vpsrc=0&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=5782+W+Jefferson+Blvd,+Los+Angeles,+California+90016&t=m&z=17&iwloc=A&cid=3873664664816317067)

Location and Directions

Filter Digital
5782 W. Jefferson Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90016

Filter is located next to Corbis on West Jefferson Street and is the brick building running along side of the large concrete building. When parking, choose from one of the many unmarked spaces in the lot.

There is construction of a new metro stop across the street, so please plan to arrive a few minutes early.

FROM THE NORTH:

Head South on S. La Cienega Blvd. (Note, this is what Fairfax eventually turns into). Continue on S. La Cienega until you reach the intersection of S. La Cienega and Jefferson Blvd. Quickly after that you will see the See's Candy store on your right. Turn right (on Corbett) as if turning into their parking lot. Continue down that lane all the way to the end. You will see a sign that says 5788 on the left. There take a right into our parking lot and park anywhere. To find our office, just take a right at the cafe tables.

FROM THE SOUTH:

Head North on S. La Cienega Blvd. Continue North on S. La Cienega through the intersection of S. La Cienega and Rodeo Rd. You will see Target on your left and The Chinese Laundry shoe outlet. Quickly after The Chinese Laundry turn left (on Corbett) as if turning into the See's Candy store. Continue down that lane all the way to the end. You will see a sign that says 5788 on the left. There take a right into our parking lot and park anywhere. To find our office, just take a right at the cafe tables.

FROM THE EAST:

Head West on W. Jefferson Blvd. Continue on S. La Cienega until you reach the intersection of S. La Cienega and Jefferson Blvd. There, take a left to head South on S. La Cienega Blvd. Quickly after that you will see the See's Candy store on your right. Turn right (on Corbett) as if turning into their parking lot. Continue down that lane all the way to the end. You will see a sign that says 5788 on the left. There take a right into our parking lot and park anywhere. To find our office, just take a right at the cafe tables.

FROM THE WEST:

Head East on National Blvd. When you reach the intersection of National Blvd and Jefferson, continue going straight into our parking lot (You'll notice a metal marquee with both "Possible Worldwide" and "Filter" listed). Park anywhere, then head to the building with the jagged roof and take a right. To find our office, just take a right at the cafe tables.

Drupal After Dark

Even if you can't make it to the meetup, you're welcome to join us for a Drupal After Dark. After we wrap up the meeting and clean up, a group of us will go to a nearby restaurant or pub.

About Filter Digital

Filter provides creative marketing solutions and staffing resources. Our services are distinguished by outstanding quality, talented people and exceptional value.

We are both more agile and more cost-effective than traditional agencies because of our unique approach to resourcing and staffing our engagements. Let us help you create a digital solution that fits your needs. Our client list spans global brands and Fortune 100 companies to startups and boutique firms.

About High Performance Drupal

What is the High Performance Drupal meetup about? The "high performance" part of the name is a catch-all to describe Drupal scalability, performance and benchmarking but we also discuss hosting, infrastructure, deployment, monitoring and highly repeatable processes.

Also, this meetup has been held at coffeeshops in the past and the addition of caffeine makes our meetings feel as if they go faster and faster as the night goes on.

We've been meeting regularly since April, 2011, in a variety of locations in and around Los Angeles, including Mar Vista, Santa Monica, Culver City and Downtown Los Angeles.

California Drupal Travelers Program

The High Performance Drupal meetup organizers proudly participate in the California Drupal Travelers Program (http://groups.drupal.org/california/drupal-travelers-program) and can host businesses and community members who are visiting the area. Inquire within by contacting any of the High Performance Drupal meetup organizers.