Wednesday, March 16, 2011, I gave a presentation at Duo Consulting in the Google Dearborn Plaza in Chicago, IL on upgrading your website from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7 for the Chicago Drupal Meetup Group. I hope you find it helpful, contact me if you have any questions or if you would like to hire me. Thanks!

1. Your website from Drupal 6 to 7 Andy Martha Wed, March 16 th Duo Consulting, Chicago, IL

4. Outline of Events 1) What does upgrading mean? 2) Case study: cdmug.org 3) Do I need to? 4) Why would I want to? 5) Why would I not want to? 6) Questions? 7) How to the right way

5. This will be posted at: Cdmug.org http://www.meetup.com/drupal-1 slideshare.net andymartha.net/tech

6. Who is this for? - I come from other web dev. platforms (model-view-controller -> Views module) - Inline dev. Vs using hooks or attaching - I was not the original developer (remake) - Limited documentation -> market research I took this project over without knowing much about it.

7. What does upgrading mean? - Fundamental changes have been made to the core product of Drupal - Upgrading means you can't use the same themes, modules, and or possibly ways of gathering 3 rd party content that you do now. - It's not a one step process.

8. It involves the whole team - Designers - Programmers -Business owners and managers - Everyone that makes decisions needs to make decisions

9. Dev. server This is probably common sense, but... I am talking about doing all of this stuff on a development server, and switching the domain name to the new site. I never mean, “Take a half-hour for your client and click an upgrade button on the live website and hope for the best.”

10. Lullabot upgrade flowchart

11. Case Study: cdmug.org 1) What I did 2) In hindsight, what you should do ------------------------------ Why we did switch: The boss said so

12. Cdmug.org/videos

13. cdmug.org/videos-for-drupal7

14. Cdmug.org old home

15. Cdmug.org new home

16. 1 st step: Make a spreadsheet - what modules you have - what media you have stored - what external media sites you use - what custom themes/modules do you use - what server config do you use

17. 2 nd step: Check the facts - are there (7) versions of your modules? - can you mass down/upload your media? - are there (7) modules for 3 rd party media? - do you know someone to do custom stuff in case of something not updating? - can my server run Drupal 7? Can I import/export my database? If no to any, don't worry about it! You can't upgrade now!

18. R.I.P. Old modules in we used on our D6 site... Admin role Admin menu Blog api ping throttle cck zenophile domain access image imagecache phone - cck meta / nodewords getID3 block class secure site jquery ui views hacks cdmug theme

20. http://drupal.org/project/coder

21. http://quicksketch.org/node/5739

22. http://drupal.org/project/cck – for D7

23. Ask the questions. 1) does the site have old content? Yes. For example: Old static jobs content that really didn't need to be messed with as no one was using.

24. Ask the questions 2) has the site's purpose changed? Yes . For example: It used to get people interested in Drupal, now it may be more useful to train and connect those who already are. 700+ members = training/education.

25. Ask the questions 3) are looking into a fresh brand? Yes . For example, Drupal 7 has more ux ajax razzle-dazzle built in, therefore it is a fresh visual start for us. If you are looking for a fresh start or a fresh design for your product, Drupal 7 has been focused on the design/usability side.

26. Ask the questions 4) is the content piled onto the site over the years without much organization? Yes . For example, Over the months and years, we piled meetup videos without much regards to organizing for the future.

27. Ask the questions 5) small or large site? Small. For example, Drupal today can crank out pages much faster than 1998 html, so page creation is not really the time issue anymore.

28. Ask the questions 5) site working perfectly? No. For example, Our videos were not all working perfectly and there broken links around the site. Porting a broken site is not as productive as making a working new site from your existing content.

29. Options 1) Direct port 2) Change design, port the rest 3) Site redesign/remake Remake the site from scratch while using existing content will be the fastest way for this site to become a fully working Drupal 7 site.

30. Timeframe When does it need to be functional/done by? – almost immediately, as I wanted it to be a conversation piece and have community input at the one-a-month meetup at SRC web design in Feb.

31. What's the visual template? 1) existing site design 2) good, quick designer on hand 3) use an existing successful template - Backend first, frontend second. I chose a template much like our meetup.com page to mass produce the pages and get a feel for the navigation and user interface in a short time before worrying about the css and visual details.

32. Decide on a focus I decided that video education, ease of finding the right video answer for the question, and promoting the speakers and companies behind this education would be the focus of the site. Other tasks such as user signup, immediate chat help, tech news, etc...are handled better by other websites.

33. Decide on a focus Yelp = reviews. Yelp != pop-up deals. Groupon = deals. Groupon != cooking show Google Maps = search. Map!= photos These are 3 restaurant sites, but they have a different focus, and I use them for different tasks.

34. TDD – test driven development I knew I wanted the website user to be an average joe who could easily find the right video quickly. I started out with actions I wanted the user to do, and then created my nodes informed by those actions.

35. Making sure 1) I had the right sever specs 2) My 6 modules had 7 replacements 3) I drew up my site navigation 4) I understood my old site and new structures – for example, where I was going to use views, where blocks, where a menu from a module (super-fish) 5) I did not have access to the old database

36. Old site features Copy and paste, import from rss feed or import from database. Very quick. Moving the information/files is easy compared to make sure it is organized and intuitive for the average user. Think about SEO, usability, etc...before moving your old site's content.

37. Can you find this video? /node/250 Remember this link to a video.

38. Can you find this video? /video/mastering-theming-zen-2 Remember this link to a video. Easier?

39. New site features: media Create new node type (cck -> fields) “Video” Define the searchable fields Make each video a node of type “video” VERY IMPORTANT: The more meta-data fields you add at the start, the more you can personalize the site later on through views in sidebars. Videos by topic, videos by company, etc...

40. Test! A few videos weren't working or the text link wasn't linked to the correct video. Therefore, I tested all the nodes before making the next one. The presenter contact links were not going to their drupal.org profiles. The rss import as node attempts/modules for the pictures weren't working. I tested and fixed these before going on.

41. What a view! I tried to use views as much as possible so that I could highlight new, related, seasonal, or recommended other content in sidebars or footers. If you've had simple/static pictures, products, blogs, or videos on your old site, D7 views is easy to use to combine them into gold and it is very easy to use.

42. What about content/pages? - Upcoming cdmug events - posts from Twitter - Drupal news - Drupal jobs in Chicago - Photo albums All are automated rss import through cron. I do not have to write or maintain these pages, they just happen automatically through rss. I got the idea from listening to Larry Garfield here at a cdmug meeting.

43. What about theming? Originally, another member was taking care of the graphic design. This did not work out, however, and I recently will be doing it. It is easier for me to design using a pre-made template system like 960gs-7 around what page elements I do have rather than inventing phony pages or elements that are the “new design”.

44. The right way Follow the steps on: http://drupal.org/node/570162 Rough outline: 1) use backup&migrate module to save 2) upload d7 (minus the sites folder) 3) use backup&migrate to import 4) run update.php

45. Drupal 7 advantages 1) nicer admin and user interface 2) easier to do ajax/immediate loading 3) drupal commerce 4) easier mobile development 5) install modules from admin screen

46. Drupal 6 advantages - stability (tested and proven) - videola (video rental/buy in a box) - 3 rd party stability (facebook, maps) - documentation is very good

47. Documentation 6 to 7 site-plan http://drupal.org/documentation/upgrade/6/7 Custom modules: http://drupal.org/update/modules/6/7 Custom themes: http://drupal.org/node/254940 Ask a question http://stackoverflow.com Good Drupal 5 to 7 blog http://quicksketch.org/node/5739 6 to 7 blog post http://www.webhostpublishers.com/blog/817/upgrading-drupal-6-to-drupal-7/

48. Data migration Migrate module: http://drupal.org/project/migrate Examiner.com migration story http://drupal.org/node/915102

49. Image Gallery in D7 problem No out-of-the-box solution images scattered on flickr ---------- we want to host the 150 images ourselves in a nice photo gallery slideshow The images are scattered about flickr and meetup and we can't download them 1x1.

50. Image Gallery D7 dead-ends Flickrfield: “content module missing” Feeds: Flickr: does not grab the images Flickr: error messages Flickr Rippr: error messages Galerie from Flickr stream: requires php 5.3 Media Gallery: conflicts with file aliases Lightbox: no D7 version Gallery Formatter: don't understand the docs

51. Image Gallery in 7 solution Rip the images in Drupal 6 with Flickr Rippr Transfer the files via FTP Import the files in D7 with modules: Media, elFinder, IMCE use Colorbox module + Colorbox libraries create a view of jpg files use Colorbox as the css style of view Interested further? Talk to me later.

52. Image Gallery lessons Drupal 6 has many solutions Drupal 7 – very few If you have the images on disk, you are on a good path. If the images are scattered around the web, you probably can can still parse the api's I'm going to try to work on this Meetup's photos are in JSON format. I'm going to try to write a parser for this.

53. Find me @ [email_address] Andymartha.net twitter.com/biolithic http://drupal.org/user/1204604/ meetup, facebook, linkedin: andy martha

54. Special thanks - Matthew Lechleider - Duo Consulting - Level Ten Design Dallas http://cdmugandy.drupaladmin.net/ QUESTIONS?