DSNF - Drupal Social Network Framework (James version)

Overview:

Create a social networking (SN) framework in Drupal 6 (D6) that integrates existing contrib modules together and create modules to extend SN features currently implemented in contrib modules.

This proposal is based on justageek's community proposal.

Motivation:

There exist a fair number of contrib modules the enable users to socialize in multi-user Drupal sites. Together, they represent many of the features required or desired to build a social site. Unfortunately, working these modules together can be difficult if not impossible when they're not coded to integrate into each other. There also exists some basic SN features like user search that are missing in Drupal.

Creating a SN framework and SN modules in Drupal will pull together these modules into a cohesive package and make it easier for site admins to roll out sites social networking features.

Deliverables:

• Create an install profile to streamline how SN modules are configured.
• Build modules to fill gaps in social networking features where identified.
  • Extend Token to support Advanced Profile Kit (APK) and Content Profile (CP) fields.
    • Some work has already been done for core Profile in Drupal 5 (D5) and D6 through a Token issue by recidive (D6) and smk-ka.
    • Work has stalled since October 2008 and there were comments that the profile extension should not be included in [[http://drupal.org/project/token|Token]] as an .inc file.
    • Support can be added for APK and CP if either modules are enabled and used.
  • Create a APK, CP, and Profile (let's call all three profile modules as ACP) field-specific to replace the default user search.
    • Current user search is done through a single text field on the username.
    • In a SN site, users may want to search for site members with similar profile fields.
    • If CP is used for user profiles, a user search listing can be constructed with Views using exposed filters.
    • General support for field-specific search can be added such that it works consistently across ACP.
  • Create a location- and proximity-based user search.
    • In some geographically-dispersed SN sites, users may want to find members physically near them.
    • Using a field-specific search is very clunky as it's challenging to define nearness besides an exact match with some geographic name (ie. city or state/province name).
    • Using Location/GMap, geocoding locations can be added to ACP as a field.
    • The field-specific user search can be extended to allow users to search for nearby members (and specify the nearness distance) by comparing geocoded locations.
  • Collect the various privacy modules and create a single and simple way for users to set privacy modules with respect to their profile fields and content
    • A number of privacy modules exist (like CCK field privacy and Profile Privacy) that give users some control over their content on Drupal sites.
    • There lacks a consistent way to allow users to configure privacy settings across all their site content.\
    • Users should be able to control who can and cannot see their content at a per content type level.
    • Users should also be able to set profile privacy at a field-specific level.
    • In terms of granularity, user profiles can be broken down into the following:
      • entire profile
      • individual field groups in profile
      • individual fields in profile
    • and user content into the following:
      • online status
      • activity
      • other content types (except forum posts, maybe?)
        • blog entries
        • galleries or photos (which image/gallery module should this support?)
        • friend list (user relationships or flag friend or friendlist).
    • Visibility options can be divided into the following:
      • public (only if site allows anonymous users to see the specific piece)
      • members only
      • friends only (as defined by user relationships or flag friend or friendlist)
      • no one (except admins)
• Create an administrative section to configure the various SN framework modules (time-permitting).
  • An notable obstacle in administering a Drupal site is the high learning curve needed to navigate the admin area.
  • Interesting admin sections/panels/widgets were showcased by D7UX here, here, here, here, and here.
  • An SN admin section to manage the various SN settings would be very helpful in pulling everything together.

Many thanks to Michelle for bouncing some of these ideas around with me. It really help ground my thoughts and think about how some of these could work.

Other deliverables:

• Submit research and module evaluations as part of a Drupal.org (DO) handbook.
• Various "bridging" modules, as needed, to synchronize or integrate contrib modules together.
• Create a theme to demonstrate how social framework can be styled/themed (time-permitting).

Underlying Project Themes:

• Enable non-technical (ie. no coding knowledge) administrators to roll out a social site using this framework.
• Allow admins to choose, where appropriate, which module to implement a particular feature (ie. Markdown or WYSIWYG or FCKEditor).
• Document how the contrib modules fit together to form the framework and how custom code bridges these modules together.
• Benchmark code and how modules work together specifically focusing on the site's memory footprint.

Preliminary list of functionality to integrate:

• Photo/image handling
• Friends, forums, private messaging, chat, organic groups, activity/heartbeat/etc.
• Date/events, spam control, input editors/filters, finer-grain (role-based?) access control
• Profile with custom (CCK) fields

Roadmap:

1. Scope project and research: (done mostly before GSoC starts)
   • Scope the extent of the SN framework.
   • Cover as much of identified SN features with existing contrib modules as possible.
   • Evaluate modules for their readiness for use, quality of documentation, code efficiency, and support.
   • Report on the findings through documentation similar to fago's "Comparing Social Networking Modules for the drupal.org Redesign.".
     • The associated discussion can be found here.
   • Identify gaps in contrib module feature coverage, integration between modules, and documentation.
2. Fill gaps: (May 23 to late-June)
   • Create modules to add missing functionalities (See above in Deliverables).
   • Document custom modules and also how the modules fit together to form the framework.
3. Install profile and config: (late-June to early-July)
   • Create an install profile to configure the framework initially.
   • Create an administrative section to coordinate the configuration of the different framework modules (time permitting).
4. Test, test, test! (early-July to late-July)
   • Create coverage test against custom modules written for Deliverables (with SimpleTest framework).
   • Test framework against default Garland theme (as framework should be theme-agnostic).
5. Create a theme to demonstrate how social framework can be styled/themed (time-permitting).
6. Create an administrative section to configure the various SN framework modules (time-permitting).

I'd actually like to complete most of step 1 (scope project and research) before the GSOC begins. That way, I can hit the ground coding (or running, metaphorically) when GSOC begins. I've left some scheduling space at the end of the GSoC to allow for the couple of time-permitting deliverables.

Personal Bio:

I'm a computer engineering student at the University of Toronto, currently on a co-op placement in the research group of a hedge fund company in Toronto. I work as a quantitative researcher, modeling market prices, testing models on a Java/C++ platform, and improving the testing plaform in an agile development cycle.

Learning the technical aspects of web development has been quite straight-forward, as I am already fluent in a number of programming languages and am also aware of the foundations behind languages themselves. I'm an advocate for compliant XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0, as well as accessible (and thus search-engine-friendly) code and secure coding practises. My technical background in more complex logic in languages like C++ and Java have helped me rapidly become fluent in PHP. I've also worked with MySQL databases (as well as other SQL implementations). My brief work with Javascript and Ajax is mainly through jQuery and XML.

My freelance work so far has primarily involved D6, from building basic sites ground-up to migrating from HTML/CSS-based sites to Drupal. I'm comfortable working with Drupal's API and have submitted a number of core novice patches for Drupal 7 development ever since learning about the core novice issue queue.

Do check out my oDesk profile at http://www.odesk.com/users/~~a045fdc56020fe95. It includes some relevant Drupal work I have done, under the Portfolio section, as well as oDesk-administered aptitude tests in various web technologies. I have references if needed. You can download my resumé at http://jamesan.ca/resume.pdf, which highlights some of my technical skills and work, as well as my involvement in a broad context around the City of Toronto. I hope you come away from this with the impression that I passionate about my work, that I am goal-focused, business-minded, and deadline-driven, and that I thrive in a diverse range of work environments with a large variety of people.

Personal Motivation:

My partner and I launched a D5 social site last May (OpenMynds, aka OM) An online community we both belonged to fell apart and - last May - it showed no signs of return, so we cobbled together some D5 modules and launched a temporary makeshift social site for friends and former members. OM is now here to stay, as the former site is not returning.

We've been trying to design an upgrade path to D6, as D6 has awesome UI improvements. After reading the Pro Drupal Development, I was raving about install profiles but realized how little they're used and how silly it would be to create a D6 install profile just for OM. We've been evaluating various D6 contrib modules and eagerly waiting for their stable release. Increasingly, I think we'll end up designing OM in D6 from scratch and this social framework fits perfectly. We'll simply have to import the D5 data in with some MySQL fun!

It'd be very nice to be sponsored for work that I'm very committed to see completed, that I'm capable of doing, and that will help others facing steep time requirements to wade through module directories and issue queues to evaluate modules when building a social site. OM was built on the spare time of my partner and I; its expenses are personally covered by us as we'd like to keep the space ad-free. We've been researching various youth grants and financial awards as a way to fund the work we're doing with OM, but the international nature of OM makes it very difficult to qualify for region-specific funding. The GSOC money will be able to indefinitely fund OM's hosting costs in a small endowment fund of sorts.

Why do Markdown abbreviations not work?.. =(