Porting module from one CMS to Drupal

For the last 4 months I have been developing my website and of course throughout this period I have gone through a number of changes. In the beginning I started with a static HTML design but later changed it to dynamic and just use the initial design much as an outline.

After making the switch to dynamic, I then started the big debate of Joomla or Drupal. On one side of the table we have a large support community with fairly consistent documentation (Joomla) whereas on the other side as far as I can see we have plenty of documentation but almost no support. All over the place I see people asking for help, only to have their questions blown off or completely ignored as if Drupal was a protected CMS that would require you to pay $100/mo for any support.

Unfortunately, while working with Joomla, I found exactly what I need but backwards compatibility plainly sucks.

Basically my website will have 12 sections, 10 of those are news sections and I will get to the remaining 2 in a minute. The 10 news sections are then divided into more then 90 categories, all of which have to be maintained and of course we cannot forget that they also need to be able to be commented on by users. In Joomla, for this yo would need version 1.5 if you were going to have a large website for the fact that Joomla is a CPU and bandwidth hog. By going with 1.5, yo are reducing database queries and the like.

Now the actual problem comes with the remaining 2 sections. The first section is that of a forum. In Joomla there are a number of choices, however most are not what I am needing. What does look good is phpBB being ported to Joomla, however this is only viable with phpBB2 and only in Joomla 1.0

The second section is a link directory complete with the ability for users to submit links, descriptions as well as other pertinent information. There are two choices for this, going with mosets tree for version 1.5 which is a $100 option, or going with SOBI2 which is free. However the choice was obvious because unlike mosets tree, I can clone SOBI2 and add multiple directories to the same Joomla install. However much like the forum issue, SOBI2 is only designed for 1.0

However, one of my biggest issues is bandwidth and resource usage to which Drupal wins hands down. Furthermore in the case of building a community once again Drupal wins this hands down which only gives me the option of finding a way to get what I need in Drupal, or spending thousands a month for dedicated servers with load balancing to do the same thing Drupal can do on a single server.

Unfortunately an offer to pay for services has never worked out because of the fact that no one is ever wanting to make money I guess. As a result, I am having to set back my entire project by at least half a year to learn Drupal globals and write my own custom modules.

I have fond everything I need so far in Drupal except for one, which is the one thing that no one who already knows about Drupal seems to care about or is willing to share. In order to save myself time, I would like to port a Joomla component into Drupal. Keep in mind that in Joomla, SOBI2 is a component which works at a core level.

Unfortunately as a component it also includes a bunch of files, some of which I do not even need:

category.class.php
field.class.php
payment.class.php (don't really need this, but if I am going to port the program, others may want it)
sobi2.class.php
sobi2.listing.php
form.class.php
sobi2.php
sobi2.entry.php
axsearch.class.php
config.class.php
frontend.class.php
sobi2.cache.class.php
sobi2.html.php

These files also reqest a language file, languages/default.php or languages/english.php

You then have /images however this part really should not even matter because it is a given and since the images are not codes, then there should not be an issue.

However, with this component, on the admin side it gets a bit complicated, you have the ability to assign nested categories to an infinite level all of which are then stored on the database. You are able to set up a custom form with your own variables, all of which is stored on the database. You can also add an image gallery to each listing as well as the ability to download files and force a javascript pop-up requiring agreement to a license before the download can be completed. But of course the most important part is the ability for members to submit comments and reviews to each listing in the directory.

So I guess the real question is to whether I am barking up the wrong tree or not. Should I put forth the effort to try and port an already good thing, is there a way to do all the things listed previously (keep in mind that before I even posted this I spent several weeks trying to find the answer to these already but to no avail) in Drupal without having to port, or is there even a module that is for sale that allows this.

I know it is completely possible, the biggest example of such is drupalmodules.com, unfortunately the only response he is willing to give is months and months of work, so as far as I am concerned it wold be a complete waste of time to even ask to purchase his custom module. I just need something that functions in a similar manner, and seeing as though I am already more then 6 months behind schedule I might as well waste another 6 months porting SOBI2 to Drupal.

Now I state porting it, because unfortunately when it comes to writing PHP, well I suck, but hacking it has never been an issue plainly because it is just plainly find and replace. In which case porting wold simply be find and replace and hope that it all works in the end.

But seriously, it is no wonder why more people turn away from Drupal for other CMS like Joomla, because everyone is paranoid about sharing. I actually find it funny when I see this, because it would make more sense to offer a module for sale rather then ignore someone's request for help. Likewise, I could hop over to the Joomla support form and get an actual answer regarding something within a day. I just hope I am wrong about these thoughts, but unfortunately for several weeks, I have been scouring this and other Drupal support style forums only to see post after post after post go unanswered, which is really interesting when you end p with 10 or 20 different people posting on that same exact thread also hoping for a response that will never come.

Even then, If someone is willing to take on the task of developing an opensource and fully functional directory module for drupal, I may be willing to give some support to it through my own website once I get it up and running. As it sits right now, I have already budgeted more then $250/mo in give-a-ways on the website to keep people coming to the site on a regular basis. It is just a shame that with as robust of a cms that Drupal is, so much in fact that people are continuously asking the Joomla team to develop version 2.0 with a node type structural, that of the few things that they have on this CMS, no one is willing to do or share.

Ok, my post is long enough and it has probably taken you 30 minutes to an hour to read it so I will stop now, I just hope that I can get some support or someone who is willing to create the module in question. Even at $50 per copy instead of free, there are more then enough people wanting this type of module that it would be more then worth the effort.

-Nick