First of all, let me confess that I really enjoyed attending my first Drupal meetup and I was glad to see other Drupal enthusiasts there. As initiated by Gaurav, the first Drupal meetup of Ahmedabad was planned on 25th December at Cignex Technologies Pvt Ltd. The main agenda of meetup was to discuss about Drupal 7, day to day life with Drupal and networking with other Drupal developers. Me, Jinit and Dushyant from Regius IT Solutions Pvt Ltd., Gaurav, Dheeraj, Aruna, Dhara, Swati, Nisha, Priyanka and Dayana from Cignex, Samay from Entourage solutions and Bhavin from Joshi Consultancy Services attended the meetup. I must mention that a real Drupal enthusiast Bhavin Joshi travelled all the way from Rajkot to Ahmedabad just to attend the meetup and showed his passion about Drupal.

In the meetup, after basic introduction, Gaurav gave us a tour of Drupal 7 and the significant difference points of Drupal from version 6 to 7. In general Drupal discussion a very interesting case study of one large project was discussed by Dheeraj and it did enlighten others about the security and performance aspects of Drupal. Over snacks we discussed on how we can spread awareness about such event among college students and Drupal newbies who can be benefitted by other's knowledge. It was very nice to see that everyone showed quite a lot of encouragement and interest to take this further and contribute towards Drupal community.

To conclude we have decided that we'll be planning such meetups more frequently now, mostly once a month and we will create a Google group to stay in touch with fellow developers. The group is created now and you can join at Gujarat Drupal User Group. And the Drupal 7 release party is also arranged on 7th January,2011 at Cignex. If you want to join the party then please sign up here.

Finally, I am thankful to Gaurav for such a nice initiation and Cignex to provide a platform for meetup. We'll meet again soon !

Whenever a PHP developer starts to explore open source CMS (Content Management System) one will always start with Drupal and Joomla. Both the CMS are very popular, appreciated, robust and extendible. Still one will have to decide whether to go with Drupal or Joomla to build specific website.

Many times I am also asked with the same question by clients or other developers and I always reply that it’s always advisable to decide based upon the requirement of the project. Both the CMS are distinct and have got unique specialities.

Below I am mentioning few points that I found are difference between Joomla and Drupal

• Joomla has got better Administrative control panel, while in Drupal there is nothing like adminstrative panel, when you login as an admin you will find more controls and more menus.
  
• The design part is better in Joomla. The sites built in Joomla will look better with lesser efforts. Many beautiful, attractive templates are available for Joomla.
  
• To build complex and scalable site I would prefer Drupal because it has got hundreds of readymade modules plus it's relatively easy to build complex functionalities in Drupal.
• A new beginner might find it easy to work with Joomla rather then Drupal but many of the developers/programmers lean to Drupal after they get enough familiarity with both.
• In Drupal, PHP code can be written on pages or any content you are creating. In joomla this facility isn't available. If you want to add code then you will have to edit the component files.
• Content categorization is lot better in Drupal then Joomla. I found only 2 level of content categorization in Joomla that is not at all sufficient for any content based site. May be additional component might offer categorization of content in Joomla but in Drupal it is very nicely managed by Taxonomy Module (available with Drupal core).
• Joomla has got in built WYSIWYG editor for content adding/editing while in Drupal you have to install WYSIWYG editor as a module.
• Regarding performance, I would say that it will depend a lot on how big your site is and in what manner have you configured your server and your CMS (Drupal/Joomla).
• Community is much more helpful in Drupal rather then Joomla. You will find help/support very faster in Drupal forums.

So here is what I think about Drupal and Joomla. Please let me know what are your opinions regarding both. Please add your views in comment.

Hello All,
This is Mittal Patel, a computer engineer from Ahmedabad. I have been into web development for last 3 years and currently I am working as a freelance Drupal developer and PHP/Drupal consultant at Regius IT Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Currently I (along with Regius IT Solutions) have many projects to be developed in drupal and due to shortage of time I am not able to cope up with all the requirements. So I am looking for Drupal developers based at Ahmedabad who can work with me. I can offer freelance work, part time employement or full time employement depending upon your preference.

All I want to have is to find experienced Drupal developers who have previously developed custom modules or themes. (Those who are just familiar with using Drupal can also contact but please let me know your expertise level in advanced. Please don't claim you are expert at Module/Theme development unless you have really done so. )

Kindly contact me at admin@mittalpatel.co.in for further inquiries and discussion.

Thank you
- Mittal Patel

"Together we grow faster."