Create a simple Drupal 7 module - Hello World page

A Drupal module is made at least by 2 elements :

• a .info file
• an other file (.php, .inc ?)

To choose a name for you module, don't forget those basic rules :

• no capital letter
• no special character (excepted _ underscore)

Your first .info file

A .info is in fact a your_module_name.info file.
Let's make in your example a drupal_test module.

name (mandatory)

The name of your module (with capital letters and spaces this time, if you want)

name = Drupal Test Module

description (recommended)

description = A super duper test module !

core (mandatory)

core = 7.x

files[]

The location of your (php ?) files
files[] = inc/example.php

The whole .info file 

name = Drupal Test Module
description = Provides a really neat widget for your site's sidebar.
core = 7.x
files[] = inc/example.php

For Drupal 7, you can find all informations about .info files here:
https://drupal.org/node/542202

 Now the example.php file

 You can now edit your php file, located in /sites/all/modules/drupal_test/inc/example.php

We will make a simple "Hello World" test. We will

• make a menu link (make shortcut like http://www.mywebsite.com/drupal_test/mylink)
• create a basic content (your "Hello World")

in your example.php module, create a drupal_test_menu() function.

function drupal_test_menu() {
    $items['drupal_test/mylink'] = array(
      'page callback' => 'drupal_test_hello_world',
    );
    return $items;
  }

This part redirects http://www.mywebsite.com/drupal_test/mylink to your website, and calls the

drupal_test_hello_world()function.

function drupal_test_hello_world() {
    return array(
      '#markup' => '<p>Hello world</p>', 
    );
  }

 That's it !

If you have questions, i'll try to answer you. Do not hesitate to leave comments.

Drupal 7 - How to set permissions on your module using hook_permission() and user_access()

You're developing a module and you need site administrator to handle with permissions.

There are two steps :

• Make your permission string (such as "administer nodes" in the admin/people/permissions page)
• Check if user has access to the defined string

Let's see how to do it.

• We will use hook_permission() to add your own "string" in the permission management page.

function mymodulename_permission() {
  return array(
    'my own permission string' => array(
      'title' => t('Administer my module'),
      'description' => t('Perform administration tasks for my module.'),
    ),
  );
}

Now you can administer permissions for your module. Note that you can add many permissions strings in the array you return.
You can now find your permission string at this page : admin/people/permissions

•  When you're coding your page, you can user user_access() to check if the connected user has the given right.
  
  

  $string = "my own permission string";
  user_access($string)

  the result is a boolean value. True if the user has access, False if not.
  You can use user_access in the hook_menu() function. Here is an example :
  

  function mymodulename_menu() {
    $items = array();

    $items['mymodule-page-address'] = array(//this creates a URL that will call this form at "examples/form-example"
        'title' => 'Menu link name', //page title
        'description' => 'A form to mess around with.',
        'page callback' => 'drupal_get_form', //this is the function that will be called when the page is accessed.  for a form, use drupal_get_form
        'page arguments' => array('my_callback_function'), //put the name of the form here
        'access callback' => 'user_access',
        'access arguments' => array('my own permission string'),
    );

    return $items;
}

Echange Certificate expires

On SBS 2008, one year after the initial installation, your Exchange 2007 certificate will be expired.

Under Exchange Shell

Get-ExchangeCertificate | List

Locate the expired certificate and copy the footprint
Create a new certificate

New-ExchangeCertificate

Copy the new certificate thumbprint in order to activate it.

Enable-ExchangeCertificate -Thumbprint F7A8F1B443A0E7266C72CDE0603302C07B856076 -Service IIS

Then you can remove the old certificate.

Remove-ExchangeCertificate -Thumbprint 157700393E5D76615E855A773CFA08AB5842DFB0

After, you will need to install the new certificate to your computers. You can use GPO to do it.

How to fix Exchange 452 4.3.1 Insufficient system resources

The first symptom : no incoming mails in your Exchange Organisation.
The first test to make : try to test your incoming SMTP service using telnet.
If you have the following result, you're reading the right post !

452 4.3.1 Insufficient system resources

If you have a quick look in your event log, you will find a 15002 event message, explaining you that your disk space is low. Here we are.
Different security levels are set in exchange, chained to different reactions : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397220(EXCHG.80).aspx

Two ways to get out of this issue :

1. increase disk space
2. disable the Back Pressure Feature

For the first point, no lesson, just act as you are used to.
For the second point : Back Pressure Feature.
Differents triggers :

• Disk space, memory, ...

Three levels :

• Normal Action: The Exchange Server 2007 Server accepts new connections and messages.
• Medium Action: The resources sre starting to be overused. Back pressure is applied to the server in a limited manner. Messages from senders in the authoritative domain can flow, but the server will reject new connections and messages from other sources.
• High Action: A resource is being overused. All message flow will stop and the server will reject all new connections and messages.

To disable the Back Pressure Feature, you have to edit the file located in the bin folder of your exchange server : EdgeTransport.exe.config
Locate the EnableResourceMonitoring param and put the value to "false".
Restart the Exchange Transport Service using the exchange shell :

Restart-Service msExchangeTransport

Sources :

• http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/management-administration/understanding-back-pressure-feature-exchange-server-2007.html
• http://www.hyperv.fr/2010/10/04/exchange-hub-transport-452-431-insufficient-system-resources-12961.html

How to test SMTP server using telnet : here is the script

telnet mail.mydomain.com 25
EHLO mydomain.com
MAIL FROM:chris@microsoft.com
RCPT TO:kate@mydomain.com NOTIFY=success,failure
DATA
Subject: Test depuis Contoso

This is a test message
.
QUIT

Source : http://technet.microsoft.com/fr-fr/library/bb123686.aspx
Simple version : http://exchange.mvps.org/smtp_frames.htm

How to deploy printers in Windows Server 2008 using GPO

We will see how to deploy easily printers using GPO.

How to transfer the 5 Active Directory roles from a server to an other

The five roles

• PDC emulator (one per domain): This role allows Windows Server to act as a Windows NT primary domain controller (PDC), and it provides replication support for Windows NT-based backup domain controllers (BDCs). In addition, this role assists with time and group policy synchronization.
• Infrastructure master (one per domain): This role is responsible for updating the group-to-user references whenever the members of groups change or receive new names.
• Relative ID (RID) master (one per domain): This role ensures that every object created has a unique identification number.
• Schema master (one per forest): This role is responsible for maintaining and modifying the Active Directory schema.
• Domain naming master (one per forest): This role is responsible for the addition and deletion of domains in a forest.