Content Idea Drafts (Before selecting Content Type)

Hi Steve,

Yep, seen Workbench and it is a great base for content moderation. Actually I have even got a nice feature request improvement, http://drupal.org/node/1091646, into Workbench Access already.

I was considering making this feature request to the Workbench Moderation module as it would fit it perfectly, but then I saw webchick's tweet about this and decided to post it here instead.

Lets see what comes out of it.

Default I was more thinking of something simple as a separate tables handling it. But it could of course be made pluggable so that different storages can be used, maybe even several at the same time depending on need.

Another use of this can be for user submitted articles, guest posts and so on. Then it would be a snap to give any user the ability to submit content with absolutely no risk since it would be separated from the published content.

I know the Webform module could also be used for this, but with the other features this module would offer, user submitted content would then be very easy to integrate in an editorial workflow.

This sounds interesting...I have some points to add :
1 . About storage, maybe the authors could store private story data (eg. private ideas, private story drafts etc.) on their local machine (of course it could be made pluggable so that they can choose the storage location). When they think their story is ready to be published, they can push the story to the main site.
2. About collaboration, it seems like a waste to store everything in one location, instead we could do it like git does. Many people have their own copy of changes and at any point they can choose to incorporate changes from other users or simply publish their work.

BTW : I'm a student and have used Drupal for a few projects in the past. I'm currently having a look at the Drupal codebase and the bug tracker to get started on development.
I would love to do this as a GSoC project. Still looking for a concrete plan for implementation. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Hi tsvenson,
Based on your feedback I took the liberty of drafting a preliminary requirements analysis . Please have a look and give feedback.

1. Organization -
   The module will enable the creation of a new "project". For every project, the site administrator can create various user roles based on permissions. Also, for each project, an idea pool is created. The administrator also has the job of adding users and assigning roles to them.
   eg. By default, we can have two roles as Writer and Editor. However, we can also further classify roles based on taxonomy terms eg. cultural writer/editor , sports writer/editor etc. Also there could be projects without Editors, e.g a group of writers collaborating on a piece without any one of them providing overall moderation.
2. Features -
   2.1 - Private Writer Content -
   2.1.1 - Story Drafts - The writer can create private drafts of content (without specifying content type). These drafts will be stored as files on the webserver. Using .htaccess the access to these files will be forbidden for site visitors. The writer can view his drafts, make revisions of drafts, and remove drafts through an interface (using stream wrappers). Access to these drafts will remain limited to the user.
   2.1.2 - Story ideas - The writer can also create private story ideas, which will be visible only to him/her . Ideas will consist of a piece of text with associated taxonomy terms(optional).
   2.2 - Sharing -
   2.2.1 - Sharing Drafts - Writer can share his story draft with either the administrator or other users. There will be a check box titled, ready for moderation, when the writer marks his draft as ready for moderation, the Editor can see his/her drafts. The Editor can then post his feedback, which will be visible to the original author.
   Writers can also share their draft with other writers. Suppose writer A shares his Draft with B , C and D. Then, a new workflow will be created, with four branches. Each user can view the work being done on every branch and can independently modify his branch. At any point of time any user can import the changes of any other user . Every user can also view a single document containing additions by all users, possibly using different colors to highlight contributions by different users. The final draft can be selected by either the editor (if there is one), or by consensus among the group(voting?). The person with the initial draft (A) will initially have control over who collaborates on the draft however A can allow B,C,D to add more users(with an option when he is sharing his draft with them). The person A can also add an editor for his Draft.
   A workflow can also be created by an editor, with everything else working pretty much the same way.
   ALTERNATIVE - Integration with Google docs will make the above task very easy. I had a look at http://drupal.org/project/google_docs
   and google docs integration could be added as a later feature.
   2.2.2 - Sharing Story Ideas - The private story ideas of users can be published to a public idea pool for the project. Everyone can view the ideas in the public pool. The ideas can be grouped on the basis of tags if they have been tagged with a taxonomy term.
   NOTE : This can be implemented by extending Workbench access and Workbench Moderation. I'm having a look at those projects and will post a more detailed implementation plan soon.
   2.3 - Assignments - The editor can assign Story Ideas to a particular writer or even assign a draft by a writer (say A) to another writer (B). The editor can monitor the progress of these assignments from his interface. The editor can also attach notes to each Draft from the interface itself
   NOTE : The Maestro module http://drupal.org/project/maestro can be used to add this functionality.

A NOTE ON STORAGE : I'm thinking of storing these drafts and ideas in separate tables . By a preliminary estimate, a large amount of metadata and related data is associated with each draft/idea and thus it would be advantageous to store the data in a database instead of as files.

P.S.- Please add any features you would like, also don't worry about the implementation, I have some ideas about implementation however making a concrete implementation plan would be feasible only after the feature list is frozen (sort of).
Also, please suggest potential mentors for this so that I can start working on a formal application.

Thanks and Regards,
Anshul Singhle
xashck@gmail.com
ana_s on IRC at #drupal

@agentrickard: Really happy that you have time to mentor this project idea, it will make sure it will integrate well with your Workbench suite. Big thanks for that.

Ken also mentioned you already had a long chat on IRC, so great you two are connected already.

From what I know, there is a deadline set to April 8th to submit GSoC projects and I really hope we are able to meat that date so we don't miss the opportunity.

I would like to follow up my OP with a more detailed list of features I would like to see in this module. My focus will be on how it will work for the users, not the implementation which I leave to you two to figure out.

Primary goal should be to make this module integrate well with the Workbench suite, but it would also be great if it where possible to use it with the Maestro workflow, and other similar modules, as well to avoid the need of duplicating its features in another module.

Suggested module name: Workbench Content Ideas

In line with the other Workbench modules, it would be great if this module both can function on its own as well as integrate with some of the other when they are enabled. I have divided my feature list to reflect that.

Stand Alone Features

The module will use its own storage (Drupals tables/file system as default, but hopefully pluggable at some stage) and not mixed in with the published content on a site.

Creating and assigning content ideas:

• Create Private Content Idea - Allow roles with permission to create new content ideas.
• Create Public Content Idea - Allow roles with permission to create new public content ideas. Then an editor can create a list that writers then can pick from. When they pick an idea, they automatically becomes the owner of it.
• Reassign Own Content Idea - Allow users to reassign own content ideas to other users that has permission to do it. Also permission based.
• Reassign Any Content idea. - Reassign any content idea to any user with permission to have them. Also permission based. Great for editors in a news organisation for example. It also means they will be able to browse all ideas.

It should also be possible for an editor to create a content assignment for a writer directly, but I believe the above permissions should be enough to permit that.

It should also be possible to reassign a content idea to public so anyone can pick it up.

Working with content ideas

• Content Brief - A comments field used to describe the outcome of the content. Great for editors when creating public ideas. For internal use.
• Resources - A field where resources can be listed, such as sources. For internal use.
• Editing - Be able to work with the content as if it was already assigned to a real content type. Including adding media, both attached and embedded.

The content idea should also support version control, but since it is using its own tables, this will also be needed to handle separately. Hopefully Diff will still be possible to use without any modification.

When the content idea is pushed to a content type, then all old revisions as well as the temp table rows will be deleted and only the last version will be transferred. Might be useful with an option "Preserve revision history" if that is not to complicated to implement.

When adding new media files, it is wanted that those to are managed separately from the sites published media files. When the content idea is transferred to a content type, then these will also be transferred to the normal storage. This might be an area of problems if a media file of the same name already exists as well as handling additional fields and other things attached to media files...

Convert to real content type
Be able to convert the content idea to a real content type the user has permission to create. Preferable all fields, including comment/resources should be preserved.

A permission for "Convert to content" type is needed here.

Integrate with Workbench

Stand alone, the module should use the UI layout of the Workbench module.

If the Workbench module is enabled, then this module should integrate well with it so users can access everything from there. List pages should also be showing a trimmed version of the content brief field to give the user more info. If time allows, clicking on a content item will open a overlay with the full details.

Integrate with Workbench Access

When this module is enabled, then content ideas and permissions will fully use the structure the site has. When an editor creates a public content idea, then it will only be possible to list it in any of the sections that editor has access to, or another editor that in turn then can assign it to a section/writer he controls.

Writers will then also be able to list the public content ideas based on the same structure and pick the ones they want to work on.

Editor roles should be able to view any content idea in the sections they have access to.

Integrate with Workbench Moderation

When this module is enabled, it will be possible to configure how, and when, a content idea will, and can, be transferred to a content type.

Only users with permission to convert to content type will be able to do so. But they should still be able to put in in review stage and it will then be accessible for users that has the right to see it in that stage.

It should also not be possible to convert it to a content type and publish it at the same time, just to make sure nothing goes wrong.

Once it has been converted, then the temp files are deleted in the same manner as when it is used without this module.

This integration would also make it possible to allow any user to submit articles to a site. Only thing that will be needed is then a tailored workflow for it.

Integrate with Workbench File/Media

Temporary files/media objects should be possible to browse if the user has access to it. They should be clearly marked, including which content idea they belong to.

A switch between temporary/published file would also be good to have.

Oki, I think that pretty much covers all the features I would like to see being implemented in this module.

What's your thoughts about this?

1 - That's fine. Its of course always possible to convert it to a content type before its ready, but when your sure about where it will end up.

2 - Well, both that and automatic. For example images that are embedded in the content should automatically be transferred. Normal attachment could simply have a checkbox list, ticked by default, to mark which will be transferred.

Question then is what will happen with the files that is not transferred. Should they remain in the users private file archive or be deleted? Maybe a better option is to have a dropdown menu for each file with three options - Transfer, Keep and Delete?

Thing with file conflicts in Drupal, AFAIK, is that it is handled automatically by serialising the file name. So if image.jpg already exist, then the next one in that folder will get image_0.jpg. Personally I would prefer an option to be able to rename the file, but that is probably better left to a separate module that can let that be managed on a sitewide level.