[drupal-devel] [task] Usability tweaks: INSTALL.txt, .htaccess, settings.php.

[Chris Johnson]

Issue status update for http://drupal.org/node/18641

 Project:      Drupal
 Version:      cvs
 Component:    base system
 Category:     tasks
 Priority:     normal
 Assigned to:  Morbus Iff
 Reported by:  Morbus Iff
 Updated by:   Chris Johnson
 Status:       patch

Well done.  Cleaning up this kind of stuff is not as exciting as cutting
code, but it really helps the over-all quality.  My hat is off to you.


Chris Johnson



Previous comments:
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March 9, 2005 - 13:54 : Morbus Iff

The following patches clear up a number of minor inconsistencies during
a Drupal installation. Largely, this is related to internal
documentation and "where things go", but should help organize, clearup,
and ease the installation. These aren't features, so they're eligible
for a 4.6 commit.

The INSTALL.txt no longer contains the SERVER CONFIGURATION block.
These settings are now hardcoded into sites/default/settings.php, and
are merely scary technical junk here.
 
The INSTALL.txt has been updated with the latest system requirements. A
whole sentence was struck regarding differing versions of PHP for the
OSs.
 
The INSTALL.txt contains URLs to MySQL and PostgreSQL. If we're
including the URL for PHP in the same sentence, then there's no reason
why we wouldn't include them for the database engines. What are the
minimal requirements for the RDBMS? Those should be included here too.
 
The INSTALL.txt's OPTIONAL COMPONENTS has renamed to OPTIONAL
REQUIREMENTS. The only difference between the meaning is the amount of
user confusion.
 
The INSTALL.txt has a new CONTENTS OF THIS FILE, in hopes that people
will more immediately notice that there are upgrade instructions at the
bottom.
 
The INSTALL.txt had some potentially confusing lines adjusted,
including further clarifications, standarding to "userid" (instead of
using both userid and username interchangebly) and so on.
 
I've moved most of .htaccess php_value's to the ini_set system for
/sites/. There are a few reasons for this, chiefly that it is
centralizing all the PHP setting modifications to one place. But, this
also clears up a few initial configuration issues: first, the user
doesn't have to worry about whether they have Apache 1 or 2, and
whether they need to change an IfModule line. Also, the running
assumption is that these php_value's are /going to work by default
anyways/, when the INSTALL.txt suggests otherwise (under OPTIONAL
REQUIREMENTS, it talks about "the ability to use local .htaccess
files", which suggests that "local .htaccess files" INCLUDING
"mod_rewrite" are entirely optional.) Some variables, however, had to
remain in .htaccess because they can't be overridden at runtime, but
the amount was so small that duplicating them for both Apache 1 and
Apache 2 possibilities is no longer a prohibitive concern.
 
There are two variables in .htaccess that I'm concerned about:
track_vars, and allow_call_time_pass_reference. track_vars appears to
be no longer necessary (as of 4.0.3, track_vars is /always/ on [1], and
my setting it here had no impact on the results of a phpinfo), and
allow_call_time_pass_reference seems, at least here, to ONLY WORK if
the .htaccess value is set to "1", and not "On" - meaning that Drupal
installations are currently working correctly with its default value
(off). According to the PHP docs, this feature is now deprecated.
However, since both of these variables require further investigation,
track_vars has been moved to settings.php, and
allow_call_time_pass_reference has been "fixed" to a 1 (not 'On').
 
Along with the changes above for sites/default/settings.php, I've also
removed the spacing indent in the documentation, as well as many a few
grammatical/punctuation changes here and there. I don't think the
leading spacing is "right" according to the style guidelines, but maybe
there's a special need for it. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 

These patches were made during the exploration and customization of
Drupal by NHPR.org. In loving support of open source software, NHPR.org
will continue to contribute patches they feel the community will benefit
from.
[1] http://us3.php.net/session


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March 9, 2005 - 13:54 : Morbus Iff

Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/patch01_.htaccess (3.36 KB)




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March 9, 2005 - 13:55 : Morbus Iff

Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/patch01_INSTALL.txt.patch (10.26 KB)




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March 9, 2005 - 13:55 : Morbus Iff

Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/patch01_settings.php.patch (6.21 KB)




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March 9, 2005 - 14:12 : Morbus Iff

Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/patch01_INSTALL.txt_0.patch (10.27 KB)

Slight revision of the previous INSTALL.txt patch. One of the added
Contents was listed wrong.