Should there be a MySite for Drupal 6

agentrickard - February 19, 2008 - 00:18
Project:MySite
Version:HEAD
Component:Miscellaneous
Category:task
Priority:minor
Assigned:Unassigned
Status:closed
Description

So, just after I answered another question about the future of the module, I got more deeply involved in the discussion here: What are the future plans for integration of Panels and MySite modules?.

To quote myself:

For Drupal 6, it looks like Panels is the next step towards some unified data API tools that we need. Trying to compete with that momentum doesn't really advance what I'm trying to accomplish.

So, I'm thinking that the best route for MySite in Drupal 6 is as follows:

-- Replace the MySite API (the backend data structure) with Panels.
-- Work on porting Panels -- particularly in making richer data available.
-- Work on Panels Profiles (if needed) -- perhaps by integrating the MySite Icons module.
-- If needed, create a MySite module that fills the gaps that other modules leave behind.
-- Create an update process that lets MySite 5.x users seamlessly upgrade to the new version of whatever the tool is.

Now's the time, MySite users. What do you think we should do for Drupal 6?

#1

ajayg - March 15, 2008 - 05:34

I am still evaluation mode (was testing 3.0 Beta). There is certainly some overlap betwwen panels and mysite. But the overlap is not big enough to completely discontinue mysite.

-- Replace the MySite API (the backend data structure) with Panels.

Does this mean making mysite content available to panels? And all mysite plugins to work inside panel?
If yes then that would be the right thing to do.

#2

agentrickard - March 15, 2008 - 15:21

-- Replace the MySite API (the backend data structure) with Panels.

Means the use the Panels APIs in place of the MySite APIs. It would have the effect of making all mySite content available to Panels and vice versa.

#3

ajayg - March 15, 2008 - 16:03

One smart thing you did for mysite is to provide support for gadgets. That opened up the whole new world of non-drupal centric components (gadgets) content. I would vote for that feature be made available as well with panels (panels supporting gadgets)

#4

agentrickard - March 15, 2008 - 18:21

That is the plan. The idea is to merge the feature sets of the two on the backend -- allowing content, themes, layouts, and styles to be defined through a single API. Then we'd layer different function "front-end" solutions on top.

#5

bfr23 - March 28, 2008 - 01:36
Component:Code» Miscellaneous
Category:support request» task
Priority:critical» minor

A newbie to Drupal and just saw mysite and am very impressed with it. Installed Drupal 6, so cannot use panels or mysite, but wishing that I could. After seeing mysite and reading about it, it seems amazing.

#6

kankan - March 28, 2008 - 06:54

Hello. I saw the test of mysite for d6. Bright future for the mysite. Any clue on the current status of it? I would love to give a hand in the rapid development of it.

#7

agentrickard - March 28, 2008 - 13:17

@kankan

You could start writing patches against HEAD. I'm thinking about doing a straight port before diving into Panels integration.

Problem is, jQuery Interface will need to be replaced by jQuery UI.

#8

Yukiko - April 15, 2008 - 08:05

I confess my knowledge of PHP coding is less than my knowledge of Latin. All I know in Latin is "Carpe' Dium" and I don't even think I spelled that right but I vote for MySite in Drupal 6. I started with Drupal 5.1 I think and have recently upgraded to D6 without looking to see if the modules I had installed under D5 were D6 compatible. I was disappointed to find that there wasn't a MySite for D6. I even tried to kluge it in as they say but the Drupal developers have taken steps to protect us from ourselves and not allow that. I suppose that's for the best but some of us like to take risks.
*grins*
Especially if there's something we really like and I like MySite!

I tried to read the thread explaining the various reasons and discussions regarding the pros and cons of integrating MySite and Panels but alas since I am not a coder of PHP, js or SQL I didn't get much out of it. I haven't used Panels so I can't say much there except that it seems like, judging from the discussion, that integrating the two into one module might take longer than getting MySite and Panels D6 compatible individually and, well, I'm really anxious to have MySite available on D6.

Thanks for the opportunity to toss my opinion out there.

#9

robhamm - April 24, 2008 - 06:11
Title:MySite in Drupal 6 -- opinions wanted» +1 for a 6.x version of MySite

I am developing a site in Drupal 5.7 for which I would love to use MySite, but have been holding off using it for production until I know if I'll be able to upgrade to Drupal 6.x and still use it. I think using Panels as the back end would be brilliant, but a straight-up port would be great, as well, especially if one could start with the regular port and then switch over to using Panels as the back end.

#10

agentrickard - April 25, 2008 - 00:46
Title:+1 for a 6.x version of MySite» Should there be a MySite for Drupal 6

The problem with the port is that all the JQuery parts need to be rewritten -- and that is not a trivial task. This seems like a big waste to me, since Panels will provide that library.

The plan is to provide an upgrade path from MySite 5.x to Panels [name of module] 6.x.

#11

ajayg - April 25, 2008 - 04:18

Just curious which features of Jquery? If it is just drag and drop, it may not be that critical to users. If it degrades gracefully without javascript, I am wondering is jquery part is that important. In other words if 6.x post is available some users may be ok without jquery fancy stuff.

#12

khan_lko - April 30, 2008 - 04:17

Subscribing

#13

agentrickard - April 30, 2008 - 13:19

Well, without the jQuery elements, the 4.x version got almost no usage. It is the drag-and-drop that makes the module attractive to most users.

#14

pjb - May 4, 2008 - 14:27

subscribing

#15

batje - May 12, 2008 - 18:30

subscribing

#16

webchick - May 28, 2008 - 06:51

http://drupal.org/project/jquery_ui could also be an option for the JS stuff.

#17

agentrickard - May 28, 2008 - 13:21

Yup, hooray!

#18

Eckengucker - June 23, 2008 - 15:07

subscribing

Hi,

first of all: i'm a noobie in Drupal.
When i've read the description yesterday, i was really amazed about the possibilities of this plugin.
I'm using jquery already in a different CMS but i looked hard for the functions the plugin have.

I would really appreciate, if MySite can be rewritten for using it in Drupal 6! or Drupal 7 ;)

#19

valthebald - July 8, 2008 - 07:30

Although integration of modules with similar functionality is a great idea, I found no mentioning of plans to adapt panels 2 to D6. Am I right?

#20

agentrickard - July 8, 2008 - 18:02

Once Panels 2 is stable, it will be ported.

See http://drupal.org/node/223994

#21

thomas23@drupal.org - July 25, 2008 - 00:12

subscribing

#22

electricmonk - July 27, 2008 - 11:10

+subscribing

We really need MySite functionality in 6.0, and might end up having to port the existing 5.x version on our own if nothing is produced by the community by the time we get to developing this part of the website...

#23

darius123 - August 8, 2008 - 21:25

Get it out ASAP (like last week :P). My company is becoming more and more dependent on mysite in many of our large sites, and while i understand it's still under development, having a version that worked with drupal 6 at this current moment would make many mysite fans say - hurray! =D

#24

ajayg - August 9, 2008 - 21:51

@darius123, Not trying to be a preacher here. But if your company is dependent on mysite for large sites, why not submit patches to make it move faster towards 6.x? Or create a bountry for attracting more developers?

#25

darius123 - September 4, 2008 - 22:02

^not my call really, I'm just an eager fan cheering this module on! ^^

#26

agentrickard - September 4, 2008 - 23:09

I smply don't have time right now, and have been patiently waiting for Panels 2 to hit D6.

If you want to talk about professional upgrades, send a note using the contact form at http://www.palantir.net

#27

valthebald - September 7, 2008 - 17:55

If you say that you'd have no time to port, I'd like to help you. What's the current status of port?

#28

agentrickard - September 7, 2008 - 18:10

There are no plans for a straight port. The plan is for a new module that leverages the Panels API and includes an upgrade path from MySite v5.

#29

valthebald - September 8, 2008 - 16:17

fine, then I ask it different: if there are any time estimations regarding launch of Panels API for D6? Of course, if you know. If yes - can you estimate how much time will it take to make this new module? I really can't find who's aware of the situation :(

#30

webchick - September 8, 2008 - 16:34

Like with everything in Drupal, how long it takes to get something done depends on how many people help out. If you're interested in this coming to fruition faster, and you're interested in helping (which it sounds like both are true :)), then probably the best option is to help out by finding and fixing bugs in the Panels queue against the 6.x-2.x-dev version. The sooner Panels gets stable, the sooner other modules (such as MySite) can begin leveraging it.

#31

valthebald - September 9, 2008 - 16:19

yeah, I'm already set to get panels 2 alpha on my home pc. Thanks for advice :)

#32

archer007 - September 12, 2008 - 02:01

I think a MySite for Drupal6 and Panels handling the back-end would be ideal.

#33

UnderDesign - September 12, 2008 - 16:40

Yep, me too +1

#34

wxman - September 20, 2008 - 16:50

I've been driving myself nuts trying to make a similar thing using the alpha panels release. MySite would be perfect for what I'm making in Drupal 6.

#35

dydecker - September 23, 2008 - 00:15

+1 for MySite for users & Panels for admin ;)

#36

agentrickard - September 23, 2008 - 13:35

My current concept is Panels Collections, which define different CRUD rules for different panel sets -- and leverage different user interfaces.

The default Panels is "Panels Admin" collection. The current OG Panels is an example of another collection.

#37

bigorsmail - October 4, 2008 - 04:56

subscribing
I think MySite should be someday a core drupal module
+1

#38

Ek0 - October 11, 2008 - 15:45

+1
I can't wait to use MySite on Drupal 6 !

#39

kenorb - October 20, 2008 - 09:14

subscribing

#40

Flying Drupalist - October 29, 2008 - 00:57

subscribe

#41

g76 - November 3, 2008 - 14:51

+1 for agentrickard's plan, comment #38. Love mysite on D5, would love to see it's capabilities in d6. Love panels for both. Integrating the two, especially with panels new contexts feature(still working out bugs, but will be awesome) would be incredible. Also, we are anxiously awaiting og_panels port to D6.

Love mysite and really appreciate all your hard work and incredible vision. thank you!

#42

hanen - November 15, 2008 - 19:10

Yes it is a great if the version for Drupal6 comes soon. I also cant wait to see it.

#43

hanen - November 15, 2008 - 19:10

Yes it is a great if the version for Drupal6 comes soon. I also cant wait to see it.

#44

timmillwood - December 17, 2008 - 10:10

subscribing

Wish I had the time to help. I will need to use this module in the next 6 months, so hope it's ported by then. If not I will have to find the time to help.

#45

agentrickard - December 17, 2008 - 14:43

Highly unlikely that it will be ported in that time. I am simply too busy, and there are other solutions in the works.

#46

timmillwood - December 17, 2008 - 16:19

I'm wondering if something will be built for the Drupal.org Dashboard (http://drupal.markboultondesign.com/iteration11/dashboard.html)

#47

ajayg - December 17, 2008 - 17:02

@agentrickard I was under the impression that there were other modules (like panels etc) that were in the works that would ultimately help to port mysite to 6.x. (In the sense mysite depended on them). But if there are solutions which may be replacement for mysite I am not aware. Could you please kindly provide any pointers you may have about those solution?

#48

Michelle - December 17, 2008 - 19:21

My guess is he's talking about the work sdboyer and I will be doing to create a user profile / homepage / edit page combined entity. It's only in the planning stages so far and needs panels to stabalize before it can move forward.

Michelle

#49

agentrickard - December 17, 2008 - 20:39

Michelle is right, and Panels 2 has been the stumbling block all along.

I simply don't have the time to devote to either a straight port (which is 80-120 hours) or to integrate with Panels 2 for D6 (unknown time).

So if you have a dependency for a D6 version of this functionality inside 6 months, you either a) need to start planning something else now; b) hire us to port it for you (but I am not free until after DrupalCON DC).

#50

timmillwood - December 18, 2008 - 08:28

Maybe I will just follow Michelle around to see what she come up with?

I don't *NEED* this, it is just a "nice to have" from the customer, that the users can customise their homepage.

I would love to port it and help out, but don't yet have the time.

#51

nickbits - January 23, 2009 - 19:15

Subscribing

#52

egger - February 7, 2009 - 00:34

subcribing

#53

SektorZ - April 1, 2009 - 17:46

Yes, there should be, please consider! Subscribing.

#54

SamRose - April 2, 2009 - 15:25

Porting this forward to Drupal 6 as a standalone module is not an impossible task in and of itself. I'll be working on it this afternoon! :-)

#55

agentrickard - April 2, 2009 - 15:53

It's going to take more than an afternoon, especially if you introduce jQuery UI -- which you should.

The current plan, BTW, is to merge with the new Dashboard for d.o.

http://drupal.org/project/dashboard

This way, we get to leverage community talents and the Mark Boulton design work.

#56

Michelle - April 2, 2009 - 16:50

@agentrickard: Oh, nice. I've been eyeing up that dashboard since he took over the namespace. Looks like just what I need on my site.

Michelle

#57

agentrickard - April 2, 2009 - 17:31

drumm and I spent some time at DCDC talking about it. I would be going to the upcoming d.o. code sprint in SF, but cannot make the time.

The Dashboard integration will give us the most robust implementation, I'm sure. For instance, we would have a hook_dashboard(), which allows a module to 'register' a dashboard implementation at a specific path, with specific access rules. (This hook will look a lot like hook_menu, in fact).

The default implementations would be for 'user' and 'preset', enabling a dashboard at the path 'user/UID/dashboard' that is user-specific, and one at 'admin/content/dashboard/PRESET_ID' which would allow for the creation of 'default' content sets for use by other dashboards.

This kind of flexibility will allow for multiple modules to implement dashboards for different purposes, and with different rules for CRUD on pages.

The good news, for me, is that drumm and bevan are working on most of the user-facing code and design, so I can work on the admin and data backend. This will give us a much better JS implementation.

#58

SamRose - April 2, 2009 - 17:50

@agentrickard It will definitely take more than an afternoon! Turns out that client does not want this anyway, so I stopped partway through. I am glad you popped back in and helped us understand where you are going with this.

Dashboard looks nice! Is there a space where we can contribute to this, or is it too early?

#59

SamRose - April 2, 2009 - 17:54

Wait, this is reviving the old dashboard module? Huh, interesting...

#60

Michelle - April 2, 2009 - 18:02

Not really... They just took over the namespace since the 4.7 dashboard module was dead anyway.

Michelle

#61

bit7 - April 7, 2009 - 15:17

+1

#62

NathanRAFT - April 19, 2009 - 00:56

Subscribing

#63

jadvies - April 21, 2009 - 15:55

Can anyone give some hints at how to contribute to this port to Drupal 6 of the Mysite module? I have more than 8 years experience with writing PHP and Javascript code. Maybe if I know where I can contribute I can help port this module asap. I need something similar for a project I am doing. SO, holla!

#64

agentrickard - April 21, 2009 - 20:23

#65

Summit - May 8, 2009 - 13:23

Panels 3, using ctools (http://drupal.org/project/ctools) looks promissing also!
greetings, Martijn

#66

Michelle - May 8, 2009 - 13:26

@Summit: Did you read #55?

Michelle

#67

agentrickard - May 8, 2009 - 15:03

Dashboard is planning to use CTools.

#68

Summit - May 9, 2009 - 10:22

Great! I am looking forward to a ctools/dashboard solution with mysite where I can let the users register through content_profile and then with domains have their own domain, and then using mysite to have different widgets popping up on their pages.
greetings, Martijn

#69

agentrickard - May 9, 2009 - 19:54

No. The Dashboard module replaces MySite in Drupal 6. Dashboard leverages CTools.

#70

najibx - June 1, 2009 - 15:41

what's your comment on http://drupal.org/project/homebox?

#71

agentrickard - June 1, 2009 - 15:53

That people who don't collaborate really suck. We need resources for the d.o. redesign, and that project just plain ignores the community -- which is funny because its running on DrupalCON Paris.

It looks like a quick and dirty solution to a simple problem, not a global solution.

I wonder if it can replace Dashboard in any way, or if any of the code is re-usable.

#72

Michelle - June 1, 2009 - 16:02

I looked at it some time ago and saw that it could only place Drupal blocks. The Dashboard project sounds much more useful.

And, yeah, the first thing I thought of was that it sucked that they didn't collaborate on Dashboard.

Michelle

#73

entr3p - June 11, 2009 - 02:02

MySite would be a great addition to a site I'm currently working on. :)

#74

agentrickard - June 11, 2009 - 13:50

@entr3p

If you want to send me a message, I can give you a time and cost estimate for finishing the Dashboard port.

But it is a rather large number.

#75

gte451f - June 26, 2009 - 14:42

Here comes another project with similar goals....

http://drupal.org/project/userdashboard

#76

agentrickard - June 26, 2009 - 14:47

That one, I am going to go yell at.

#503082: Stop duplicating effort

#77

ajayg - June 26, 2009 - 18:27

@agentrickard
I would argue there is a need for some clear communication on mysite project page that although it is not getting upgraded to 6.x in the current name, dashboard module is its successor and being actively worked on and need help. I have seen some messages because some developer thought since mysite is not getting upgraded they need to do something and rolled out their own solution.

#78

agentrickard - June 26, 2009 - 18:34
Status:active» closed

Done.

 
 

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