[consulting] Best way to set up Drupal exercise files?

[Victor Kane]

One solution would be to use a Git Repository like GitHub, and version
everything (drupal, contrib modules, assets, sql snapshot). Then you make a
Tag for each Chapter, and on GitHub, for example, it's straightforward to
download a TGZ or ZIP snapshot file for each Chapter.

Version Control is like a Time Machine.

Victor Kane
http://awebfactory.com.ar
http://projectflowandtracker.com

On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 2:21 PM, Tom Geller <tom at tomgeller.com> wrote:

> Hey, gang. I'm hoping you can help me figure this one out.
>
> I did two Drupal instructional video series for Lynda.com (
> http://www.lynda.com/home/ViewCourses.aspx?lpk1=197) and am currently
> planning a few more for Drupal 7. They like to offer "Exercise files" for
> all their courses so folks can jump into the course in the middle. In other
> words, someone could start at Chapter 5 by loading the Chapter 5 exercise
> file, which would make the site appear as though all the exercises from
> Chapters 1-4 were already done.
>
> This has proven very difficult in Drupal. In Drupal Essential Training we
> included a .sql file at every step, but the assets weren't in place. We
> included graphics where they first appeared, but that meant a user would
> have to go through all previous chapters to find the assets and load them up
> -- and it wouldn't address the issue of modules and themes that we'd added
> in the meantime.
>
> An ideal exercise file would put assets (such as graphics) in the correct
> folder; grab, install, and enable the latest versions of specific modules;
> and configure it all.
>
> I've heard of Patterns (drupal.org/project/patterns) and Demo (
> drupal.org/project/demo), but never tried them. An installation profile
> might be the way to go, but (again) I've never tried to create one.
>
> Any ideas? I'm not technical enough to write custom PHP, and it needs to be
> a solution that can be widely distributed.
>
> Thanks!
>
> ---
>          Tom Geller  *  Oberlin, Ohio  *  415-317-1805
>             Writer/Editor * http://www.tomgeller.com
>    articles, marketing, training materials, user guides, books
>
>
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>
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