Using Panels and Omega for layout seems redundant. Omega, Delta and Context seem to make a trifecta but it lacks support for contextual arguments in Views. When handling a ton of related data Panels is a good solution but for simpler configurations Omega, Delta and Context are a breeze. However, passing contextual information into views displays isn't consistent. The Views Default Argument From Context passes context of entity ids, user ids and taxonomy ids into a views display through the context module. For me the foundation of a website is Omega, Delta, Context and Views Default Argument.

I can't think of not using it yet nobody else uses it. I assume it's because people just don't know it's there. I just wanted to bring to everybody's attention that it exists and it solves problems that might have other been a dirty solution, i.e. evaluating PHP code stored in the database.

Comments

jlab’s picture

jlab commented

This seems like just what I have been waiting for... Can't wait to install and test this.

Panels is major pain in the but for me lately and it adds too much overhead..

welly’s picture

welly commented

I'm personally a big fan of Panels and have been using it for a while but now I think about it, you might well be correct in that it's no longer needed with this particular combination of modules and theme. My next project, I'm going to try and avoid using Panels and see how I get on. Thanks for the heads up and will certainly check out Views Default Argument from Context, which I'd never heard of before!

Adam S’s picture

Adam S commented

@welly,

You might want to look at the views node taxonomy filter. It probably a more secure way to handle taxonomy args in views.

g76’s picture

g76 commented

I love panels too, would have a hard time parting with it. ok, maybe I can't part with it:) I am curious though about everyone's input and experience so far. Has anyone found a way things work together well without overlap in functionality, or ways and reasons why they would prefer one over the other. Every site build is different, so one way may be the best for one scenerio, and the other for another. I would love to hear others experience so far though.

thanks,
Jen

Adam S’s picture

Adam S commented

This conversation is really at the core of Drupal now. It is what is driving the development of Drupal 8. see http://groups.drupal.org/wscci

There is nothing wrong with using the Context, Boxes, Omega and Delta stack which does a huge amount of what people use Panels for. An example of a recently released website that does this is maxim.com.