Installer gives error message if project name != module name

[swampopus]

Description of the bug

The best example is the project "front", which I just recently converted over. The repository is simply called "front", which is the Front Page module from Drupal (with front_page.info and front_page.module). The problem is that the module itself was actually named front_page.module and front_page.info, while the repository is simply called front.

As a result, when you use the Installer to 'Install new module' and select the Front Page module, it would install, but on the page where it asks you to enable it, an error is shown instead. It is generated from installer.pages.inc, function installer_browser_installation_enable_form().

Specifically, it's the "else" condition to this IF statement:
if (isset($modules[$project['name']]))

Expected behavior

The function install_browser_installation_enable_form() should, in the $projects variable, have the module_name set. In this case, it would be 'front_page'. Then, throughout the function, instead of checking $project['name'], it should check $project['module_name'].

This would then allow us to enable the module normally, and not receive the error message.

Alternate behavior option

Add rules to backdrop-contrib packaging/installation system such that a repository must exactly match the module name. Also include this rule in the documentation.;

Additional information

• Backdrop CMS version: 1.30.2

In the meantime...

I am going to refactor the "front_page" module such that it is "front.module" instead of "front_page.module", so that it will work correctly with the backdrop installer. Also in the future I will make sure the repository has the same name as the module, regardless of what Drupal names it.

But I wanted to bring this to the attention of the group.

[indigoxela]

Hi @swampopus!

I belief, that's a known problem - or eventually it works as designed (?). But I can't seem to find a related issue.
I do know, that this has been discussed before - I'm just not sure, where this has been discussed, or what the outcome was, so I asked in our Zulip chat. Hopefully someone remembers. 😉

[swampopus]

Thanks for looking into it!

A short workaround/fix might be to have the github packaging script thingy check to see if there is at least one NAME.info file that matches the repository's name. If not, then it generates an error txt file thingy (I've gotten the error txt file on failed attempts I've made at creating releases-- sorry for not know the technical names :)

[bennybobw]

We discussed this in the dev meeting this week. We talked about enforcing this, but most of the problems have to do with Drupal 7 modules not being named the same as their module file and that brought up a whole can of worms around having to add a hook to backdrop core to allow renaming modules. It sounds like there is already core code that does this but there is no API for contrib modules to hook into it.

So the rough consensus was that this should be fixed in the installer module so that you can install modules like this and add something to the packager that throws a warning.

The idea was that everyone knows you shouldn't do this and we're only doing it basically in cases where modules are being migrated from D7 to Backdrop.

[indigoxela]

We discussed this in the dev meeting this week.

@swampopus in case, you're not aware of it - those meetings are available on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX9Vu-AlO34

The module name vs project (repo) name topic has been discussed first.

[swampopus]

Awesome, thanks for considering this!

[swampopus]

BTW-- in case my username ever comes up again ;), it's pronounced "swamp-oh-pus". It's supposed to be like an octopus which lives in a swamp.