[development] Taxonomy2 [Was: Formapi formalter]

[Mark Fredrickson]

Hello,

Before I begin, please view all these comments in the context of "Let's get
4.7 out first, then...."

I think Robert's and Ber's frustrations are symptoms of a larger problem
with taxonomy: it is not designed to be used programmatically, by modules.

Taxonomy works very well for classifying nodes via the node form, but it
does not have an API that modules can access to achieve similar results.
There has been some work to have modules "own" vocabularies, but taxonomy
does not honor this ownership. If a module wishes to control and display a
vocabulary differently than the default taxonomy.module way, it must go to a
lot of work - either complicated form_alters or custom patching of the
taxonomy code (I'm not ashamed to say that I've done it!).

I think it is time for Taxonomy2. I would like to form a working group to
assess the current short comings of taxonomy, sketch out a design of a
replacement system, and provide a DEP for the larger community to consider ,
modify, and (I would hope) implement.

The benefits of this work will be a common system that many modules can use
to mark nodes (organic groups and workflow, for example, both must keep
their own data structures to duplicate what taxonomy does).

I have been coding for Drupal for roughly 6 months now, and while I am happy
to volunteer my limited time, I would appreciate the assistance of more
experienced individuals.

Please contact me off-list if you would like to help. I will follow up with
the devel list as appropriate.

Cheers,
-Mark Fredrickson