Posted by nelsonkayiwa on May 1, 2017 at 1:08pm
Hello everyone,
I just joined the Drupal UG group. Thank you for setting this up.
I have not worked with Drupal for long, just one small website in production.
Anyway, I was seeking advice on if Drupal 8 is a good choice for my next project.
Has anyone here done anything in production with Drupal 8?
Would you advise me to stick to Drupal 7 for now or to go ahead with Drupal 8?
Thanks a lot.
Nelson.
Comments
Hi Nelson, i think it really
Hi Nelson, i think it really depends on how enthusiastic you aree about Drupal 8. Otherwise i have a running projet using Drupal 8, though i went through a steep learning process, i thnk it was worth it and i am not close to going back to 7 apart from the running projects' maintenance. I have enjoyed 8.
So i would advise you to move forward, as i know how painful it can get with my Drupal 6 to 7 experience.
A great Journey begins with a step forward.
Thanks samatech7
Thanks a lot. So you think I should go ahead and attack the learning curve; that this will be a worthwhile investment. How about issues of stability and availability of stable modules? Did that ever disturb you?
Just Go Get It
All i can say is, Just go get it. Drupal 8 is the ishh. Most of the modules are now stable and ready for production. I personaly have two projects in Drupal 8
Go for Drupal 8
I am with icehunk and samatech on this one.
Attack that learning curve and start on Drupal 8.
My main reason:
If you use Drupal 7, you will need to do a major update to Drupal 8 in the future because it follows the classic Drupal approach of "no backwards compatibility."
With Drupal 8, you will be able to smoothly upgrade to Drupal 9 and so on; if I understood the Drupal news correctly.
Work on Drupal 8 in production
Some of the work that I have done on Drupal 8 is:
http://www.cfs.ug/ (production)
http://artfieldinstitute.1010avenue.com/ (still in development)
Good luck on your journey!
Drupal 8 - Not ready for prime time
I think Drupal 8 will have a smoother transition, than when drupal 7 rolled out. I see no need for drupal 8 at this stage, with critical modules like views not yet ported.
If you want a signature 1 page site, you can use 8, if you want to do something more serious, i see no need for 8 at this stage.
I beg to differ, run with Drupal 8
Hello cavinm,
I beg to differ. Drupal 8 is powering websites more complex than one-pagers.
For example, NBA.com is running on Drupal 8. Check this out at this year's DrupalCon: https://events.drupal.org/baltimore2017/sessions/building-nbacom-drupal-8
More examples at http://www.d8sites.org/
I am also in the process of finishing up another website that is not a one-pager while using only eight contrib modules - which are all stable and fully ported.
The Views module runs smoothly and is in all stable Drupal 8 releases. It is not a contrib module.
Again, my advice is learn and run with Drupal 8.
views in drupal 8
I have just noticed views was included in drupal 8 core,
Your post shows a lot of ignorance towards how drupal works, big organizations like the NBA have the budget to port any module from 7 to 8, or develop a new one, which same privileges, you can only dream of.
for folks who don't share the same resource envelope, it would be fool hardy to live in a fool's dream.
What serious functionality have u seen on the NBA site, that has left you in awe. If you have never developed a complex website, I can understand how limiting it is, to grasp basic concepts.
drupal 8 modules
and they are several other modules out there not yet ported to drupal 8. Am not saying someone should not use 8, but they should dive in with both feet knowing the pitfalls ahead.
Wow!
Wow, cavinm! That was a serious tongue-lashing.
Maybe you are right. I should sign this off by apologising for giving my opinions given my (as you say) limited understanding of the basic concepts required to develop a complex website.
But before I sign off, I would like to encourage @nelsonkayiwa, the author of this post; please do dive into Drupal 8 with both feet.
My main reason for this is: backwards compatibility. I am still maintaining a few Drupal 6 sites but it is unsupported. You might find yourself in this same situation five or six years from now with Drupal 7.
I would also suggest that you maximise the core functionality of Drupal 8. It is really awesome. But, the contrib modules that make it even more awesome, in my view are:
I was also in your shoes a few months ago (my post), and icehunk also recommended these stable modules: Rules, Workflow, Views, Blazy, Flexslider, Smart Trim. Slick, Layout plugin, composer manager, calendar. I haven't used all of them (only Views, Smart Trim and Layout). Check them out also and dive into Drupal 8. I did and it was a very wise decision.
Be Drupal 8 inspired: www.d8sites.org
Word Of Encouragement
@nelsonkayiwa you can still build drupal 8 sites using simply views blocks and pages just like in 7. Once in a while you can delve into the new features. You don't have to go too hard for starters.
So far after using 8 for over a year, i can say the layout plugin module is the biggest thing that has happened in drupal for me. The OO Php approach is truly insane. You can learn step by step and become complex drupal guy everybody wants to be.
Hear hear!
What icehunk said.
@nelsonkayiwa ... just start.
Performance
Drupal is a piece of rubbish when it comes to performance, a good sell for drupal 8 would be to address some of the nuisances that have dogged drupal data apps. i guess it would be a tall order (pun intended)
Am going to test drupal 8
Am going to test drupal 8 this weekend, I tested it last year, and gave up. am mainly going to use the feeds module, and see how it goes, i hope it doesnt take hours like it did on drupal 7 (large data imports), am going to give it a shout this weekend, hope cinco de mayo, doesn't alter my plans.
Thanks guys
Thanks everyone for the amazing feedback. I am officially kicking off my Drupal 8 career. I am going to dive in as advised, first with core - then on to the third party modules.
Drupal 8 in production
Been working on this:
https://www.imchealth.com
Should say D8 is fun in its own way