First of all, I have searched but surprisingly could not find the answers to my questions though I hope you guys don't mind (I could have missed them, it is early in the morning and I can't sleep :P).
Right now I am pissed off at Joomla due to many random bugs and the forums being totally worthless for getting support. I have looked into Drupal (and the community) and so far have been impressed with what I have seen. So I have a few questions about converting my Game fan-site (www.libraryofrage.net) from Joomla to Drupal.
Before I begin I want to say that I am an experienced php programmer, however since my site is just a volunteer fansite (which I make no money off of) I don't want to spend an extreme amount of effort to get my site back to the state that it is now with the only difference being the backend.
1) My main concern is transferring users. The site documentation I found on migration talks about transferring content from Joomla to Drupal but nothing about the users. I would prefer if users did not have to recreate their accounts, nor their passwords. Also, while I have read that SMF (the forum software I am currently using on my site) can be used in Drupal, will the accounts still be mapped between the two if I choose to have SMF integrated with Drupal (I am currently happy with SMF and would rather keep from totally switching forum software without a good reason)? (fyi, right now the SMF forums are inside of my joomla layout and I would prefer to have it be the same with Drupal)
2) I have added quite a bit of content to the site through making my own Joomla components. However, I have designed them so that the most joomla functionality that they use is really just the mosGetParam() function, and the option variable. It shouldn't be hard then to convert the plugins to drupal plugins correct?
3) The site's current template is a modified version of another template (silver something, can't remember off the top of my head but I can find out easily enough). While I do know a lot of php, I suck horribly at designing my own layouts. The template right now is pretty standard layout (code wise). Will it pretty much just be a matter of replacing the function calls like mosMainBody() to DrupalBody() or will it be more complicated to convert my template over?
I plan to add a lot of external functionality to my site and from what I have been reading Drupal seems perfect for this (though I have a bit more reading to be 100% sure). I am just hoping that it won't be too difficult to transition to Drupal if I choose to.
Thanks!
--KallDrexx
Comments
A few reactions
Hi Kalldrexx,
Take all of my advice with several grains of salt. Some things to be aware of:
If you've got decent PHP/MySQL chops, you should be able to move at least account basics. One tactic for this sort of thing that I've often used:
1. Use PHP to query your Joomla DB and echo back a raft of "INSERT INTO " statements for the various tables at play. The code can be very quick and dirty - you're essentially running a one time job. The SQL joins may got long, but it's all very doable.
2. Once you have a page of INSERT INTO (and UPDATE) statements, test them for thoroughness (and test and retest) in a sandbox environment. With something like this you'll probably won't get the code perfect the first time out and you should plan on restoring your test environment several times while you work out all the necessary tables/joins/structures.
3. If all the user info you're looking for is in SMF and you plan to keep it in SMF in Drupal, all of this should be simpler.
Do you have specific examples? What kinds of data/modules/functionality are you looking for. It's quite possible that the Drupal equivalents already exist or are accessed in completely different ways...
You're in luck. Drupal is extremely themable and as long as you've got the CSS and HTML worked out, you should be able to quickly grasp the templating system and port your theme. Some useful links:
Troubleshoot your theme
Theme developer's guide
Drew Gorton
Gorton Studios
Some of our Drupal Sites
If you've got decent
My main concern is if passwords are done the same through both CMS' so I don't have to have everyone reset their password. Though I admittedly do not know much about password systems (in general) and how the CMS to CMS converters out there handle passwords.
Most of my custom modules I have written for my fansite are more along the lines of a db-based skill listing for the skills in the game, a guild modules (guilds can put their information up there), and I have some other game-specific module ideas for when the game gets closer to release. The only thing I could think of that would have already been made is the guild listing, but I did a quick search around and couldn't find anything.
Great thanks :)
After doing more research (mostly on SMF) I am mostly still debating what to do. I don't want to totally just go to a new forum system that is radically different then the one I am utilizing now (especially since all user posts will be gone and the forum will be empty), but I am hesitant to use SMF due to there not being (as far as I know) a reliable bridge between the two login systems (writing a script is all fine and good but I also need an automatic way for new users to propagate to both systems), and I am also hesitant to use a forum system that isn't seamlessly integrated in the site. I'm going to work on setting up the site and see how happy I am with drupal forums.
Thanks for taking the time to write a response! :)
*edit: one last question as well. Is there a module or anything allowing users to have a different Display name than their login name (for privacy). I tried looking in the modules section but didn't see anything.
one last question as well.
for Drupal 5, i don't know if these modules are updated yet. You don't say which version of Drupal you are installing.
Drupal 4.7 has the authorship module which allows users to use whatever name they want to submit content.
I'm evaluating drupal 5.0
I'm evaluating drupal 5.0 since that is the latest.
Few other items
Yes - I thought about this after writing my response. You'll need them to use the same password encryption - Drupal uses MD5 - which is pretty standard. If you're current passwords are also in MD5 (plausible) or unencrypted (unlikely), you should be able to move over without a hitch. (Be careful with character encodings, though, as you move between platforms).
Ok - I understand the genre even if I'm still murky on the specifics. You might want to look into things like CCK and Views - they're almost universally useful in most sites and might be applicable here.
Drew Gorton
Gorton Studios
Some of our Drupal Sites
Ok - I understand the genre
Wow thanks a lot! After looking at those that could be an even easier, if not better solution then what I would have done! Thanks, Drupal is looking quite well right now to me. Now I just have to learn the templating to convert my template (or find one similiar) and I'll be golden (just haven't had much time to do more then skim the docs) :)
*edit* damn, the more I look at drupal the more I wish I found out about it earlier, especially for my other project I have been working on.
Yeah...
That's a common reaction. We like programming, and there's a certain joy to writing from scratch -- but it's so hard to find a use case that isn't well suited to a Drupal implementation -- you just get so much out of the box and great extensibility to boot...
Drew Gorton
Gorton Studios
Some of our Drupal Sites
English?
Hi Guys
I am trying to migrate joomla to drupal aswell but I do lack some of the skills and understanding. Is there a step by step guide to doing the user migration? Just a lil something more to get me on the right path.
Thanks
...
If you mean a cookie cutter approach to migrating data, then there really isn't one single way. There are write ups on various peoples experiences in the handbook that can help serve as a guide.
http://drupal.org/node/271
As to which is better for you to use? That's a question each implementor needs to ask them self so that what they build is maintainable for them and serves their needs.
-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain
-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide
An update - transferring users
I just had a situation in which I needed to move about 1200 users from one CMS system to Drupal and happily discovered User Import. It worked beautifully and has decent documentation to boot. If you're not already well past this point, you might want to give it a try yourself.
Drew Gorton
Gorton Studios
Some of our Drupal Sites
Joomla to Drupal user conversion example
Here's a working example of converting Joomla users to Drupal 5.x.
http://drupal.org/node/214022