Drupal 7
Drupal 7 core forum module - plan of attack
Drupal's core forum module is much maligned. Some of this is unjustified - people expecting it to replace standalone solutions by itself and ignoring the nature of Drupal's modular framework. However, it also has some limitations which are a result of its age and require many workarounds for large community sites.
Many of the forum module's limitations are down to its dependency on the taxonomy module (making it hard to integrate with organic groups etc.) and on comment.module, which is itself in need of a rewrite.
So we're proposing a ground up rewrite of forum.module using nodes.
Drupal core patches and Vertical tabs
There are many Drupal 7 core issues that are tagged as "Needs usability review". It would be awesome to try and keep an eye on this list and review UI changes that are going in to core/7, with the aim of trying not to degrade Drupal usability further with un-monitored changes, as we usually do in Drupal core. The most important ones to review are the ones that are in the review process, marked RTBC or recently committed.
Testing PostgreSQL 8.3 against HEAD
Is anyone running test on HEAD, until PostgreSQL testbeds are implemented we still need to ensure peoples are commiting broken code to HEAD that passes on MySQL. Can we get some kind of movement going to keep the testing up??
Proposal for D7 input format system
Through building and maintaining the Better Formats module I have gained insight in many different ways that I and others would like Drupal's input format system to work. There are 2 key points that make the current system in need of help.
- Every site has different needs and use cases.
- Current format system is not extensible.
There are 3 categories of features that site admins need to be able to control.
- Allowed formats
- Default formats
- Display options
Simple object CRUD: a proposal
With Drupal 6, menu tokens are able to automatically load database records given an object id, this is a great feature, however this requires developers to implement 'load functions' for loading their records. Those 'load functions' are often just a wrapper around 'SELECT * from {mytable} WHERE mykey = %d'.
We could do better, and allow automatically load operations, and even better, enable automatic basic CRUD.
Improving color.module for Drupal 7
The drupal color module, if utilized, is one of the most powerful modules in a theme developer's arsenal for extending their design. I feel that this module deserves attention and has the potential to expand.
As a drupal themer who has experimented with color themes and the color.module internals I have bumped into things that would really improve the coloring experience and the module's power/usefulness.
Drupal 7 and Semantic Web Core
In regards to the Semantic Web developments announced recently about Drupal 7, I have posted a blog entry at SitePoint and also posted to the Linking Open Data mail list.
Web Services in Drupal 7
Just a quick note that nedjo posted a note about Services module going into core. This would allow use of XML-RPC, JSON, RSS, REST, SOAP and more to be loaded through a common Services API.
A Code Sprint will take place in Boston this coming Friday that will focus on the inclusion of this new Services API.
Drupal 7 Usability Linkstorm
In order to draw attention to the biggest feature in Drupal 7, Usability, let's all collectively look through our resources for our best Usability links, tips, and tricks! Post them below in the comments, with commentary (pun intended) on how they could be implemented in Drupal. If you are feeling inspired, tackle one with a patch (or mentor a DROP task).
Better input format support in Drupal 7
Collecting discussions and patches for a better input format support in Drupal 7. My battle plan writeup is at http://hojtsy.hu/blog/2008-feb-04/supporting-wysiwyg-editing-better-drup... and there are groups post here about cutting through the format clutter (http://groups.drupal.org/node/8911) and format association observations (http://groups.drupal.org/node/9072). This list summarizes the patches in different states to improve input formats and support RTEs better.
- For review:
- http://drupal.org/node/125315 - Add the #input_format Form API construct, so that additional form fields are not required, and metadata is captured for WYSIWYG editors and form altering in general
- http://drupal.org/node/110242 - Make filter access first class permissions
- http://drupal.org/node/240873 - Move custom help settings to blocks
- TODO:
- http://groups.drupal.org/node/8911 - Limit available input filters by "type of widget" used (node type body, comment, block, etc)
- http://groups.drupal.org/node/9072 - Bring consistency into how we apply formats and provide more format support where it is missing.
- Move site mission and footer message to blocks / new block regions (in part to add format support).
- Done:
http://drupal.org/node/222183 - Make input formats reorderable(committed!)http://drupal.org/node/240988 - Break out HTML escaping filter to make non-HTML input formats (instantly) recognizable(committed)
