install profiles

Botafoc.cat is a project to be focused on making a base distribution of drupal. The idea is compile the typical modules and configurations that is in vast majority sites using drupal.

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I originally posted this set of questions at http://drupal.org/node/1186524 and rewrote them once there because after reading my original post I realized that I had done a pretty poor job of creating the post. I wasn't in the best of moods when I created the first post, so I hope anyone that reads it forgives me for that.

Omega8cc suggested that I repost the questions here for discussion now that this group is open. I would have done it sooner, but I've been dealing with a pinched nerve and it's putting a "crimp" in my workflow and getting things done.

Also, since I'm reposting and re-reading, I've made some changes from what I posted at http://drupal.org/node/118652

Anyways, here is the main question at hand:
How do I create modifications to an Octopus existing platforms and install profiles?

I have BOA installed and all of the distributions are very nice, but I need to make my own modifications to them to achieve the desired results. This includes adding non-site specific modules and themes, having as many sites working off of the same code bases as possible to minimize the work required during upgrades, and I also want to be able to upgrade these distributions on my own schedule and not be dependent on the release of BOA updated scripts.

This has created several questions for me, which might in many ways be the same question being asked several different ways:

When an install profile is packaged, it contains specific versions of its modules. This total package gets a version number.

e.g. Cool Profile v1.32 = module1 v1.19 + module2 v.3.48 + module3 v0.80

I heard that to maintain the integrity of the install profiles versioning system, its individual modules don't auto-update themselves like a module you've installed yourself would. If this is true, I understand the reasoning behind this, but can someone confirm if it's indeed true?

This is a re-write of my drupal.org forum post at http://drupal.org/node/424154 . I figure it would be better discussed here.

How do I get configuration updates out to "pre-configured" sites? I'm currently using install profiles to "pre-configure" drupal sites, but they offer no way to "update" the profile on an existing site when a new version is released.

Note: My proposal has evolved to include a detailed schedule, glossary, and long brief about the reasons why my methodology is at least different, if not better than the existing ones. I have moved the content from this single page to the Package Management project page. The project home page links to the SoC Proposal with the schedule.

Old Titles for this project ordered by earliest (from these you can see 3 major aspects of the project):
Automated Drupal Software Appliance Builder

For the past several months we have been working on a D6.x recipe for a web 2.0 style business/organization website, e.g. brochureware + portal. We have been using the old copy the database method to start new sites. However, over the holidays we decided to make profile out of the recipe. We weren’t anticipating it being that difficult, but now it’s close to done. I would like to get some opinions before we launch it officially.

You can download the entire distribution here:
http://www.leveltendesign.com/l10apps/cms/download

So I agree for the most part with the idea that we don't necessarily need an install profile so much as a bunch of documentation on how to set-up a Drupal based IMC.

I'm not sure if this would be super helpful for the IMC's that have next to no tech related help, but at least if we had a set of default procedures and workflows we could utilize this in order to set-up a site for them without having to spend a lot of time deliberating over the best way to do something within drupal.

I just released an install profile for D6 core that sets up a test site for trying out all the combinations of CCK date field configurations: CCK Date Testsite. I've discovered various bugs in Signup's handling of CCK date fields (and have been fleshing out bugs and limitations in DateAPI itself with KarenS's help). I was spending a lot of time just configuring a reasonable test site to try different combinations of CCK date field types (Date, Datestamp, vs. Datetime) and timezone handling (there are 5 different ways date fields can handle timezones). So, I quickly decided the time spent automating the test site would easily save me time in the long run. And, I hope this profile will be useful to other folks working with DateAPI and CCK date fields.

I've created a custom profile with a task for submitting a form. I can't seem to get it working. The form renders and the task moves onto profile-finished but I can't call the submit hook. I've written a test version of it here.

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?