An Unexpected Journey

Over the Christmas holidays it dawned on me that it had been exactly one year since we began the site migration to Drupal. Most everyone is aware that earlier this summer we made the transition from a phpBB/MediaWiki platform to Drupal. However, few people know about the unexpected journey we undertook. In thinking back on the last year, I quickly drew a parallel to the opening scenes from The Hobbit.

While I may not make the perfect Bilbo for this story, CrackerJackMack certainly fulfills the role of Gandalf. (He is wisened int ways of magic - well PHP and Drupal, and he can be rather cantankerous). CJM and I spoke on the phone during Christmas 2010 (he hosts the WSGF) and we discussed the current state of the site and what could be done to bring greater unification.

During that call, CJM casually mentioned that Drupal would be a good option and that he had experience with it. Not having any other real options or experience with CMS systems, I decided it would be the best idea. CJM was able to help assemble a team of dwarves (Delphium, AussieTimmeh, scavvenjah, thales100, and others), and set us on our way. I say "team of dwarves" because the folks who helped make the migration possible are some of the hardest working folks I've ever seen, and certainly did a lot of heavy lifting.

True to the story of The Hobbit, CJM (our Gandalf) had additional responsibilities that he had to attend to, and would be gone for periods or time. And true to form he would return at just the right moments and help save the day.

Along our journey we spent a good deal of time planning, and almost four months coding and implementing. This was largely done by Delphium and CJM. We then spent almost as much time migrating data (heavy lifting by the rest of the dwarves), and fixing problems we found along the way.

Since the switch in July we've been working to improve performance and slowly add features. The performance improvements included a server move and then a VM transition. It's been a long year, but we've finished this leg of the journey. Through it all we've slain some spiders, a dragon and even a few trolls. It's been exhausting and exasperating at times, but I've made great friends I wouldn't trade for the world.

Here's to the next road that rises to meet us...