July 2008 was a frustrating month

It started out OK, with a decision to split the site into 3 to allow individual sites to be better targetted and more effective. It would also give us the opportunity to upgrade our software before we fell so far behind that it was a huge job to catch up.

To explain

To cut down on cost and remain independent we use splendid 'open source' software called 'Drupal' together with 'Gallery2' for the picture gallery and 'Phpfreechat' for our chat room.

Open source software is free, and anyone can download it. So far so good.

By its nature it’s built by hobbyists in their spare time and they focus on what interests them - ie creating new software. Unfortunately other things do not interest them

• Writing up a usable manual
• 'Debugging' ie curing the inevitable faults only found when the software is put under a real load
• Keeping in step with their brother and sister providers

This last brings up another problematic area. The main providers of 'Drupal' generate what they call 'the core' of the software relying on others to provide the hundreds of 'modules' that add functionality - a horrible word - like the interest group package central to RaA. OG groups, as it is called in the Drupal parlance, relies on 'Views' another module provided by another group of volunteers.

When Drupal produces a new version (and they have recently moved from V5 to V6 and are threatening V7) a user, like RaA cannot change until all the relevant module writers have moved on too.

That of course leads us the 'debugging' issue.

The Core and the Modules all inevitably have bugs. Some of the bugs can only be found when the software is properly loaded up - ie dozens of users are busily reading and writing away - and cannot be proved on the drawing board. So, for your benefit, a short list of the 'bug' found crawling round the site.

1. The 'Gallery' module which ties 'Gallery2' to 'Drupal' only works for the 2.3 version of Gallery
2. Gallery 2.3 is not yet available but the source is indication that older versions have security problems and should be updated
3. Drupal 6 is out, but as we start the transfer of Lifes3rdPhase we get notice of a security but and told to upgrade again to Drupal 6.3
4. This we do and all goes well for the 30 page L3P site but the larger Retired but Active site suddenly develops a problem of the Admin pages disappearing into the ether.
5. Going onto the furums shows that others have had this problem too, but the developers are busy with Drupal 7. They'll locate the problem and take the cure back to Drupal 6!
6. Anyway the OG Groups module for D6 isn't available yet - thank God - so Retired and Active has to remain on Drupal 5.7 but then D5.7 develops a bug that makes the site un-openable so we have to upgrade to D5.9
7. By this time the problems with Gallery2 mean that we have to try to reload that but..
8. The 'Gallery' module which ties 'Gallery2' to 'Drupal' only works for the 2.3 version of Gallery
9. and Gallery 2.3 is not yet available.....

QED

All this does not mean that we look the gift horse of open source in the mouth but we could wish for a smoother ride!