Why not install profiles?
I've been asked a few times to make an install profile out of my user profiles and now I'm running into it again with my work on forums. There's also been a lot of talk lately about why more people aren't doing them. I've thought about it, and haven't ruled it out completely, but I'm thinking I probably won't. Why not? Simply this: install profiles assume you are doing a fresh install and that limits their usefulness.
Let's say Joe Admin has a site with some active forums and a ton of users. He decides to add some user profiles to help the users get to know each other. Searching out the modules he needs, he finds the (hypothetical) user profiles install profile. Everything he needs is here in one tempting package. But there's a problem; installing it will wipe out his existing site. Well, that does him no good so he goes to download all the modules he needs one at a time.
What if instead he could download one package, a so called "super module"? Again we have Joe wanting to add user profiles so he goes to drupal.org and this time finds the User Profile "super module". He downloads it, untars it, and gets all the modules he needs in one shot along with the special "glue" module that makes them all work together. Much easier, right?
What this needs is an ability in Project to select other modules that should be bundled together with yours and also which version. Then you just work on your modules as normal and the rest are included automatically when a person goes to download. Being able to affect the configuration of the other modules would be a bonus. I think this would be a lot of help to a lot of people who don't want to have to install and configure each module one by one. Unfortunately, I don't have the coding skills to do this and the people who do are extremely busy. So this is a bit of wishes in the hand but I felt it was worth writing anyway so I have something to point people to when they ask why I don't make an install profile. :)
Michelle
Comments
6 comments posted... but the install profiles features would still apply too.
I was taking to someone at the Los Angeles Drupal Camp about this. The fact that install profiles only work when used from scratch very much limits their usefulness in the real world. The work well for large shops who produce lots of sites which are virtually clones of one another, but I love the "super module" concept, which is in line with the way I hope for this system to evolve.
The install profile system would still be used to store the glue as you call it - the module list, the cck definitions, the views, the module settings, themeing functions?, etc, etc...
I think that if this approach could get adopted, then many more people would be able to get into using drupal. Right now, one of the bigger barriers to bringing people in is that they complain about the steep learning curve. Having packages like these super modules could provide more of an out-of-box experience for admins/designers. In older versions of drupal, before cck and views revolutionized everything, most modules seemed to be like this - an install it and use it situation. CCK and Views give us much more flexibility and power than these narrower modules did, but they do so at a cost. There's a lot more setup and administration involved, and many people I talk to give up because they just can't figure it out easily enough.
A couple of common cases where "super modules" would work wonders:
Of course, super modules wouldn't just be good for newbies. They would operate much the way that install profiles do, except that they would be much more flexible and could be used for both new sites and sites that just want to add some cool functionality.
... is that I talked to Derek and he says this is on his radar. The bad news, of course, is that Derek is always totally swamped so no idea when anything will happen with it. I wish I could help him but project is over my head.
Michelle
Check out Site architecture patterns, Install Profiles, & automated site configuration
They held a BOF at Drupalcon and everyone who saw what's going on was very impressed and excited to see this kind of work happening.
This module is in early alpha but the potential looks amazing, and addresses all these concerns and handles a lot more. They are hoping to get more people in the discussion so that the best practices can be established. Jump in on the discussion.
Glad to see people are working on this. Hopefully a good solution will come out of it.
Thanks for the link,
Michelle
I think that you're looking at two different (but related) issues here. Install profiles are for fresh installations by design. What you are talking about here is install patterns, which is the bundling of sets of features, configuration options and/or install routines. Conceptually, install profiles could be a collection of different patterns.
They are different things. Install profiles as a collection of patterns sound useful. As they are now, I don't think they are very useful, at least not for the things I'm working on.
Michelle