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By Sownn on
Drupal is hard to beginner.
I think one of the big problem is the common Modules have bugs.
I tried some modules on Drupal 6, it do not work, but on Drupal 5 is ok. (they are released, not beta, dev. version)
for professional programmer, they know how to fix it. but the beginner have not ideas.
I used Wordpress too and I have not face such problem.
and when I read Wordpress docs, I understand what they said.
on Drupal docs, always missing some parts and not up to date.
what do you think ? and how do you learn Drupal, share your experience, thanks.
Comments
Which modules are you
Which modules for drupal 6.x do not work for you?
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http://classicvinyl.biz
http://music.bwv810.com
http://davidhertzberg.com
http://association.drupal.org/user/1207
I am a writer, researcher and solo drupal freelancer
If you're only building a
If you're only building a blog, then Wordpress could be a better choice for you. I use Drupal to build enterprise web sites that can do many things, and for this Drupal is the best I've ever seen. It does have a learning curve, but it also offers more features.
learning curve
There's no doubt about it, Drupal has a long learning curve and it's getting longer all the time. Admins can expect to spend several weeks getting a handle on all of Drupal's functionality and configuration options. Developers should expect to spend 3-6 months of active development learning the fundamentals of Drupal's API. And this assumes they're already proficient in PHP/MySQL.
Drupal is very powerful, but with that power comes bloat and overhead. Wordpress is light and relatively less flexible, but just might be a better fit for your needs.
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"The sting in any rebuke is the truth." - Benjamin Franklin
> I think one of the big
> I think one of the big problem is the common Modules have bugs.
I find that whilst each individual script works ok with the core, it is when you try to get 20 modules all working together that it tends to fall apart - problem, after problem, after problem. And a work-around for one problem breaks something else, and the workaround for that breaks something else...
I've been going round in circles, 3 hours a day for three months. Fair enough, it's going to be a large, complex site, and if it is every finished it will be able to do more stuff than a site built with joomla or e107, but what time and effort its taking to produce!
And for weeks I haven't felt as though I've moved forward with it at all - I've been trying to solve the larger problems, but have had to leave many of them unsolved and move on to the next ones. This really is a nightmare experience that I didn't bargain for from reading about Drupal in June.
There is no doubt about it; this is a CMS/CMF for professionals who know php and js. There is a multitude of problems that are probably easy to solve if you know how to script, but will prevent you from building a moderate site if you don't.
I think part of your pain
I think part of your pain maybe do to the timing of your discovery of drupal-- it sounds like it was right in the middle of the painful d6 upgrade cycle (which i've been told by knowledgeable people was completely atypical).
I found drupal between d5 stability and way before d6 release. In other words i started working with drupal when d5 was already rock solid and all the modules i ever even looked at had already been updated. I have about 80 modules installed (yes i know, a lot, lol) on my d5 sites and i did not experience anywhere near the pain i've seen you struggle with in the forums. I think only a handful of times a module i installed threw an error and I always managed to find the solution either from the module's issue queue or by searching d.o.
In contrast, my experience with joomla was exactly how you describe your experience with drupal-- only most of the time i never did solve the problems. That's was caused me to investigate drupal more closely.
There's no question there's a steep learning curve and it most certainly helps to know php/mysql (js is debatable, its nice, but not really necessary imo). I'm not sure exactly what i'm trying to say, lol. I guess-- take heart, I don't think your struggles are a permanent cost of business to use drupal.
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"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." - Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." - Ben Franklin
"Search is your best friend." - Worldfallz
upgrade troubles
another big issue is how hard it is to upgrade an existing drupal installation to a newer major release.
that's when the learning curve goes just about vertical.
Sure there is documentation and lots of tips & tricks but it simply should be easier. Run an 'upgrade.php' script
that downloads the required files (themes and modules as well!) and warns you about any potential
incompatibilities.
We have 1100+ hosted drupal sites right now and upgrading that is going to be a nightmare. Already I've
found out that half the modules from 5.x that we need are not supported and more than half of the
themes that we selected are not available under 6. It's simply too hard to stay 'current'.
I am still wondering which
I am still wondering which modules posed a problem for the original poster......
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http://classicvinyl.biz
http://music.bwv810.com
http://davidhertzberg.com
http://association.drupal.org/user/1207
I am a writer, researcher and solo drupal freelancer
I submited them to project
I submited them to project issues page