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I've been struggling with the problem of making the user profile page dynamic and responsive by creating a Views block to display the activity of content the user created or commented on like the 'Your Posts' block on the dashboard of drupal.org.

The 'Your Posts' block is my single most used navigation menu on drupal.org just like on my newspaper website the single most used navigation tool is the side block of 'Today's Most Popular' articles.

So why then no matter how hard I try to phrase the question of How to make a Views block like 'Your Posts' on drupal.org I can't get Google to give me an answer?

Turns out after a day of numerous attempts at search queries and experiments building complex relationships in Views, I thought to myself, "They have to have this in here." So, I went through each option under filter, argument, sort hoping that it was not an option that only shows when the correct relationship is activated until I came across the contextual filter, 'User posted or commented.'

Now I know the solution so what was a difficult challenging problem isn't anymore.

I couldn't find the answer in Drupal documentation and I couldn't find the answer through numinous search attempts. For the sake of posterity, is it appropriate to ask the question on drupal.stackexchange.com even though I right now know the answer? I think yes for two reasons. First, because I have one answer doesn't mean that there are not several other different answers that I should give opportunity to people to provide. Second, the point of Stack Exchange is to not only provide an answer to one person but to create a searchable index of answers that are easily found by everybody following who might ask the same or very similar question.

  • possible duplicate of Is it bad form to ask questions I don't have? – kiamlaluno♦ Jun 17 '11 at 17:59
  • @kia I think that is a slightly different question .. "I think there should be.." versus "I need to know this and I found it out myself" – Jeff Atwood Jun 17 '11 at 19:13
  • @Jeff The same answer applies here, IMO. Once you have a solution for a problem you had, you don't anymore a problem. – kiamlaluno♦ Jun 17 '11 at 19:22
  • @kiamlaluno If I had asked the question yesterday, it would have been valid. This seems gray to me. I have probably have had 200 - 300 questions answered on Stack Overflow yet I've only asked 3 questions. Someone else will eventually ask the question about the 'Your Posts' block -- I made my case that it is a very useful block -- and if it was on this website somebody would find it before they had to write the question. – Adam S Jun 17 '11 at 19:35
  • I didn't say you should not ask the question. I have actually not express any opinions about that; I just pointed out the answer has been already given in a different question. – kiamlaluno♦ Jun 17 '11 at 19:43
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I couldn't find the answer in Drupal documentation and I couldn't find the answer through numinous search attempts. For the sake of posterity, is it appropriate to ask the question on drupal.stackexchange.com even though I right now know the answer?

Yes, definitely, for two reasons.

  1. https://drupal.stackexchange.com/faq

    It’s also perfectly fine to ask and answer your own question, as long as you pretend you’re on Jeopardy! – phrase it in the form of a question.

  2. http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/02/are-some-questions-too-simple/

  • The diagram has something that I find strange. It suggests to answer to a question when it is hard to parse it. Should not be the opposite? – kiamlaluno♦ Jun 17 '11 at 19:40
  • @kia the "hard to parse" refers to the other results on the internet from step 1. – Jeff Atwood Jun 17 '11 at 19:41
  • I'd say that as well as allowing people to post personal 'how-to' guides here, we should encourage it. Loads of Drupal people write notes for themselves. Some share these on blogs, which is great because others can find them, comment on them with helpful suggestions and updates, and share them. If more people posted them here, where as well as being commented on they can be updated by others, merged, tagged and linked in one place, and where alternate approaches can be posted in full as seperate answers, the world would be a better place. How about a "how-to" tag like graphicdesign.SE has? – user56reinstatemonica8 Apr 7 '12 at 16:21

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