I am the IT manager at a local manufacturing company. Our company has negligible web devlopment skills. Our current website http://www.argen.com was developed by an outside company about 5 years ago with a content management system called Cactus. Our senior management is not happy with the limited capabilites to change the content and format of the website. We feel we are forced to stay with the developers who origianlly created it.
We have heard from several sources that Drupal is a good tool to create and manage a website. We are not ready to redesign our website, but would like to move it to a different platform like Drupal that would give us more control and flexibility in the furture. Is moving an existing site to a new content management system feasible? What are the factors to consider in making this decision?
I appreciate your comments.
Thanks,
Craig Dahlberg
The Argen Corporation
Comments
site conversion
Hey Craig,
How big a project migrating a site is depends on many variables. There are basically two methods: moving the data from one database to another, or creating xml or rss feeds from the exisiting site and then letting the new drupal site "consume" them. A more detailed answer would require a lot more info about what db your cactus cms is using and what feed publishing capabilities it has. Also a look-see at file and image handling methods.
feasibility
Hi drwestki, do you have links to any good articles or tutorials on how to move a site using method you mention - rss, xml ?
to the original question:
I would first look at how much growth is expected. If you expect to add a lot of new content and functions, then switching away from an inefficient system can save a lot of development and labor (content creation, administration) costs in the long run. I poured in a lot of energy into a proprietary e-commerce system using MS techonlogy. Later I realized I could've saved a lot of trouble and time if I had switched to Drupal sooner (although it didn't seem that way when I was bashing my head trying to learn Drupal).
However, if you don't expect much growth, then often leaving things as they are is the best policy, in my opinion, as long as the code is secure and not vulnerable to hackers, which really requires active support by the developers of the code. I am wary of even upgrading existing Drupal sites to higher versions because chance of having to do a lot of work to get the site to display and function as it did before i.e. modules you need might not be available, site templates have to be redone, etc.
site conversion
Craig,
Your migration task is two-fold rather than merely the translation step outlined above. In this case, the site's content is well within the copy-and-paste migrate technique for an afternoon of a temp computer user (it's not MTV.com or a decade of multiple users blogging...) Ask a student at SDSU to look at it for their dissertation or summer intern position!
As well as translating and migrating the structure for the data and the data to Drupal if you do decide to convert there will need to be a site build stage and that process is involved! Namely, that Drupal will need to be built to host your site and the content of it; that each graphical resource, each layout, navigation widgets, entries in menus, required internal content types etc will need to be built. To do that a selection of modules will need to be configured (possible one may need to be custom written to capture the metal pricing feed) and a theme will need to be created, integrated or installed, and finally customized. Once that happens, you can then have users trained and administered to 'Drupal' your new site.
The closest analogy is remake, much more so than migrate. Because of that, ask further what benefits a Drupal version of your site will bring.
IMHO, I would recommend hiring an expert consultant and having them bid to rebuild into D7 at fixed cost (make have Aquia bid for it against Achieve here in SD) if you identify specific benefits, then weigh the cost of spending to convert it against what you are told you'll get for your money
Agree with tzoben. The site
Agree with tzoben.
The site can easily be migrated using copy-paste method. Even the Jewelry sister site.
However, the project should not be a simple migration. I believe it's a NEW drupal design/installation. The process should take into consideration the future growth of the site/company.
I would think this would not be a big enough project for the larger Drupal shops to take on. I imagine this is a fairly small and quick job.
.Sam.
Thanks
I want to thank everyone who responded. I might not have today to continue this discussion. But I definitely will as soon as I can....
Thanks again,
Craig
Double Post...
*** not sure how to delete***
I want to thank everyone who responded. I might not have today to continue this discussion. But I definitely will as soon as I can....
Thanks again,
Craig
Converting to Drupal
All the points are well made. Our company is currently trying to answer all the questions posed: copy vs redo, future needs, cost, resources, etc...
In our industry and position in the suppliy chain, the digital presence and integration with customers and suppliers is not clearly defined or standardized. We may not know for several years what we need to do via the web. My current charge is to position us in a robust envronment that enables flexibility to meet future needs. Can I argue that converting/redoing our current website into a Drupal envrionment will accompish this?
I will appreciate your comments.
Craig
Rebuilding, possibly with Drupal...
Quick answer Craig because your question is very much in the same area as the one that first bought our company to Drupal. Rebuilding with a useable Content Management System (CMS) is easy to argue for, the case is simply, "I need to be able to edit the site's content and focus our image/market/customer base more affordably." Drupal isn't the only good CMS out there but arguable is the most powerful.
You will rebuild, that's for sure! Rebuilding into Wordpress will be easier, as will Concrete5, as would be Joomla for the learning curve with Drupal. But if you're paying for it a good Drupal house will get you something which in those years to come will be waaay more flexible for you to adapt to the web and customer demographic you yet foresee. That's what TZO have done, and it's just about to start to paying off.
Pay for a good Drupal 7 (not 6 for reasons of futureproofing) version of your current site and the adaptability of the module system, theme system and content admin system, the best out there, will be ready to go. 2/3yrs from now D7 should still be in good standing and able to be modified to whatever will have that 'new-web-smell' - it IS the best CMS as far as that goes too - the lead in you discuss is a rare planning timeline as most would just wait. Cactus must be awful, get some bids in! Take care to explain you want BOTH development and themeing!
Why Drupal?
Dear Craig:
I'm currently at Capital Camp in Washington DC and the WhiteHouse.gov CTO was the keynote speaker this morning and he had to answer the same hard questions you are facing. As you can imagine, the government sector views change with a suspicious eye and open source even more so. They were able to onboard Drupal as a framework for these reasons:
Your organization has specific fears and objections they would like answers to:
I do Drupal strategy consulting that helps companies move from their platform into Drupal. Let me know if you would like to chat more about your project. Best wishes in any case and we're all glad you're considering Drupal.
Susan | Better modules through revenue-share: Crafted, Curated, Contributed