Hello,
I'm a Drupal newbie and this is my first post. I've just taken over maintenance of a client's (messy) HTML/CSS/PHP/MySQL site. They want to re-do their site in the coming 6 months or so, and I'm pretty sure I want to build the new site on Drupal. I've just started working my way through the learning process. I have PHP/MySQL experience so it makes sense to me.
Here's my question for you experienced Drupal folks: The client needs a shopping cart in place on the new site by October. I don't know how stable the pre-releases generally are, and I don't know how difficult it would be to upgrade a site from one major version to the next. In my situation, would I be asking for trouble to develop the new site using the upcoming beta/dev versions of D7, so it's ready when the stable version is released? Is my schedule too tight for that? Or would it be a better plan for me to build and launch it in D6 and upgrade later?
Thanks,
Joanne
Comments
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go with Drupal 6, you should never ever use a beta/dev release on a production site.
upgrade from 6 to 7 shouldn't be a major difficulty, as long as you follow the upgrade procedures. Furthermore, D6 will be supported (security fixes etc.) till D8 is out. So, you'd have plenty of time to upgrade.
Tough choice
But I would go with D7 if I were you. Especially since you only have to deliver until October. It is a fact in Drupal that we make major version upgrades work (ie "we don't break your data"), but as soon as (or especially when) contributed modules come into play, it isn't just a "Press this button and wait 1 minute" kind of upgrade. Especially with CCK being totally refactored into the D7 Fields API it is probably going to require a lot of work, and it will still take a lot of time until that actually works.
Of course, it is always a challenge to start on a development version. Alpha to alpha upgrades aren't supported so you will have to wait until beta (at least!!!!!!!) until you do anything with Data that you want to keep. On the upside installing and working with Drupal 7 right now you can help ensure that Drupal 7 will be the most stable version of Drupal yet. So be sure to report any bugs or errors you encounter.
The good thing about starting with Drupal 7 is that you will get to use all the new technologies that are implemented there. There has been a lot done in terms of usability and you will likely benefit from that as an administrator. Also what used to be CCK in Drupal 6 is now Field API and is much much much (!!!) more powerful and flexible and awesome. Also, if you are building an e-commerce site: work is in progress to refactor existing E-Commerce solutions for Drupal 7 into a mega-awesome Commerce module that will take advantage of all the new technologies.
Tough choice, nonetheless.
. . .
> Alpha to alpha upgrades aren't supported so you will have to wait until beta (at least!!!!!!!) until you do anything with Data that you want to keep.
That was the point of my post here: http://drupal.org/node/749736
RIght after posting it, I managed to do just that--a dev-to-dev update while preserving the data--by tweaking the UPGRADE.txt method . . . but it sure proved tedious!
I agree that prototyping in 7 seems worthwhile if "mega-awesome" modules are around the corner. It still would be good to read others' dev update experiences.
Anyone?
My vote: Drupal 6
One of the problems people faced back in Feb 2008 was the lack of D6 compatible modules at the time of the Drupal 6 release. Many people downloaded installed and started playing with D6 but then sat back and said, "OK. Now what? Gotta wait for Views, CCK, Imagecache upgrades etc. before I really do anything". It was some time before one could realistically begin building on D6 for precisely that reason.
With D7, however, many module maintainers have committed to releasing the D7 version of their module/s on the day D7 is actually released, thus preventing the D6 problem.
Modules commited to D7 version upon D7 release
This will be a huge leap forward and will enable many people to start building on D7 much sooner than they could with D6.
Problem is, at the time of writing, Views is not in this list and I would not even begin considering building a site on D7 without Views for D7. Thankfully, given what you've said about your site, I imagine you will be using Ubercart (don't use eCommerce) and the maintainers have commited to a D7 release.
Also, if you're new to Drupal and want to get up to speed quickly, there are a ton of Drupal books all presently centered around D6.
Books about Drupal
Personally, I would go for D6 and later upgrade to D7 when things have bedded down a little. Apparently, upgrading sites from D6 to D7 is a requirement for Drupal 7 to be released so it shouldn't be too painful (don't quote me ;) ) to upgrade at some point in the future.
Hope this helps.
Gotta have Views
I didn't realize that Views might not be ready -- that would be a deal breaker for me.
I've searched around the drupal site for a concise list of what to expect with D7, but haven't found it. So, thanks for your help.
Actually...
...Views is 'ready' to the point that it's quite usable to this point. One major thing is missing currently though: Field API integration. In Drupal 6 you could create Views of the Fields you attached to various content types. This isn't possible (yet) in Drupal 7.
Also, what do you mean by "what to expect"? A Changelog?
Re: Actually....
By "what to expect," I want to know what will be new and different in Drupal 7. For example, in your earlier comment you referred to some awesome new things. Where can I read about them? Is there a list of the awesomeness somewhere? Maybe I just don't know where to look for this information -- I still getting used to navigating around drupal.org.
Thanks to you all for your patient helpfulness. I like this community.
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Yes drupal.org can be quite a monster to tame sometimes.
Here you go:
http://drupal.org/drupal-7.0-alpha1