Hey just starting this thread about the meeting list. I was wondering how a meeting list could best be developed. For those who know a bit about Drupal, they can add modules outside the point and click feature that Drupal 7 provides. For those that don't really know how Drupal works what would be the best way to provide a one button install with an internal meeting list already their.
Tkasis has mentioned the BMLT. Would it be possible to include that module in the install process? I really do like the idea of having a central meeting database that any group, area or region could manage their meetings from.
We at the ARSCNA Regional this weekend talked a bit about adding a patch list to our website. Would it be possible to incorporate this with the BMLT?
Has anyone any thoughts on these topics?
Comments
meeting list
I love the idea of a meeting being generating as a piece of content, and a simple daily listing. We can give the users the option to use the BMLT, but it's not always needed.
I have installed a new
I have installed a new install of drupal at simplicityworx.com. This is the site at this time that I hope to use to develop the DNA distro. I have installed geolocation module as well as a few more. I agree with kidtangerine about giving chooses to the users of this distribution as far as meeting display. I was talking to my regions phone line chair the other day and he thought that it might be good to have a patch list for these groups visible to members with the proper permissions to go along with this meeting list. One objective is to make sure that this distribution meet the needs of all of those that might use it.
I would like to express a concern with the BMLT being a part of this distribution as an installed module. My concern is that it is not on Drupals project list. Maybe we could include information or documentation of how to install this module after the install is completed. The idea of creating this distribution is to give any NA entity the ability to have an installed site out of the box ready for use. All they should have to do is start entering content whether it is group and meeting information or uploading minutes or guidelines, or what ever it is. One thing about Drupal you can always add modules to enhance the sites usability.
Anyway back to the topic at hand. Basic pages are simple to create, so I have decided to work on a group content type. I do have a small possible conflict. If in the future it is decided to add Organic Groups, this module when installed creates a group content type. I guess I should call it something different than group content type. Ahhhhhh, maybe Committee content type. I will start with that.
Road Block
I have run into a bit of a road block. I had an issue with the method I was using creating the Committee content type. I was trying to create three content types and then reference them with entity reference. Because I don't think it will work to ask someone to create meeting first then location of meeting then the committee this process will not work. I am going to make another attempt using webform and webform entity.
Baby Steps
I have been working on this for a few hours today. I have gone to sites that boast about helping you with some knowledge. I kept reading and got something started.
I first tried webform but that died quick, No map for webform. So I researched geolocation and field collection modules and I got something going. My issue is that some groups meet in more than one location and most groups have more than one meeting at any location. So I needed to be able to add locations to the group and then add multiple meetings to any location (field collection). Everything went great until I added my second location. The geolocation map would not generate a map for the second location. It was using the Lat/Lon information which was not editable on the second map. At this point I have nixed the geolocation and am now looking at geofield and the location modules. Maybe open layers as well.
Anyway I an going to work on it tomorrow.
One more step passed
I just got the Content type working like I want it. looks something like this:
<group><groupname/>
<naws id/>
<area affiliation/>
<geographic zone(for phoneline)/>
<geolocation map (to find Lon/Lat)/>
<location>
<longitude/>
<latitude/>
<address/>
<city/>
<state/>
<zip/>
<meeting>
<day/>
<time/>
<format/>
</meeting>
</location>
</group>
Note that you can have multiple entries of location and you can have multiple entries of meetings inside location.
I have not tested this in any way because once you add data to a content type Drupal doesn't like for you to change things. So I am going to play with the entry process then the display with map. I may have to make a few more changes in the content type as far as formats. I created a select list instead of using taxonomy to create the formatting. I think I will change that so we can do some search filtering on the display.
I had a small issue with the way I wanted the Lat/Long to work. I ended up just including a geolocation map to find the Lat/Long information then the one entering the data will have to copy and paste. There may be something I can do about this in the future but for now people entering data about group will just have to copy and paste. Anyway I used geolocation for map and geofield to save the geo-spacial information. I also used field collection to group the multiple location and meeting fields.
Any I am finished for the weekend just wanted to document this weekends work.
Meeting or Group as Node
The one big problem that bmlt solves over group lists is it has meeting lists. This enables groups to have meeting at different locations. NA.org does the group thing but it is very inefficient. And I agree that the BMLT should not be part of the distro. It is not Drupaly.
That is really not why I am responding. The way I build events (meetings are events) on client and NA sites is to use the following modules:
A couple of ways I would approach it is to have all data in a 'meeting' content type with a reference to a 'group' content type. Or a 'group' content type with fields for every piece of data and every meeting (I think that is Mark's example.) Each will work as the location module allows for multiple instances and, if you need an overall map, the different locations should populate. For meeting lists, views arguments and/or exposed filters should be able to render your list or map.
Mark, your work appears to be a group with one location, correct? http://simplicityworx.com/mark. I wonder if a second location was added you could use rules to render the map for the next meeting. Might be a fun exercise.
The BMLT function I use the most is "copy selected meetings". In my rambling above, probably the most practical way of allowing that would to have the 'meeting' node separate, referenced to a 'group' and use Node Clone - http://drupal.org/project/node_clone to give the maintainer some DRY function.
Something to consider also is a separate 'location' content type. That is what I would do with events in small service bodies (areas) where the same locations are reused. A content type for locations can be built and their use would not be limited to meetings, you could dance and eat there. Now there is three content types 'meeting', 'group' and 'location' referenced (and back) on the 'meeting' node. Again DRY and the activities committee can reference the same location nodes as does the RCM when presenting a workshop. With the reference, everything will be exposed to views so magic can be preformed.
Hope I was coherent. I know that some of your work is has been down a similar path, I just did not reference it as my comment is more in the vein of "I would do this" even though you "have done this".
This is my first use of Drupal Groups. Is there a way to receive notification when a comment is posted? Edit: Never mind. I can use RSS in gReader.
Meeting List Mobile and VBO
Two additions (or subtractions) to my last comment.
The BMLT has a very practical mobile version, shortcode bmlt_mobile . This may be a booger to make for the distro meeting function. We could look into using exposed filters in Views and just render that page or block view in the small screen devices. Don't know how to implement the location services into the mix, though.
My concern about meeting maintainers having the ability to quickly copy nodes might could be addressed by using Rules components to create an action to duplicate the complete node. And expose that component to Views Bulk Operations.
The paragraph above about showing the map to the next meeting for groups that have multiple locations could be done with jQuery. I haven't done anything real complex in jQuery in a couple of years, but I think having Views queue up the next one in the list and jQuery could hide the maps for the locations that are not the next meeting. Wait ... never mind ... too unnecessary, we just have views show the first map in the list. This assumes sorting by date ascending.