Doing something with computers!

Welcome to WonderBeta.com

Problems are to the mind what exercise is to the muscles, they toughen and make strong. --Norman Vincent Peale

WonderBeta exists to solve organizations' technical problems. How do we do it?

The Right Tools
Why reinvent the wheel? We leverage amazing open source tools to improve productivity and minimize total cost. We create custom solutions using pre-existing applications including Drupal, Magento, and MediaWiki. For when it's necessary to create an application from scratch, we enjoy using frameworks including Ruby on Rails, CakePHP, and Django.
The Right Process
We understand that a single project management methodology cannot solve every problem. We use variants on Agile and Iterative development, depending on the needs of the client and requirements of the project.
The Right Attitude
We love using interesting technology to solve interesting problems! Contact us now to get started!

Recent Updates

A Default Drupal Installation

It seems that every time I start a new Drupal project I go through the same process: get Drupal, install it, set up the users the way I want, get the same set of modules, etc. Because I hate unnecessarily doing the same thing more than once, I thought I'd try to set something up that would allow me to get a "standard" install of Drupal up and running in a hurry.

New Drupal module: Menu Import

While working with Inigo Media, I've observed that a common step in the construction of a business website is the creation of a sitemap. This is usually created collaboratively by the client and the designers, and serves to organize the content that will ultimately exist on the site. Once the sitemap has been more or less finalized, the next step is usually to translate it into a menu structure so that navigation elements can be configured and themed.

Organizing a Drupal Project with Subversion

Organizing a Drupal Project with Subversion

A single Drupal project can be as simple or complicated as you need it to be; this is one of the great advantages of using Drupal. Until recently, I arranged my Drupal projects in the most straight-forward way -- I set up Drupal and imported the whole directory hierarchy into subversion. While this reduces the complexity of the project, it doesn't allow you to easily do things like upgrade Drupal Core when a new security release comes out. So, I spent some time trying to figure out the correct way to organize a project and came up with a solution that utilizes subversion's externals property. I'm not sure that this solution is the absolute best arrangement, but once it's all set up it makes project administration a breeze.

An Introduction to WonderBeta

Welcome to WonderBeta.com!

We at WonderBeta are excited about technology and we'll be using this blog to record our thoughts on the things we're playing around with.

What is WonderBeta?

  • We are a consulting company that specializes in solving interesting problems for nice people. This can range from creating a custom application from scratch, to making two pre-existing applications talk to each other, to creating a custom website for small businesses.
  • We love Open Source tools including Drupal, Ruby on Rails, CakePHP, Magento, and the like. So many great toys, so little time!
  • When not programming, we strive to fight the stereotype that American beers are terrible.