Rules - new opportunities for site builders!

The rules modules allows site administrators to define conditionally executed actions based on occurring events (so called ECA-rules). The event part triggers the invocation of a rule, the condition part performs logical tests and if satisfied, the actions of a rule are carried out. The module is a replacement with more features for the trigger module of drupal 6 and the successor of the drupal 5 compatible workflow-ng module. Its powerful approach combined with a lot of useful events, conditions and actions opens new opportunities for site builders to extend the site in ways not possible before. Modules can easily enhance the power of the module by contributing their own events, conditions and actions. The session will start with a basic module overview followed by a short demonstration: The module is used together with CCK to build a simple workflow. After that some more advanced features will be covered like the possibility to create rule sets and the scheduling capabilities. For developers a short introduction to the rules API will be given, showing how to provide further conditions, actions and events. Furthermore the module will be compared to the trigger module of drupal 6 and its action system. By the end of this session attendees will be familiar with the capabilities of the rules module and will know how to make use of it to speed up site development. Module developers will know how easily their modules can extend the rules module1 and how to obtain better code reusage by developing with rules. For following the session coding skills are not required but beneficial for a better understanding of the short part about the API.