By Julien PHAM on

Hi,

I have to build a new website. What I wonder is if I'll use the 6.x or the 7.x version. I know the 7th one is only in development, but my website will not be in production before several months.

So your guess? Better use 6.x and upgrade to 7th later? Or start with the 7th one now?

Thanks

⋅ Categories: Drupal 7.x

Comments

dman’s picture

dman commented

http://drupal.org/handbook/version-info

.dan.
if you are asking a question you think should be documented, please provide a link to the handbook where you think the answer should be found.
| http://www.coders.co.nz/ |

.dan. is the New Zealand Drupal Developer working on Government Web Standards

Julien PHAM’s picture

Julien PHAM commented

Thanks I'll then use the drupal 6.x version...

zilla’s picture

zilla commented

last winter d6 was announced, and it was rolling by early 08 - but modules took a long, long time to catch up - in fact, just this month organic groups, views and ckk continue in beta or near-final release stages only, not final stage yet - and while they're working quite well, there are still tons of folks hanging on to d5 because all sorts of other modules aren't here yet for d6 (lots of image stuff, lots of other stuff that hinges on views or cck etc)

i'd say go with d6 - everything great is ready, and every major module is quite well supported - i also suspect that the transition from 6 to 7 will be very , very different from 5 to 6 (meaning much, much easier for module developers and themers)

oh, and acquia.com raised all that money for work around d6 commercial implementation and support services in case you're looking for validation of the most sustainable current platform - and they're also working on d7 so you can be sure that you'll know when it's ready for testing...

........................................................................
i love to waste time: http://twitter.com/passingnotes

HansBKK’s picture

HansBKK commented

But I'm sticking with D5 for now. Because I'm not capable of helping to drive any development forward, I wouldn't even think about D7 now except for learning/playing/experimentation. So the choice should IMHO for us mere mortals be between D5 and D6.

I use the term DrupALL to including not only the core Drupal, but the say 100 most important modules, many of which most sites will need for full functionality. DrupALL being ready for production doesn't happen for a significant length of time after the core Drupal ships as stable. Many people think the current (D5 to D6) transition has taken a longer amount of time than it will in the future, but of course that remains to be seen.

The two main factors I've identified that IMO should drive the decision of what version to use are:

  • Level of the developer's Drupal experience and PHP/MySQL expertise - if lower, stick with the more fully developed version, lots more documentation and end-user base of experience to help out in the online support areas.
  • How well defined is the functionality/feature set of the site to be developed? The less so, the more likely there are to be modules that work with the more fully developed version that will give you what you (don't yet know you will) want. If you're in the lucky situation of knowing exactly how the site will work, then you only need to do research to make sure there are stable versions of the appropriate modules shipping

For my situation, DrupALL 6 will probably be ready over the next few months, but since it will take me time to get up to speed on the differences from D5, test things out, look for D6 modules to give me functionality of my D5 modules that haven't got D6 versions yet etc., I reckon D7 will be shipping stable about the same time I start to upgrade from D5 to D6.

I honestly don't think I'm being too conservative here, and I know such an approach is considered the only way to go in corporate environments.

For more details (but mostly rant-repetition) on my rationale, http://drupal.org/node/264495

Wolfflow’s picture

Wolfflow commented

++1 for "Maybe I'm radically conservative" great feedback.

My 2cent : Drupal 6 contains a lot of improvements but will be almost fully qualified for live sites when the most important contrib.modules are all out of beta and RCs (Release Candidates). So starting with version 5 is best
to get confident and experiment on local base.

:-)

____________________________________________________________________
If you look at word and nouns you do not clearly understand
take a look at Common Terminology
if is missing feel free to post a comment - ;-)

Contact me for drupal projects in English, German, Italian, Drupal Hosting Support.

drupalnutt’s picture

drupalnutt commented

This is simply a quick question to all who have a moment to share. In the post that this is a reply to HansBKK refers to a 100 most important modules in drupal 5 and/or 6. Since it is close to 1 year later now, I am curious as to what the more informed of us might consider to be the 100 or just the more important or 'core crucial', if you will, modules available for Drupal 5/6 may well be. Possibly even 'morphing' into a running list or even rating system, in terms to be defined as it goes along, for the modules. More info could only help...if it's not overkill.
Thanx to all in advance