April Meeting: Multi-domain, Multi-lingual Drupal 6 & DC Roundup

In my opinion two reasons. One is to know what types of projects Drupal is good for, it's certainly not a one size fits all solution for all use cases. E.g., Imagine developing Twitter using Drupal. Possible, yes. Wise choice, I don't think so. Two, even if using Drupal, it's important to keep in mind it's weaknesses.

I actually submitted a proposal for OS Bridge along these lines, "Drupal, what is it good for ...".

Also, it's just a darn entertaining presentation; James is a great speaker.

I'm in the middle on this one (though I suspect I'm really in complete agreement with mikey_p). On the one hand, I'm fed up with all the "drama" panel titles at tech conferences that lure you in with a BS sales-pitch title and then turn out to be dull and never live up to the hype, or are misleading and turn out to be about something else entirely. This is no surprise because they are really just another kind of lie. They should just say what the damned panel is about and quit the BS. On the other hand Walkah is a known commodity and deeply entrenched in the Drupal community. Further, I believe Joomla and Plone are also excellent CMS and there are other up-and-comers. I also think Wordpress is leading on the usability front. For most of us we have to pick one and I think Drupal is the best overall, but we should never be blind to its limitations. There's no such thing as the perfect CMS and certainly no such thing as the perfect CMS for any particular organization. And there never will be. The more you know about the limitations of the tool/s you use, the better you can work around them, overcome them... or fix them (hey, that's the real secret of Drupal right there).

It should also be remembered that Drupal 7 is going to fix a lot of the usability issues within Drupal. You could argue that usability is the biggest focus of Drupal 7. To quote the Wikipedia Drupal article (hehe, yes I'm going to), "According to Dries Buytaert, Drupal 7 won't be released until 90% of the [usability] problems identified by the University of Minnesota and the University of Baltimore are solved." Quite a change from the approaches of before and a sign that they're taking this very seriously.

Here's the current criticism section of the Drupal article, and remember that Wikipedia is just another publicly-editable wiki, so if you feel that the criticism or the article are incomplete then simply edit it and add what you think needs to be there (though it is a "pedia" too, so it's not subjective and you may need references).

Criticism

• Usability: Some aspects of Drupal's administration interface can be confusing and intimidating, particularly for new administrators. According to the Interaction Design and Information Architecture program at the University of Baltimore, Drupal lacks an intuitive, easy administration user interface. The administration area is regarded as clunky and cryptic with Drupal version 5 and 6, but improved ease of use is planned with the upcoming version 7. According to Dries Buytaert, Drupal 7 won't be released until 90% of the problems identified by the University of Minnesota and the University of Baltimore are solved. Usability will be one of the main improvements in Drupal 7 that will close the gap with easier CMSs.
• Learning curve: Drupal may be powerful, but it is also complex. The key is overcoming its steep initial learning curve. Most casual users are willing to sacrifice features for ease of use making Drupal less popular than more user-friendly CMSs despite its enhanced functionality.
• Backward Compatibility: Drupal is constantly changing and it is a tenet of the design team that backward compatibility be avoided if it hinders new features or even the aesthetics of the code. Often version changes (even at the minor digit) are not compatible with the previous version. This means that Drupal developers may be required to re-work all of their previous code. However, from an end-user perspective, while the programmatic internals of Drupal may drastically change, Drupal Web sites themselves should be automatically upgraded in newer versions and continue to run seamlessly with minimal administrator involvement.