I have been using Drupal as a framework for some web sites for a number of years and have more recently become interested in learning the inner workings, possibly as a vocation. My Drupal 6 site is behind the development curve and I am going to be upgrading it. As I put together a learning syllabus, based on some of the materials from the Acquia Front-End/Back-End developer certifications, I am curious as to whether in everyone's opinion there are still a lot of Drupal 6-based websites out there with companies that don't want to upgrade, and if it would be worth my time to learn Drupal 6, or whether I should jump right in to Drupal 7. My goal is to eventually be capable of doing some for-hire Drupal design and development work for individuals or companies.
Comments
Go with Drupal 7 and beyond
I would say that getting up-to-speed with Drupal 7 is the way to go. As far as supporting Drupal 6, you're best bet is not focusing on that version, but figuring out how to help people migrate off of it into version 7.
Good reasoning and rec
Thanks skowyra for your advice. With the Drupal 8 rollout looming, there certainly will be opportunity to help with migration for Drupal 6 sites. But ultimately as the technology moves forward, it would appear to be the best use of my time to concentrate on learning Drupal 7 and ultimately moving on to Drupal 8 for professional viability.
There is probably a lot of
There is probably a lot of Drupal 6 work out there, but I would not build a career on it. The company I work for supports over two dozen Drupal sites including several Drupal 6 sites. For the D6 sites we are either building a new site in D7 now or laying the ground work for a new site.
When Drupal 8 is released, official support for D6 will cease in three months.
While a compelling argument in and of itself, more compelling to the site owner is that their Drupal 6 site is probably dated.
Is it mobile friendly?
Does it reflect current branding and communication needs?
Is it keeping up with the competition?
I second skowyra and say, forge ahead with D7 and D8.
P.S. Much of what you learn about Drupal 7 development also applies to Drupal 6.
Michael Brooks
Director Project Management & Development
SNP Technologies, Inc.
http://www.snp.com
Thanks for your good advice Michael
I have spent a little time looking at Drupal 6 code, but luckily not enough to make changing over to learning Drupal 7 a hardship. Learning the Drupal 7 code will enable me to help upgrade Drupal 6 sites as well as work with the current version, and prepare myself to learn Drupal 8 as well.
Drupal 6 near end of life
When Drupal 8 is released, 6 months later (thanks to an extension on the support for Drupal 6) Drupal 6 will be end of life. Drupal 8 is currently in beta, which could mean release by the end of the year. We are in the process of moving all our sites away from Drupal 6. And we wouldn't be looking for developers with a Drupal 6 focus when we hire. I also don't think it would be a good idea to contract to build new sites in a version about to reach end of life.
Drupal 7 is a lot like Drupal 6 so focusing on Drupal 7 is a good career move.
Drupal 8 is really different, I'd personally wait on focusing on that although there will be a lot of interest in developers who are comfortable with it when it is released.
Time to move on to Drupal 7/8
Thanks for your input Gregg. Upgrading my own site from D6 to D7 will be a learning experience. At this point I don't have any custom modules, but I will be able to see the organizational differences in the code and presentation of the site.
I will go forward with learning D7 and keep my eye on the D8 development as well.
Drupal 6
As said by others here already, Drupal 6 is essentially dead. It's still an option, and a lot of us still have D6 sites that we have to maintain, but that's mainly due to lack of time or resources to upgrade to D7.
So I wouldn't waste a lot of time figuring out the inner workings of 6. Also, from my experience, it's been easier to install a fresh version of D7 and migrate the content from your old site over. Content types are a bit different, but there the various node import/export & migrate modules should help you along.