I work with a non-profit organization who has just taken over control of its own web site after a few years of being run by a local bar (don't ask). We're looking at a complete redesign of the site (and by we, I really mean I). In particular, we're looking at the following key features.
- LDAP integration
- Mailing lists and/or newsletters
- Commerce, including merchandise, gift store, donations
- User profiles (possibly to showcase members, contributors, sponsors, etc.)
I'm curious to know what others' recommendations are — Drupal 6.x vs. 7.x, Commerce vs. Ubercart (or something else entirely?), etc. And speaking of commerce functionality, what about separate sites vs. one site? Could/should commerce functionality coexist peacefully with other content? Are there security implications of this?
We're pretty busy right now planning our festival, but afterward I fully intend to re-think our web presence, plan for and implement a redesign. This could be a great time to upgrade to 7.x, but I'm on the fence about its maturity and don't have many resources to devote to developing missing or not yet working functionality. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Comments
6 or 7
We're building a Drupal site for a NPO as we speak. We're totally Drupal 6 still. 7 isn't stable enough - not ready to use when a customer's business is counting on it. Gary
We just started a major 20
We just started a major 20 site project for a school district, and we're doing a Drupal 6 multi-site implementation.
But for our own company site, we will be using Drupal 7. Some of the modules aren't quite there yet, and I feel better about giving bug reports and helping them get there when its on our own site, and not a client's.
But if you're doing commerce stuff, I'd almost lean toward Drupal 7. Ubercart 2.0 keeps getting more annoying to use for some reason.
Commerce & Multi-Site
So would you recommend Drupal 7.x with Ubercart 3.0 over 6.x/2.0? We're actually using that now for a makeshift store that has virtually no customisation at this point, but after festival we will be rebuilding the site(s).
Also, speaking of multi-site, what are your thoughts on integrating the commerce functionality into the main site? We really don't have many "products", so to speak -- other than booth rentals and admission. I'm thinking this would be better if it were more tightly integrated with the regular site which will have information about the events.
I was leaning toward 7.x, myself, until I realized that modules exist to bring to 6.x much of the new functionality in 7.x that I like and probably increased stability, as well. But I'm also tempted to avoid a likely upgrade in the near future.
If you do Drupal 7, you need
If you do Drupal 7, you need to use Drupal Commerce. It has most of the momentum at this point.
I will agree with jazzdrive3,
I will agree with jazzdrive3, and I would consider this.
Is the site a mission critical site? When will the site need to launch?
If the site is mission critical and needs to be launched soon, then maybe you might want to stick with Drupal 6, however by the end of summer, hopefully more Drupal 7 modules will be out of dev, not to mention that most of the requirements you listed for your site will work in Drupal 7 without a problem.