Re: e-Commerce with Drupal?

[Indubitable Turtle]

First of all, I must apologize for taking so long to reply! I’ve been besieged by a lot lately, but that is no excuse. I let this happen a bit too often; forgetting to reply to forum posts or procrastinating in replying.

Thank you for that great post, Doc! I took your advice and looked into WordPress a bit further; I was already planning on using it for a couple of other projects, so needed the knowledge in any event. I"m not one of those guys that comes back with, "But WordPress is no CMS," on the contrary, I think it can be quite capable from what I’ve seen. I really do like it overall, but the eCommerce plugin seems to be lacking in a few areas. On the one hand, it seems fairly robust, scalable and intuitive, but on the other it misses a few important points, such as one-page checkout. While not absolutely necessary, the more I think about it, the more I would like to have this feature. It may well still be possible, though, as there could be things I’m overlooking.

There are other things I must consider for this project as well, though, such as the integration of a discussion forum, newsletter, and blog, which from my discussion with the Boss-man, are going to be needed sooner rather than later in all likelihood. All of this may still be possible with WordPress, but at this point I have to wonder if it may be better to go with the most scalable, best long-term option from the start, to save craving an upgrade later on, when the site threatens to break out of the scale of a WordPress site.

I am a quick and studious learner–it’s one of my few remarkable qualities. I think that if I dive into Drupal, I can learn what I need to. I have downloaded a few options and installed some on my XAMPP setup, but haven’t had a lot of time to really get down and dirty to really investigate features and such. I have yet to play with the UberCart module for Drupal, even though I have it downloaded. I guess I’ll dive in headfirst in my free time, and see what I can see, as I have with WordPress. At worst I’m out a few hours that would have likely been wasted watching the latest movie releases I can’t really afford to waste money on renting anyway. :D

I’m not sure yet which forum software I’d like to use; the included Drupal forum is far too lacking in functionality for my tastes, as I’m used to administrating vBulletin and SMF forums. Depending on the budget, I’ll probably use either IPB or SMF; I still need to investigate software bridges for IPB, but it’s just so darn sexy! Plus it has some definite benefits over SMF in many areas, like moderation features and SEO. And I honestly just want an excuse to play with it. :geek:

Wow, I sort of stream-of-consciousness rambled there, didn’t I? I’ll leave you in peace now. Thank you again, Doc, and sorry for delaying getting back to this for so long.