Project status/2022 Progress

Here's a review of the progress in 2022:

• 6 Feb: initial alpha release, export of FLDC site
• 24 Feb: bugfix release
• Jun 13: More bugfixes, including an improved ability to use pieces individually
• Jun 14: bug fixes, improved labels, menu entries, and more
• Aug 28: beta 1 release, including dynamic schedule navigation
• Sep 12: Set min and max values on time slots automatically, based on event dates

The Event Platform took the rich set of capabilities built for the Flordia DrupalCamp website in 2022, and abstracted it to make it more easily used by any event organizer, including those who may be new to Drupal. This includes using tokens in default messaging (including emails to users who proposed sessions) so that, as much as possible, an event organizer can install the Event Platform and start using it with a minimum of effort.

At a minimum, they will need to populate the Event Details config page with the specifics of their event, and until they have done so any admins will see a prompt on the home page to populate this information. Later, they will need to create time slots in order to schedule accepted sessions. Optionally, they can populate more custom email notifications, create featured speakers and sponsors, and so on.

In its current form, an event organizing team can use the Event Platform in at least three different ways:

1. With a fresh install of Drupal, they can install the event_platform_olivero submodule to install all the submodules and place the available blocks in the intended places.
2. If using a custom theme, they can install the main module to activate all submodules but not place any blocks.
3. If they only want to use some of the capabilities provided by the Event Platform, they can selectively install one or more submodules

In terms of future considerations, a number of avenues have been discussed, which could be areas of focus for 2023, including:

• Using Features to create and update the submodules, since apparently the more recent versions can create modules for Features that don't require the Features module to be installed to use them
• Aligning the direction of how the Event Platform is made and maintained with the Recipes initiative. While still in very active development and not even an alpha release, it's likely too early to anticipate what will be required in order to make the Event Platform available as a set of recipes. It's also possible that this could be the focus for a different (e.g. 2.x) branch for the Event Platform
• Muster a different (parallel?) set of talents / resources to create a theme intended to be used with the Event Platform
• Related to the previous item, it might be possible to develop a capability that would allow for the automatic placement of available blocks into the intended regions regardless of the current theme

Naturally, all of the above is open to discussion, and in particular based on feedback from teams actually using the Event Platform in its current state.