Drupal 7 programming advancements, differences from Drupal 6 upgrade or wait

Question

I was just wondering if there were any changes in the Drupal 7 code that effect server load and speed for large sites.

Also, with 7 nearing beta release, should I wait to build the sites with Drupal 7? I'm a future kinda guy. I would like to be able to develop Drupal sites for a freelance business I am owner of, and would like to start soon. Is Drupal 7 accepted enough to be developing live, customer sites for? Security Issues?

Thanks

Hyssop

Answer 1

You should wait to pass to Drupal 7 until Drupal 7 will have an official release that is not a beta release, or a candidate release, and when the modules you are using are converted to Drupal 7. Even in this case, I would suggest to wait, as there are probably some bugs in the modules converted to Drupal 7 that will be discovered when users start to use them.

Limey

Answer 2

At this moment, D7 is not even ready for development yet, so I wouldn't even think of putting a D7 site live. There is no upgrade path between alpha versions, so any bugfix could break your site. Once the first beta release is out, you can start developing.

To see what's new in Drupal 7, see the September 2nd sildeshow on http://webchick.net/node/70.

Keep in mind that there is more than Drupal core; you'll probably also need contributed modules. Figure out which modules you will need and make sure that they are available for D7, or help the module maintainer port the module.

To make the choice, I would ask myself two questions:

1. Can you afford to wait until Drupal 7 is stable?
2. Do you really need D7 features?

If both answers are yes, start developing once beta1 is out and publish your site when it's running on 7.0-stable. Otherwise, use Drupal 6.

Saleable

I'd add another question: Are contributed modules critical to your project available for Drupal 7? If not, do you have the resources to port them or replicate the functionality you need? (A handy reference to D6 modules now in D7 core: unleashedmind.com/en/blog/sun/…) – Hardspun

Answer 3

Although it has an enhanced object-oriented database API based on PHP Data Objects and other database-specific optimizations; CMS wire is reporting the new version is somewhat slower. Other testers have reported the new version has traded performance for flexibility.

I highly recomend Drupal. Whitehouse.gov is Drupal as well as other federal agencies.

Tammany

6 or 7 though? Are there any changes to the caching system? – Hyssop

John VanDyk at DrupalCon DC this year talked exclusively about cashing and finished with the changes in drupal 7... below is a link to his presentation... its really good.. archive.org/details/… – Tammany

Answer 4

You should wait. There are few live Drupal 7 sites, but not many, and they're mostly done by Drupal experts, e.g. Drupal Gardens is running on Drupal 7, but that's made by the company of the guy who made Drupal itself. Drupal 7 is also a bit slower because optimization tends to fall pretty late in the development cycle.

That said, you can always try it out and go back to Drupal 6 if you run into roadblocks. For very simple sites, you may not have any problems.

Secrecy

Answer 5

I think it is better to upgrade D8 .it has ability to write module oop and twig theme.

Exciseman

Answer 6

I think it really boils down to what you want to do... Obviously if you need modules that aren't ready, then you wait. HOWEVER don't limit yourself to the modules that you are familiar with from Drupal6. Case in point: I am developing a rather simple site for a client using 7. At first I thought I would need to wait since Views Slideshow wasn't ready, but some looking around brought me to Field Slideshow, which did the job quite nicely - with the advantage that all the images were in one page (for future change and editing).

There are significant end user benefits to Drupal 7 in terms of usability and interface. This is nice if you deal with clients who are not overly computer savvy

Shantel