By czarphanguye on

Could someone (perhaps users of either/or) explain the differences and or Pros/Cons of DrupalTin Vs. DrupalVB.

My scenario is to merge an existing Drupal Powered site (w/ plenty of content & user) with an existing VB forum (again with plenty of users & forum topics). What's the route others have taken?

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

Acert93’s picture

Acert93 commented

Right now Drupaltin doesn't have an official release on the Drupal site (I believe they are waiting for their v.2 release coming very soon) and is for Drupal 5.x only. I am not sure about the differences in the innerworkings of the two modules, but I do know the Drupaltin developer is busy on the project and is great at getting back with feedback. The DrupalVB has a 4.7 and 5.x version.

You may want to chat with both. I haven't chatted with the DrupalVB guys... it would be nice if there could be some convergance. Having to VB modules, unless doing radically different things, results in segmentation. Having 1 module with multiple developers would, in a perfect world, result in more updates and development and support.

There is also an altered branch of Drupal/VB out there, but I wouldn't suggest that.

I am currently stuck on 4.7 until a few modules mature to v5 -- and migrate my Flexinodes, if possible, to CCK. I have been impressed to Jordan's work on Drupaltin though, so I have been wondering if I should jump on DrupalVB myself OR go with Drupaltin. There is also an SMF module out there, although it is newer. And with any such script communication and prognosis of support is very important.

czarphanguye’s picture

czarphanguye commented

Acert93, thank you for your feedback. I also feel that using vBDrupal is yet adding another hurdle in module compatibility. While I have opened this topic here are some of the differences (I believe) that have been noticed--while waiting for additional comments.

* Drupaltin moved vB_Users into Drupal while DrupalVB moves Drupal_Users into VB. I imagine Drupaltin found a way to strip the MD5+Salt?
* Drupaltin notes that he has no feedback regarding moving vB_Users into Drupal WITH existing users. Any feedback? This is a bit scary, yet I've seen little/no feedback on DrupalVB.
* Drupaltin has both a vB module AND a Drupal Modules. DrupalVB is standalone.
* Drupaltin does require various hard-coded tweaks, which may have issues down the road. DrupalVB Doesn't
* Drupaltin requires the lock-down of drupal's profile module/user edit.
* Drupaltin is well documented. DrupalVB, where's the documents?
* Drupaltin allows forum to be on a sub-domain, don-no about DrupalVB.
* DrupalVB has a local project, useful with Update_Status Module in Update alert.
* Drupaltin has been recently updated, DrupalVB is almsot five months old.

Again.. ANY feedback on these are appreciated as both Drupal and vB has an upward of 20k users registered at each and a single log-in is going to be wonderful.

Acert93’s picture

Acert93 commented

It would be great to get some dialogue between the two teams going -- if not only for the purpose to outline:

A. How their projects are different; and

B. The direction they envision for their future project development.

Maybe they could contribute to a thread and outline such things -- and then note them in their Module Download section? That could alleviate some confusion :)

Acert93’s picture

Acert93 commented

Hi czarphanguye,

I decided to contact the two vBullitent-Drupal teams and get their input. Hopefully we can get some discussion here and this could be filtered down to the their module pages in regards to basic differences and what needs/limitations they cater to as well as future development goals. Both products look really good. Btw, you were right when you said that Drupaltin has nice documentation! Jordan of Drupaltin is also very active in support which has really impressed me. I am currently on 4.7 and debating Drupaltin, Drupal vB, and the SMF solution... Drupaltin being 5.0 only has had me "pause" to see how their v.2 solution will be (which will be listed at Drupal.org) before I make a decision. 5.0 migration will be pretty tough for me as a large chunk of content is on Flexinode nodes and UserReview is still stuck on 4.7. So I wait... hoping all the module differences and features get fleshed out :)

Hello,

I just wanted to alert the developers to a general question on the Drupal forums about this module. It is GREAT that the DrupalVB team have created a project to address the forum/community issues Drupal has--major kudos! Yet there are a number of threads on the forums where people have been discussing, "Which module should I use?" The basic questions are:

1. What is the current status of the module? Active development & support? A new release shortly? On hold?

2. What is the future of the module? Any planned feature improvements or additions? Any plans in regards to documentation?

3. Also, what are the functional and implimentation differences between Drupaltin and DrupalVB? Any chance of the projects merging for more focused development?

While I know these sort of questions are not a priority, they have come up a couple times and I know the answers would be very helpful for a number of us looking to "hitch our CMS" to a specific solution. When you tie your community website to a specific platform and community contributed module solution you want to make sure you selected a product that will have a long life :)

Thanks for your time and excellent product!

I look forward to hearing the various responses :) It is really great that we are seeing developers take an active role in trying to bridge the Drupal community features to more robust forum/bbs solutions as the Drupal forums are lacking--and require a lot of modules (hence updating, upgrading, and hoping they contnue being supported) to get a solution that is passable for communities more familiar with a more robust suite of tools and features.

Acert93’s picture

Acert93 commented

Just a small update, but I have heard back from Jordan in regards to Drupaltin (like I said, great support!) and he has noted the questions in threads and will be writing up a page to answer the questions above and other questions people have about the Drupaltin project. Until then quite a bit of information can be found on the Drupaltin Forums, Drupaltin Handbook, and Drupaltin Blog. For a new module it really has a lot of information available.

Here is the thread where I posed similar questions to the Drupal vB crew yesterday.

fhelmschrott’s picture

fhelmschrott commented

Hey,

i appreciate your actions as i'm right before some new projects where drupal integration with a more complex forum system like the internal one will be needed.

Are there any news regarding getting the team heads together? I guess drupalVb isn't really active anymore so there won't be too much to get together. Thanks for the hint to drupaltin - i didn't know that so far. i'll give it test and join the discussion over there.

czarphanguye’s picture

czarphanguye commented

All I can say is that I'v given up on the vB + Drupal approach. No replies to the above and combining my site w/ 10k users and a vB forum with 10k users equaled utter disaster. Logging issues and duplicate users spawned all over vBulletin not to mention the complete feeling of detachment from the primary site. Perhaps with a fresh install of Drupal and an existing forum? I dunno... My route ending up using PHPBB2Drupal (Convert vB to PHPBB, then Convert PHPBB to Drupal). Simple enough and now everything is well.

I'd love to hear any success story.

About Drupaltin, I did not try this module as it was not offered as a Drupal module (at the time) and I do not agree with making any core changes... this typically equals disaster when upgrade time comes and say the dev is off on a trip.

hjmaier’s picture

hjmaier commented

I have Drupaltin for Drupal 5.x running: http://www.midgard-forum.de/cms

The user integration works fine. There is only a change in two vBulletin templates needed to get it running. So, no core changes to Drupal and vBulletin.

For my site it is not a problem, but it might be an issue for you, that currently it is not possible to see things like PNs from vBulletin while navigating thru Drupal.

Best regards
hj

fnikola’s picture

fnikola commented

Is anyone else running a Drupaltin - Drupal install successfully? Like everyone else I'm looking for the best solution to integrate Drupal with vBulletin in order to take advantage of vBulletin's superior forum features over the default Drupal forums.

drupalina’s picture

drupalina commented

Hi,

I'm slightly confused.

Is DrupalVB same as vbDrupal?

Though Drupaltin seems to be a cleaner project (in the sense that it is not messing with Drupal Core), I'm not sure if it has everything that one would expect from a fully integrated system -- I mean not only features like single Login and Password, but also Private Messaging and all the featuers that VB offers, while at the same time having the forum properly integrated withing the beneral website with all the useual sidebars (just like the ordinary Drupal forum). I don't think Drupaltin allows for more then a the generic header at the top of the VB forum (i.e. no sidebars). [of course, correct me if I'm wrong]

I need a forum solution for a Social Network site so that each group has it's own forum (which the group members will be able to fully customise in terms of permissions and themes). Each of these groups will also have their own calendars or their upcoming events. Does Drupaltin allow for this? Alternatively, can someone point me is the right direction?

convergent’s picture

convergent commented

DrupalVB and vbDrupal are not the same. I think that vbDrupal does most of the things you are looking for. It seems like the best approach if you already have a big busy forum and want to add Drupal, because it uses vBulletin's user system as the main source, vs. the other way around. There is a good comparison of the three vBulletin to Drupal solutions here... http://www.vbdrupal.org/vbulletin_drupal_integration_matrix

vidmarc’s picture

vidmarc commented

http://www.vbdrupal.org/forum/showthread.php?p=8431#post8431

Change log
vbDrupal 5.8.0, 2008-07-10
--------------------------
- added the securitytoken field to the vbpoll module (t:1595)
- merged changes from Drupal 5.8

Drupal 5.8, 2008-07-09
----------------------
- fixed a variety of small bugs.
- fixed security issues, (Cross site scripting, cross site request forgery, and session fixation), see SA-2008-044

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cult Movie Forums