[development] Re: [drupal-devel] Forms API documentation update

[Angie Byron]

Another update.

Tonight, Kieran, Károly, and I worked on http://drupal.org/node/37194 which
presents a flowchart and code example comparing the "old" forms API with the new
one, for those who are more "visual" in their learning approach. Hopefully this
will prove valuable for people who are struggling a bit with the "bigger picture."

I've also added the following pages since the last update:

* Forms API FAQ: http://drupal.org/node/36899
* Tips and Tricks: http://drupal.org/node/36900

These are intended to be places where developers can post comments as they think
of questions, or come up with neat things that helped them, and myself and/or
Chad will go through the pages periodically and incorporate comments into the
text. Feel free to post comments anywhere else within
http://drupal.org/node/33338 where it makes sense too... your feedback is
greatly appreciated!

Finally, project module took a bit longer than previously anticipated to
convert, but it's done now, so I will work to get that tutorial out aoon. :)

-Angie


Angie Byron wrote:
> Chad and I have made some good progress on Forms API documentation tonight:
> 
> 1. Centralized all forms documentation under the "Upgrading to forms API" part
> of the handbook: http://drupal.org/node/33338
> 
> 2. Placed an initial "overview" page which covers the "why?" of the forms API,
> to help people understand its importance.
> 
> 3. Added an "errata" section to the handbook, to cover bugs with the current
> forms API which have not yet been patched, so check here first if you're having
> difficulty getting your forms to work. If you come across any other issues,
> please feel free to post them there. I will keep an eye on the handbook queue
> and endeavor to get the page updated as quickly as possible (or just ping me on
> IRC, I'm usually around).
> 
> 4. Mapped out a plan for two additional supporting documents: the first, a
> step-by-step tutorial on how the project module was converted from the old way
> to the new (of course it needs to be finished first, working on it!! ;)), and
> the second a comparison of various examples from core of varying difficulty with
> before and after code. Both are slated to be completed by the end of the day Monday.
> 
> 5. Added the Forms API QuickStart guide and Forms API reference to
> drupaldocs.org (this was already done actually but I figure I will mention it
> here anyway ;)). There are a couple updates pending for these pages (translation
> to the new array indentation standard, fixing of the two #weights problem in the
> reference doc, adding a legend to the table, fixing up the internal links, etc.)
> which should show up the next time drupaldocs.org is updated. The "live" version
> of these docs are always available from here:
> http://cvs.drupal.org/viewcvs/drupal/contributions/docs/developer/topics/
> 
> 6. Created a temporary workspace  to coordinate completion of the remaining docs
> (located here if you're interested:
> http://drupaldev.snarkles.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page -- I know, I know, I
> should be using Drupal for this, but it is only temporary and MW is just really
> well-suited to this kind of thing). Here you can check status to see how it's
> coming along, or even post something if you have time and are able to help.
> 
> If anyone else has additional comments on what documents you would find useful,
> what documentation you feel is lacking, etc. please feel free to let us know!
> 
> -Angie
> The Happy Drupal Forms API Documenter ;)