Patterns module
This is a first attempt to document the Patterns module in it's entirety. As such, it will be a work-in-progress until signed off by the module maintainer.
--
Senpai
If you have questions a good place to start is with the Patterns FAQ.
What is Patterns, and why do I want it?
The Patterns module allows you to define a collection of default settings for your site, and then implement them on another Drupal site with just a few clicks
How To write a Pattern
Make sure your XML is valid
Whenever you compose a Pattern, double-check it to be sure it's valid XML. HTML doesn't work when embedded inside XML tags, so be sure your XML conforms to the list of allowed tags for content types, taxonomy terms, and roles/permissions.
There are discrete sections within a Pattern
There are three primary sections within a Pattern:
- <Info>
- <Modules>
- <Actions>
Anything you wish to affect within a pattern *must* be contained within these three sections. Be aware of the intent of these three subsections as you write your pattern. If XML for setting a specific <permission> is not inside it's <Actions> section, it will simply not work and no warning will be given. This is to ensure that tags containing the settings for roles and permissions are not executed against the database during the enabling of all the needed modules. That would be a disaster, eh?
Info is for providing information about this Pattern.
Modules specifies all the modules your site will need in order to run. This tag must come prior to the Actions section.
Actions are things that Patterns module does *to* your site.
Roadmap
Some of the future plans for this module include:
An improved UI for the administrative section that will allow a user to group or daisy-chain a series of 'featureset' patterns to form a complete site, with each of the patterns being a working entity on to itself.
A series of patterns in a moderated online repository that can be downloaded directly from a pre-defined URL into a user's Drupal site and then executed to get them up and running fast.