Not to undermine the fine work done by the maintainers of the Workflow module and others, but in my experience a large majority of our clients don't need all of the bells & whistles but a basic, easy-to-configure-and-use system that allows editors to oversee contributors. In response-- and also due to my frustration at trying to set up and then dumb down the available modules (often requiring getting more than one module to sync in the way I want)-- I created a simple module (not yet hosted here) that I've been using on a few production sites. It very simply offers three content states (Draft, Review and Live), a basic permissions system, as well as a new content overview page (replacing that provided by the node module) that limited-access authors and editors can use without the dreaded 'administer nodes' permission.
I'd be interested to know if others would be interested in this simpler approach-- obviously not a as a replacement but as an alternative to what is currently available.
Cheers-
Comments
New to the group, but for
New to the group, but for default settings, the basics would be ideal. Does the parent module support arbitrary workflows aside from publishing, such as for, say a workflow for checking up on form submissions? If so, then your idea would be more tailored as a fork for simple publishing workflows. Isn't there a drupal section for install profiles...?
Just publishing. Basic, easy
Just publishing. Basic, easy (dear god, not like this: http://drupal.org/node/408052). Why do you bring up install profiles?
Hi again othermachines, The
Hi again othermachines,
The community tends to favour modules that are very extensible. So you get a module ecosystem in which one abstract module handles both complex and simple workflows, rather than an ecosystem in which one module handles simple workflows, and another handles complex (cases in point: Rules (conditions/reactions), Context, Views (query building), Feeds (import), Spaces).
Having said that, there's lots of talk about having more intuitive defaults. If others feel differently, then definitely jump in, but I'm thinking that those who are most invested in Drupal (the ones who you want to have your back) will probably be reluctant to start a new module. I'm sure you'd get tons more support if you focussed on helping to make Workflow support your common use-case more easily :)
And I think the install profile reference was alluding to the fact that your request is largely for a pre-configuration of modules already offered, for which install profiles and Features module tend to be used. (Might be a niche opportunity for releasing a feature?)