[documentation] A suggestion to improve drupal.org handbooks

Ram Dak ramdak5000 at yahoo.com
Thu Jan 19 08:29:36 UTC 2006


I have a few ideas for improving the handbook  documentation and would like to volunteer for implementing them if the  people on this list think they will help.
  
  These ideas are based on the tremendous difficulties I have had as a  non-geek in understanding what a drupal core or contributed module  does. The only way is to test each one out and this can be really time  consuming when testing multiple modules.
  
  Current problems that newbies (and, I suspect, even others) have in understanding modules:
  
  1.) Whether a module is dependent on another
  2.) Whether an sql table should be added to make it work
  3.) No idea about the different tables added by a module's sql file
  4.) No idea about the permissions implemented by a module. 
  5.) No idea of what stuff a module adds to the navigation menu and UI.
  6.) Whether the module adds customs blocks that can then be enabled and configured.
  
  There may also be other aspects that I have overlooked. 
  
  I believe that documenting these would go a long way in helping people  get up to speed on drupal very quickly. For example, until I got into  the habit of visiting administer>>access  control>>permissions>>module name>>permissions, I  spent hours wondering why a module was not working. I bet many face the  same problem.
  
  If this sounds useful, I am willing to do this work for 4.6 (as that  has the largest user base at the moment), starting with each core  module and moving on to the contribs. 
  
  I also feel that if the handbook would allow screenshots, it would make  for great documentation. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand  words and all that.
  
  Thanks,
  Ramdak 

		
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