Improved error message for missing settings.php file

Tagging.

This is a good improvement, we don't need to mention the INSTALL.txt here it only confuses the action part. I hope someone can finish the patch where a user doesn't have to rename anymore.

Marking this RTBC.

This looks like a nice improvement!

As long as we're touching this message, can we please link the word "INSTALL.txt" to its file?

Thanks webchick, apprently both me and catch missed the line you changed at the bottom. We probally need to talk a little bit more about it, here is a short part of IRC.

yoroy> I looked 3 times before seeing it
yoroy> The text in the red message is an improvement, the one underneath isn't
Bojhan> yoroy: I missed it to!
yoroy> this is one of the worst cases for an inline link no?
Bojhan> it takes you away from the installer, even I think - ohh it doesnt.
catch> install.txt = bad link.
yoroy> Bojhan: I mean the "refresh" action even
catch> I didn't notice that either looking at it earlier.
catch> yoroy: the refresh needs to be there to avoid completely relying on the browser no?
Bojhan> LOL
Bojhan> all three of us missed it?
catch> looks like it.
yoroy> catch: it needs to be there but having it as a simple link in the middle of the sentence is ehm sub-optimal
catch> yoroy: hah, yes true.

----
Proposed solution at University of Baltimore : instead of having it be a try-again link or anything, it beign a big button.

There you go!

Crossposted with #5. Patch in #6 adds the link as proposed in #4.
Settings back to needs work for discussion opened in #5.
And having said that, I also find INSTALL.txt a bad link, but since it's a text file it's better than a generic "Installation instructions" because then people would be surprised that they leave the site. The coolest would be a "install.html", that looks the same as Garland, and contains the text of INSTALL.txt, but I see one could argue that is overkill.

The page title already says something needs to be done. We're in the middle of an installation process, IMO that doesn't need to be repeated. That default.settings.php is a template file (which might be mistaken for a theme-related template file) doesn't seem very important either. What do you think of this?

Please fix the problems listed above and proceed with the installation.

1. Please sounds like a suggestion, where this really is a necessity.
2. If you omit the first part you have "Please proceed with the installation", which is weird, because the user should want to proceed by themselves, we shouldn't ask them to.

"fix the problems above and try again." Seriously. "proceed with installation" is just using more expensive words to say the same, it's overly formal and we're already in installation mode so no need to re-use that word here.

Ommit needles words. Especially in the interface. We shouldn't aim to be as correct or complete as possible but give only just enough information for users to make a decision.

""Please fix the problems listed above and proceed with the installation"
"Fix the problems above and try again."
"Fix these problems and try again"

Do you see how much screen space this saves us without giving any less info?

Sorry to be a pain about this but Drupal is riddled with long-winded run on sentences and we really should move away from that.

it is simply being polite

This has been my intention. It's bad enough things break down, so I figured we might as well say please to ease the pain instead of commanding the user what to do.

Sorry to be a pain about this but Drupal is riddled with long-winded run on sentences and we really should move away from that.

Np, you're right :)

Let's fix the underlying problem: #418302: Copy default.settings.php to settings.php during install IFF webserver owns files (FTP on shared hosting)

We have somebody installing d7 for the first time, stumbling over the 'proceed with installation' line in #652288: Rewording the "proceed with the installation" text on the installer's requirements page

Current text: Please fix the problems listed above and proceed with the installation.
Suggested new text: 1. Fix the problems listed above. 2. Finish the installation. (link)

In my experience, it is easier to follow instructions with numbers. Instead of the word proceed, I suggest finish or complete.

Here's a re-rolled patch to consider.

I took the patch from #19 and made some changes:
- We don't use the word please anymore.
- It's like Apple says: we don't have problems that need fixing, but issues that need to be resolved. This sounds less problematic and more flexible to me, since if someone simply forgot to copy the settings file, is that really a (big big big) problem if he can simply do so after all?
- I replaced some file names by their full file paths. We don't want people to get lost in Drupal's new file structure.
- I reworded two strings to tell users why the issues need to be fixed ("to proceed with the installation").
- I used the multiline array syntax for associative arrays to improve code readability.

#20: installer_requirements_20.patch queued for re-testing.

#6: installer_settings_text_02.patch queued for re-testing.

#19: installer_requirements_19.patch queued for re-testing.

Looking at this, there is actually a greater need for making this more consistent. There are 3 places where files or directories need to be there and where action is required to fix the issue. I've tried to express it here, but think this gets us pretty close. The language has to be close enough so that if one or more gets loaded that it all makes sense.

The translations directory does not exist.

      'description' => st('You must create a translations directory as part of the installation process. Create the directory %translations_directory and reload this page. Additional information about installing Drupal is available in the <a href="@install_txt">INSTALL.txt</a>.', array(
        '%translations_directory' => $translations_directory, 
        '@install_txt' => base_path() . 'core/INSTALL.txt'
      )),

The default settings file does not exist.

        'description' => st('You must not modify the %default-file file in any way from the original download. Restore the %default-file file and reload this page. Additional information about installing Drupal is available in the <a href="@install_txt">INSTALL.txt</a>.', array(
          '@drupal' => drupal_install_profile_distribution_name(), 
          '%default-file' => $default_settings_file, 
          '@install_txt' => base_path() . 'core/INSTALL.txt'
        )),

The settings file does not exist.

        'description' => st('You must create a settings.php file to proceed with the installation. Copy the template settings file %default_settings_file_path to %settings_file_path and reload this page. Additional information about installing Drupal is available in the <a href="@install_txt">INSTALL.txt</a>.', array(
          '%settings_file_path' => $settings_file,
          '%default_settings_file_path' => $default_settings_file,
          '@install_txt' => base_path() . 'core/INSTALL.txt'
        )),

#25: installer_requirements_25.patch queued for re-testing.

I believe this is an accurate re-roll with intent of #25.

I haven't seen anything that I've disagreed with @JacobSanford. There seem to be a few places where you've cleaned up the text a bit more. I've provided an interdiff between 25 & 28. There was a reject which I've included below:

$ cat /tmp/interdiff-1.v0yLTJ.rej
*************** function system_requirements($phase) {
*** 388,394 ****
        elseif ($phase == 'install') {
          // For the installer UI, we need different wording. 'value' will
          // be treated as version, so provide none there.
-         $description = $error . $t('An automated attempt to create this directory failed, possibly due to a permissions problem. To proceed with the installation, either create the directory and modify its permissions manually or ensure that the installer has the permissions to create it automatically. For more information, see INSTALL.txt or the <a href="@handbook_url">online handbook</a>.', array('@handbook_url' => 'http://drupal.org/server-permissions'));
          $requirements['file system']['value'] = '';
        }
        if (!empty($description)) {
--- 388,396 ----
        elseif ($phase == 'install') {
          // For the installer UI, we need different wording. 'value' will
          // be treated as version, so provide none there.
+         $description = $error . $t('An automated attempt to create this directory failed, possibly due to a permissions problem. To proceed with the installation, either create the directory and modify its permissions manually, or ensure that the installer has the permissions to create it automatically. Additional information is available in the file ./core/INSTALL.txt and in the <a href="@handbook_url">online handbook page about server permissions issues</a>.', array(
+           '@handbook_url' => 'http://drupal.org/server-permissions',
+         ));
          $requirements['file system']['value'] = '';
        }
        if (!empty($description)) {

Your code still applies nicely.

Can we drop the "You must" part? Lets try to be less bossy and just say what needs to be done:

"Create a settings.php file to proceed with the installation."

How about "You better...", "I command you to..."

Ok, good point about the bossy thing. re-rolled. Thanks for the suggestion.

Thou shalt reroll thy patch!

#31: installer-requirements-484186-31.patch queued for re-testing.

@yoroy - I'm glad that after "Thou shalt reroll thy patch!" - it was just the bot having a bad day :)

So, with the new text, what else needs to happen to be marked RTBC?

The text being changed here was removed in #524728: Refactor install.php to allow Drupal to be installed from the command line, In Drupal 7

Therefore, closing this.