Drupal versions & themes

June 6, 2009 10:17 AM

Backpedalling from Drupal 6 to Drupal 5, should I do it just to save a theme...how often does a Drupal update screw up custom themes?

Another Drupal question from me. Our site was on Drupal 5 when I inherited it. Got a new host and off I went, putting on Drupal 6. Now there's no theme and the designer is saying it'll take hours to recreate everything to work on 6. Are Drupal themes generally fux0red by updates or can they be generated to easily upgrade with the latest version? Also, should I downgrade our Drupal install to 5 or are there significant security/bug fixes that came with 6? I'm a Drupal newbie so I really don't know.

posted by Salmonberry to computers & internet (6 comments total)

I'd downrev to 5 for now. The documentation lists theme conversion as a pre-upgrade task, so if you run 5 and get the site up, you can properly prepare to upgrade in the near future.
posted by rhizome at 11:20 AM on June 6

Drupal 5 is still being maintained and patched for security issues. The "hours" estimate is likely accurate. You can safely install the latest version of Drupal 5 but you should be looking at 6 pretty seriously.

Pop on over to the Drupal forum: you're likely to find all sorts of people who can help you figure out what path to take.
posted by jdfan at 11:24 AM on June 6

Drupal themes are generally hosed by the major upgrades, yes. How hard it is to port a theme up depends on the theme, of course, but in many cases it's pretty damn simple. Going 5 > 6 the main thing is going to be the info file. It may be that a few changes there are all you need to get back on the road. On the other hand, if you have a theme with lots of little custom tweaks, it can definitely take many hours to upgrade, as a lot of the theming functions were re-written for 6.

jdfan is absolutely right that there are no significant security differences between 5 and 6 (at this point). 6 is just more feature-rich.
posted by bricoleur at 3:34 PM on June 6

Maybe I should clarify: by "major upgrades," I mean, e.g., 5 to 6. Your 6 themes will still work fine from one version of 6 to the next.

I currently have several 5 sites and some 6 sites, and I vastly prefer working with 6. And, y'know, 7 is just around the corner. Trying to "leapfrog" a major version in upgrading (e.g., 5 to 7) is often not supported by module maintainers, so sooner or later, you will have to pass through 6. You may decide to just take the site offline, upgrade to 6, and then immediately upgrade to 7. I don't recommend that approach. Upgrading from one major version to the next is not trivial if you are using any third-party modules (even the biggies like CCK or Views). Having your site offline for the time it takes you to work through two such upgrades is going to ruffle your boss's feathers, I guarantee it.

If you are committed to that theme, it would probably be worth it to have it ported as soon as you can afford it.
posted by bricoleur at 3:46 PM on June 6

Thanks for the tips.

I'll have to talk to the boss about what they want to do about upgrading, I know we can't stay on 5 forever, but we also can't get a bill in the low thousands from the designer for adapting the theme & modules for each upgrade.
posted by Salmonberry at 12:10 PM on June 7

Heh, I just remembered that there is no .info file in a D5 theme. If you haven't already downgraded to 5, try adding one to your theme to see how much functionality that brings back. It may be that simple.
posted by bricoleur at 10:12 AM on June 8