ICEcoffee Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 Hi all I have run into several critical issues with Druapl. I have spent months (I'm a sole, inexperienced developer) working on a project for myself, but have been vexed at the following: white screen of death: result - my app just stops working, displaying only a white screen. This is a PHP memory issue (I'm on shared hosting - though with generous settings ie 128MB PHP_memory available). I also find I can't search for PHP code within nodes Drupal is slow as a dog - the built in caching helps. Now, I have toyed with the idea of coding my own app. I have limited knowledge in PHP, HTML, CSS etc though I have been developing for over five years. I thought of doing my own site from scratch, as I don't really need a full on CMS/community app. I mainly need to serve pages (probably includes), with minimal MySQL for user / authentication. I don't mind starting off with less functionality and thought that I could simply 'bolt-on' classes/functions from scripting sites, till I get up and running. Can I please have your opinion. I know I've given limited background info, but can supply more if required. I just want to see if I'm being arrogant and stupid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anti-Moronic Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 Honestly, a lot of CMS's are overkill. You have to remember, they are aimed at non-developers - it's only the developers which drive..well, the development of the framework. I think you need to take into consideration some other things. Like how much time will you save by using Drupal?- will you be able to effectively optimize the framework and know and fix security holes? Unless you're a full time drupal developer, I would guess the answer is no. By building your own framework, you know every security flaw (if you're a security conscious programmer) or what could be improved. You are also working with core php at it's fastest and most reliable (if you know what you're doing). I just started converting one of my old sites from html to php. I only have about 12 months experience with php but I work full time on php projects so I've learned so so much in the last year. What I've done is created a simple cms for managing *certain aspects* of my site, and will use a CMS for other aspects. For example, the blog on my site will be powered by wordpress (which isn't overkill but very powerful). Really, I think it depends how complex your site is and how viable it would be to create the necessary framework to manage it. My honest advice is IF you're site is not competing with cnn.com - start afresh with your own framework. I really hope that helps. I understand how it feels to put time into something that doesn't pay off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICEcoffee Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 @Anti-Moronic: thanks very much for the fullness of your reply. What I've done is created a simple cms for managing *certain aspects* of my site I was thinking the same. I don't need nor desire my fixed content pages to be served up by a database. Other data - fine, because they would be input from users ie submitting comments. Drupal is know for horrendous amounts of db calls just to serve up even a page. Really, I think it depends how complex your site is and how viable it would be to create the necessary framework to manage it. The most complicated thing on the site would be a simple e-commerce section which interfaces with PayPal IPN, and that I'm sure I can hook in with a class from PHPclasses. I thought it would be sensible to get some feedback from others, perhaps more experienced than myself, before making a a decision. Coding my own would mean I am very familiar with the code and there would be more satisfaction at the end result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICEcoffee Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 Drupal is know for horrendous amounts of db calls just to serve up even a page. CORRECTION: should be: Drupal is know for horrendous amounts of db calls just to serve up even a SIMPLE page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xylex Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 By building your own framework, you know every security flaw (if you're a security conscious programmer) or what could be improved. Coders miss security flaws, just a fact of life. Which is why 3rd party audits are always required in any regulated industry, and why there's a beta test forum. If you're using a large open-source project, you'll have hundreds of developers who regularly review the code and look for ways to improve it. It's nice to be able to deliver optimizations, fix bugs, and even add features for clients by clicking on the "update now" button. The proprietary vs 3rd party question is one of those things where the way larger picture is what matters. Will you always be the sole maintainer of the website? If you are, if what you need the system to do is something that's relatively easy to build out, go for it. But once you cross over and start finding other people to work on the project, or if you're turning websites over to be maintained by others in the future, using a standard, well known CMS/framework/library etc. in your system significantly decreases and can nearly eliminate the ramp-up time for these other developers. The additional time it takes for you to learn to use and to work within these systems could well pay off in the long run in saving time for future maintenance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 By building your own framework, you know every security flaw (if you're a security conscious programmer) If you knowingly release software with security holes in it you're a crap developer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anti-Moronic Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 By building your own framework, you know every security flaw (if you're a security conscious programmer) If you knowingly release software with security holes in it you're a crap developer. Not entirely sure if you are simply reinforcing my point or implying something derogatory. Fact is, even with hundreds of developers working on a software platform, there will still be bugs which can inevitably turn into security flaws...Drupal has tons, OSCommerce, Joomla - are they crap developers? Debatable. The only point I was making with this remark is that you are more *likely* to understand the security flaws within an application AND be able to fix them, if you built it from the ground, up. xylex made a very good point. If there is a good chance you would hand over the reigns to somebody else (or have other developers work on it) down the road, it would surely increase the value and usability of your site if it were integrated with a well-built, popular cms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 No, you said you know all the security flaws in your app. You will never know the security flaws in your app because you'll fix them as soon as you discover them. I never implied the perfect system exists or that it's possible to write a system without any security flaws. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anti-Moronic Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 And I corrected that sentence with this: The only point I was making with this remark is that you are more *likely* to understand the security flaws within an application AND be able to fix them, if you built it from the ground, up. -- You're very right, you can only do so much. We are only human after all, ey? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICEcoffee Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 I've spent many hours building my project with Drupal, without digging in deep to the API. As I said I don't require massive CMS functionality, the standard Drupal blog and forum modules are lacking (common knowledge), I've uninstalled CCK and views modules because there were massive behemoths. I started with Drupal because I thought it would save me loads of man hours/coding, but some of the problems I have experienced.... I'm starting to question my initial decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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