December 2005 - Development - lists.drupal.org

RE: [development] Administration user experience survey: priorities andactions
by Steven Peck 04 Dec '05

04 Dec '05

You know, with one comment I realized to late what quesiton was missing from the survey. What type of sites so you run (corporate, community, single user blog) because I have no idea what this means. "We need to allow administrators to visualize and deliver a cohesive, compelling, and highly dynamic user experience to their end users" As to other conclusions to draw, looking at the survey results shows virtually every administrative task as somewhat easy or higher with comment management being the only confusing thing. Nice survey. -sp ________________________________ From: development-bounces(a)drupal.org on behalf of Kieran Lal Sent: Fri 12/2/2005 2:06 PM To: development(a)drupal.org Subject: [development] Administration user experience survey: priorities andactions Hi, the survey[1] ran for 31 days and we collected almost 900 responses. I'll put together a formal summary of the results and post on Drupal.org. Summary of administration problems Drupal is missing an overview of the site for administrators. We need to allow administrators to visualize and deliver a cohesive, compelling, and highly dynamic user experience to their end users. TODO: Create a Drupal Dashboard. Focus on tasks with textual explanations and provide administrators information about activities on their site Top administration tasks 1. Administer content such as comments-83% of respondents ACTION: Jeremy Andrews, for CivicSpace Labs(CSL), has a multiple comment patch to make administering comments easier. 2. Install new modules and learn new features- 83% respondents ACTION: Wrote 81 administration help handbook pages for Drupal Handbook : CSL and the Drupal Docs team ACTION: Committed administration help for 31 modules in Drupal core and dozens of contributed modules. CSL. ACTION: Developed project module to allow categorization of modules on Drupal.org ACTION: Developed project module to report to Drupal.org what modules are being used and infrastructure to identify if modules have updates(security review pending). TODO: Card sort contributed modules Difficult administration tasks 1. Manage inconsistency in themes- http://drupal.org/node/37156 ACTION: Wrote managing inconsistencies in theme with community ACTION: Conducted 6 theme developer interviews to identify theme development tasks for Drupal theme help documentation ACTION: Launched Drupal theme mailing list, and launched #drupal-themes 2. Find pages that are deeply linked: TODO: Change content type administration to be 3 links deep, not 4 3. Configure blocks for roles TODO: Configure blocks for roles 4. Understand Drupal terminology and synonyms- Need to do study TODO: Conduct survey of CMS standard terminology and user expectations of terminology 5. Update site to a new version of Drupal ACTION: Added UPGRADE.txt with basic instructions ACTION: Ported CivicSpace upgrade instructions to http://drupal.org/upgrade/tutorial-introduction 6. Compare Drupal files ACTION: Developed project module infrastructure to send messages potentially including module version information and updates. 7. Administer categories with the taxonomy module TODO: Interview users about taxonomy 8. Order and organize content. TODO: Interview users about how to order and organize content TODO: Categorize modules that order and organize content 9. Administer structure of content. TODO: Research capabilities for modifying structure of content 10. Administer Menu's ACTION: Assigned Richard Archer menu maintainer TODO: Card sort default Drupal menu items TODO: Separate administration menu from navigation menu to be more situationally relevant TODO: Remove or make optional user name label for navigation menu 11. Administer site navigation TODO: Research capabilities for global, local, contextual, and situational navigation Links: 1. http://www.surveymonkey.com/DisplaySummary.asp?SID=1425065&U=142506581557

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Recent menu patch mandates a truncate cache
by Karoly Negyesi 03 Dec '05

03 Dec '05

Hi' Some of us may have already greeted by 'Page not found' everywhere in a recent HEAD. You need a menu_rebuild but as the UI is dead you need to truncate your cache table from database prompt. I am not filing a separate issue as this is fixed in drumm's update / install patch. Regards NK

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Drupal4.6 , xtemplate, PHP5.1
by Karoly Negyesi 03 Dec '05

03 Dec '05

Please see http://drupal.org/node/38964 and comment. I already did but I may be wrong.

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Release critical bugs for December 03, 2005
by drupal-devel＠drupal.org 03 Dec '05

03 Dec '05

/ bug reports Article tag repeating age: 2 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/37544 PHP 4.4.1 breaks Article Categories list age: 4 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/36245 / bug reports XML Parsing Error age: 4 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/35872 / bug reports email spam filtering does not "see" email addresses when they are NOT preceded by a word age: 45 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/15654 / bug reports No check for loading chatbox with other name age: 1 week 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/38397 / bug reports broken config screen age: 3 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/36949 / bug reports Drupal translates '&' into '&' age: 2 hours 28 min url: http://drupal.org/node/39788 Contact hook_user checkbox, once checked cant be unchecked. age: 2 hours 34 min url: http://drupal.org/node/39786 4.6.4 MySQL Database scripts - Replace blocks statements fail age: 11 hours 26 min url: http://drupal.org/node/39755 Comments displayed in wrong order for user 1 age: 14 hours 26 min url: http://drupal.org/node/39743 Next/Previous links fail in forum after upgrading to 4.5.6 age: 1 day 2 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39680 Drupal 4.6.4 - XSS filtering: '&' double encoded (as entities) in URLs age: 1 day 4 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39670 Drupal writes and reads from base not in UTF-8 and in something not clear assigned: Kiev1.org age: 2 days 1 hour url: http://drupal.org/node/39557 Drupal 4.6.4 breaks form_textarea (patch and early-released version) age: 2 days 11 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39521 "Rest To Defaults" in admin > settings has no effect age: 4 days 11 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39243 Blank Nodes on Start Page age: 5 days 11 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39095 Password Change Error age: 6 days 19 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/38965 xtemplate not working with php 5.1 age: 6 days 20 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/38964 {cache}.data should be a longblob instead of a longtext age: 1 week 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/38804 4.7 CVS updates.inc inconsistent age: 1 week 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/38484 upgrade fails badly in CVS version age: 1 week 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/38387 Profile Module: Not Holding Date Settings, Public Fields Not Displayed age: 1 week 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/38308 Not Work rss feed assigned: Kiev1.org age: 1 week 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/38222 cache problems - drupal always shows outdated page age: 1 week 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/38213 Use of array_merge() and book_admin_edit_book() not working age: 2 weeks 2 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/38196 Duplicate values for insert with multiple taxonomy select (new form API) age: 2 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/37829 Book page weight reset to 0. age: 2 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/37819 Clean URLs not working properly with Firefox and Opera! age: 2 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/37794 if you edit a page with activated "moderation queue" the node gets completely hidden age: 2 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/37613 New Forms API bug with "date" type form field (in profile.module) age: 2 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/37494 File uploading is broken by patch #36791 age: 2 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/37452 Apply "Request New Password Security" to 4.6.x branch age: 2 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/37440 Uploads don't go away assigned: Souvent22 age: 3 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/36875 not work hook eg. fckeditor_textarea ($op, $name) ? assigned: Kiev1.org age: 3 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/36816 Postgres 4.5.4 to 4.5.5 upgrade makes user system break. age: 3 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/36670 Right blocks pushed beyond the header boundary age: 3 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/36637 >From validation won't work for user's on some ISP's age: 3 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/36591 Profile.module accepts, but does not display, user input age: 4 weeks 20 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/36381 expecting `T_STRING' or `T_VARIABLE' or `T_NUM_STRING' age: 4 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/36159 update makes me loose all my themes and blocks and so. age: 5 weeks 23 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/35577 Profile_values random overwritten age: 5 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/35555 IE allocates memory until it crashes age: 5 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/35368 $status is not returned when the vocabulary 'Forums' is being made age: 5 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/35177 Duplicate entries in aggregator age: 5 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/35048 Error when using the 'Vote' button to vote at a poll age: 5 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/34921 Search results don't include last part of longer pages age: 6 weeks 17 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/34826 Cron Search Executes PHP pages - Node Range Lost Permanently in Search age: 6 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/34768 Can't save admin settings - "directory does not exist" age: 6 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/34646 Permissions Too Prohibitive on Install age: 6 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/34502 upload module and space in filenames age: 6 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/34497 Problem with nodes when upgrading 4.6.3 ->4.7 age: 6 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/34342 user_mail() allows Email Injection age: 7 weeks 25 min url: http://drupal.org/node/34181 Theme settings not saved since Forms API assigned: chx age: 7 weeks 2 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/34170 overzealous file_check_directory for file_directory_path age: 7 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/33771 Pictures (avatars) don't display age: 7 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/33699 No checking/catching for unique database columns assigned: cyrific age: 7 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/33478 Bug in node_load call in statistics_node_tracker age: 10 weeks 19 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/32040 Upload broken in IE age: 10 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/31968 Comment options: broken. age: 10 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/31641 Node update hooks are getting stale data and can't save. age: 10 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/31495 Translation/localization import bug (Drupal 4.6.3, Fedora 4) age: 11 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/31364 When removing a revision, the associated files are not removed. assigned: killes(a)www.drop.org age: 11 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/31355 Delete filter format fails age: 12 weeks 23 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/30781 Submit button needs double-press when menu options dropped-down age: 13 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/30097 update.php is broken when drupal is installed in subdirectory age: 13 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/30075 Drupal "forgets" some blocks... age: 14 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/29733 system_settings_save() bypasses access_control age: 14 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/29680 files table needs a "module" column age: 14 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/29297 logo uploads still broken...? can't replace default logo with new drupal 4.6.3 tar ball? age: 15 weeks 19 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/29221 Error when anonymous user creates content age: 15 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/29032 Reset user mail variables. age: 15 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/28868 Free Tagging broken on forums age: 16 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/28607 js addLoadEvent not working. age: 17 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/27884 enable MySQL client side for UTF8 age: 19 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/26990 Drupal 4.6.2 Doesn't allow login (IIS 5.1, PHP 5.0.4) assigned: bigeye age: 20 weeks 23 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/26780 postgresql autocomplete code age: 22 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/26027 Accidentally Deleting Forums Vocabulary in Categories Breaks Forums? age: 26 weeks 14 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/24274 Getting term node counts fails without "Administer Nodes" permission also fails witch MySQL age: 26 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/24015 Mysql Password with special symbols assigned: zignit age: 30 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/21719 New submit error, non-admin user, postgresql database assigned: adrian age: 38 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/18552 user redirected to homepage when logging in age: 39 weeks 21 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/18381 Cache should store BINARY data as a BLOB and not as text age: 42 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/16998 Change to sesssion.inc violates UID database constraint age: 45 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/15666 forum.module problem with postgresql v7.4.1 age: 46 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/15411 Argument NOT must be type boolean age: 1 year 2 weeks url: http://drupal.org/node/12950 user error: Duplicate entry assigned: Kjartan age: 2 years 16 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/4428 / feature requests Multiple post into the same html page age: 3 days 3 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39418 Profile fields should be controlled by roles age: 4 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/35693 Module Access Control age: 5 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/35459 Customizable module blocks age: 6 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/34563 Filter the title to allow HTML comments age: 19 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/27205 No obvious way to tell which release a site is running assigned: Uwe Hermann age: 33 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/20439 moving pages en masse age: 35 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/19754 Taxonomy module should use nodeapi 'load' age: 38 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/18631 Auto PHP memory maximisation age: 40 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/17663 Allow named anchors to work without specifying full path to node age: 2 years 1 week url: http://drupal.org/node/4213 / support requests Loop Requests age: 2 weeks 20 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/38124 Automatically assign taxonomy to Forum, Container or Forum Topic? age: 2 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/37893 user logins failing - cry for help age: 5 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/35104 Password error when changing user role age: 5 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/34933 / tasks speed up the count query assigned: Cvbge age: 3 days 12 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39384 / bug reports Database error keeps popping up age: 3 days 9 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39396 Events module bugs adding and changeing events age: 6 days 5 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39016 / feature requests Events only for registered users age: 6 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/34640 / support requests displaying event start info in flexinode tabular view? age: 8 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/33019 Event block missing content of many fields age: 10 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/31532 / bug reports file size bug age: 25 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/24728 / bug reports Latest patch hosed my G2 integration and G2 Standalone age: 4 days 22 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39168 problem viewing newly added photos in embedded gallery. age: 1 week 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/38352 problem viewing newly added photos in embedded gallery. assigned: trobison age: 1 week 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/38351 Search results give incorrect links age: 7 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/33539 Full screen slideshow in Gallery module is not working (erroring out on the wrong URL) age: 21 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/26479 / support requests import existing gallery2 user account age: 4 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/35920 / feature requests Goofy Forum UI age: 9 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/32294 / bug reports Deleting Image gallery age: 4 days 2 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39290 image module does too much needless work! age: 4 days 17 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39189 imagemagick.inc file does not contain the function... age: 2 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/37372 Error when Submitting New Image Node age: 2 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/37366 only variables can be passed by reference on line 713 age: 4 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/36092 image.module 4.6.0 strange actions age: 8 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/33292 File copy failed: source file does not exist error after running update-image.php age: 10 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/31816 Path for image folder not inserted correctly when nodetype = image age: 13 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/30031 image module patch & image_import module age: 14 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/29377 image module fails on dual site configuration age: 20 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/26657 Editing a previously uploaded and thumnailed image loses the thumbnail. age: 23 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/25465 Cannot upload .jpgs age: 39 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/18076 / feature requests Copying original age: 4 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/36321 Image deletions? age: 12 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/30557 / support requests images not showing age: 4 hours 57 min url: http://drupal.org/node/39773 Image Folder Permissions age: 6 weeks 15 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/34839 Images are there but not showing assigned: Stepfordtwit age: 18 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/27615 Image Module Permissions age: 21 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/26280 / bug reports Listhandler caused error in "comment.module on line 996" ? age: 4 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/36244 / tasks Correct/Complete Documentation age: 5 weeks 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/34909 / bug reports Error on retreiving mail age: 4 days 20 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39178 / bug reports Error when deleting nodes or in the case below - error when deleting a taxonomy term age: 3 hours 27 min url: http://drupal.org/node/39781 / feature requests Description as a tag in the theme. age: 3 days 18 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/39354 / bug reports missing promote column assigned: Bèr Kessels age: 1 week 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/38836 Naming issues with files and DB tables age: 6 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/34298 RSS "no element found at line 1" age: 22 weeks 21 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/26185 Outdated help texts age: 1 year 17 weeks url: http://drupal.org/node/9692 Import doesn't like XML/RSS feeds with no Title element age: 1 year 26 weeks url: http://drupal.org/node/8128 / tasks move XML-parser into an inclde file. age: 23 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/25439 / feature requests Notify.module ignores the true submission queue age: 2 years 5 weeks url: http://drupal.org/node/3765 / bug reports Login as an alias gets cached age: 10 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/31699 / bug reports support dynamic content? age: 2 weeks 7 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/38181 please explain html2fpdf age: 2 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/37748 Management of french charaters age: 3 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/36605 / feature requests Internationalization support for PDF assigned: TheLibrarian age: 1 year 35 weeks url: http://drupal.org/node/6795 / bug reports privatemsg not working with current head age: 11 weeks 1 hour url: http://drupal.org/node/31469 Reminder email links don't work age: 23 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/25677 / feature requests Simplified Chinese translations age: 2 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/37505 / bug reports Issues from multiple projects listed on a single issue's page age: 1 week 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/38704 Get disconnected from server on attempting to add an issue age: 4 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/36124 can't select all projects age: 8 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/33262 Can't update issue title from issue comment assigned: nedjo age: 8 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/32843 Projects not listed and page not complete age: 26 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/23956 Date for latest is incorrect age: 33 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/20485 / feature requests Search by Version age: 2 weeks 20 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/38122 Assign Anyone age: 2 weeks 23 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/38107 Allow subscription to individual project issues age: 6 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/34496 Implement XML-RPC functionlality for communication between drupal.org and Drupal installations age: 7 weeks 21 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/34108 / support requests Add the project release manually without the scan feature age: 6 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/34500 / bug reports Error with URL to recipe age: 13 weeks 5 days url: http://drupal.org/node/29885 / feature requests Request to generate email for all content changes/additions, including comments age: 20 weeks 3 hours url: http://drupal.org/node/26824 / bug reports Wrong URL mask age: 5 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/35215 / bug reports Does not work correctly in Internet Explorer age: 8 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/33354 Blocks switch and reset when vocabs are modified age: 29 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/22631 javascrip downloads square.gif for every category age: 41 weeks 4 days url: http://drupal.org/node/17366 / feature requests A unique page for each category group? age: 6 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/34610 / support requests Taxonomy has dissapeared age: 8 weeks 3 days url: http://drupal.org/node/33061 / bug reports Sends trackbacks for unpublished nodes assigned: ankur age: 44 weeks 2 days url: http://drupal.org/node/16239 / feature requests A small but effective improvement to Improvement of admin/user accessability suggestion age: 7 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/34073 / support requests Fatal Error age: 22 hours 56 min url: http://drupal.org/node/39701 Acess denied to login Newly installed and upgraded site that I need up and running A.S.A.P assigned: Johnny age: 1 week 6 days url: http://drupal.org/node/38227 / bug reports Resolution appears to be in the cvs version of the linkattach module assigned: hintbw age: 6 weeks 1 day url: http://drupal.org/node/34765

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Tango Admin Design.
by Trae McCombs 03 Dec '05

03 Dec '05

I know this was originally mocked up for Midguard CMS, but the colors my friend Tuomas (known as Tigert) put together with the Tango project color palette look fairly nice. http://tigert.com/files/uploads/aegir2-layout.png I also posted a comment on his site about how I thought it might be neat to have a common Admin look and feel across different CMS tools. So that, once you learned one CMS, then you could find similiar functions easily in another. http://www.tigert.com/archives/2005/11/16/tango-ui-for-web/ This would then let people pick their CMS based on features they desired and not have to worry about particular benefits. Is this a crazy idea? Sure... If nothing else, it might be nice to utilize the Tango Icons and such (I know, we've discussed this before, not sure where it went) as a base. I also know having an "admin area" is a touchy subject with a lot of people. The CivicSpace Theme has an "Admin Theme" setup, so it's not like it isn't possible to do with Drupal currently. Anyway, it's early, please don't flame me too much. Just wanted to share that admin screenshot with you guys. Trae -- Trae "occy" McCombs || http://occy.net/ Founder - Themes.org // Linux.com CivicSpaceLabs - http://civicspacelabs.org/

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DEP - cascading variable system
by Adrian Rossouw 03 Dec '05

03 Dec '05

This is my first attempt at writing something like this, to me it's not as much about creating a useful DEP out of this, as it is getting a working format going. I apologise for having left this so long, it's been in my drafts for week now. I am just sending the incomplete document to see where we can go from. If you have any other suggestions, please make them. I'd like to keep the format as simple as possible. Title : Cascading variable system. Abstract: This DEP defines a method to allow for more flexibility in the way we handle variables. Author: Adrian Rossouw Dependencies: None Repository: Core Status: Suggestion? 1. Introduction : This DEP specifies a way to clear up and centralise the variable system in Drupal, and hopefully abstracts some code that we are often using for specific cases. 2. Motivation : Variables in Drupal ( records in the variable table ), are primarily used to store settings for the site. Frequently however, we have the need to override the specified variable. Two such cases are a. variables that can be overridden for each user (the theme setting, for instance) b. variables that can be overridden for each theme (such as whether or not to display the site title). This is done to allow us to specify defaults for the site, and then allow these defaults to be altered. In the case of (a.), we manually test for the overridden value with each occurence of the variable, and in the case of (b.) we have centralised all the theme variable changes by introducing the theme_get_variable() function. This has the benefit of allowing us to define even more layers of variables, such as .. blog specific settings, node specific settings, locale specific settings (allowing us to localise the variables like site_name etc.) and even install specific settings (so install profiles can provide default values for the system). Additionally, it allows host administrators to specify system wide overrides. variables that an administrator can define as non-changeable (the files path, for instance) 3. Approach : This DEP proposes that we add 2 columns to the variable table, namely 'domain' and 'key'. This extra information would be used to store data against a certain object. In the case of the user system saving variables, it would save the variable with 'user' as the domain and $user->uid as the key. In the case of themes, it would save the variable with 'theme' as the domain and the theme name as the key. By default, only the system wide settings would be loaded, and then each module that wants to add a new layer to the variable stack, can add it's own layer of settings. (ie: user module will load all the settings related to the user). The only variables that will actually be overridden are variables that an explicit interface element is defined for, and the only variables that will be saved are the ones that differ from the original variables. -- Adrian Rossouw Drupal developer and Bryght Guy http://drupal.org | http://bryght.com

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Long database updates
by Neil Drumm 03 Dec '05

03 Dec '05

Occasionally we need a database update which iterated over each node individually. Since these are a least O(n) operations, we can't trust them to be fast because Drupal runs some big sites. At the same time we can't rely on our ability to change PHP's timeout since safe mode might be on. We don't want to take a long time to do the update without sending feedback to the user since the server churning away looks the same as the server hanging. We have two long updates. The forthcoming revisions update promises to be a resource hog. Update 124 needs to iterate every comment. The way to handle these long updates is to use db_query_range() for the initial SELECT for the list of nodes or comments to be processed. This prevents long updates from running too long in one request. A quick primer on how update.php will work in the near future [1]: 1. Once the version selection form is submitted a list of every hook_update_N() which needs to be called is compiled and stored as an array in the session. 2. The first update progress page is served. With JavaScript-capable browsers this is an AJAX progress bar. Otherwise, it is a page with a meta-refresh. 3. The update progress pages are now requested automatically from JavaScript or meta-refresh. The array of functions to be called is treated as a queue. A functions are dequeued and run until the time limit of 1 second is reached. The time limit is so low to provide plenty of user feedback. 4. Once the queue is empty, the browser is redirected to the finished page. The current $from argument would be stored by update.php in the session with the queue if a long update does not finish. The function would be left at the top of the queue until done. I see this patch as something to be written separately this weekend once the current update.php patch [1] is applied. [1] See the patch at http://drupal.org/node/35924. -- Neil Drumm http://delocalizedham.com/

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New mailing list: themes@drupal.org
by Dries Buytaert 02 Dec '05

02 Dec '05

Hello world, a new mailing list has been created: themes(a)drupal.org, a mailing list for theme developers and designers. -- Dries Buytaert :: http://www.buytaert.net/

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views module
by Adrian Rossouw 02 Dec '05

02 Dec '05

http://drupal.org/node/38878 In case you guys missed it. I think this ties into where we want to go with cck etc. (it has a listings api.) I should also mention that vlado has been talking of doing another listings api (for relations) -- Adrian Rossouw Drupal developer and Bryght Guy http://drupal.org | http://bryght.com

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Administration user experience survey: priorities and actions
by Kieran Lal 02 Dec '05

02 Dec '05

Hi, the survey[1] ran for 31 days and we collected almost 900 responses. I'll put together a formal summary of the results and post on Drupal.org. Summary of administration problems Drupal is missing an overview of the site for administrators. We need to allow administrators to visualize and deliver a cohesive, compelling, and highly dynamic user experience to their end users. TODO: Create a Drupal Dashboard. Focus on tasks with textual explanations and provide administrators information about activities on their site Top administration tasks 1. Administer content such as comments-83% of respondents ACTION: Jeremy Andrews, for CivicSpace Labs(CSL), has a multiple comment patch to make administering comments easier. 2. Install new modules and learn new features- 83% respondents ACTION: Wrote 81 administration help handbook pages for Drupal Handbook : CSL and the Drupal Docs team ACTION: Committed administration help for 31 modules in Drupal core and dozens of contributed modules. CSL. ACTION: Developed project module to allow categorization of modules on Drupal.org ACTION: Developed project module to report to Drupal.org what modules are being used and infrastructure to identify if modules have updates (security review pending). TODO: Card sort contributed modules Difficult administration tasks 1. Manage inconsistency in themes- http://drupal.org/node/37156 ACTION: Wrote managing inconsistencies in theme with community ACTION: Conducted 6 theme developer interviews to identify theme development tasks for Drupal theme help documentation ACTION: Launched Drupal theme mailing list, and launched #drupal-themes 2. Find pages that are deeply linked: TODO: Change content type administration to be 3 links deep, not 4 3. Configure blocks for roles TODO: Configure blocks for roles 4. Understand Drupal terminology and synonyms- Need to do study TODO: Conduct survey of CMS standard terminology and user expectations of terminology 5. Update site to a new version of Drupal ACTION: Added UPGRADE.txt with basic instructions ACTION: Ported CivicSpace upgrade instructions to http://drupal.org/ upgrade/tutorial-introduction 6. Compare Drupal files ACTION: Developed project module infrastructure to send messages potentially including module version information and updates. 7. Administer categories with the taxonomy module TODO: Interview users about taxonomy 8. Order and organize content. TODO: Interview users about how to order and organize content TODO: Categorize modules that order and organize content 9. Administer structure of content. TODO: Research capabilities for modifying structure of content 10. Administer Menu's ACTION: Assigned Richard Archer menu maintainer TODO: Card sort default Drupal menu items TODO: Separate administration menu from navigation menu to be more situationally relevant TODO: Remove or make optional user name label for navigation menu 11. Administer site navigation TODO: Research capabilities for global, local, contextual, and situational navigation Links: 1. http://www.surveymonkey.com/DisplaySummary.asp? SID=1425065&U=142506581557

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