install profiles

I'm trying to update Druplet.module for Drupal 6. It's a simple module that creates new Drupal sites based on install profiles using multisite. It creates a new site directory, settings.php file, and database, and then executes the chosen install profile on the site, saving the user from having to step through the installer process.

In Drupal 5 it was fairly simple to do this:

Having worked recently on install profiles with the Filmforge project and the install_profile_wizard module, I am becoming less and less confident in their effectiveness. There are three key issues that need to be adressed IMO.

First, install profiles are currently prone to failure when you have different versions of modules. Install profiles should be able to list the version (update) number of each module currently installed, in order to be able to make the necessary updates during the install.

I just tried out Drupal's installation profile feature for the first time this week and think it has a lot of potential. Using the Install Profile API and Profile Wizard, I was able to create a customized .profile in just a few hours. In the process, the following ideas occurred to me for ways that the installation profile system could be improved further:

I just wanted to point out a very important change to content_copy.module that makes it much more fasible to create CCK field programatically as part of an install profile. As of last week, the DRUPAL-5 CVS version of content_copy.module no longer ends content_copy_import_form_submit() with a drupal_goto().

Hello, all,

There have been some conversations recently about adding features into DrupalEd -- the main discussion has been around improving documentation and supporting different types of install profiles, but, IMO, there are also other areas where things can be made better.

First off, for those who are offering suggestions, thank you. Using the install and providing feedback gives us all a place of reference from which to start the discussion, and get more people contributing into DrupalEd.

From the longer post on the wiki page:

The DrupalEd project is now live on Drupal.org -- we are now ready to use the issue queue to centralize discussion on the different install profiles. In starting to discuss the profiles, I suggest we use the following format, as we will need to answer these questions as we build the various profiles.

Hi all -- hope you noticed that Dries recent call for Drupal 6 usability additions that he specifically called out an install profile.

I refactored the core profiles wiki pageto focus on an additional Quickstart profile. Please review, edit the wiki, and add your own suggestions.

I was wondering if there is a Install Profile for Social Networking Sites.

I checked it up at the Distribution profiles group and searched for "Social Networking" and found nothing. Are there any efforts in building a install profile for social networking sites? I checked up at Social Networking Sites and found nothing about installation profiles.

Has there been already an effort.

And if not a installation profile, then can we formulate a site recipe?

DrupalEd is now available for download --

The full announcement is available here --

Hi all -- so, great to see a handful of install profiles start showing up.

One thing I noticed today with the new "Drupal for Churches" (see the full list of install profiles here: http://cvs.drupal.org/viewcvs/drupal/contributions/profiles/) is that Mike P included the helper file "crud.inc".

This is a file that we put together that bundles simple functions for working with data structures in Drupal and configuring them "out of the box" for install profiles (fyi -- CRUD == Create / Read / Update / Delete).