[drupal-devel] [feature] insane state machine patch

[dikini]

Issue status update for 
http://drupal.org/node/28113
Post a follow up: 
http://drupal.org/project/comments/add/28113

 Project:      Drupal
 Version:      cvs
 Component:    base system
 Category:     feature requests
 Priority:     normal
 Assigned to:  dikini
 Reported by:  dikini
 Updated by:   dikini
 Status:       patch (code needs review)
 Attachment:   http://drupal.org/files/issues/insane_state_machine.patch (9.8 KB)

This is a patch to introduce a simple (or insane if yo like) state
machine. 


Why? After some irc discussions it came out that a lot of people would
like flexible page workflow. This patch and the include file to follow
offer a starting point to that. It doesn't change any of the standard
apis, or the current workflow. Just enables the possibility of it.


What changes? Introduce a new file - includes/machine.inc. It the most
important part of it is the drupal_run() function. It implements the
said machine. I've moved drupal_bootstrap and some relatives to this
file, since it is easier to read the code when drupal_run and
drupal_bootstrap are together. I've changed index.php, xml_rpc.php,
update.php and cron.php to reflect the changes.


I could've submitted a far bigger patch, but decided that the least
intrusive, incremental approach is better. This is probably the reason,
 you would ask
Q: Why do we want this thing?
A: An approach like this opens several avenues to do more with drupal
hooks. 


Let's take for example the node workflow. The execution of the
different hooks is strictly ordered and immutable. There is no way for
a module to insert a phase somewhere in that sequence. If, for example
node is reworked to use this or similar approach the default node
workflow will become mutable. This will offer a lot interesting
opportunities, while not changing the current node behaviour and apis
from its clients point of view.


A second example I can see is easier implementation of the install and
update system, since it will be able to hook into and extend drupal
before the database is available, or into any other phase of the
bootstrap process. The current code doesn't forbid branching.


OK, this is long enough as it is, so I stop here




dikini