Grokking Drupal: module dependencies in e-Commerce 4

Roughly two years ago, I prepared a diagram of the dependencies in the then-current version of Drupal e-Commerce (eC) for Drupal 4.6.

Now, with other eC projects looming ahead, a possible session about eC at Szeged, and eC 4 being in alpha, I figured it was time to update the model. Boy, has it changed ! Click the thumbnail for the full-size view.

Since this is not an UML diagram, some explanations are in order:

• the purplish boxes are individual eC modules
• the striped blue boxes are non-eC modules needed by eC modules
• dependencies arrows point to the module from which a module depends. That is, for instance, "store" depends on "EC mail"
• the dashed dependency from "ec Region" to external module "Location" is there because "eC Region" does not actually depend on "Location", but has added features if "Location" is present.
• the yellow boxes are eC "packages", which you'll see at admin/build/modules
• every eC module not in one of these packages is in the eC miscellaneous package
• letters in a round box are dependency factorings, to reduce clutter. Thus, "Address" in the "eC Customer Interface" package depends on "Customer" through the "C" dependency factoring

As you'll notice by examining the diagram in detail, some of the dependencies are redundant. For instance, "Invoice" is marked as depending on both "Store" and "eC Checkout", but the latter already depends on "Store", so the direct dependency could be dropped since it does not introduce new information. In this diagram, they are taken from the .info files, and could be reduced to a minimal chain. Remember, eC 4 is still in alpha, so improvements are likely to come.

Easter Egg in July: I've left out one (minor) dependency. Will you find it ?