Lesson 14: Refactoring book module (part 1)

One of the things mentioned by Dries in his "State of the Drupal" address at OSCMS was how nice it would be if book.module would turn into a more generic outline functionality, rather than being semi-attached to a specific node type. With the code-freeze for Drupal 6.0 coming up June 1st, it's now or never to get new features in.

Sepeck posted an issue on drupal.org about separating special content types from book.module, and another one on reusing menu_renumber to make outlines more efficient. There's a definite need for some changes in book.module, and pwolanin even started a patch for multiple menu support. All of this to say, refactoring the book.module is necessary.

So let's do it! Josh_k is willing to do the majority of the coding, and to package the whole experience into one or more dojo lessons. If others would like to contribute to the effort, that'll be more than welcome. The whole thing has to be completed by the end of May, so toward that end, we'll start a wiki on the g.d.o site to discuss and outline the steps.

There is also a drupal.org Issue queue for book.module so you can follow along.

Lesson 00: Mini-lesson: Applying Patches to Core

Another in the Quick and Dirty series that shows how to use the command line to apply, reverse and test a patch for Drupal core. Anyone, even folks with no coding experience at all, can help test patches. The video is available in .mov and .mp4 formats and is 12 minutes in length. For more info on applying patches make sure to read the Patches section of the Drupal handbook.

This also goes well with add1sun's previous lesson on patch rolling.