Page on modules now in core in D7 needs reorganization, table of contents [#984444]

Upgrade.txt contains a warning to review the status of your modules for Drupal 7, however it doesn't clue in the user that there may be a need to separately migrate content fields even for modules which are now a part of core in D7. I upgraded one of my dev sites recently, and was not terribly concerned about CCK or image fields since the functionality I was using was now in D7 core. (I checked on these modules per upgrade.txt, but stopped when I saw they were included in core.) Unfortunately, there were additional migration steps necessary that I should have planned for, including separate migration of all CCK and image fields.

I propose changing this text:

To upgrade from a previous major version of Drupal to Drupal 7.x, after
following the instructions in the INTRODUCTION section at the top of this file:

1. Check on the Drupal 7 status of your contributed and custom modules and
   themes. See http://drupal.org/node/948216 for information on upgrading
   contributed modules and themes. See http://drupal.org/node/895314 for a list
   of modules that have been moved into core for Drupal 7, and instructions on
   how to update them. See http://drupal.org/update/modules for information on
   how to update your custom modules, and http://drupal.org/update/theme for
   custom themes.

   You may decide at this point that you cannot upgrade your site, because
   needed modules or themes are not ready for Drupal 7.

To something like this:

To upgrade from a previous major version of Drupal to Drupal 7.x, after
following the instructions in the INTRODUCTION section at the top of this file:

1. Check on the Drupal 7 status of your contributed and custom modules and
   themes. See http://drupal.org/node/948216 for information on upgrading
   contributed modules and themes. See http://drupal.org/node/895314 for a list
   of modules that have been moved into core for Drupal 7, and instructions on
   how to update them. <strong>*Additional content migration steps may be
   necessary, including migration of content created by modules now included
   in Drupal 7 Core.*</strong>

See http://drupal.org/update/modules for information on
   how to update your custom modules, and http://drupal.org/update/theme for
   custom themes.

   You may decide at this point that you cannot upgrade your site, because
   needed modules or themes are not ready for Drupal 7.

**in the long term though, I really think that CCK/image field migration should be a streamlined part of the d7 upgrade process.

Comments

Comment #1

jhodgdon

she/her

English

commented 30 November 2010 at 16:32

It already says:

"See http://drupal.org/node/895314 for a list of modules that have been moved into core for Drupal 7, and instructions on how to update them."

The last part of that sentences says "and instructions on how to update them". It doesn't say it's automatic, and CCK modules are not the only things moved into core that might have update instructions.

So I don't think this change is necessary. We also do not use tags in .txt files. They are .txt, not .html.

And just FYI, the reason that CCK/image field migration is not part of core is that core does not handle the upgrade of contributed modules. Period. If it did, in this case it would be in a position of having to keep up with changes in the 6.x version of the CCK and FileField/ImageField modules, because it would need to handle upgrades from whatever the current 6.x version of those modules was. That could be a total nightmare (FileField, for instance, has completely changed its DB architecture and API several times in the last two years).

So migration of what was formerly contributed modules and is now core is left to the maintainers of the contributed modules, for that reason.

I'm inclined to mark "closed / wont' fix"...

Comment #2

jenyum commented 30 November 2010 at 17:52

The strong tag was not meant to be permanent, just for purposes of emphasis in the post. Should have realized it wouldn't nest inside a code tag.

I do think a warning is warranted. I'm not a total idiot, (brain freeze with respect to code tags notwithstanding) but it wasn't clear to me at all from reading either the instructions at the individual modules or the upgrade documentation that I'd need separate data migration modules (which don't actually really work quite right yet) for something as basic as CCK fields. In other words, just having a d7 version of the module does not mean you are in the clear. Since there are so many contributed modules with varying degrees of documentation for which this could be an issue, the logical place to put a general warning is in core upgrade documentation.

Comment #3

jhodgdon

she/her

English

commented 30 November 2010 at 18:06

I certainly wasn't implying that you are an idiot! :)

As a bit of background, we did have a more verbose section there at one point in #949102: Polish UPGRADE.txt or its predecessor issue, but we wanted to keep this file short, while not omitting information.

In particular, the idea is not to repeat what's on http://drupal.org/node/895314 for every single module that's been moved into core, but to refer people to that page. CCK is just one of the many on the list on that page that is labeled as "you need to do something".

So... Again, we've said in upgrade.txt that you need to look at http://drupal.org/node/895314, and I think http://drupal.org/node/895314 is clear that you need to migrate your CCK data -- isn't it? I'm not sure what more we can do, given that CCK is not the only special case and we don't want to repeat the entire content of http://drupal.org/node/895314 or try to maintain it in this file?

Comment #4

EvanDonovan commented 30 November 2010 at 19:20

I agree with @jhodgdon that it shouldn't be in the .txt file. That would set a bad precedent, I think.

I can't even think of a good wording for how it would be put into the file, since as it stands the text has been heavily refined to be just cross-references.

I do think that http://drupal.org/node/895314 is not explicit enough about CCK fields. I think that they are important enough that CCK data migration should be its own section at the top of the page, since that way people will be sure to see it.

Also, that page should have a table of contents, indicating what are the different categories of modules. I am worried that as it is, people will look at the long list of modules that can be uninstalled and think that is all there is.

@jenyum, if you agree that changing http://drupal.org/node/895314 is sufficient, we should move this issue to the Documentation queue accordingly.

Comment #5

jhodgdon

she/her

English

commented 30 November 2010 at 19:26

Title:	Warning needed re: content migration in UPGRADE.txt	» Page on modules now in core in D7 needs reorganization, table of contents
Project:	Drupal core	» Documentation
Version:	7.x-dev	»
Component:	documentation	» Correction/Clarification
Issue tags:	-CCK, -image, -fields, -migration	+drupal 7

OK, EvanDonovan and I are in agreement here -- Upgrade.txt is not going replicate the page, and we already say "See http://drupal.org/node/895314". We can't help it if people don't follow the instructions in UPGRADE.txt. All we can do is provide the information.

Moving to Doc queue with new title. See #4 for what needs to be done.