Initial port to Drupal 7

Absolutely. KarenS and I will probably put togeter a D7 branch after a couple of new D6 changes land (including a CCK field for SimpleViews) then open the D7 branch starting with this patch. Thank you!

Here's an updated patch that chases the latest D7 codebase. Changes (as can be seen from the attached interdiff file):

• Now using hook_permission() correctly.
• Updated for recent changes to hook_theme() and theme() function calls.
• Updated to use the D7 database API correctly, without the backwards-compatibility layer.
• Updated for recent changes to the form API which now require functions that define forms to take $form as their first parameter.
• A couple minor D7 code style fixes.

Not done in this patch, but worth thinking about:

• It seems like the "Add view" link should probably be moved from a MENU_LOCAL_TASK to a MENU_LOCAL_ACTION to conform to D7 guidelines?

By the way... I noticed that all the patches so far in this issue (including mine) have been rolled against HEAD - but it looks like the latest code for this module is actually on the DRUPAL-6--1 branch. Is that the code from which the D7 port should actually start?

The DRUPAL-6--1 branch is where most of the minor bug-fix work has been going on, but I can check to see if they've gotten too badly out of sync. Now that Views 7.x-3.x is in CVS, I'm not sure about the value of putting in hooks for alternate query builders. I'd much rather focus on using SimpleViews to provide clean, no-questions-asked ways of exposing Views functionality, as opposed to creating another meta-layer with its own way of describing certain abstract problems...

I noticed that the current beta of DrupalGardens.com, which runs on Drupal 7 alpha 1 has SimpleViews installed. However I do not see a build of SimpleViews for Drupal 7 on Drupal.org. Have I missed the build somewhere?

Subscribing...

@gabor: what version is that patch for? It doesn't apply cleanly to 1.0 nor a DRUPAL-6--1 checkout (at least not anymore) =)

It does look like all the action is on the branch, so I'm attaching a patch that should apply to a DRUPAL-6--1 checkout.

Very cool..subscribing.

sub

+

Subscribing.

I tried applying the patch from #21 to the latest DEV release, but there was an error:

patching file simpleviews.css
patching file simpleviews.info
Hunk #1 FAILED at 1.
1 out of 1 hunk FAILED -- saving rejects to file simpleviews.info.rej
patching file simpleviews.install
patching file simpleviews.js
patching file simpleviews.module
patching file simpleviews.pages.inc
patching file simpleviews.views_default.inc

Here's the simpleviews.info.rej:

***************
*** 1,6 ****
  ; $Id: simpleviews.info,v 1.3.2.1 2009/09/17 22:03:44 eaton Exp $
  name = SimpleViews
  description = An easy-to-use tool for bulding content listing pages.
- dependencies[] = views
- core = 6.x
- package = Views--- 1,8 ----
  ; $Id: simpleviews.info,v 1.3.2.1 2009/09/17 22:03:44 eaton Exp $
  name = SimpleViews
  description = An easy-to-use tool for bulding content listing pages.
+ core = 7.x
+ files[] = simpleviews.module
+ files[] = simpleviews.install
+ files[] = simpleviews.pages.inc
+ files[] = simpleviews.views_default.inc

It seemed pretty straightforward, so I tried patching simpleviews.info manually:

; $Id: simpleviews.info,v 1.3.2.1 2009/09/17 22:03:44 eaton Exp $
name = SimpleViews
description = An easy-to-use tool for bulding content listing pages.
core = 7.x
version = "6.x-1.x-dev"
project = "simpleviews"
datestamp = "1278835678"
files[] = simpleviews.module
files[] = simpleviews.install
files[] = simpleviews.pages.inc
files[] = simpleviews.views_default.inc

I tried adding a simpleview and got an error involving an invalid argument in common.inc (sorry I don't remember it and I can't recreate it). I created a very simple simpleview showing only a particular content type in teaser view and set the path to 'test'. If I go to /test, I get a page not found. I tried creating another simpleview and I don't get the error, but I still end up with page not found.

In an attempt to further troubleshoot I installed views (and ctools) and tried again (disabled and re-enabled simpleviews, created a new simpleview, etc) with the same results. I looked for the simpleview in the list of views, but it doesn't show up.

Anything I can do to fix this or help make it work for others?

Gabor,

Could you share some of the design docs or specs for this effort you mentioned? Or is there a drupal issue thread where this work is taking place? Would be helpful to know how this is relevant to other folks's needs for a simplified views interface.

We are currently working on a simplified user interface for views itself (to be built into views), so we don't currently have long term plans with simpleviews module. Our repository for that work is at https://github.com/ksenzee/views3ui

Now that I'm back into the swing of working with my contrib modules, and Views has been ported, I'm going to be able to give this another pass as well. I think over the long haul it'll still be a nice compliment to the work you guys are now doing on an improved Views interface. Thanks for the update!

Hasn't Simpleviews already been ported to D7 in Drupal Gardens?

There is a UI page that looks very similar to Gabor's original screenshot at the top of this page.

Also, there is a "Simple Views" link on the Structure overlay, and you can add a new view at:

http://username.drupalgardens.com/admin/structure/simpleviews/add

So, isn't this a duplication of effort?

Or, is Acquia not making their port available as a contrib module?

@mcaudy, there is no duplication of effort - this is the effort :) The code that was written for Drupal Gardens is what you're seeing posted in this issue.

If you're actually asking about the backend query builder (rather than the SimpleViews UI), you might want to read Gábor's post at http://acquia.com/blog/simpleviews-drupal-7-how-we-did-it :

I believe that there is no point in publishing our current backend module on drupal.org given its interim nature, but that does not make it closed source or unreleased. Any Gardens site that is exported will include a copy of this module, and it is released under the GPL.

If you believe there's value in having it be a module on drupal.org and are interested in maintaining it, feel free to post it as such. But the custom query builder was written to fill a short term need, and it's not likely to be very useful in the long term compared to the Views backend itself.

So, isn't this a duplication of effort?

Or, is Acquia not making their port available as a contrib module?

Early on Gabor offered the alternate query backend as a feature for SimpleViews here on d.o. If there's a fault to be found that it isn't part of the module it's with me, not Gabor or Acquia. ;-) The reasons for not including it are twofold. First, SimpleViews was written as a simplified front end to common Views functionality, start-to-finish. It piggybacks on the work Views does not just in query generation but also in theming and presentation.

SimpleViews is also limited in that it only exposes things that are relatively easy to do with Views -- I believe that if we're interested in providing a turnkey 'make simple lists of things without customizing them' module, it's better to build it on its own rather than piggybacking on the Views-oriented codebase of SimpleViews. Acquia is now focusing on improving the full-featured Views UI, and is putting a lot of resources into that in conjunction with Earl Miles. I think everybody wins in that situation.

I think simpleviews is a good module for small sites that does not require Views module. So custom (probably exportable) query builder is enough for core's entity_query()

Suppose this module will not have Views as dependency

Is there a reason this never got committed as at least an initial 7.x branch?

@EvanDonovan Yes. Mostly because Views 3 already has a more robust version of Simpleviews out of the box.

https://img.skitch.com/20110619-drcbg2w4hsxxnf1fg2974xf668.jpg

Basically, there's no reason to use SimpleViews anymore because Views is better now.

Posting an updated patch that should apply now that we're on git. Not sure if this is still useful to anyone, but here it is in case.

Is there an actual module download for this? A github repo? I teach Drupal to Chinese students and we start with Drupal Gardens sites before transitioning to working directly on local installations of Drupal 7. Love to include this simple module for continuity.

From my understanding, Drupal Gardens no longer uses SimpleViews, since most of the UI improvements were incorporated into the latest version of Views 3.

Drupal Gardens comes with Views now but it initially installs with Simple Views.

That's a good point.