Starting a DrupalCamp Install Profile for Drupal 6

We encourage users to post events happening in the community to the community events group on https://www.drupal.org.
Chris Charlton's picture

In 2009, LA Drupal gave our DrupalCamp L.A. site code away to the world for other groups to adopt that would hopefully help spark new DrupalCamps across the world. At the time of its release we could only provide a ZIP file with the database dump and a folder of modules. Handfuls of user groups adopted our code and started to give us feedback. Up until now there has been no official documentation, instructions, or anything that would help get a new DrupalCamp site up painlessly. That is about to change.

With DrupalCamp LA 2010 coming this August it has always been a thought in the back of our minds to enhance the camp distribution intro a full-blown Drupal "distro". To celebrate that initiative I announce the beginnings of a real DrupalCamp Install Profile. At this time the profile is marked unstable and will be uploaded to Drupal.org at a later time. My goal is we'd have go through the first round of documentation to accompany the install profile before sharing this code.

Install Profile versus the ZIP file today. This install profile project is a partial effort to replace the ZIP file we released almost a year ago. Today if you wanted to build a DrupalCamp site then you still need to get the ZIP version and install the files & database manually. Once this install profile gets to version 1.0 then a new fresh site installation should be possible.

To show you what the install process look like so far please check out the screenshots below.

How To Help

We're looking for those people who have already messed with our 2009 distribution, both with and without success. We'd like to hear from you and collect your additional feedback. At this time we're focused on getting the instructions and documentation good for a public alpha release.

Screenshots
There is still a lot of work to do, so don't let the following screenshots fool you into thinking we are almost done.




AttachmentSize
drupalcamp-install-profile_1.png49.61 KB
drupalcamp-install-profile_2.png35.24 KB
drupalcamp-install-profile_3.png70.84 KB
drupalcamp-install-profile_4.png55.42 KB

Comments

Chris Charlton's picture

A friend asked me why I didn't do a Drupal 7 version instead? The key word "instead". While the release of Drupal 7 is highly anticipated, and already being tested it made sense to start a Drupal 6 Install Profile. Many people will still be adopting Drupal 6 after D7 is out, but that is not the reason. In reality a Drupal 7 version can come with very few code tweaks and once Drupal 7 is out, and after DrupalCampLA 2010 (in August), then would be the time to talk about updating the entire distro to Drupal 7.

We all have to get started somewhere, sometime. :)

Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant

I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us

Do you have a CVS account?

christefano's picture

I just created a project for this at http://drupal.org/project/drupalcamp and can add you as a contributor. Do you have a CVS account?

This work has already begun

ezra-g's picture

Hi Chrises,

It's great to see enthusiasm on this!

As you might recall from our conversations on the infrastructure list and the Local group organizer's group, work towards an install profile that can be used at DrupalCamps has already begun via the COD Support and COD projects. The majority of the work right now is happening at cod_support, which make up the core of the eventual fully-packaged COD distribution. Cod_Support uses a session scheduling approach that follows the one used in the LA profile, and is powering the DrupalCamp Colorado 2010 website.

One of the principles of the Drupal project is collaboration. It would be great for us to collaborate on this since having 2 install profiles with very similar goals seems like duplicated effort.

If there's anything I can do to help facilitate that collaboration, please let me know. It would definitely be great to asses the work on the LA code and database dump and see if there's more work we could integrate with COD :)

Maybe build on top of COD

Chris Charlton's picture

Ah, yes, I know this project. I lost touch with its status, but can see that when the COD D6 version is out then the DrupalCamp's install Profile could literally build on top of that COD Install Profile (since profiles can be chained during installation). Thankfully this isn't a duplication of efforts but another awesome Drupal moment that shows the platform can just keep going up and up.

Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant

I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us

I'm all for collaboration but

christefano's picture

I'm all for collaboration but at this point the discussion at http://drupal.org/node/782162 is centered around using Drupal 7. The DrupalCamp LA distribution is already built, so there isn't much duplication of effort. More importantly, it uses Drupal 6, which allows for a lot of end-user customization since the module ecosystem is much richer for D6 than D7 right now.

Chris, Thanks for releasing

brentratliff's picture

Chris,

Thanks for releasing last year's L.A. site, it really set the benchmark for camp sites. I'm currently adapting the L.A release for DrupalCamp Atlanta. We've made several changes including major contrib module version upgrades, a Fusion subtheme with the ported preprocess functions, and the inclusion of Ubercart. We've overcome some of the hurdles of working with a db snapshot and are willing to help out in any way. Having a proper distribution with a fresh database will offer huge advantages over working with a production site. Let me know what you need.

Give me code or give me death.

Chris Charlton's picture

Put your hands up. Gimme your code and no one gets hurt!

Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant

I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us

Stripped down and zipped,

brentratliff's picture

Stripped down and zipped, it's a little over 20MB. Where do you want me to post it?

can you post the zip to an issue?

Chris Charlton's picture

@brentratliff Can you attach the ZIP file to an issue in the DrupalCamp project? If it's too big then we'll contact you and have you commit it to our GIT repo.

Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant

I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us

Seems like there are many points of overlap

gusaus's picture

It's great to see so many people pushing this forward, yet it's unclear whats finished and what needs to be done. A year ago, when I posted something similar, it looked like this was almost complete -
http://groups.drupal.org/node/25558

If a Drupal 6 compatible version of the Conference Organizing Install Profile is currently under development it's a bit murky why there needs to be two separate projects -
http://drupal.org/project/cod
http://drupal.org/project/drupalcamp

What am I missing here?

Gus Austin

Not murky enough

Chris Charlton's picture

@Gusaus the COD install profile is only for D5. Here's an issue for a D6 update with no progress seen - http://drupal.org/node/304235

I have mentioned where the DrupalCamp profile is today and what is needed first - documentation, helpful instructions, and there are two custom modules the camp distro uses but are not shared on Drupal.org's CVS yet.

Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant

I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us

Consensus

DevElCuy's picture

@Chris, I think that collaboration is one of the highest principles we follow in Drupal community, your distribution is already done but what about transforming this into a worldwide community project? lets have a meeting with cod guys and get consensus. Also, in Peru we are going to have 3 other camps this year, so we are interested on contributing to a project like this, but first I need to know which is the final place to contribute, please coordinate and let us know.

--
[develCuy](http://steemit.com/@develcuy) on steemit

re: Consensus

Chris Charlton's picture

@develCuy - The distro is not done. Far from it. The Install Profile I show is a work in progress. Someone has to start a project. It seems COD is targeting D7, I need to confirm that. Some folks may ask why I built this on D6 is because there's tons of people who use D6 and will continue to run D6 for a long time. Since install profiles can be chained together, when COD has a profile to share then the DrupalCamp profile can get a 2.0 update to build on top of COD.

At this time the contribution we need for this DrupalCamp profile is instructions and documentation that would be included in a help module so people can contribute to the docs. We will need help with translations of course, too.

Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant

I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us

COD is Drupal 6

ezra-g's picture

Cod_support development is all Drupal 6. We've got a dev release and I will roll an alpha soon.

D7 was merely a suggestion by Crell in the infrastructure thread. Not the focus of discussion or development.

In any case, I don't see why we'd need a different project for compatibility with each core version.

To answer your question @gusaus, install profiles cannot include modules within the same project, hence the two project. Also, having cod_support allows folks to just chose the key modules without using the whole profile if they wish to.

COD D6

Chris Charlton's picture

Excellent! I will dig my teeth into that COD alpha when ready.

Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant

I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us

Just to make sure I'm not misunderstanding....

gusaus's picture

@Ezra - so you don't see why we'd need both of these projects?
http://drupal.org/project/cod
http://drupal.org/project/drupalcamp

I actually was wondering the same thing, and believe you were explaining to me why these need to be separate?
http://drupal.org/project/cod
http://drupal.org/project/cod_support

Just to make sure I'm not misunderstanding....

Gus Austin

Correct -- drupalcamp seems

ezra-g's picture

Correct -- drupalcamp seems redundant. I was explaining why the cod_support modules exist in addition to the cod profile.

Using this install profile for DrupalCamp Miami

iribarne's picture

We plan on having a DrupalCamp in Miami, hopefully November 2010. I will suggest using this DrupalCamp install profile to the Miami organization committee. This installation profile will make it much easier for other cities to have their own DrupalCamps.

  • Hector

Any reason then not to consolidate projects?

gusaus's picture

So Ezra, the maintainer of the COD project, is essentially pointing out the goals of the Conference Organizing Distribution have not changed....

From the project page - http://drupal.org/project/cod

The goal of this install profile is to make it easy to organize conferences through a website. We hope that this profile can to improve the efficiency of setting up a powerful website for Drupal-related events such as DrupalCamps and non-Drupal events alike.

For what it's worth, a deliverable of the completed Drupal Dojo site will be an customizable installation profile. Rather then create a Drupal Dojo or virtual event installation profile, it makes sense on our part to make a contribution to a complimentary project with a similar use case. IF we all can develop within the framework of one d.o. project, that should open some resources to leverage the Dojo and Drupal Kata (our homegrown project-based learning program) to get the word out and others involved.

...is there really any reason not to consolidate projects and focus our collaboration here? http://drupal.org/project/cod

Gus Austin

Chris Charlton's picture

Distributions and install profiles will always have overlap, its the nature of the software. While I can understand how people see a DrupalCamp distro as redundant to COD, I'd like to still pursue a branded version for DrupalCamps. The COD does not seem to have any mention of targeted documentation that would be included to help event organizers get moving with their site once it is installed. People install a distro and sit there asking, "Okay. Now what?!" The DrupalCamp distro has always planned on targeting this issue. People need this. So the question should not be about consolidation but getting both projects more contributors.

I would like us to shift the conversation back, away from if or not this is a redundant project. Because its not. Anyone helping with either project gets all of us one step closer to a better solution than BYOD (build your own Drupal).

Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant

I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us

Great time for a meeting

DevElCuy's picture

I agree with you Chris, what about having a meeting with COD guys about what you both want to get done a how both projects can collaborate and overlap as less as posible? I have availability Mon to Fri, just let me know and I'll be there, skype preferably.

--
[develCuy](http://steemit.com/@develcuy) on steemit

Add camp specific functionality with Features

brentratliff's picture

I have another suggestion. Chris, instead of me posting my updated db dump, I can export all the DrupalCamp specific pieces to Features that can be added to any Drupal site, including the COD profile. Trying to modify existing db's is tough and may not be the best interim fix until an installation profile is ready. I prefer to push everything to code for version control, portability, and flexibility. All the views, content types, and node settings can be exported. That pretty much covers everything except a few theme functions that can be included as a Camp theme in the COD profile and some items that can be cleaned up with Strongarm.
.

Building as features make sense

Boris Mann's picture

Yes, it makes complete sense to build this as features. Looking at the COD listing, there are very few times that I need ALL of those things, so a Features-centric approach makes the most sense.

Especially pieces like registration are done in different ways -- for instance, I always use Eventbrite for registration, so I'm looking at an expanded Eventbrite module / feature.

Also, sure, consensus -- but also Darwinism. Go forth and make awesomeness, and we'll collaborate and re-use at the module and feature level.

Time to start working on it!

DevElCuy's picture

After being evaluating the feedback I have requested to be co-maintainer of project drupalcamp, please take a look at: http://drupal.org/node/822818

--
[develCuy](http://steemit.com/@develcuy) on steemit

co-maintainers!

christefano's picture

I've added you as a co-maintainer. We'll add Chris Charlton when his CVS application is accepted.

Do you guys still want me to

brentratliff's picture

Do you guys still want me to post the updated zip file with codebase/db updates and the anonymous user (UID 0) fixed, or just start exporting the different pieces to features? I'll attach the Fusion subtheme with the preprocess functions for voting to the issue queue.

Sure. If you post a link or

christefano's picture

Sure. If you post a link or contact me directly, I'll make the zip file available to download on drupalcampla.com site and update the old camp site announcement.

Couldn't we streamline this a bit?

gusaus's picture

We have multiple projects/groups already -
http://drupal.org/project/cod
http://groups.drupal.org/conference-organizing-distribution
http://drupal.org/project/drupalcamp

Now we're going to scatter code on external sites? Sorry, I don't see how this simplifies things for collaborators.

Gus Austin

As long as the DrupalCamp LA

christefano's picture

As long as the DrupalCamp LA camp site is available for download, it should be a working download that includes brentratliff's fixes. We're moving to using Drupal.org for the development and hosting for the download, but we can't do much until everyone has CVS access (see http://drupal.org/node/815310).

gusaus's picture

I understand the reasoning to differentiate from a documentation, branding, and marketing perspective. Seems like that can/will happen on relevant places on g.d.o., d.o., LA Drupal and beyond. Not sure I see any benefits for very similar code to reside on multiple projects.

Gus Austin

Unsuccessful

NancyDru's picture

I tried the 2009 version last summer and was unsuccessful. I suspect two main reasons why that was: 1) the modules were ut of date, so I updated them, and 2) I was doing this for something other than a DrupalCamp, but very similar and I tried to make those changes at the same time.

I really look forward to the new approach and hope I can make good use of it.

Now you kids get your heads together and collaborate so we can have a top-notch distro here real soon.

Well said @NancyDru!!

DevElCuy's picture

Well said @NancyDru!!

--
[develCuy](http://steemit.com/@develcuy) on steemit

Ready for a first meeting

DevElCuy's picture

I would like to have a meeting with people interested in this project, more details in the issue queue http://drupal.org/node/823912

--
[develCuy](http://steemit.com/@develcuy) on steemit

An updates on this?

gusaus's picture

I missed DrupalCampLA a few months ago, so not sure what the latest thought is on this. From the looks of the project space, possibly it would help to focus resources on the COD profile?

Combining those, I think, would make for the ultimate camp/con/event site!

Gus Austin

sub.

tazus's picture

wait for the profile

Drupal Event Organization

Group organizers

Group categories

Event type

Group notifications

This group offers an RSS feed. Or subscribe to these personalized, sitewide feeds: