This isn't a bitch about Drupal, Just a critique.

After 6 years away from Drupal I came back. The install was easy enough.
Themes, I went through themes to find out most of them are outdated by about 10 years so I stuck with a
Drupal Default.

So I played with the backend a bit and found out that it has gotten way to fat and bloated. Since I have played
With drupal before this was only a minor headache. Some of the stuff have left me stymied, out I'll figure it out.

So I decided for fun to Migrate my word press into it, and the troubles began.

I installed MIgration. It didn't work so I googled for instructions. Tons of instructions but old and outdated.
I then found out the MIgration tool wasn't for importing Wordpress though a webpage hinted I needed that.
Going through 5 or 6 Drupal pages I found a wordpress Module and installed it, It didn't work!
I click an arrow on that module link and It said I needed another module. I installed that.
THAT DIDN'T WORK as now I need to install 2 more modules!

Drupal is a great CMS but spending 5 days on a basic setup, finding half the themes and modules are outdated,
Help files are bloated with no real help or outdated is just way too much.

So for now, I will leave Drupal alone as it is way to much for an old dog like me to figure out. I'll come back when the instructions are a touch easier.

Comments

Jaypan’s picture

Unfortunately, that's not so likely to happen - Drupal is increasing in complexity with each version, not decreasing.

VM’s picture

As an old dog, I suggest staying away from the razor's edge until the newest version is mature and the ecosystem evolves.

Jeff Burnz’s picture

Software eventually becomes outdated, replaced by newer, better software. Who knew? 10 years ago the requirements of web development were simple, today they're far more complex and demanding.

Your comment may be a critique, not of Drupal, but of your expectations - they're out of sync with reality.

Statements like "fat and bloated", "didn't work" etc are neither useful nor a "critique", they're meaningless and completely pointless. I am a core developer and quite frankly these sorts of comments don't phase or impress me at all - you'd be stunned at how ignorant people are, how they make the most basic mistakes and instead of recognising their own limitations and errors lash out with criticisms and exasperation.

This is especially prevalent in the "didn't work" community since they cannot even articulate the problem beyond what is transparently obvious to them on the screen. They're too lazy to dig any deeper - theres a certain sense of entitlement and unrealistic level of expectation that everything (no matter how stupid or incorrect they act) will just "work", as if by magic.

How about this, instead of attacking the software, focus on your own failings.

kgw’s picture

Like I said, I am not knocking drupal and I can eventually figure most of it out. My issue is the search and destroy missions to be able to download the module you need, only to find out you need even more modules to get it to work.
I saw the MIGRATION module and realized that wouldn't import Wordpress, I needed another module. I found that module after clicking through 5 - 10 to pages of basic nonsense. I installed that Module to import wordpress. I found out I needed another module through Drupal to get it to work, found that one after surfing through 5 - 10 pages finally. I installed that only to find out to use the wordpress UI, I need 2 more modules!OK Cool, I need almost 6 modules to get it to work, thats just to get one module to do what it says it will do.
I never said I couldn't get it to work, that Drupal doesn't work or that matter. The info on Drupal is outdated or obscure.
I can get it work but everything shouldn't be a complete fumble to do it.
Its becoming fat and bloated with trying a one time import!

But to calm your nerves.
Drupal is Smoking my test wordpress (Latest Beta) site on speed
Drupal is more user friendly when it comes to putting links and pages where I want than Joomla.
I have 6 other Test Sites" to determine which one I want and Drupal seems to be a touch above
the rest.
By JUST using the Core of Drupal and figuring out there lingo (Like every CMS expects you to do)
I can basically get Drupal to do what I want. Its the extra eye candy, if it installs like the last 2 modules
That has turned me off.

And like I said, I used Drupal 6 years ago, It was great. And today with just the core, it's great, but to add the functionality
I need, I shouldn't have to jump through a ton of hoops. If a page tells me a module is on the next link, I expect it to be there,
not clicking through technical or dribble to get it to it :-)

Jeff Burnz’s picture

There's an irony with your critique - the claim of fat and bloated is oxymoronic with regard to modular, pluggable systems like Drupal 8 and the direction in which D8 contrib is moving. What we have is lots of small, single purpose modules rather than monolithic bloatware. Large monolithic systems are hard to maintain and often contain redundant features (the very definition of bloatware).

So no, I can't agree. What these devs are doing is smart - giving you a lean system with only the required features. You plug them in, extend etc, as required.

Drupal is, especially D8, is a very complex system, but with complexity comes power, speed (think Big pipe and things like place-holdering - wow, incredible), and an unparalleled developer experience in the CMS/CMF field. And no, it's not a touch above WP or Joomla, it's years ahead (under the hood), where it falls short, especially compared to WP is media handling, thats the one BIG area it needs massive improvement - and it's happening, right now, a huge initiative to bring WP level media handling to core.

Jaypan’s picture

I saw the MIGRATION module and realized that wouldn't import Wordpress, I needed another module.

This is kind of true, kind of not.

The Migration module can handle migration of any data to Drupal. It's a toolkit that enables conversion of whatever data format you are working with into whatever format your Drupal site has been set up to deal with data. However, this cannot be done without coding. The developer has to create classes to handle the data conversion.

If you want to do it simply with modules, and no coding, you then need to find someone who has coded a module that works with the Migrate module, that can extract code from a wordpress database, and convert it into the Drupal format. It probably also needs a GUI so that non-coding users can use it.

To continue on with Jeff's comments, this is because the Migrate module is not bloated, rather it's slimmer than what you are looking for. If it was bloated, it would already have the GUI you want, with functions to import from any other system. Instead, it's built as a tool, that can be extended to deal with various other situations. Many, Drupal modules are built like this. They have a set of functionality that can then be extended by other modules to provide more specific functionality, so that a person doesn't end up with a bunch of bloated code they don't need for functionality they won't use.

John_B’s picture

My one attempt to get a Drupal to Drupal migration to work with the Migrate GUI was pretty hopeless. Yes, I could have debugged it. The comparision which Dries has said he aspires to with the iPhone, where the software just works, is some way off for Migrate UI.

Drupal 8 is large, complex application, with a lot of external libraries. Conceptually, some people, including many core developers (unsurprisingly) say they like the architecture. As Jeff says, expectations play a part. For the kind of user and use case who does not want websites to be big complex applications with a large codebase to debug and an API which takes a lot of work to learn, it is not the obvious tool. I have built one client site in D8.

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