We provide Drupal updates for our clients. Every month we apply the most recent updates to Drupal core and contributed modules. Currently there is no set schedule as to when a minor release of Drupal will be released. For example, a minor release is when Drupal is updated from 7.23 to 7.24. So in November 2013, Drupal 7.24 was released. It contained security fixes. It was recommended to upgrade immediately after reading the security announcement.
 
On January 3, 2014, Drupal 7.25 was released. This is a maintenance release including bug fixes and small feature improvements only. Drupal 8 is under development and significant new features are only being added to the new Drupal 8 release.
 
This release was followed quickly by Drupal 7.26 on January 15, 2014. This release fixes security vulnerabilities. Website owners are urged to upgrade immediately. However, some Drupal sites reported a major site slowdown after upgrading to Drupal 7.26 so we have postponed this upgrade.

I'm working on a project where the client's first experience with Drupal was disappointing. They are planning to redesign the site user interface to make it more user-friendly. We were discussing whether to redo the site in Wordpress or to continue with Drupal. Rather than writing another Drupal vs. Wordpress article, I decided to write about the Benefits of Using Drupal. Here's what I wrote to my client:
 
I'm sorry that your first experience with Drupal wasn't what you expected. I hope that you will give Drupal another chance. I've worked on many Drupal sites that worked very well and were easy to use.
 
There's a lot of benefits to redesigning your website with Drupal:

• A lot of the theme styling is already done and can be used with the new responsive theme
• Your current Drupal site uses a module called Context which has a drag and drop interface that allows you to drag and drop content, images and blocks and rearrange the page layout in many different ways. This way you can position the blocks in different places on the pages. You can have an unique layout on each page.
• The site also uses a module called Views which Wordpress doesn't have. It allows you to display pieces of content in listings on pages or blocks or slideshows or lightboxes. It's extremely flexible and powerful
• Drupal's taxonomy or tags system is very useful. You can enter one promotion or event and tag it with several location tags and have it show up on several different pages or blocks.

I look forward to doing the UX design and re-building your website with Drupal. It's a dream project for me to be able to do both the UX design and also to build it out. I'm sorry your first experience with Drupal wasn't what you expected. I'm confident that I can redesign and rebuild your website so that it more than meets your needs and also is easy to use. I'm planning on building a prototype so you can test it out and see how easy it is to update the content.
 
Would you like a FREE consultation and demonstration on the Benefits of Using Drupal? Contact Katy[at]SeascapeWebDesign.com today!

Related Article: Why Choose Drupal? Here are 7 Reasons

Drupal 8 is looking good! The installation screens have improved in appearance.

and the Views module is now included in core. Views provides lists of your content to the user. For example, this blog page is a View.

Other new items in Drupal 8 are a built-in WYSIWYG editor. You can also edit in place without being sent to the Edit form.

Surrey Drupal developer, Vladimir Ilic, will be presenting at tonight's meetup of the Vancouver Drupal Meetup. His session will cover requirements for integrating Node.js with your existing Drupal application.

Node.js - a paradigm shift in web development is coming to a server near you. It provides a unifying language all the way from the back end to the front end. This session will give you an overview on what Node.js is, how to get started with it, and most importantly, how and when to integrate it with your existing Drupal application (get best from both worlds).