I'm sure if it does fit

kalvisnky — Sat, 16 May 2009 07:12:43 +0000

I'm sure if it does fit all.
Drupal is a CMS based program similar to Joomla
but I use Joomla most of the time.

Megan pretty-much hits the

JeevesBond — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:30:38 +0000

Megan pretty-much hits the nail on the head here.

The only thing to add is that there are a lot of small things that implementors will always build per-site modules to do. Taking elements out of a form using FAPI, or tweaking menu links, for example.

As Megan said, for tasks at which Drupal is a mature piece of software, e.g. blogs, news/article sites, general CMS's, etc. there is little to add. But try to use Drupal for a forum, or document management system and you're going to need custom development a lot sooner. The road less travelled and all that.

I filled-out the survey, btw.

pr0gr4mm3r wrote: It is not

decibel.places — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:01:17 +0000

pr0gr4mm3r wrote:

It is not practical to press Drupal for questions posted here that are for systems already designed

I am pretty careful not to propose Drupal for an already coded project, unless the benefit of switching to Drupal for an "out-of-the-box" solution would outweigh the difficulty of creating a custom solution on the existing code...

Many times it is not clear from the question whether code already exists or what platform is in use - so I may propose Drupal, and later on when it becomes more clear, someone else criticizes me for merely answering the question.

I have even had to start anew with Drupal 5.x because a previous developer's attempt to code in D 6.x failed.

Sometimes you need to step back to go forward. Sometimes you realize after the fact that you have chosen a strategy that is not working.

Often Drupal can be an efficient solution - but not always, even I realize that.

pr0gr4mm3r wrote:

Please...if all else fails, just call us incompetent, right?

pr0gr4mm3r - you know I have a high opinion of your skills (despite your relative youth ) and I would not call you nor any of the regulars at TWF "incompetent" - and for that matter I would not even call a n00b that, I would point out resources to learn (sometimes without even going through Let Me Google That for You )

Decibel, you are missing the

pr0gr4mm3r — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:34:52 +0000

Decibel, you are missing the point...I will explain it again.

It is not practical to press Drupal for questions posted here that are for systems already designed. I am not saying that Drupal could have worked for their particular website, but it is not practical at that stage of development. A lot of people come here after they already started development, or it could be a completed website. You still waste no time is saying how Drupal could have solved their problems.

If somebody asks for directions to a place 10 miles away, and they are in a car, your response is something like go back to your home and buy a hybrid after you sell the car your in now because a hybrid can get you to your destination more efficiently.

Although a hybrid car can go 10 miles more efficiently, it would be impractical to sell the existing car and purchase the hybrid for the last 10 miles.

I suspect the hostility to Drupal is because it takes some time and experience to make it "sing" - advice I also give to someone contemplating a first excursion into Drupal territory - and perhaps the developers here who reject Drupal are just not that well acquainted with it.

Please...if all else fails, just call us incompetent, right?

pr0gr4mm3r wrote: you press

decibel.places — Sun, 03 May 2009 15:04:15 +0000

pr0gr4mm3r wrote:

you press Drupal as the end-all solution to questions that are not asking for CMS advice

I reference the availability and ease of a solution to an issue in the post by using Drupal, often with a plug-in module enabling a solution "out-of-the-box."

I often suggest other approaches.

If somebody asks for directions to a place 10 miles away, you would probably recommend driving there (or taking a bus) - but you can also tell them how to get there by walking...

There are often many solutions; I often determine that Drupal is a good solution.

I suspect the hostility to Drupal is because it takes some time and experience to make it "sing" - advice I also give to someone contemplating a first excursion into Drupal territory - and perhaps the developers here who reject Drupal are just not that well acquainted with it.

My portfolio shows a few Drupal sites I have worked on, as well as other PHP and DHTML sites, as well as ASP and Lasso sites.

So if I recommend Drupal on a thread, it is not for the sake of "pressing" Drupal, it is because in my 13 years experience creating web sites, I know that Drupal provides a possible - and good - solution.

and I often feel that I come

pr0gr4mm3r — Sun, 03 May 2009 13:13:28 +0000

and I often feel that I come under attack for being a "Drupal fanboy" (I prefer "Drupalist").

You are often called a fanboy because you press Drupal as the end-all solution to questions that are not asking for CMS advice. When someone comes on the forum and asks for help with a small bit of functionality, and that happens to be available as a Drupal module, that doesn't mean you should recommend that the member throws out everything and switched to Drupal.

That, IMHO, is not a helpful contribution to those types of questions, and that is how you earned that title.

hi msimanga and welcome to

decibel.places — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:50:30 +0000

hi msimanga and welcome to TWF!

I participated in your survey - I would have liked an opportunity to submit additional comments (I have a reputation for being verbose, as well as tenacious).

I am glad that you started this thread!

I use Drupal for about 85% of my projects, I am self-employed full time as a web developer.

I often note in these forums that Drupal provides a handy solution to many of the questions raised here, and I often feel that I come under attack for being a "Drupal fanboy" (I prefer "Drupalist").

The fact that I DO NOT use Drupal for a significant proportion of projects shows that I do not choose it automatically, but only when I have determined that it provides a sound solution.

Using modules such as CCK, OG, webform, views, rules/workflow-ng etc, I have not had to write any custom modules, although I have been working with Drupal for about 5 years. I often write some custom code to plug in to a webform or create a custom block, but that is not the same as creating a module, as you noted in your survey.

I proposed that Drupal is "The Swiss Army Knife for Community Plumbing" (and that slogan was well-recieved on the d.o. community - however Victorinox already owns the TM for "Swiss Army Knife")

I think it really depends on

Megan — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:11:00 +0000

I think it really depends on what you're trying to do. For example, I don't think we had to do anything custom for A Padded Cell (JeevesBOnd will correct me if he ever shows up!). It's a simple article-based site, no special functionality needed. And it was originally built on Drupal so it's native to the environment.

For this site, though, we had to do 3 custom modules (vB to Drupal, User Stats, and Signatures for Forums) and may do some contributions to other modules in the future. This is because we're running a forum and the forum modules for Drupal are relatively immature. Also because we came from a dedicated forum platform and required certain functionality to at least approximate what we had before.

I also have a DP site that I developed at work - it's a simple blog with a few other features (webforms, links directory, documentation books). Again, it's a simple site that was built on Drupal natively so I haven't had to do anything custom.

In the future? Maybe there will be less of a need but I think people will always come up with new functionality or ways they want to do things differently. There will be new trends in web development as well.