Coral,

At Skokie, we were (using past tense since I'm no longer there) on our way
to implementing a new website, using Django as the framework. I don't want
to put her on the spot, but their developer Esther Verreau might be able to
provide you with some insights. If she isn't lurking here, I might be able
to connect you. Good luck!

Toby


On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 10:38 PM, Andrew Hankinson <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I have a small anecdote on my experience with Drupal, Django, and custom
> development.
>
> I was writing a site that required a number of custom content types, some
> of them fairly complex, and a Solr back-end for full-text and faceted
> search. I had developed a number of Drupal sites up to that point, but this
> was probably the most complex one.
>
> I tore my hair out for a month or two, trying to get all of the different
> Drupal modules to talk to each other, and writing lots of glue code to go
> between the custom modules using the (sometimes undocumented) hooks for
> each module.
>
> One day I became so frustrated that I decided that I would give myself 24
> hours to re-do the site in Django. If I could get the Django site up to par
> with the Drupal site in that amount of time, I would move forward with
> Django. Otherwise, I would keep going with Drupal. Up to that point, I had
> done the Django tutorial a couple times, and implemented a few test sites,
> but not much else.
>
> Within 24 hours I had re-implemented the content type models, hooked up
> the Solr search, worked out a few of the templates, and was well on my way
> to actually making progress with the site. More than that, I was enjoying
> the coding rather than staring in frustration at hooks and wondering why
> something wasn't getting called when it should be.
>
> Since then I haven't touched Drupal.
>
> Cheers,
> -Andrew
>
> On Feb 13, 2014, at 9:59 PM, Riley Childs <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > WordPress is easy for content creators, but don't let the blog part fool
> you, it is a fully developed framework that is easy to develop for, it is
> intended to make it easy to get started, but from base upward it is 100%
> custom. I don't know what your particular needs are, but I would give WP a
> serious look! Plus WP integrates well with any web app you could shake a
> stick at. In summary chose a CMS that fits YOUR needs, my rants are what
> made WP a good fit for me, yours are different so make a decision based on
> what YOU need, not my needs!
> >
> > Riley Childs
> > Student
> > Asst. Head of IT Services
> > Charlotte United Christian Academy
> > (704) 497-2086
> > RileyChilds.net
> > Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes
> > ________________________________
> > From: Daron Dierkes<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: 2/13/2014 9:52 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Python CMSs
> >
> > If you're new to python and django there will be a steep learning curve
> for
> > you, but probably a much steeper one for people after you who may not do
> > python at all.  Drupal and Wordpress are limited, but non-technical
> > librarians can still get in pretty easy to fix typos and add links at
> > least..  Codecademy has a decent intro python course:
> > http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/python
> > Udemy has a few python courses with some django as well.
> >
> > A big reason why I've been learning django is to try to understand how
> our
> > library can work with the various DH projects that use our collections.
> If
> > we need to at some point take on permanent ownership of these projects or
> > if we want to develop them further, a basic familiarity on the part of
> our
> > library staff seems like a good idea.
>