In late December/early January, I converted the web site for my major association client from FrontPage to Drupal. I've used FrontPage since Version 1, back in 1996 when Microsoft acquired FrontPage developer Vermeer Technologies Inc. When Microsoft announced earlier this year that it was discontinuing support for FrontPage, I decided that it was time to make a full conversion to web-based, open-source content management systems, or CMSs. So I've been experimenting with WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. Here's what I have decided:

• WordPress is perfect for smaller sites, such as this blog. But it does not provide the depth or flexibility that we need for a full-featured association web site.
• Joomla has many outstanding features, it's very easy to get up and running, and there is a large support community. We used it for the "members only" section of the NOHS web site for several months. Unfortunately, it does not allow the "fine grained" user accessibility control that we need.
• Drupal also has many outstanding features, but it has been harder to learn and the support community is smaller. However, two features have made it the CMS we will be using. First, Drupal allows better control over user rights. Second, authors and editors do not need to log into a separate administrative area in order to add or edit content. This is very beneficial when relying on volunteers to assist in content administration.

We will also be integrating CiviCRM, an open-source constitutent management system that includes a membership database. Hosting the membership database online will allow better integration with our online membership application, better (and more timely) reporting to our board of directors, and less dependence on an individual, stand-along database created in Access.

I'm writing this post to document the process of converting the web site. I have been laying the foundation for several weeks, so our goal is to complete the conversion in one week. Read more >