[Proposal] DrupalGapps - GSoC Doc Sprint Summit

What is the project about?

DrupalGapps is a contributed module for Drupal. The project aims at achieving seem-less integration of Google Apps in Drupal.

DrupalGapps is a framework for Google Apps and Drupal integration. It strives to provide API for integration of Google Apps’ management and applications APIs like Admin Settings API, Migration API, Calendar Data API, etc.

DrupalGapps is a contributed module for Drupal and is available at http://drupal.org/project/drupalgapps.

Status of the project:

DrupalGapps was selected by the Drupal community as a project for GSoC 2009. The project was proposed by Ankur Saxena and he successfully completed development of wrapper API for Google Provisioning API (using ClientLogin authentication protocol). Ankur Saxena was mentored by Kaustubh Shrikanth (primary) and Robert Wohleb (co-mentor).

Stella Power contributed UI and application which made use of DrupalGapps API to provide UI for user-management in Drupal. This contribution was included in DrupalGapps as a sub-module.

All the work done until here is Drupal 6 compatible.

Further work is in progress on DrupalGapps as a part of GSoC 2011 where Vaidik Kapoor is working on porting DrupalGapps to Drupal 7, integrating 2-legged and 3-legged OAuth authentication and developing Google Docs wrappers and Google Docs like application for Drupal. Vaidik is being mentored by Kaustubh Shrikanth (primary), Stella Power (co-mentor), Ankur Saxena (co-mentor) and Daniel Wahner (co-mentor).

Links: Proposal and project wiki.

As of now, DrupalGapps is available for Drupal 7, 3-legged OAuth integration and development of wrapper API for Google Docs is complete. Further work is in progress.

Some Statistics:

Reported installs: 15 sites currently report using this module.
View Detailed Statistics

Similar Modules:

1. Google Auth - Drupal module - supports OAuth standard for API authentication.
   Reported installs: 14 sites currently report using this module.
   [Link](http://drupal.org/project/gauth)
2. Google Authentication for Web Applications - Drupal module - supports AuthSub standard for API authentication.
   Reported installs: 323 sites currently report using this module.
   [Link](http://drupal.org/project/google_auth)
3. Google Apps Authentication - Drupal module - provides SAML wrappers for single sign-on with Google.
   [Link](http://drupal.org/project/googleauth)

Future Development:

As of now there are a few things that we have in mind that we’d like to see in DrupalGapps:

1. Single Sign-On using SAML
2. Calendar Data API Integration
3. Admin Settings API Integration
4. Some other management APIs

Reasons:

1. Currently, DrupalGapps is in use only on some websites. One of the major reasons for this is lack of how-to guides which would help in setting up DrupalGapps in a Drupal installation, which makes it difficult for a site admin or developer to directly put DrupalGapps to use like other modules which are well documented on drupal.org.

   With DrupalGapps documented, more and more site developers/admins will take DrupalGapps in use for Google Apps integration in a customized web application made using Drupal.

   We plan to focus documentation sprint on 3 areas:

   1. “Quick Guides” for the Administrators deploying Drupal and want to integrate Google Apps with it.
   2. “How-to Guides” for Developers who want to use Drupalgapps API in their module, hence extending functionality to different spectrums.
2. With a good documentation in place, DrupalGapps API can be used for developing Drupal modules for integration of services of Google Apps into Drupal.
   We have already been contacted personally and in the community by community members for DrupalGapps READMEs and Guides. Refer to the following links:
1. http://drupal.org/node/835822
2. http://drupal.org/node/844758
3. Drupal, being so robust and highly accepted as a CMS, and with DrupalGapps available for Google Apps integration, Drupal will become the first choice of CMS for a lot of site developers when Google Apps is to be integrated in a web application.
4. Google Apps integration can be beneficial for a lot of web application and there could be a lot of developers (Joomla and other CMSs developers) who could be looking for a perfect solution for Google Apps integration. This can probably encourage migration from Joomla and other CMSs to Drupal.
5. Google Auth module for Drupal has already been merged into DrupalGapps. With time, other related modules and additional functionalities will be added to DrupalGapps and DrupalGapps will become the one-stop-shop for everything related to Google Apps. This is the right time for documenting DrupalGapps for encouraging more use and for encouraging developers to contribute.

It is for the above reasons that the contributors and their mentors think that there is a need for DrupalGapps to be documented.

Deliverables

The following deliverables have been arranged according to their priorities:

1. “Quick-start guide” for administrators who are deploying Drupal and want to integrate Google Apps with it.
2. If time permits, we'd like to work on documenting "How-to guide" for Drupal module developers for extending functionalities and integrating other Google Apps services. Hence, taking a step further towards integrating Google Apps in Drupal.

Table of Contents

(Add/change as you please.)

Quick-Guide for DrupalGapps

1. Introduction
1. Google Apps and DrupalGapps
2. Problems that DrupalGapps can solve.
2. Getting started with DrupalGapps
1. Pre-requisites for deploying DrupalGapps
2. Installing DrupalGapps
3. Configuring DrupalGapps
1. OAuth
1. Brief on OAuth
2. Confguring DrupalGapps for using OAuth
2. ClientLogin
1. Brief on ClientLogin
2. Confguring DrupalGapps for using ClientLogin
4. Google Apps user account creation and simple management
5. Using Google Docs' services in Drupal
1. Explaining with help of simple use-cases

If time permits, we will also like to work on the following:

How-to Guide for Advanced Usage (for developers)

1. How things work - an overview of what happens behind the scene with the help of a simple flowchart/diagram.
2. Quick-guide on how to integrate DrupalGapps API with your module.
3. Getting other Google Apps features into Drupal