IIRS Architecture

We've considered several options for the IIRS already IIRS/firstOutline, IIRS/firstTechReply, but the current thinking is to keep this as modulular and flexible as possible whilst incorporating web services that allow us to start decoupling components of the system from Drupal, or connecting up sites and services across the internet.

Unfortunately keeping the data in sync with the legacy site will take some effort, however this work (if designed and implemented properly) can be the start of a first-class distributed structure for the Transition Network, its national hubs, and eventually the initiative/project sites over time. (This last bit is a vision held by Ed and Jim, but is not currently part of the Transition Network's formal strategy.)

That said, the focus must remain on delivering the near-term goals whilst keeping an eye on the future plans.

Principles

1. We must focus on the IIRS/widgetPurpose: Collecting and displaying initiatives in multiple languages.
2. New work will be in Drupal 7 as unfortunately Drupal 8 is not stable at present.
3. The current D6 site will still be the 'king', but this work will be designed to grease the wheels of move to D7 sometime in the next year (or two).
4. There will be a web service connection between the current D6 and the new, slim D7 site.
5. Adding new code to an already big Drupal 6 site should be kept to a minimum, and service connectections should be lean and 'gentle'.
6. We will create a new, slimline Initiative content type to store the data from the widgets.
7. We will re-use/retool/refactor the D6 Projet Widget code to get a quick jump on the core widget features. This is essentially a cleanup and conversion from D6 to D7.
8. Internationalisation is a BIG part of this, as is facilitating the translation of TN-specific parts of the UI and content.
9. These are not the only principles, more to follow...

Scary questions

1. What will the experience be for each type of user on each environment...

	TN.org D6	D7 widget	D7 site user
Widget user
Widget/ini moderator
Widget translator
Visitor UK (English)
Visitor France (French)
Visitor Canadian (French or English)
Visitor Botswanian (Setswana, example of no translation)
TN admin/editor
National hub admin/editor
Translators

2. How will translated content get back to the D6 site [assumes it's done on D7, which is the best place for editors if not the system]... It's one thing to make templates and panels layouts, but how is that edited?
3. What will the 'Initiatives en France' page look like, what will be its location (URL & menu structure), what apart from a widget, map and list will it contain?
4. What is the best way to leverage a) Panels, b) Services and c) the existing PSE widget work to get a clean, fast, integrated solution.