Raw Notes: DrupalCampNYC8 - Rules, the Next Big Thing in Drupal

Presented by Eric Goldhagen

• Actions and Triggers - ways of creating automated functions (actions) when a certain condition is met (trigger)
• Without writing code to refine what the trigger was, couldn't get specific enough
• Rules module gives more fine-grained control through the web interface (e.g. when someone creates a node of type x, send an email with this specific text to users of y role.)
• As with Views, it looks like Rules will be widely adopted because module developers are hooking into Rules or exposing their modules to Rules

Looking at Rules

• You can import and export rules, put rules into a module or features to store it as code under revision control
• "Content is going to be saved" event - when content is being added to or updated, happens in that moment in between hitting save/submit and it actually being updated
• (watched a demo of a rule being set up)
• There is more than just AND logic available for Rules; can configure OR and ELSE as well
• Performance issues are present; best way to avoid them is to put your most important condition at the very top, e.g. if a rule only applies to members of a certain role, put role membership check is happening as early as possible so the other steps don't have to run