Best choice for migrating from Drupal 5.21?
July 20, 2013 8:09 AM   Subscribe

In 2007 or so, I built a Drupal site for a client who is a local media personality. The front page is a blog of his latest activities. The rest of the site serves as an archive for about 150 photos from his career, with a handful of videos and mp3s. He's ready to upgrade the site, so it's time to bring him into 2013.

I fell into doing websites for a few friends like this, but I don't have any training. I usually google whatever I'm trying to do, read the directions carefully, cut and paste code, and I can hand code some HTML, so I've gotten by, but technology has far surpassed my abilities in the last couple years!

The last site upgrade was to Drupal 5.21, which hasn't been supported in a long time. The site had a guestbook, which I had to shut down because of spam. I want to migrate to something that has great photo gallery functionality, is excellent on mobile, easy to set up and maintain (and migrate)... and if possible, doesn't require constant updating as Drupal did/does. Does such a thing exist?

Or, should I also migrate some of the content to other homes? For example, he's begun using Facebook. Should that replace the guestbook? (A lot of his fans are older and may not be on FB). I'm thinking his videos should all be uploaded to YouTube. Maybe his photos should live elsewhere too, and just have the photos and videos embedded on his site?

Hivemind suggestions welcome. Thank you!
posted by Josephine Macaulay to Technology (2 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Sounds like a simple wordpress install would be sufficient for his needs. Find a nice theme for him and you're set.
posted by DreamerFi at 9:10 AM on July 20, 2013


You'll still need to update regularly with Wordpress if you host yourself but the process is easier. It sounds like you might prefer a hosted solution like Squarespace or even Tumblr or Wordpress.com. Another option would be to move the site to a hosted Drupal platform like Drupal Gardens or Pantheon.

Ideally, how often would you be updating this website? Is your goal to be able to build something and then forget about it? Do you have a monthly budget?

For the lowest maintenance solution, I'd recommend taking the following steps:
1. Move all of your multimedia to providers like Flickr and YouTube.
2. Create a spreadsheet with your priorities in hierarchical order - mobile support, photo galleries, easy updates, etc.
3. Compare the most popular blog and hosted platforms. If you don't want to ever worry about updates again, I'd recommend starting by looking at Squarespace, Wordpress.com, and Drupal Gardens.
posted by JuliaKM at 9:58 AM on July 20, 2013 [1 favorite]


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