[development] Download statistics for core

[Gerhard Killesreiter]

Scott McLewin wrote:
> Gerhard Killesreiter wrote:
>>
>>> This is a GREAT idea. It's worth noting that most other CMS systems,
>>> including WordPress, do this in their administration sections. The only
>>> trick, I think, is Aggregator.module's dependence on cron. Until a user
>>> configures that bit of the system, they won't get any security
>>> announcements.
>>>   
>>
>> We could instruct the user to invoke cron.php manually after update. 
>> The installer could run cron.php after completing the installation.
>>
> The concept of an administration block that shows up when patches are 
> available is a good one, especially if a default Drupal install had it 
> enabled for the administrator out of the box.
>
> To work through some of the dependence on sites running cron, I 
> propose that this same block also show a notice if cron has not been 
> run in over two weeks (or some reasonable time frame that is measured 
> in days and not hours).

++

>   The block would alert the admin to the fact that cron has not run 
> since date DD MMM, YYYY and provide a link to click to check for 
> security updates.  That link could kick off cron. There is an issue of 
> the user than expecting a response quickly (which cron does not 
> necessarily provide).  It also assumes that Drupal stores the 
> time/date of the last successful cron run.  If it does not, that's an 
> easy patch.
>

It does store the dates of watchdog events.

> I'd find this useful personally in two ways.
> First, in the context described here it would help catch the cases 
> where an admin would miss security updates because the aggregator did 
> not run to draw down the RSS feed of the updates.
> Second, I've made the same mistake several times across the Drupal 
> based sites I manage.  I've typically forgotten to modify cron-lynx.sh 
> to point to my site and not www.example.com, and I forget to make the 
> change until I notice that cron-driven content is a week or three out 
> of date.  I've since moved cron-lynx.sh out of the Drupal tree - this 
> sort of admin warning that cron is not running would have helped me 
> catch what is a slightly embarrassing mistake.  Hopefully it's not 
> just me making it.  :)

I think this would be a useful extension of the patch. I suggest 
somebody open an issue and collect ideas there (if there isn't already 
one, please check that before).

Cheers,
    Gerhard