Drupal shows its flexibility

In this post I wanted to highlight our recent experiences developing an intranet in Drupal.

In this it has been really important for us to not over-engineer our solution as our client is currently undergoing a major restructure - so while the need for a new intranet was pressing, this has to be built during a period of great organisational change. Having developed many applications over the years in different technologies, I was naturally a bit apprehensive about the impact of changing architecture on the build.

Dare I say it, but I wondered if we wouldn't have been better using a less complete framework, such as Symfony, where developers have a great deal of freedom to shape their solutions. Drupal's approach is somewhat different, giving you more 'finished' modules that you can plug together then fashion to your needs. Despite its fantastic reputation for flexibility, I did wonder if it could always handle the change requests. In point of fact, I've found Drupal to be at least as flexible as Symfony. I don't mean to say that Symfony wouldn't have allowed us great freedom to develop and change - it would - but I think we're able to effect those changes quicker with Drupal.

True, we've been building with a 'this will probably change' mindset. Even so, what's really impressed me is Drupal's ability to respond to change quickly and economically. We've been canny in the way we've used paths and menus and through applying a well thought-out taxonomic approach early on, we have been able to put through many change requests without fuss. Of course, Drupal's workhorse Views has really been at the centre of managing many of the changes. As a result, our client has been impressed at our relaxed response to many alterations and has also remarked on the speed at which these are put in place.

I think we could have worked somewhat similarly with Symfony but I don't believe we could have done so with quite the same lightness of touch and level of economy. In this project, Drupal has once again shown its strength in providing a flexible and economic framework for application building.