DrupalCon Barcelona 2007

Posted by lucidvein on September 20, 2007 at 8:01am

Here are some notes from the sessions we have been attending at DrupalCon:Barcelona.

It's been a mildly warm and slightly humid week, but otherwise very similar to Seattle with ever changing weather patterns and random drops of rain.

Comments

OpenID

Posted by lucidvein on September 20, 2007 at 9:37am

James Walkah presented OpenID and what it means now that it has been integrated into Drupal 6 core.

OpenID will work with identity brokers to provide single sign-on across multiple sites. You can also run your own OpenID Server or OpenID URL. The broker can offer password, certificate or two factor authentication. Be sure to read and verify the privacy policy.

Attribute Exchange will allow for the release and request of profile data, such as verified email address or userid. The data is stored and distributed using key value pairs. These keys can also be accessed via URL to query data.

Attack vectors: Phishing and DNS Poisoning pose serious threats but mitigated by verifying the URL and using trusted DNS.

List of OpenID providers: http://openid.net/wiki/index.php/Public_OpenID_providers

Drupalcon Session: The Future of Nodes

Posted by robeano on September 20, 2007 at 6:54pm

I took some notes during this interesting talk/group discussion about nodes. It focused on improving Drupal by either opening up what is a node vs. starting with a new base class which all important entities could extend:

The Future of Nodes

solving some of the problems of the node system

not a total rewrite

get together and brainstorm problems and solve them in the future

hitting some fundamental issues:

Building 
it's a free for all
can have data collisions because any module can add on more vars to the node once it's built
you could change the node type - very bad

Rendering
not enough control of the html
only two modes: teaser and full, but there could be more (like front page, listing mode)
really only meant to output html - other formats like an array, xml, json are not easily obtained

Extending
custom node, extending existing node types, and extending cck node types
seems like their pros and cons to each and it seems inconsistent

Pitfalls to change
mucking about isn't good enough
look at fundamental core improvements, not just some refactoring and moving things around
performance is an issue
converting to a new node system is a lot of work

Brainstorming - group participation
What is a node?
    a group of fields with properties
    start with data model vs. layout like views ui or wdb?
    but cck doesn't have an api
    Some interesting drupal.org nodes:  118345 113345
    if we could get more cck into core, then it's easier to do user profiles as nodes (then you get views of users)
    comments as nodes?
    cache node data
    taxonomy as nodes?  really seems like more of a property not a node (others agreed with this answer)
    nodes are content users make
    data api patch - everything is the same thing - anything that can stand on its own (even if it doesn't normally)
    we have lots of different objects but a nice base class could pull it together
    comments as nodes - there's usability issues as well as overhead/performance issues

game plan (maybe)
    supporting some first class data thingy for images, content, etc. in the data api layer make things easier than making everything a node
    separating how we build CCK fields I think to make it easier to add b/c right now you have to
    some modules are pure api or just a cck field, although they are modules it might be better to group them separately from admin/settings/modules
    using the same building blocks at the base level which should take care of most user needs

    consider moving widgets out of CCK and into form api?

    lazy loading is possibility for increasing node performance

    maybe a registration system where nodes know what they own

    ontology with W3C? standards defined by w3c, prodigy is an example?

    modules that require other modules (like a tiny profile e.g. an image gallery) and just some configuration are going to become more important

Robin

Thanks for the Notes!

Posted by lauramba-gdo on September 20, 2007 at 11:11pm

Thanks for the notes Robin. Gracias!
lauramba!

"Life is a fast strange trip, good thing we all have seats" (author unknown)

RESTful Nodes?

Posted by jdwalling on September 21, 2007 at 6:35pm

Any discussion about making nodes RESTful? I spent a few hours reading RESTful Web Services (ISBN 0-596-52926-0) yesterday and I got the bug.

Future of Nodes Quotes

Posted by lucidvein on September 22, 2007 at 1:47am

Nodes allow us to treat all kinds of content in the same way.

Currently only meant to output HTML with no way to output other formats simply. Need to natively support multiple format output.

A large amount of users are developing with CCK & Views. They are very important, but not part of core. Rather than bolt on, we should v]build sensivly onto the node system. Refactor everything to work well, but not change Node API to much...

Nodes are a collection of fields with properites.

There is no real CCK API.

Nodes are content that users make. "Thingies" with properties or fields that can stand alone.

Views 2 in Drupal 6 will create tables of any data, not just nodes. Does this change the "everything is a node" movement?

thanks all

Posted by jfulton on September 20, 2007 at 7:35pm

thanks for the notes for all of us who couldn't make the trip. Keep it up and enjoy Barcelona.

Help polish and release Drupal 6

Posted by lucidvein on September 22, 2007 at 1:33am

Drupal 6 Release Help
Log in to drupal.org and enable the Contributor Links checkbox under your account profile.

Pending bugs are the first line of incoming issues.

Pick a bug, start at the end of the queue to quickly take out non relative bugs.

Follow up to add information to the bug

Set Issue Information: Category, Priority, Status

Many bugs are simple errors or clarifications; sometimes just a need for documentation. More difficult bugs will require testing the interface or reviewing and submitting patched code.