Go Minimal with Drupal 7

When you start working on a new site, how do you start?

I am willing to bet that for many of you the first step on the install.php page in reality looks like this:

The only thing you really take notice of is the "Save and continue" button and quickly click it.

There is of course nothing wrong with that, the Standard installation profile is really nice. It creates a good basic site, enables modules that you will use plus a couple of content types, a vocabulary and basic image handling. Its definitely a decent starting point for many sites to build upon, without question.

Comes at a Price

That said, it does come at a price that you sooner or later is likely to have to pay. I discovered this especially as I got more experienced in using modules such as Features and started to work on some more complex site building ideas. While working on these ideas, I increasingly had the need to change things that Standard installation profile had set up as well as disable some modules there was no real need for.  It wasn't to difficult to do, but it added extra work, as well as more things I needed to document if I was to reuse these things on other sites.

Another thing I discovered was that extending the Page and Article content types Standard comes with, was not really playing well with Features. Custom content types was much easier to export and maintain with it. This is something I also seen mentioned for Feature modules hosted on drupal.org, such as this issue comment from the author of the Debut Article project.

Go Minimal

That comment also mentioned using the Minimal installation profile, something I until then had conveniently ignored since I previously saw it as a delay to get into building my cool new features. How wrong I had been.

Armed with a lot of good arguments for testing Minimal I did. The first thing I noticed was that it only installed 10 modules instead of the 29 Standard installed. Of course, it also came without content types, taxonomy and image fields. It does let you add content types, but not add fields to it because the Field UI isn't enabled.

It simple comes with just the modules that practically every site needs. Yes, Update Manager is installed, but you can avoid that by unticking the check for updates options in the last installation step.

Perfect for Features

For me personally, starting to use the Minimal installation profile has helped me understand much more about the basics in Drupal. This is because I have been forced to really understand what all those extra 19 modules Standard installed do and are used for. It has also turned out to be the perfect way to really take advantage of the Feature module.

Now I am almost finished tweaking by Base feature modules that I will reuse on several sites I am working on. They are now lean and just enables the modules needed to make a live site tick. This means that site building modules such as the Field UI isn't enabled, its only needed when creating the features.

It also means I can create separate feature modules for each content type I need, as well as all the other things the Standard installation profile adds.

Basically, it gives me much more control over the sites I build and manage.

Summary

As I wrote in the beginning, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Standard profile, it does what it is supposed to do. It gives especially new users a good solid base to take their first steps into the Drupal world with. I still use it sometimes when I quickly need to test something new, such as a module or theme, but not for real sites anymore.

However, treat is as a good demo profile. If you are serious about what you want to do with Drupal I really recommend you to take a good look at the Minimal installation profile. I can guarantee that you will have a very positive experience with it.