This might not apply for churches, but the only thing holding me back is if I need to use e-commerce on my site. Ubercart is the cart to use, and it's still in development.

paul

For newsletters, MIME mail support would be nice. The MIME module has not been ported to D6 and it doesn't look like there's much of an effort to do so.

An e-commerce solution would be nice as well. Ubercart looks great but there's a lot of recommended modules that aren't ported to D6 yet either.

The event (calendar) module is still in development and not all functions are supported in D6 yet.

On the last site I did, I think the first roadblock was Image Cache and Image Field. I also used the CCK Links module, but would have been willing to work around that. I started that site in D6 anyway, working around the problems.

The next thing was that I didn't have time to lay out the site without using Panels. I was copying an existing static HTML site, and using Panels was way faster than doing what I wanted in node-page.tpl.php.

I think that's my real answer: time. My last couple of projects have been slow to start and then the next thing I knew, the deadline was looming, and it would have taken too long to get everything I needed going in D6. The sites that I've done are simple enough that I can build the majority of the functionality in just a few hours using off-the-shelf modules in D5.

I think I need to take the approach that Rob and MF are taking, and commit to only building D6 sites from now on, no matter what the obstacles may be. Since I don't have any new projects brewing right now, my next one may very well be a D6 site.

Micah

I think a HUGE part of whether you make the jump to 6 is based on two factors:

1. Who are you? By this I mean, how familiar are you with Drupal? Do you know how to 'get around' certain problems or shortfalls of 6? Can you code your own stuff if the 'standards' aren't ready for you yet? I think experience and coding abilities play heavily into this decision.

2. What are you building? Obviously, depending on what you're building, D6 may be a non-starter. For example, there is no podcast solution for D6 right now. So, you have to really ask each individual project: What modules do you need and how many of them are ready for prime time?

Personally, my situation is a little different than everyone else's. I work on Drupal 24/7...therefore, I know the system pretty darn well and can come up with unique ways around the problems I find in D6. Not only that, I have clients funding the sites I'm building, therefore I can afford to build any custom functionality we need to make a D6 site happen (case in point with the podcasting functionality...we're writing our own).

So, for me, nothing has held me back. I decided I'd put up with some headaches and take on some challenges in order to move forward and use D6 on all my sites. I can see, however, that my situation is unique. If I weren't me (working on drupal full time with clients funding) I'd still be using D5 :)

-Rob Feature
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.mustardseedmedia.com

I am redesigning my Church's site, and wondering if it's worth moving to Drupal 6. Is it worth it now?
The things I need on my site are: forums, photo gallery, document repository and groups.
Are all the modules which give those functionalities reliable and able to be used?
Are most of the 'standards' Rob mentions in place now?

Also, if I was to upgrade to Drupal 6, all i'd want to keep is the user accounts and their passwords. Is there an easy way to keep just that, but totally remove everything else and reinstall fresh d6?

I worked out how to do this successfully. Just dropped the table in 6, and copied the user table from the 5.x install.
Seemed to work seamlessly.
Do you think how to do this would warrant a G&G tutorial for those of us not knowledgeable in databases?
If so, was the way I described here the right way to do it?

@sejtraav - I don't think many of the problems the guys mentioned back in August are still an issue. I believe Ubercart, panels and most of the main modules are stable now. As far as events and podcasting (along with a few others) go there are now better ways to do this using CCK and Views vs using a module. Rob has a lot of great videos detailing step by step how to do this over at www.mustardseedmedia.com/podcast which I was surprised to see was recently redesigned!

thanks. i think it looks like upgrading would be good then

Paul.

I'm doing everything in D6. I've never used Panels so don't miss it. I'm getting pretty comfortable playing with tpl.php files. I'm largely investing in CCK/Views and counting on Fields in Core in D7 for the future. :-)

I'm doing forums, photo galleries and a document repository. You may have a more demanding set of features for each of these than I, but my needs are met easily enough. Organic Groups can be done also, but I don't use that. At this point, I'm tempted to think most of the modules that aren't ported to D6 in at least a solid dev version by now, aren't worth sticking with as the Dev probably isn't as dedicated as your site deserves.

Yeah, that kinda sounds harsh on the dev. I don't mean to be like that, but I've been gathering that the general consensus around Drupal is "The Drop is Always Moving". If I understand this correctly this basically means success requires flexibility to follow the community momentum in whatever direction it is going.

Things have indeed changed since my August comment. I would hesitate to build a site in Drupal 5 now, and have begun migrating D5 sites to Drupal 6. I am loving the differences, especially in Views.

Rob Feature and I just launched FreeMissionWebsites.com as a Drupal 5 site because it's heavily dependent on Project and Project Issue Modules, as is one of my sites at work. There appears to be a big push started this week to get those moved to Drupal 6 so that drupal.org itself can be upgraded, but they're still not ready.

I need to look at the Drupal 6 port of the LDAP Integration module. It's currently in alpha, and if it's far enough along to meet my needs, I'll start all new sites at work in Drupal 6. If not, I may just drag my feet getting those sites launched, or launch with standalone authentication and add LDAP when it becomes available.

Micah

I'm building my current site on Drupal 6, but I'm a little concerned about the number of modules I want to use that still have something like -dev, -alphaX, or -betaX on the end of the most recent module when we're coming up on the first anniversary of the D6 release. Many appear to be getting good support and I'm not too worried about these. Taxonomy Access Control has me concerned that it's effectively an abandoned module, though it hasn't officially been listed as such. Very little recent activity there.

I just migrated our site to D6 over the last month or so. I did a fair amount of redesign along the way, which is what took most of the time.

Basically I was waiting for the image module to stabilize. Yes, there are alternatives but I like this one. Even now I am still concerned that it is only 1.0-alpha4, but I did some testing and could not find any problems. Obviously it bears watching.

I also was able to drop some specialized modules by using a CCK & views combination. That is a tip I learned from the G&G guys.

The site is http://www.hbgyfc.org .
There are several bugs and glitches yet, so there is still work to be done. But now that I have figured out views2, there's no turning back. :-)

yea, i think the problem is that the terms 'alpha' and 'beta' can be hard to grapple with in the community. some modules that are labeled as "alpha' are in better shape than some betas.

However, as a rule I would not use any modules for a production site that are not at least in RC and have a minor issue log. Even then, I would be super cautious.

so... haven't looked lately, but Ubercart would need to be ready in D6 as that would stop me from doing any ecommerce.

As for Ubercart on D6, I've used an earlier beta on a client site with no troubles, and other folks have been using the betas and dev releases even longer. We're obviously still fixing bugs and solidifying some of the core features, but it's good enough to open for business. Pertinent to church sites, I don't think the donation module that existed for 5 has been fully ported to 6 yet, but that should be a fairly quick task.

I will say we are using ubercart for the Geeks and God conferences. It's a simple use. I just wish hook_uc_cart_alter had been in when we did our setup. Though, this is an undocumented feature it is quite handy.

Matt, thanks for the reminder. Putting it in now!

Preliminary - will need to be stuck into the docs in the src:

http://www.ubercart.org/docs/a...