Mark Royko + Associates

At the time this article is being written, MR+A is essentially a Drupal-only shop, providing design, contruction and training almost exclusively within the framework of that content management system. Having designed an in-house CMS systems and experimented with several other leading CMSs, making the conversion to Drupal wasn't an easy decision--although after approximately a year of working with it, there's no question that it was the right one.

The Drupal Decision

The first large-scale CMS I ever installed was a self-written PHP/MySQL system custom-built for a relatively low-visitation trade magazine. Building a CMS from scratch was a big decision, but in early 2005, there weren't many alternatives: Few open-source systems were flexible enough to meet client specs, and commercial systems were prohibitively expensive.

The solution was to build a custom CMS from scratch, which–if you've ever started off on such a project–starts out easy and gets complicated in a hurry. Between the security, user interface and custom applications needed to reach requirements, there's a lot to manage when you build your own content management system. On the other hand, at least with an in-house s CMS, you know exactly what code to modify when changes are needed, and while there is a lot of time spent in development, the project delivers exactly the specs the client is after.

While it's easy to see the pitfalls of this strategy, I'm happy to say that it worked out fairly well. In fact, the project continued to evolve and several versions later it still powers a handful of active, healthy web sites. I'm very proud of that system, mostly because it's a snap to integrate specialized custom applications and really intuitive for clients to use. But while a customized CMS can offer several advantages, I can say without hesitation that until a better systems comes along, almost all sites we build and install will be based on Drupal.

It wasn't always this way. For a very, very long time, Drupal was out of the question.

Drupal started as a bullet-board project in 2001 by Dutch developer Dries Bouytart. While there was no shortage of BBS projects at the time, Drupal offered a unique architecture that made it attractive for developers, and the project gained a natural momentum. But while that architecture was great for programmers, its early versions were a bit scary for clients: until version 5, Drupal was difficult to use, and even harder to explain. (Nodes? Taxonomies? Weights? The lingo can still be difficult to explain. And until Drupal version 6, the system was challenging to theme.)

But since version 6, Drupal's undergone a remarkable change. It's far easier to work with for both developers and clients, but it hasn't lost any of its usefulness and its power continues to grow. What's more, the Acquia branch brings enterprise-level support to the project, making Drupal a far easier sell for clients who are afraid of open-source software. The combined result is that there are now far more developers working on the project, and a much greater client buy in.

Often when starting new projects, clients ask for examples of other sites using Drupal. While those are easy to find, the number grows every day. In the meantime, it’s also worthwhile to consider some of the lesser-discussed reasons why.

Extensibility: At its heart (the Drupal “core”), the system is an impressive framework for managing content. This core includes a blogging system, a basic forum, RSS feeds, user accounts, security, and a handful of other functions that provide a full-service web site in a remarkably simple installation. 

But the Drupal core is really just a canvass for additional modules building on the system's basic architecture. There are currently over 1800 different modules that extend Drupal. These include modules for posting multi-media, collecting user information, adding web forms,  e-commerce, advertising, translation, sitemaps, SEO--the number grows (literally) every day. (An RSS feed follows new module contributions to Drupal and is updated daily: http://drupalmodules.com/new-modules/feed.)

While other content management systems offer discrete functionality (like Blogging, for example) Drupal can do that and much, much more with the help of an extensive library of free plug-in modules. Two modules in particular– the Content Creation Kit (CCK) and Views – allow users to format and display content in ways that are simply out of the question using other systems. A simple Drupal installation using CCK and Views can result in a web site that mimicks the functionality of a giant commercial news site. If you want to create a site that looks like CNN, you could do that relatively easily with Drupal and a handful of plug-in modules.
   
Industry Applicability:

While it’s clear that the publishing industry is increasing its use of  Drupal (See the very active newspaper and publishers group on Drupal.org), no matter what the platform, there does seem to be a consensus of what news publishers want in terms of content and design. Http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/11/newspaper-website-design-tren...

These features, including the prominent use of multi-media, tabbed content areas, flexible layouts for the home page and interior sections, RSS feeds, commented news sections, and gated content areas—are quite simple to execute in Drupal. The system also includes more exotic features equally useful to online publishers, including unlimited categorization of content (tags); unlimited user blogs; unlimited user permission levels, editorial workflow, etc.

Developer Acceptance/Peer Review:

From a developers perspective, Drupal is clear choice simply because of the  high number of programmers working on the project. In fact, it might be one of the best examples of a successful open-source project.

Under this model, when a module is contributed, or a core update released, thousands of programmers evaluate the code, report bugs, and add fixes. This means that programming errors  are rapidly discovered and addressed. With this level of activity, it seems unlikely that a private company offering a competing product could ever match the quality of code seen in Drupal. (Drupal's superiority even applies to other competing open source products. Compare this model to Joomla for example, where the core is free, but modules are not—and it’s clear that the pace of development is much, much slower. Where bugs are often fixed in Drupal overnight, a module update in Joomla might take weeks.)

Design Flexibility:

Drupal can look like anything. From a spartan news portal, to a frilly commercial music site, the Drupal system is incredibly easy to customize, and its readily available theme frameworks make Drupal a favorite of advanced designers. (For those needing quick design options, users can download any of hundreds of available themes from Drupal. org.)

Commerce:

There are hundreds of modules that extend Drupal's functionality, but when it comes to ecommerce, Ubercart is a specatular option for clients looking for ecommerce solutions. In fact, as a commerce platform, Drupal and Ubercart offer options for selling products and content in a single package that is unavailable through other CMS system.

Ubercart works like a Drupal module, hooking into its core api. This allows the two to interact so that a commerce site owner can manage products as easily as they can manage blog entries. Meanwhile, commercial-grade functions like member management, inventory reports and SEO options make it one of the best systems available.

MR+A builds great web sites for trade magazines, online stores, small organziations and anyone else who needs a great place to call home on the internet. Tell us a little bit more about your project and we'll start a free evaluation of your site and give you $500 off your first web project with our firm. Have other questions? Call us at 773-612-1343.