Open Atrium & Case Tracker for Drupal 7
As part of my continuing effort to narrow the scope of my project plan for the summer, I have been in contact with Jeff Miccolis from Development Seed, the maintainer of the Case Tracker module and one of the lead developers of Open Atrium.
He was able to fill me in on the early plans for Drupal 7 ports of Open Atrium (OA) and Case Tracker.
Open Atrium for Drupal 7
According to Jeff, the current plan is to get a stable 1.0 release of OA out the door before any big ports or feature additions. He said that it was “close to impossible” that there will be a stable D7 release of OA before the end of the summer.
As much as I’d personally like to see a D7 release, it is understandably hard for the OA team to base their plans around an unpredictable roadmap for Drupal core. While it may make sense for some contrib modules to pledge to have a D7 version ready the day that D7 is released, OA is a complex piece of art and it will take more time for the D7 core and contrib code to be solid enough for a port to be feasible.
This opens some interesting question for Activism Labs, which are discussed below.
Case Tracker for Drupal 7
We also discussed the plan for Case Tracker. Jeff said he doesn’t want to simultaneously maintain a D6 & D7 version of Case Tracker, and I can’t say I blame him. Maintaining two releases of a code base is a big time commitment, and isn’t always the best use of time. With limited resources, it is probably better to make a clean switch to a D7 version of Case Tracker and give it the full attention that it deserves.
He mentioned that other modules sponsored by Dev Seed that are lower in the OA stack will be updated first. First Strongarm will be updated, then Spaces and Context, and somewhere near the end Case Tracker.
What does it all mean for Activism Labs?
The project is now faced with an interesting question:
Develop D6 modules that are more usable (via Open Atrium’s UI) or develop D7 modules that benefit the Drupal community in the long term?
My personal vision for the project is for activists to use these tools as features on top of Open Atrium because it is very user-friendly. Developing modules in Drupal 6 will result in a set of tools that are immediately accessible to non-technical users like grassroots activists.
Developing the tools for Drupal 7 means that the tools wouldn’t be usable as part of Open Atrium for an unknown amount of time (late fall? winter?) and the project could lose momentum if it the tools are not usable in a unified state when GSoC ends.
To be honest, I feel like it would be selfish to develop the tools for Drupal 6. I consider the GSoC slot to be a position of huge value to the community and developing D6 modules would not be fair to those who helped rank my proposal. This is especially true because I stated that all modules would be in Drupal 7 in my initial proposal. That said, if I do build my modules for D7 and Case Tracker hasn’t been ported to D7, I would have one heck of a time making my task modules and timeline modules, which are key elements of my plan.
Question: Should I develop the Activism Labs modules in Drupal 6 or Drupal 7? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
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About Jeremy Blanchard
I am a student at the University of Oregon majoring in environmental studies (with a minor in computer science). My passion is climate activism and organizing.
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It certainly is a tough choice but, I think D6 is the practical option. It’s kind of like the “bird in the hand” analogy. There are a lot of D6 installs and modules that exist today. People are vested in them. Adding or enhancing that environment makes the most sense. D7 is all well and good but, even if it is released late summer/early fall, having enough modules to deploy that are stable is a real big question mark, as is D7 itself. I would definitely go the the D6 route while keeping an eye on the D7 and module developments.
Anyway, that’s my two cents. Thanks for asking and what you are doing here.
@grim.miles – Thanks for the feedback. You have a good point about D7 not being really ready for major deployment even after a stable release is ready. Maybe not building in D7 will motivate me to keep this project going for the long term and port to D7 when OA is ready in D7. Hmmm. Hopefully I can get some more feedback.
You kind of answered your own question. You want it to be usable by end users on top of OA. Therefore you should build on top of D6 today.
Especially when going for a 1.x release, it really benefits from future porting. You can look at features and upgrades on a case by case basis, and choose to cleanly implement some things in D7 in future cycles.
Drupal 6. Many current Drupal 6 sites will not be migrated to Drupal 7 for a long time after the eventual release of Drupal 7.
You may also want to ensure the compatibility of your efforts with the upcoming Drupal Commons from Acquia.
Is Drupal Commons going to be for D6? I would think Acquia would make it for D7.
Heya there, sounds like, if you want this to work with Open Atrium you should deffo stick with Drupal 6.
Acquia is currently working on Drupal Commons using Drupal 6.
In terms of what is a “long time” before D7 is widely used that depends on your case. I’d expect people will be using it widely before the end of the year. It’s a quite different situation:
- Module maintainers committing to a release when D7 comes out
- Drupal Gardens using 7 now and making improvements.
In summary, I think it’d be safe to build onto Drupal 7. You might gain advantages of not only the improvements made in D7, but also the contributions and participation you’d give being part of pushing the D7 boat out into the water.
But no, not if you want to integrate with Open Atrium. Then D6.
@Heather – I think you got to the heart of it. The developer in me really wants to use the new D7 features and help “push the boat into the water,” but the activist in me really wants something that other activists can use right away, and in my mind, Open Atrium is the way for that to happen.
I think this is pretty much settled. D6 it is. A D7 port down the line if the project stays active after the summer (and I certainly hope it will).
My choice is D6. Despite there’s this D7 pledge tag, we’ll still have to wait another 6 months or so to get the most of D7.