[documentation] Links to module pages from contributed modules

[Kieran Lal]

On Jan 15, 2006, at 1:05 AM, Boris Mann wrote:
> On 14-Jan-06, at 11:48 PM, Kieran Lal wrote:
> I'm not clear on what you're saying. How does this break admin help?
>
> Also, the comment seems to be only about related modules (which I  
> agree could be handled by tags)...I believe each of those pages  
> needs a link to the project page, so that people can go directly to  
> downloading instead of having to search.
>
> related modules +/- ?
This document is a single source for documentation for both the  
handbook and the administration >> help pages.  I have always been  
concerned that we do not include content that is inconsistent with  
viewing these pages as part of the administration help inside a  
Drupal site.  e.g. enable this module at administration >> help  
doesn't make sense because it's already enabled.  I am not sure that  
related modules belongs in the administration help for that page, but  
I do think it has a place somewhere else.
>
> link to download +/- ?
Versioning is important and has been identified as a top issue in the  
Drupal Administration user experience survey.

We have 80 or so modules in a consistent format right now.  We have  
published guidelines on what the format is going to be for  
Administration Help for modules.  Please don't go and change just a  
few to be a new format.  It causes confusion and inconsistency.    
Angela and CSL have invested time and resources in creating scripts  
to automatically create patches from these pages.   We need to know  
what impact changing the format is going to have on generating those  
patches.

All 80 plus modules need to be changed, this is going to take a lot  
of effort.
1) The scripts might need to be rewritten and tested, this is going  
to take time and effort and Angela is really busy so we are going to  
need programming resources committed to the docs team.  It's not hard  
work, just tedious discovering how every formating abnormality breaks  
the scripts and patches.
2) The individual module maintainers will need to be contacted and  
encouraged to accept these patches.  This takes a lot of time and  
effort.
3) The patches need to be applied to Drupal core and then 50 other  
modules and the links need to be tested after these 50 modules get  
installed.

If we are going to change the format of administration help we need  
to add pictures to the pages as that will be the single biggest  
improvement for users.  We need to differentiate between the  
explanatory navigation for tabs and navigation menu child item links  
when describing what to click on.  We need to remove the contributed  
module administration links in the Drupal.org handbook to avoid 403's  
but still enable us to use scripts to create patches.

I think we should make improvements as you have suggested, but we  
need to consider other improvements and make a plan for how these  
will get implemented per the documentation coordinator's single  
source vision for the module administration help pages.

Cheers,
Kieran

> --
> Boris Mann
> Vancouver 778-896-2747 San Francisco 415-367-3595
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> http://www.bryght.com
>
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