Make it possible to Relate everything to each other in Drupal 7

Page Rules

• Everybody is welcome to edit the page
• Do not change the structure of the page
• Do not change the titles inside html tags h2, h3
• Use the revision log message to explain your additions or updates
• When you make important changes, explain them in a comment here and include a url to your revision at the end of your comment

Page Why

• To make it clear for people who are planing to structure their site on how to relate things to each other
• To help the development of new modules addressing relationships inside Drupal
• // TODO add more

Planing stage of ultimate result: Make it possible to Relate everything to each other in Drupal 7

Facts

• Relations are fundamentally uni-directional
  e.g. //TODO add example
• Relations are constantly changing through time.
  e.g. your relationship with your partner getting better or worse.
• Changes in some relations can effect other relations.
  e.g changes in your relationship with one woman will affect your relationship with another woman.
• Relations are not always true and false. most likely they are somewhere between true and false
  e.g. if you relate some of your friends with the word "important", and look at the situation from binary logic, each of your friends are either important or not; but in the real world (Fuzzy logic) of course some of your friends are more important to u.
• Relationship can not exist without at least 2 ends.
  e.g. there is no such thing as a "performs". Until you have "artist" and "song" on either side of it, "performs" can't even exist.
• Self-referencing relationships are valid.
  e.g. john->loves->himself.
• Relationship add information to its ends.
  e.g. relationship "performs" adds information to "artist" and "song".
• // TODO add more

Requirements

• Setting up and using Relations must not require any coding by the end user
• Setting up and using Relations must be simple for the end user
• Relations implementation must make maximum use of what we already have in Drupal
• // TODO add more

break down of the ultimate result into smaller results

1. Make it possible to store the relations

• Requirements
• Relations must work with revisions and system must be able to remember how relations changed through time
• Relations must work in multi lingual environments
• Paths

1. Use Drupal 7 Fields (Previously called CCK Fields)
   Tasks:
   1. Store the relation as CCK fields using multigroups functionality

   Pros:

   • Multi language functionality will be handled by Drupal
   • Revisions will will be handled by Drupal
   • // ???

   Cons:

   • // ???
   • // ???
2. // TODO add another path

• Requirements
• Defining Relations must not require any coding by the end user
• Defining Relations must be easy
• Defining Relations must match well with other Drupal settings
• Paths

1. Add the possible relations as fields to Drupal 7 Entities, the same way other field are added
   Tasks:
   1. // TODO add what needs to be done to achieve the result

   Pros:

   • // ???
   • // ???

   Cons:

   • // ???
   • // ???
2. // TODO add another path

• Requirements
• Adding or editing Relations must be easy
• Paths

1. Use Drupal standard forms for adding or editing relations
   Tasks:
   1. // TODO add what needs to be done to achieve the result

   Pros:

   • // ???
   • // ???
   • // ???

   Cons:

   • // ???
   • // ???
2. // TODO add another path

• Requirements
• Displaying Relations must be very flexible
• // TODO add other requirements
• Paths

1. Use Views to display relations
   Tasks:
   1. provide integration with views
   2. // TODO add what else needs to be done to achieve the result

   Pros:

   • // ???
   • // ???
   • // ???

   Cons:

   • // ???
   • // ???
2. // TODO add another path