[consulting] Drupal Recipes?

[Evan Leibovitch]

In an effort to demonstrate that I can offer something constructive to 
this list (as well as to apologize to anyone offended by the tone of my 
last post), I'd like to bounce an idea off everyone. Maybe it's been 
suggested before but I haven't seen it here:

I'd like to suggest a repository of "recipes" -- that is, high-level 
instruction sets that could be used to mold Drupal into one of a number 
of "well understood" web-based applications.

In addition to the most recent thread regarding publishing systems, I've 
recently been observing a discussion on another list started by someone 
looking for a digital library system. While briefly looking at CMSs, the 
person suggests that it will be easier to set up a system specifically 
designed for digital libraries, such as Greenstone.

Generally speaking, it _will_ be more difficult to customize a general 
purpose system such as Drupal than to start with something already 
designed as a single purpose application. In order to help Drupal 
integrators deal with such situations, perhaps it might be a benefit to 
develop a collection of application-specific recipes that would detail:

- the minimum release level of Drupal required
- a list of modules required
- schemas for new CCK node types and/or views definitions (as necessary)
- definitions of additional user types and their permission sets
- perhaps some recommended themes that functionally work best for the 
application
- any special installation/configurations

I understand the concept of Drupal distributions but I don't think that 
they're as flexible or comprehensive as recipes can be (because of 
additional config-time instructions such as user and node types). Also, 
recipes can be additive. Perhaps the recipe could include not just docs, 
but a script that might make the necessary config changes.

Of course one size does not fit all, and people will want to make 
further customizations. But starting with an installed recipe brings an 
implementer far further along towards a specialized application than 
starting with a bare Drupal install. And, as a non-developer, people 
like me want to be able to extend Drupal as far as possible without 
needing to roll new code.

Suggestions for recipes could include:
- Podcast distribution
- Library
- Yellow pages / business directory
- Online store or auction
- Newsletter publishing
- CRM (both NPO and business-oriented)
- political campaigns/fundraising
- online paid-membership site
- premium content (per-item or by subscription)

Some of these may seem obvious to regulars here, and many of you might 
well know instinctively what to do. However, perhaps for Drupal to hold 
its own against specialized single-application alternatives, perhaps 
there is value to document these techniques to a broader audience of 
consultants-to-be, potential users, RFP writers, etc. The module list 
alone is now extremely long and can be intimidating to newcomers, 
especially when recipes call for a combination of modules that might not 
be apparent at first glance.  Knowledge of the various ones to be 
combined to provide the capabilities of application-specific systems is 
worth sharing.

Is this worth pursuing? Conceivably, recipes could be catalogued and 
submitted just like other forms of documentation, or even themes or 
modules. My time is fairly limited but I'd certainly like to help make 
this happen if the interest exists.

- Evan