Top Modules

This is an installation profile intended to bring together the most commonly used modules in a coherent package that will allow both people new to drupal, and developers a strong starting point for a full featured CMS using this as a submodule (see http://drupal.org/project/profiler) .

Kudos to the infrastructure team, and anyone else associated with getting the new installation profile packaging in place. Now, when you download this package, all the modules will be included as well. That's awesome! [edit- and now that I just tested it, you will also download sub-profiles as well!)

1.0 Roadmap

[new improved thinking] My initial thinking was it would be awesome to have a drupal install that allows people to get started quickly with a generic site, using best practice modules. While I think that is still a goal, I think the first step will be to keep things simple and try to stick with features module / ctools exportables as much as possible for now. Not only can we expand upon what is possible in an install profile, but individual customizations and improvements can be re-exported and contributed back.

Installer

In the future, the installer will attempt to setup some useful defaults for the modules it installs and provide a wizard type setup process. [Edit - I now think that strongarm (variable exportables) is probably the way to do this if possible and trying to limit what actually happend in the installer.]

Features

A set of features modules may make setting up a complex feature as simple as enabling a module. Using the features module we get integration with panels, cck, and views. Adding Strongarm, we get the variables table, which is powerful for creating out of the box configurations for contrib modules.

WYSIWYG

[Edit - I'm thinking that at this point a separate wysiwyg feature may be a better path than including it in this profile. Moved to the sub-profile http://drupal.org/project/topmodules_cms ]
One of the things new users of drupal find frustrating is how tricky it can be to do basic content management. Though developers often cringe at the request, wysiwyg is a very powerful tool, and one that isn't even included in other platforms like Aquia drupal (yet). This platform currently includes the 3 parts you need to get wysiwyg functionality, but you still have to download either fckeditor, or tinymce external libraries. (the two we recommend) In the future we may take advantage of drush_make to automate the download of the library as well. [ edit - we can use nested make files for this functionality.

Selection of modules for inclusion in top modules:

Feedback as to what modules should make it into this profile are very welcome. The modules included now are based on a mix of personal experience, solutions to the most common needs, and pure popularity. Some listings of popular modules can be found here:

Current list of enabled modules

Note: This list includes some core modules

$modules =  array(
   // Enable required core modules first.
    'block', 'filter', 'node', 'system', 'user',

    // Enable optional core modules next.
    'color',
    'comment',
    'dblog',
    'help',
    'menu',
    'path',
    'taxonomy',
    'status_update',

    // Then, enable any contributed modules here.

    #tier1
    'admin_menu',
    'token',
    'views',
    'cck',
    'pathauto',

    #exportables
    'ctools',
    'features',
    'strongarm',

 );