[Imc-drupal-dev] Sydney IMC Drupal Migration

[Phill Clarke]

Hello Everyone,

At the recent Sydney IMC meeting last night I volunteered to
facilitate the code migration from Active to Drupal. Silly boy that I
am.........

Anyway, there's a number of initial questions that I'd like to throw
open to discussion and hopefully achieve some agreement on.

1. Which list should the migration process/project be discussed on?

a) IMC-drupal-dev - the advantage of this list is that it's Drupal
specific and includes other experts from the IMC worldwide collectives
that may be able to assist. The disadvantage is that perhaps not all
the relevant Sydney people are subscribed. If we decide to use this
list, a broader set of Sydney people probably need to subscribe. I
would also plan to send regular progress reports to the general Sydney
lists to keep everyone updated.

b) IMC-sydney-tech - currently a bit defunct but could be revived.
Would be Sydney specific and would potentially make it more difficult
to obtain assistance from worldwide IMC Drupal experts.

c) IMC-Sydney - runs the risk of clogging this list with a lot of
Drupal technical related questions. Again wouldn't enable easy
inclusion of folks around the world.

My preference would be a) IMC-drupal-dev with regular updates sent to
imc-sydney list and added to the Wiki, but I would like an agreement
on this before proceeding.

2. Access to servers and current Drupal test site.

I believe that there is a test installation of Drupal 4.5 running at:

http://tacwols.cat.org.au/drupal/

However, when trying to access it I receive a MySQL connection error.

 In the past I have had a generic Drupal instance running on my own
webhosting service for assessment purposes. Therefore I am happy to
get the Tacwols environment back up and running initially, but will
need to know access details.

I'd also like to propose that if possible a new MySQL database is set
up for testing (if not already done) and new usernames and passwords
are generated restricting access to the relevant directories for the
purpose of building a prototype. If at all possible I'd like to avoid
using any root or su details for tacwols when building the test site.

I also propose to access this machine using SSH and Putty. 

This is also then a general call out to anyone who can help supply me
with the necessary access details. I'm located in the UK and my mobile
is +447720402357 if you'd prefer to text rather than email me details.

3. Who's available to help?

While I aim to ensure that all strategic and operational decisions are
exposed to as wide a range of people as possible to obtain a consensus
view, I would like to try and compile a core list of tech/design
people who can provide assistance in this project.

I have some technical skills, but I don't really know PHP very well
and I'm not a designer at all.

Anyone else keen to volunteer?

4. Feature List

This is perhaps best dealt with better on the Drupal Migration list
(whichever we choose to use!) but we do need to decide which features
we'd like implemented.

More details about Drupal can be found at http://www.drupal.org

There are a lot of additional modules that can be added to the basic package. 

We should also include wishlist items that may require custom development.

5. Timing

How long is all this going to take? When should we aim to launch the
new look IMC Sydney?

To start discussion I am going to propose a launch date of March 1st.
That's 3 months away. Is that a realistic timeframe, especially with
Christmas and New Year coming up?

Well, that's more than enough to start kicking things around.

Cheers
Phill