This is the first of a series of articles which will log the revamping of the AWebFactory company website and its migration to Pantheon, the "Cloud Platform for Drupal", which will not only be host to live deployment, but which will also serve as a development platform.

Signing up

So I signed up for an account on Pantheon, a free developer account to begin with. I went to https://www.getpantheon.com/ and clicked on Create Free Account. Filled out the details, received a confirmation account (curiously, even with GMail, which is pretty discerning about those things, it arrived in the Spam folder, so do check that when you create your account), and after validating my site when I was logged in (https://dashboard.getpantheon.com/login ) there was a sign on my dashboard offering a link to Create a site now.

I've recently blogged enthusiastically about Panopoly in the context of a simpler, lower cost and more “share the wealth” democratic path to powerhouse Drupal web app development emerging from the recent Denver DrupalCon 2012. And I've promised to write a series of articles on “using Panopoly as a starter kit for the rest of us” in the context of a responsive process and the creation of a responsive user experience. Well, with the recent release of Panopoly 7.x-1.0-beta3, there's no time like the present to write the kick-off article.

So together with my fellow AWebFactory web developer compañero martindido (Martín Di Doménico) we installed the new beta3 version and here share our findings:

• Installing Panopoly on your dev box

• Is it responsive “off the shelf”? Yes... (hint: just don't select Bartik...)

• Making your life simpler: Just do it on Pantheon!

After Drupalcon Denver 2012, it's patently obvious that it's certainly time to start using Drupal 7 as your mainstay for production sites, since the pros now outweight the cons even for conservative working stiffs like me. So the question often arises, when you go to do something you are thoroughly used to doing in Drupal 6, you say "where are my old friends from Drupal 6?" and cringe.

So we have to help each other out, one such example is, say, how do I put a form into a modal window (i.e. popup) in Drupal 7? Sometimes, once you see a simple example, then it's straightforward to apply all the juicy info from the advanced help modules and documentation you can find on d.o. and around the web. The problem is often how to break the ice, how to get started.

I didn't attend any responsive web design sessions at DrupalCon Denver 2012 because there was just too much going on under the hood, both for Drupal 7 and Drupal 8. But before this milestone event fades into the past, it is necessary to grab what this historic "reaffirmation" DrupalCon tells us about the state of Drupal is in this key area and how the rest of us should incorporate it into our development process. What frameworks, base themes, standard configurations, and other approaches should we adopt?

This corrects the grave omission of the whole key subject of responsive web design from my recent report back article on DrupalCon Denver 2012.

Here I attempt to address the question by treating myself to an Easter Sunday responsive web design marathon, and grabbing my first conclusions, synthesized with my thinking up to the present (“Mobile first” is the tip of the iceberg and when blithely repeated reduces to a buzzword without addressing the huge multi-server and services, real time and single page app challenges that are increasingly facing the web app builder. While mobiile first (there, I've said it) responsive web design is key, promiscuous Drupal with multi-node servlets and services integration is fundamental). But this material is absolutely essential, there's a lot to learn, don't go to work without it: I present here my take on each of the following presentations: Rethinking responsive building techniques with drupal - johnalbin, Responsive web design: the past, present, and future – lewisnyman, A responsive project process – daveruse, Creating responsive and mobile-first drupal themes - himerus, Html 4 s - while we're waiting for the revolution - mortendk, and finally Keynote - Luke Wroblewski. BTW, Panopoly is responsive out of the box (what does that even mean?).

For many reasons DrupalCon Denver 2012 was a source of “fresh air” and excitement in the community, with emerging developments promising the “democratizing of technology” and a new head start in Drupal 7 site building (see What's new in panels and several references to the panopoly distribution below). All this of course in the context of the push towards Drupal 8 (currently estimated to be usable in approximately 18 – 24 months from now) and the debate as to what it will be like.

This (longish but I hope useful) article is an objective as possible review of the presentations I recognized as being absolutely key, out of the handful I was able to attend directly. I have organized them into a couple of main threads, as a prelude to a “What's up with Drupal” series of articles to be published in the near future covering my own recommendations and perspectives for site building and web application development with Drupal over the next couple of years.

The two threads covered here are “State of Drupal” (the official position on the future of Drupal and Drupal 8); and “Drupal 7 now for the rest of us” (promising developments, tools and resources for current work). The presentations I am reporting on, which I feel are key for the future of Drupal and the Drupal community, are the following: State of Drupal (Dries Buytaert Keynote), The Initiatives Formerly Known as WSCCI, Drupal 8 meets Symfony2, Directions for Drupal core Node.js Javascript and the Future, What's new in the Panels Universe, Open Academy: a higher education drupal product for departmental websites, and finally Delivering Drupal (Sam Boyer on devops and deployment).