[consulting] Drupal Recipes?

[Boris Mann]

On 1/8/07, Evan Leibovitch <evan at telly.org> wrote:
>
> 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.

Yes, a very good idea.

> 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.

Install profiles *can* do this. The install_name.profile includes
functions which you can set user settings, node types, import stuff,
etc. etc. -- the difference between a simple install profile (i.e. cp
-R /profiles/default /profiles/your_profile_name) and a "distribution"
is perhaps nothing more than the level of complexity of code / config
that is done out of the box.

> 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.

Yes, it's a good idea. A recipe can be nothing more complex than a
case study that lists modules and talks about approaches to
configuration.

I've got a "work in progress" that I haven't gotten back to after I
discovered a few things in Drupal 5 that we could change to make cut
and paste install profiles easier. See
https://svn.bryght.com/dev/wiki/CorporateSiteInstallProfile

I'd love to collaborate on some simple install profiles to get us
started. Some of the discussions around why we set config options are
as enlightening as actually putting them down. There IS a site recipes
section on d.o. ... we just need more examples:
http://drupal.org/handbook/site-recipes

FYI, there is a "distributions" group on g.d.o.
http://groups.drupal.org/distributions -- short answer is: gather the
troops, make some install profiles. They really are easy -- see the
HOW TO: http://drupal.org/node/67921

Cheers,

(and thanks for such a long, well thought out email to contribute)

-- 
Boris Mann
Vancouver 778-896-2747
San Francisco 415-367-3595
Skype borismann
http://www.bryght.com