Choose one: Manual updates for Backdrop CMS, or the Pantheon upstream

Submitted by jenlampton on July 31, 2022 - 3:16pm

One of the benefits of hosting a website on Pantheon, is that the dashboard can notify you when there are available updates for the core code of your CMS (Backdrop CMS, Drupal, or WordPress).

Pantheon does this by comparing the code you are running on your own website, to the latest available code in the matching Pantheon "upstream". For Backdrop CMS websites, the Pantheon "upstream" is the backdrop-pantheon repository on GitHub.

Backdrop CMS Hosting Pantheon

How to run Let'sEncrypt SSL certificates on Name Cheap shared hosting

Submitted by jenlampton on July 12, 2022 - 6:22pm

NameCheap hosting will promise you "Free SSL" when you sign up for hosting, but it's a trap. What you get is actually the first year free, for a certificate that will cost you $9/year, plus all the frustration and developer time to manage renewals of that SSL certificate.

Let’sEncrypt, on the other hand, provides always-free SSL certificates. Many modern web hosting providers include SSL certificates from Let’sEncrypt, by default, with your new hosting plans.

SSL Hosting Security Tech tip

How to Update a local copy of a Backdrop site hosted on Pantheon

Submitted by jenlampton on November 23, 2021 - 12:15pm

Today I need to make some updates to one of my Backdrop CMS websites that hasn't been worked on for in a while. This site is hosted on Pantheon. Since I haven't written about how I update my local site before, I thought I'd take the time to document it today. I hope someone finds this helpful :)

Note, the instructions here assume the site is using my configuration management workflow for Pantheon hosted websites.

Backdrop CMS Hosting Pantheon

Using MAMP for local Backdrop CMS development

Submitted by jenlampton on July 12, 2021 - 4:50pm

I use MAMP for my local Backdrop development on MacOS.

If you would like to do the same, first download the most recent version of MAMP and install it locally. When you are done, you should have directories for both MAMP and MAMP PRO in your /Applications directory.

To run the application, double click MAMP.app inside the MAMP directory. Once it's up and running, you should see a MAMP widget with a cute elephant icon.

Backdrop CMS MAMP

How to add back the Git history, when you forgot to clone

Submitted by jenlampton on September 25, 2020 - 9:33am

When porting modules from Drupal 7 to Backdrop CMS, it's natural for people to download the Drupal project as usual, and then start to make changes to the code so it will work for Backdrop. When they have got a working Backdrop version of the module, they are often inclined to contribute it back to the Backdrop community -- which is great!

Git Backdrop

How to choose a Pantheon Plan

Submitted by jenlampton on July 13, 2020 - 5:44pm

Part of my job as a developer is making website hosting recommendations to my clients. To create a list of recommendations, I determine the appropriate plan for the website (or websites) we're working with, and present the options to my client. In order for them to make a decision based on these recommendations, each option needs to include an associated cost.

Backdrop CMS Hosting Pantheon CDN

HTML themes to Backdrop themes

Submitted by jenlampton on November 20, 2018 - 3:15pm

I've been meaning to write up a blog post about how to go from a HTML template (purchased from a place like https://themeforest.net) to a Backdrop theme. As a developer with only a smidge of design skill, I have found this to be a workable alternative to hiring a designer for custom work.

Below you'll find a very a rough outline of the steps I follow:

Theme Development Backdrop CMS

Pages