Unified image/video management module
Hi, as the author of Acidfree, I have gotten lots of praise for creating an image/video system that is easy for people to use. Granted at first it was not perfect, but it has made great advances and gained quite a following in the year. But I have also gotten a lot of flak from people saying that it wasn't done in the true spirit of Drupal. The praise came from users, the flak came from developers. Now that I have worked with the Drupal community for a year, I have realized that my approach was *not* fully in spirit with Drupal. Really, I probably should have stuck my head in a cold bucket and listened to Gerhard, Boris, and Dries and tried to work with other module authors. Acidfree is an awesome application -- it is simple to use (very usable UI), easy to theme, and has an appropriate feature set. But it still bugs me that I didn't quite do it right. So here is my first stab at repentance. But I have a question. I think I can do now what I should have done a year ago (but was unable to because of pride and lacking APIs). I have made a list of things that Acidfree does for me and have found that I can accomplish nearly all of the things I want to with new advances in APIs and a study of other modules that are available. I think by using Image, Video, Taxonomy, Views, and use of the form API, I could turn Acidfree into a management module and let the other node module take care of themselves. I guess the question is: should make a new module or just change Acidfree (by providing an upgrade path)? If I do this, I don't really want to have to manage Acidfree and this new module, plus, I really think the name is great. My opinion is that I should release a 4.8 version of Acidfree that defines 0 node types and simply works with the appropriate node types to offer a unified management interface. But I worry about all the users I have attracted. Maybe I should target 4.9 (or whatever 2 releases from now is) and say that Acidfree will be obsolete in that release and create a new module called something else. But I don't really want to pollute the module space. I remember a while back that the fact that Drupal does not really have a unified way of dealing with multimedia was a big deal. Are people still interested in this? Or should I just crawl back in my cave and continue plugging away at Acidfree? --Vernon
Hi, you are asking a good question: upgrade an existing module or write a new module from scratch. The latter is the easier way. But imho, it's not the way you should go. There are plenty of good reasons to upgrade acidfree module (using the same name or choosing a new one doesn't matter here. We talk about "compatibility", not about naming issues). 1. There are really plenty of acidfree users out there who would not like to see the module they use extensively being abandoned. If users find lots of modules being abandoned after one or two release cycles, they may get frustrated very quickly and leave Drupal. Of course, Drupal is a kind of DIY, but without all the John Does, there would not be such a large community. 2. There are already a lot of modules who deal with media in whatever way. We actually don't need yet another module, but a module that has a really strong featureset while being actively supported and maintained.
My opinion is that I should release a 4.8 version of Acidfree that defines 0 node types and simply works with the appropriate node types to offer a unified management interface.
You could solve this issue either by providing an acidfree_legacy.module that defines the content types you have so far defined in acidfree.module or provide a kind of update script (hook_update_N()) that creates new simple node types which replace the 4.7 node types.
I remember a while back that the fact that Drupal does not really have a unified way of dealing with multimedia was a big deal. Are people still interested in this? Or should I just crawl back in my cave and continue plugging away at Acidfree?
Definitely not. There are lots of people interested in media management. Just ask some of the Lullabots and the "troubles" and workarounds they needed for putting out mtv.co.uk. You might also be interested in joining http://groups.drupal.org/file-api. Konstantin
On Monday 28 August 2006 06:55, Konstantin Käfer wrote:
Hi,
you are asking a good question: upgrade an existing module or write a new module from scratch. The latter is the easier way.
But imho, it's not the way you should go. There are plenty of good reasons to upgrade acidfree module (using the same name or choosing a new one doesn't matter here. We talk about "compatibility", not about naming issues).
1. There are really plenty of acidfree users out there who would not like to see the module they use extensively being abandoned. If users find lots of modules being abandoned after one or two release cycles, they may get frustrated very quickly and leave Drupal. Of course, Drupal is a kind of DIY, but without all the John Does, there would not be such a large community.
I must not have said it clearly. I don't want to abandon my users. I would certainly provide an upgrade path for whatever option I do. I guess the real question is are users going to care if they get switched over to a different backend. You know, it's like your bank selling your mortgage loan to a different lender. Does it really affect you? Do you really care? Well, it in the long run, not really, but still it is a bit disconcerting that it can happen at all. I don't want all the users who are so happy to have Acidfree get mad at me. But I guess if they really can't tell, it shouldn't matter.
2. There are already a lot of modules who deal with media in whatever way. We actually don't need yet another module, but a module that has a really strong featureset while being actively supported and maintained.
The reason I would want to just upgrade acidfree in a future version is because I don't want to have another deadbeat module laying around. But I want to make sure it is done right. I see a lot of duplicated work between Acidfree and other modules and I think I have a plan to make most of it okay. I guess we will see in a while if I can actually figure out how to implement all this. :)
My opinion is that I should release a 4.8 version of Acidfree that defines 0 node types and simply works with the appropriate node types to offer a unified management interface.
You could solve this issue either by providing an acidfree_legacy.module that defines the content types you have so far defined in acidfree.module or provide a kind of update script (hook_update_N()) that creates new simple node types which replace the 4.7 node types.
Yes, there will certainly be an upgrade path. --Vernon
I remember a while back that the fact that Drupal does not really have a unified way of dealing with multimedia was a big deal. Are people still interested in this? Or should I just crawl back in my cave and continue plugging away at Acidfree?
Definitely not. There are lots of people interested in media management. Just ask some of the Lullabots and the "troubles" and workarounds they needed for putting out mtv.co.uk.
You might also be interested in joining http://groups.drupal.org/file-api.
Konstantin
Hi Vernon, This is definitely a good news. I think that the best approach is provide a good update script which is able to convert old Acidfree modules to image/video nodes. If you have some questions about my video module just ask. Fabio Vernon Mauery wrote:
Hi, as the author of Acidfree, I have gotten lots of praise for creating an image/video system that is easy for people to use. Granted at first it was not perfect, but it has made great advances and gained quite a following in the year. But I have also gotten a lot of flak from people saying that it wasn't done in the true spirit of Drupal. The praise came from users, the flak came from developers.
Now that I have worked with the Drupal community for a year, I have realized that my approach was *not* fully in spirit with Drupal. Really, I probably should have stuck my head in a cold bucket and listened to Gerhard, Boris, and Dries and tried to work with other module authors. Acidfree is an awesome application -- it is simple to use (very usable UI), easy to theme, and has an appropriate feature set. But it still bugs me that I didn't quite do it right. So here is my first stab at repentance.
But I have a question. I think I can do now what I should have done a year ago (but was unable to because of pride and lacking APIs). I have made a list of things that Acidfree does for me and have found that I can accomplish nearly all of the things I want to with new advances in APIs and a study of other modules that are available. I think by using Image, Video, Taxonomy, Views, and use of the form API, I could turn Acidfree into a management module and let the other node module take care of themselves. I guess the question is: should make a new module or just change Acidfree (by providing an upgrade path)? If I do this, I don't really want to have to manage Acidfree and this new module, plus, I really think the name is great. My opinion is that I should release a 4.8 version of Acidfree that defines 0 node types and simply works with the appropriate node types to offer a unified management interface. But I worry about all the users I have attracted. Maybe I should target 4.9 (or whatever 2 releases from now is) and say that Acidfree will be obsolete in that release and create a new module called something else. But I don't really want to pollute the module space.
I remember a while back that the fact that Drupal does not really have a unified way of dealing with multimedia was a big deal. Are people still interested in this? Or should I just crawl back in my cave and continue plugging away at Acidfree?
--Vernon
participants (3)
-
Fabio Varesano -
Konstantin Käfer -
Vernon Mauery