Page 1 of 1

should I stick with Drupal and it's problems?

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:52 am
by Outlander
Hi all

I have run into several critical issues with Druapl. I have spent months (I'm a sole, inexperienced developer) working on a project for myself, but have been vexed at the following:

white screen of death: result - my app just stops working, displaying only a white screen. This is a PHP memory issue (I'm on shared hosting - though with generous settings ie 128MB PHP_memory available).

I also find I can't search for PHP code within nodes

Drupal is slow as a dog - the built in caching helps.

Now, I have toyed with the idea of coding my own app. I have limited knowledge in PHP, HTML, CSS etc though I have been developing for over five years. I thought of doing my own site from scratch, as I don't really need a full on CMS/community app. I mainly need to serve pages (probably includes), with minimal MySQL for user / authentication.

I don't mind starting off with less functionality and thought that I could simply 'bolt-on' classes/functions from scripting sites, till I get up and running.

Can I please have your opinion. I know I've given limited background info, but can supply more if required. I just want to see if I'm being arrogant and stupid.

Re: should I stick with Drupal and it's problems?

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:06 pm
by akuji36

Re: should I stick with Drupal and it's problems?

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:52 pm
by Outlander
akuji36 wrote:have you tried xampp??

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
Sorry, I don't understand the context of your reply - what has a LAMP stack got to do with my OP?

Re: should I stick with Drupal and it's problems?

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 3:29 pm
by alex.barylski
What are your alternatives to Drupal?

Joomla, Drupal, they are both complex, powerful software systems, but complexity almost always comes at a cost -- higher learning curve.

I have yet to see a simple, yet extremely powerful CMS or peice of software period.

If you want or need control over everything, then a homemade basic CMS won't cut the mustard. Well it might, but only you will understand it, you will probably make lots of bad design decisions and any changes you make to bend it they way your next client requires are likely to hacks. The next client iwll want something different and again you'll be hacking.

An extensible architecture like Drupal or Joomla require a learning curve, maybe not as high as they currently require, but still...

Re: should I stick with Drupal and it's problems?

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 3:45 pm
by Benjamin
If you build on top of a faulty foundation, sooner or later you'll have to rebuild the entire building.

Re: should I stick with Drupal and it's problems?

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 4:39 pm
by Outlander
astions wrote:If you build on top of a faulty foundation, sooner or later you'll have to rebuild the entire building.
Is this code for "These CMSes have foundational issues" ?

I've spent many hours building my project with Drupal, without digging in deep to the API. As I said I don't require massive CMS functioanlity, the standard Drupal blog and forum modules are lacking (common knowledge), I've uninstalled CCK and views modules because there were massive behemoths.

I started with Drupal because I thought it would save me loads of man hours/coding, but some of the problems I have experienced.... I'm starting to question my initial decision.

Re: should I stick with Drupal and it's problems?

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 5:19 pm
by Benjamin
Outlander wrote:Is this code for "These CMSes have foundational issues" ?
Not really, but there is no one size fits all application that works perfectly for everyone, otherwise everyone would use it. If you are running into problems at early stages, they will only get worse as your application becomes bigger and more complex.