Build it or just put it together???
Build it or just put it together???


If your company is looking to update your online feature set, but don’t have the technical expertise to do it your self, there are a lot of new options that are tailored just for you. The price tag associated with getting a professional looking and feature complete website online has always been a major deterrent. If your company does not have a technical department up for the challenge, it can be difficult to put together a manageable solution that suits your needs and does not cost a fortune.

There have been a couple things of late that are changing this situation a bit. Content management systems (CMS) such as Drupal are becoming very viable solutions without a lot of technical overhead or financial investment. Another major player in this context is the relatively new Ruby on Rails framework which has been making waves due to its reduced development commitment, which in turn can reduce the cost of a very finely tuned solution. Both of these options can easily be considered if you are in the process of researching how to upgrade your online presence. In this article I am going to quickly discuss some of the pros and cons that come with both of these options, but it is also important to point out that these two are not your only options and you should still do a lot of research when making a big decision like this. Drupal is currently my favorite CMS system, but to name a few more there is Joomla, SimpleCMS, Typo3 and Expression Engine. Also, for fast and effective development, Ruby on Rails is not without competition either. CodeIgniter is a PHP development environment that has some very similar blood in its veins.

So what solution is right for you? If I could just write an article that answered that for everyone I would be a very rich man. Unfortunately I am not an oracle, so this answer has to be sought after through research and sound technical advice. The long and the short of it really comes down to your business. How do you operate? What is your budget? How often does your site change? Who adds or updates content?

Ruby on Rails (RoR) is a framework build on the powerful dynamic language of Ruby. It caters to a small code base that complies very well with many best practices in the industry. It is very good for fast agile development due to its great separation of code along with many built in generators. RoR has also integrated an Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) which completely removes SQL queries from the code. What this does is create a mapping between the objects and the relational database. This removes a lot of your database worries because it means you can just write information to your objects and the framework will automagically build and maintain the associated database. This also makes implementing, moving, migrating or scaling your applications very easy. RoR also has a built in test environment and automatically generates an API for your application.

Since this is not meant to be a technical review, it suffices to say that Ruby on Rails is a great development environment and can reduce development time by 30 to 50 percent. This allows companies to build solutions with this framework for a much more realistic price tag. You are also laying a solid foundation for your web application with features such as an API, a test environment, seamless integration of web services and much more. This type of solution caters to technical companies who have some internal resources to throw at the project, a company that has the budget to hire a developer on a contract basis or a company that will be integrating a lot of web services and needs a basis for a mashup.

Obviously RoR has a lot going for it and it can be the perfect solution for a large number of companies, but the truth of the matter is that you are still building everything. The developers have to have solid foresight to build everything in the ideal way for the company and must also be available when you want to extend your application as your company grows or you want to chart new territory on the web. This brings me to what I was actually sitting down to write this article about; Drupal…

Drupal is a freely available open source CMS that has recently started to generate a bit of a buzz. Drupal is built on PHP with the intent of being totally modular and is expected to be extended through pluggable modules. Since I know I am going to be writing more about the inner workings of Drupal over the next little while, I will approach this one from a higher level at this point.

CMS systems have gotten a bit of a bad wrap because many of them try to implement everything you could ever want, but have problems giving you control over it through an understandable interface. Drupal is a bit different because it’s base install is relatively minimal and you then add what you need from a long list of official or community made modules. You are able to get a working version of your site up in a few minutes with user access control, the ability to create and manage content as well as many other features such as a blog, forum and internal messaging. You can completely customize the look and feel of the site using templates that are easy to create or can be downloaded for free from the drupal.org site. Because Drupal is free and open source there is a large community of people who actively contribute modules, themes, ideas and feedback if you are having problems.

So is a Drupal solution right for you? It is very possible that it could be. With the startup cost being the price of a domain, hosting and a couple days with a consultant you could be on your way to a successful online venture. Drupal allows you to update and maintain your entire site your self without having to work with a developer every time you want to make a change. This allows you more flexibility at the start of the project and does not force you to make expensive decisions now when you don’t have all the information you need. Drupal allows your web presence to evolve as your company does without forcing you to sink money into it, which is the case with many custom built applications. Drupal is ideal for companies who know they need an online presence but may not fully understand what to expect from an online venture. It is also very good if you have content that is contributed by many people or if you have content that changes on a regular basis. Drupal is great for startups because of its low cost overhead and flexibility.

When making a decision like this you will need to do a lot of research. You may want to contact consultants for a few different options and play them against each other to get a feel for what they all have to offer and how their solution will align with your business. If you are going to hire a consultant or contract out development work, make sure that you are working with someone who understands your business and future goals. Remember that this person is going to be implementing your vision, so if they can’t see things the same way as you then you are guaranteed to be disappointed with their result. Take your time in the planning process and don’t force it. There is an ideal solution to your problems, you just need to find the right people to help you realize it. A bad solution is only slightly better than no solution.