Why Drupal

I like many people have found myself hunting around for a web CMS.  Like many people I found CMS Matrix which scared me half to dealth.  With that many choices out there how can you possibly choose?  After reading tons of articles, blog posts and forums I came down to trying out Joomla and Worpress.

I downloaded both of them and gave them a whirl.  While each were very easy to set up sites in a hurry, I didn't really feel they were powerful enough for what I was looking for.  See, I came from a background as a DotNetNuke developer.  The problem with DotNetNuke is that each module is given a square on a page and access to the database and everything else is up to the module.  There is no easy or standard way for modules to interact.  This led to some unweildy and not at all integrated modules.  For example, the picture gallery module might be able to have comments added to pictures but the blog module could not have the same comments added.  You had to write a different addition for each module.

So after looking at Joomla and Wordpress they both seemed okay but I knew there had to be something better out there.   Somewhere I stumbled on the name Drupal and my life has never been the same since.  The power in Drupal is twofold.  First, everything on the site is a node.  Instead of creating a blog module and a forum module and a picture gallery module, each which store their data completely different, drupal has a standard called a "node" that everything is stored as.  A blog post is a node.  A forum post is a node.  A picture in a gallery is a node.  What this means is that if I want to create a comments module, I simply write it for a node and it works for everything.  The integration between modules is one of the truly differentiating features of drupal.  To my knowledge it hasn't been matched by any other CMSes out there.

The second thing that sets Drupal apart is it's community.  Here in Dallas I found the Dallas Drupal group which is full of really smart guys who help each other out in solving the really tough problems.  I just got back from Drupalcon D.C. and that was such an amazing experience.  I'm simply amazed by how many people are working really hard to build the best CMS available ANYWHERE.

Now that I have praised Drupal up and down, I do want to give you one warning.  If you want to download it and start playing with it, there is a steep learning curve.  Don't be intimidated at first and thing about starting with a distribution profile like iSite Essentials or Acquia Drupal.  Keep at it and it will be well worth it.  Search drupal.org, log in to the irc support channel and do lots of learning.  Sooner or later you'll find yourself to be a Drupal expert.