Create defaults for panels to be deployed on install only

Question

We have a mini panel that we use to create a footer area. This is deployed on install of a new multi-site through our custom installation profile. I would like to set default content items in the panel regions on install. If I were to do this in a feature, then any changes made by the site administrator would be reverted on a features-revert-all command. How do I go about creating this as part of an install file?

Answer 1

To start, I created my mini panel as I wanted it to be and did an export. I saved the export code to a file in a custom module I created. I used install file in the module and this hook_install function:

function custom_footer_install() {
  if (!ctools_export_crud_load('panels_mini', 'fat_footer')) {
    $filename = drupal_get_path('module', 'custom_footer') . '/panel_exports/profile.txt';
    $handle = fopen($filename, "r");
    $contents = fread($handle, filesize($filename));
    fclose($handle);
    $panel = ctools_export_crud_import('panels_mini', $contents);
    ctools_export_crud_save('panels_mini', $panel);
  }
}