ifthenelse Reply #1, 4 years, 8 months ago
A few months ago, I was working with Drupal, trying to use it to implement a website for a volunteer group I work with. After looking at Joomla, I felt that Drupal was the best choice given its flexibility and more importantly, its ability (or so I thought) to meet certain delegated administration requirements.
But after peeling back the onion with Drupal, I came to the conclusion that while its core architecture has some good aspects, on the whole it is a software development train crash. There are too many cooks in the kitchen, and the developers have allowed (even encouraged) too many others to implement add-ons which define what should be basic functionality. So much so that Drupal now is very inconsistent in how it does things - especially regarding security. Things like implementing templates are more difficult/tricky than they should be. Also, there is so much going on inside Drupal that it uses an extrordinary amount of computing resources even to do simple things. For all it is capable of, Drupal is, in my opinion, collapsing under its own weight. Frankly, it is a mess.
(I know what I'm saying about Drupal is harsh, but I have over 25 years experience as a software developer, including Unix kernel development and years of major software system lead design/architecture experience.)
Then I ran into MODx. A bit less mature than other options, but it has a much better thought out core, and it hasn't spiraled out of control like Drupal has. It also is reasonably performant. In less than one day, I was able to put together a basic site together that took me two weeks fighting with Drupal to create. I was able to focus on getting the CSS and other elements right instead of dealing with all the wierd idiosyncracies of Drupal.
Security is a particular area where I think MODx can have a particular advantage - I have some security background, and while I do think there are areas where the MODx model can be improved (the existing role based implementation doesn't work well with certain use cases), at least it is built on a foundation that can actually work. The hierarchical document tree is key - enhance the system to include the appropriate container and document-level security (possibly one thing might be to add specific access controls to document groups, containers, and individual documents - for example, implement access control lists.). Throw in some specific inheritance features and MODx will have a document security capability that no other open source CMS I've worked with can handle (at least not easily).
The bottom line is that I'm quite impressed with MODx so far. To its core developers: please, please, please - don't let it get away from you like what happened with Drupal. Do make it easy for others to extend, but keep what should be in the core where it belongs. Make the core solid, focus on the glitches, document well - and MODx will succeed.
I do hope that Drupal can be turned around by its developers - at least in version 6 they are trying to fix some basic things (the menu stuff is being reworked for example). But I'm not hopeful it will be anytime soon. I think that Joomla is in far better shape than Drupal. If its core developers can get past some key limitations (security and tree depth, for example), then Joomla will be a winner - it is already very easy to set up a basic Joomla site with pretty good functionality. MODx is, in my mind, a bit more difficult to set up a basic site with than Joomla, but far easier to set up a site with anything approaching the flexibility of Drupal.
Good work folks!
But after peeling back the onion with Drupal, I came to the conclusion that while its core architecture has some good aspects, on the whole it is a software development train crash. There are too many cooks in the kitchen, and the developers have allowed (even encouraged) too many others to implement add-ons which define what should be basic functionality. So much so that Drupal now is very inconsistent in how it does things - especially regarding security. Things like implementing templates are more difficult/tricky than they should be. Also, there is so much going on inside Drupal that it uses an extrordinary amount of computing resources even to do simple things. For all it is capable of, Drupal is, in my opinion, collapsing under its own weight. Frankly, it is a mess.
(I know what I'm saying about Drupal is harsh, but I have over 25 years experience as a software developer, including Unix kernel development and years of major software system lead design/architecture experience.)
Then I ran into MODx. A bit less mature than other options, but it has a much better thought out core, and it hasn't spiraled out of control like Drupal has. It also is reasonably performant. In less than one day, I was able to put together a basic site together that took me two weeks fighting with Drupal to create. I was able to focus on getting the CSS and other elements right instead of dealing with all the wierd idiosyncracies of Drupal.
Security is a particular area where I think MODx can have a particular advantage - I have some security background, and while I do think there are areas where the MODx model can be improved (the existing role based implementation doesn't work well with certain use cases), at least it is built on a foundation that can actually work. The hierarchical document tree is key - enhance the system to include the appropriate container and document-level security (possibly one thing might be to add specific access controls to document groups, containers, and individual documents - for example, implement access control lists.). Throw in some specific inheritance features and MODx will have a document security capability that no other open source CMS I've worked with can handle (at least not easily).
The bottom line is that I'm quite impressed with MODx so far. To its core developers: please, please, please - don't let it get away from you like what happened with Drupal. Do make it easy for others to extend, but keep what should be in the core where it belongs. Make the core solid, focus on the glitches, document well - and MODx will succeed.
I do hope that Drupal can be turned around by its developers - at least in version 6 they are trying to fix some basic things (the menu stuff is being reworked for example). But I'm not hopeful it will be anytime soon. I think that Joomla is in far better shape than Drupal. If its core developers can get past some key limitations (security and tree depth, for example), then Joomla will be a winner - it is already very easy to set up a basic Joomla site with pretty good functionality. MODx is, in my mind, a bit more difficult to set up a basic site with than Joomla, but far easier to set up a site with anything approaching the flexibility of Drupal.
Good work folks!
