I would agree. It's not incredibly apparent to a new user that they need to create different modules and theme directories in the various sites folders when they install Drupal. If we are trying to advance the project to the next level then this should definitely be something we look at. I think Kens idea of creating /core/modules and /core/themes is a good idea. In addition why not just remove the sites/all folder and by default use /themes and /modules as the equivalent of /sites/all. That's more intuitive to someone who has no idea about Drupals multisite capabilities. I think that would make it easier for first time users to set up and use Drupal, which is one of our objectives for making Drupal the best CMS out there.
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Adam A. Gregory
Blog: AdamAGregory.com
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Charbel,
As I recall from over a year ago, my first two Drupal sites had custom and contrib modules in the /modules/ folder. Then I had to upgrade and it was very painful. I'm sure there are other devs out there that have similar stories. My point is that we shouldn't *have* to document, it should be *very apparent* where things go.
On a side note, this is definitely a D8 discussion.
Josh
From: development-bounces@drupal.org [mailto:development-bounces@drupal.org] On Behalf Of Charbel Khadra
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 9:45 AM
To: development@drupal.org
Subject: Re: [development] Drupal Folder Structure
i don't see what you are posting is a major issue.
any user who is going to deploy drupal application should a have a minimum technical level to be able to read the basic insatallation step of a module
Charbel Khadra
charbel@ebizproduction.com
www.ebizproduction.com
On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 4:40 PM, Ken Winters <kwinters@coalmarch.com> wrote:
On Nov 19, 2009, at 9:15 AM, Josh Miller wrote:
Is there anyone else worried that the Drupal folder structure encourages users to drop modules or themes into the wrong place? Wouldn't you like to have a folder structure that separates core from the rest of the customizable sites folder?
As this issue could blow up in the issue que (http://drupal.org/node/22336) perhaps a short discourse on the mailing list is in order. It's weird that we all care so much about coding standards and yet we let our folder structure look so thrown together.
Perhaps I'm wrong. I have feeling the real reason we are putting up with such a confusing structure is that moving files can introduce a big wtf and some might think we should leave it well enough alone. On the other hand, I believe it's broken and not at all grokable for 100% of the newbies.
I'm all for moving the core modules into /core/modules, themes into /core/themes (or anything equivalent) in D8. It seems way too late for D7.
What we could do in the immediate is put a text file DONTTOUCH.txt or whatever in those folders, with instructions on what users should actually be doing.
On a related note, some modules encourage users to place custom code or plugin modules into [module folder]/modules,
which is bad because they can easily be deleted when the main module is updated. I think we should discourage this.
- Ken Winters