[Imc-drupal-dev] IMC Sydney Drupal Features and Modules

Thu Dec 2 10:55:22 PST 2004

Wow! Thanks for all the great info Erik.

I hope you don't mind but I've copied the Drupal Dev list in on my
reply as I think you only originally sent this to me.

Looks like we can certainly cut down on the list of modules originally
posed for consideration. But at the same time there could be a few
extras to consider.

Great point on third party modules perhaps not performing as well as core.

With Shayne's earlier point on Drupal's occassional flakeyness it may
be worthwhile trying to keep external modules to a minimum.

Cheers
Phill

On Thu, 02 Dec 2004 13:15:51 -0500, erik hopp <erik at mediamutiny.org> wrote:
> hi.
> 
> (just a little introduction)
> i'm erik from rhode island.  we started an indymedia collective a couple
> years ago here and i built the site on drupal.  we never got "official"
> IMC status.  since then the collective members have moved onto different
> things.  the site still exists and is used only very sporaticly, but i
> am planning on redesigning it when i get some fre time - not sure when
> that'll happen.
> 
> so - i make websites for nonprofits and schools and use drupal a LOT.
> 
> i wanted to jump into this discussion of modules because i do know a bit
> about them - although there are always new ones popping up, old ones
> getting too old, and ones i've never tried.
> 
> i encourage you to set up a test install of drupal 4.5.1, install
> whatever modules you think you want, then play with the configuration.
> 
> that said, flexinode is indeed "the bomb".  the concept behind flexinode
> is that you create your own custom content forms and you then can
> display the output in custom ways.  asside from some of the modules you
> mentioned below, it might also make story and blog modules unnecessary
> in core.  for a site that uses flexinode heavily - check out
> http://onthecommons.org (i made it.  it used blog module too for content.)
> 
> i am going to go through all the modules you mentioned with  my suggestions:
> 
> article - i think using flexinode cuts out the need for article.
> 
> attached node - not sure, haven't used it - kinds of sounds unnecessary
> (why can't you just use a link in a node?)
> 
> attachment, filestore2 - the upload module, currently in drupal core
> should suffice.
> 
> bbcode - i don't know. i have never used it, doesn't seem necessary.
> htmlarea probably does everything you want here.  BUT, htmlarea can be
> buggy and hard to deal with because of that.  but i do use it.
> 
> bookmarks - sure.  never used it but it sounds cool.
> 
> captcha - use it only if you need it.  recognize that it does restrict
> usage of the site for visually impaired people.
> 
> collimator - not sure how it differs from the "recent posts" link in a
> standard drupal install.
> 
> daily - not sure its necessary, but try it out.
> 
> database administration - i don't see why you would need this.  if you
> have phpmyadmin, that probably does a better job.  never used this
> module though
> 
> feature - i don't see any reason to use this.  you can always create e
> custom block with a list of whatever you want in it.
> 
> image, image_assist - yes.  good stuff.  and it just got better
> recently.  though i still haven't found the perfect and easy way to add
> images to posts.  htmlarea has a "insert image" feature too that might
> be better.
> 
> mypage - sounds interesting.  not essential though.
> 
> news page, syndication - i think you can kind of do this with a standard
> drupal install, but if probably offers some other kind of functionality.
> 
> node moderation - yes.
> 
> summery - maybe.  also look into excerpt.  both might be unnecessary if
> you use flexinode though.
> 
> taxonomy_browser - maybe? never used it.
> 
> taxonomy menu - sure.  might be useful.
> 
> other modules you might want to look into: event, excerpt, htmlarea,
> i18n, listhandler?, mail?, notify, scheduler, series?, spam?,
> subscriptions, translation?
> 
> in general, i'd keep the use of contributed modules to a minimum if
> possible becuase it is less of a headache for admins and users and the
> more code you have, the more time it takes to load.  contributed modules
> often aren't "optomized" to the extent that core modules are so one of
> those modules could potentially slow down page loads considerably.  that
> said, drupal is one of the fastest and most feature-rich CMSs out there.
> 
> so, i guess thats all i've got for now.
> 
> erik.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Phill Clarke wrote:
> > Thanks Shayne.
> >
> > I agree that many of these modules will probably get dropped before
> > final implementation. I was just trawling through the list to see what
> > looked kind of interesting.
> >
> > I had a test Drupal site of my own running a while ago, but my ISP
> > canned my account (long story), but from what I rememeber some of the
> > standard article publishing and frontpage feature stuff was probably
> > quite acceptable without enhancing it too much with further modules.
> > But I guess we'll see once we get the Syd IMC test site up and
> > running.
> >
> > I have dropped Bbcode and added HTMLArea.
> >
> > I've dropped Database Admin module.
> >
> > I've added Flexinode.
> >
> > The list, as it currently stands, can be found on the Syd IMC Wiki at -
> > http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/IMCSydneyMigration
> >
> > Cheers
> > Phill
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 22:45:02 +0800 (WST), Shayne ONeill
> > <shayne at perthimc.asn.au> wrote:
> >
> >>In all honesty, I reckon you could probably deep 6 about half of those.
> >>
> >>You definately need a taxonomy menu, and all the various taxonomy fruit.
> >>
> >>You can probably fuck off bbcode, and replace that with the htmlarea
> >>plugin. Its awesome. trust me on this one.
> >>
> >>database admin plug in = recipe for tears.
> >>
> >>Heres the bomb: Flexinode. Its a diy content definition kit. awesom.
> >>
> >>--
> >>Shayne O'Neill..   trådkrämare
> >>http://perth.indymedia.org
> >>"I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldnt do my job."
> >>--George W Bush.
> >>http://atheism.about.com/b/a/099745.htm
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>On Thu, 2 Dec 2004, Phill Clarke wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>Hi Everyone,
> >>>
> >>>I'd like to kick off further discussions around the features of Drupal.
> >>>
> >>>My understanding is that there is a core set of features that come
> >>>standard with the base Drupal install. The list of these features can
> >>>be found on the Drupal website here -
> >>>
> >>>http://drupal.org/features
> >>>
> >>>There's also a whole bunch of add-on modules that can be installed
> >>>onto the base build. The full list of these modules, with a brief
> >>>description, can be found here -
> >>>
> >>>http://drupal.org/download
> >>>
> >>>It'd be great if people could take some time to review this list and
> >>>then we can come to a collective decision regarding which modules we
> >>>would like to include in the migration project.
> >>>
> >>>My initial starter list would be as follows:
> >>>
> >>>Article - The article module allows for articles to be organized and
> >>>displayed in
> >>>a centralized location.
> >>>
> >>>Attached Node - The attached_node module allows users to include a
> >>>reference to a node within the body of another node.
> >>>
> >>>Attachment - Allows the attachment of arbitrary files to nodes.
> >>>
> >>>Bbcode - The Drupal bbcode.module adds a BBCode filter to Drupal. This
> >>>allows you to use HTML-like tags as an alternative to HTML itself for
> >>>adding markup to your posts.
> >>>
> >>>Bookmarks - Gives users with the 'access bookmark' permission their
> >>>own private bookmark block, allowing them to add any URL to the list.
> >>>
> >>>captcha - Adds "captchas" to the user registration process.
> >>>
> >>>Collimator - For example, collimator could be used to view the latest
> >>>posts to a site. Nodes are then sorted by their last modification time
> >>>in descending order.
> >>>
> >>>Daily - The daily module is meant for things like comic strips or
> >>>daily headlines. It offers a new node type daily that has a date
> >>>associated with it.
> >>>
> >>>Database Administration - The dba module provides Drupal
> >>>administrators with direct access to their Drupal database tables from
> >>>within the standard Drupal user interface.
> >>>
> >>>Feature - A module that lets you organize and maintain a feature list.
> >>>
> >>>Filestore2 - a completely rewritten version of filestore which stores
> >>>the files on the filesystem instead of in the database.
> >>>
> >>>Image - This module allow users with proper permissions to upload
> >>>images into drupal. Thumbnails are created automaticaly.
> >>>
> >>>Img_assist - Greatly simplifies the process of adding inline images to content.
> >>>
> >>>mypage - Provides users with the ability to select among all your
> >>>site's taxonomy terms, and then get a customized "mypage" with nodes.
> >>>
> >>>News Page - Allows creation of pages which show syndicated 'news'
> >>>items from an aggregator category.
> >>>
> >>>Node Moderation - This module enables users to vote on nodes.
> >>>
> >>>Summary - The summary module provides several options for content
> >>>display on a home page in addition to the standard list of recent
> >>>posts.
> >>>
> >>>Syndication - Syndication.module offers a web page which centralizes
> >>>all of the RSS feeds
> >>>
> >>>Taxonomy Browser - Think of this as a 'build your own category view' page.
> >>>
> >>>Taxonomy Menu - This module adds links to taxonomy terms to the global
> >>>navigation menu.
> >>>
> >>>OK a long list of 20 items. I'd really like to encourage everyone to
> >>>go and have a look at the complete list of modules on the Drupal site.
> >>>
> >>>We need to decide:
> >>>1. Should any more modules be added to the list above?
> >>>2. Should any be immediately removed as unsuitable?
> >>>3. Following further discussions settle on the exact list of modules
> >>>we would like to add.
> >>>
> >>>It may be that item 3 can only be usefully decided upon once we have a
> >>>test version of Drupal 4.5 up and running so that we can see/use the
> >>>default functionality.
> >>>
> >>>Once we agree on the initial list of Drupal modules for possible
> >>>consideration I'll add them to the Wiki.
> >>>
> >>>One thing to keep in mind is that in Drupal "Categories" are known as
> >>>"Taxonomy".
> >>>
> >>>Cheers
> >>>Phill
> >>>_______________________________________________
> >>>Imc-drupal-dev mailing list
> >>>Imc-drupal-dev at lists.indymedia.org
> >>>http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-drupal-dev
> >>>
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > Imc-drupal-dev mailing list
> > Imc-drupal-dev at lists.indymedia.org
> > http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-drupal-dev
> >
> >
> >
> 
> --
> erik hopp
> erik|at|mediamutiny.org
> 
> 401.274.2945
> 532 charles st. floor 1
> providence, ri 02904
> 
> http://mediamutiny.org/
>