[development] Installation profiles: here is what missing

[Bill Fitzgerald]

All of the improvements to the install profiles are steps in the right 
direction, and I hesitate to bring this up because I have no desire to 
see this same thread rehashed, as it has been multiple times.

Install profiles are made more complicated by the inability to 
distribute some 3rd party code along with modules. In my specific case, 
I'm thinking specifically of tinyMCE and the getid3 libraries.

The need to get these libraries as separate steps eliminates/balances 
out some of the utility of the actual profile. Given that most of the 
profiles that exist to date target users with less technical 
proficiency, this can be a barrier to entry that makes the profile a 
less useful option.

NOTE: I am *not* saying we need to revisit this issue. Please, let's 
*not* revisit this issue. Nobody needs/wants to have Yet Another 
Conversation about the place of 3rd party code on d.o

So, in responding to chx's initial post, I would have to say the biggest 
issues I see are, in this order:

1. The inability to target specific versions of a module.
2. The inability to create an install package on d.o (which would take 
care of 1 if done well, but is also a LOT of work, and again, not 
something I'm saying needs to be done by anyone soon).
3. The inability to include 3rd party libraries as part of the package 
(and to emphasize: let's not have this discussion again)

I would put the the ability to move packages (ie, all the cool stuff you 
can do with the CivicSpace APIs -- 
http://customprofiles.civicspaceondemand.org/api/file ) as 4th, simply 
because these other details are more basic usability issues. As a long 
term improvement, however, the packages work would save more people more 
time than any of these first three.

With all that said, I also think that this conversation should be put on 
hold until after D6 is out. Any install profile improvements will start 
by leveraging the improvements mentioned by Gábor, and for D6 they 
should live in contrib.

Cheers,

Bill


Gábor Hojtsy wrote:
> On Nov 11, 2007 1:20 PM, Simon Hobbs <emspace.com.au at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> Adrian
>>
>> You've identified a major issue for me. If my goal is to make happy
>> with the usability, I can't seem to escape having a supporting module.
>> I really appreciate the razor you've applied to this problem! I'm with
>> you on this.
>>
>> An added benefit of the profile being active after install (based on
>> my D5 experience here) is the ability to have a wizard.
>>     
>
> D5 install profiles can have one screen to display after the database
> configuration, Drupal 6 profiles can have their own "state machine"
> built into the installer after the "Configure site" screen and the
> "Finished" screen (also the Configure screen is form_alter-able). So
> any kind of install wizard is possible, without having a module. We
> are trying to fix bugs to make this kind of feature play nice with
> localization even here: http://drupal.org/node/190283
>
> Gabor
>
>   


-- 
Bill Fitzgerald
http://www.funnymonkey.com
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