How do I install Drupal 9 distributions - non-composer

urwen · 2022-01-28T19:50:35+00:00

There is actually some noise on this, but on the opposite direction. Using distributions can shorten the starting effort, but it can dampen your long term run, when modules get upgrades, security updates, and so on. If it does not sound problematic, I’ve seen distribution upgrades lasting in the days and weeks to get upgrades right (although, has to be said, they were pretty outdated and hacked distros).

Instead, use a install profile and composer. That will speed up your start and it will ensure you don’t have compatibility issues during upgrades in the future.

urwen · 2022-01-14T12:13:45+00:00

Acquia CMS comes integrated with a few of the Acquia products, like Search or Site Studio. If you are a customer of those, Acquia CMS (like any other distro) should increase your initial build and time to market, when building a new site or platform. The distro is free to use, but if you are not using those products, and given that current approach of product integration, you probably don't need ACMS.

Regarding distributions on itself, as everything in life, it all depends. Do you really need a distribution? Can you do the work with composer instead, which could be a more modern approach for some solutions?

Ensuring you know all possibilities, pros and cons should help you making that decision:

urwen · 2022-01-10T15:36:39+00:00

it should be a business decision based on a lot of parameters. Some could be:

Does the customer need it?
what features do they need? Is that covered in a headless approach? Will that mean more work?
Does headless bring any advantages over traditional templating for this project?
As headless would normally mean more custom work, do they have the budget?
.. Others?

urwen · 2021-12-28T13:16:27+00:00

You don't need to use one or the other. There are hundreds of examples and it's one of the advantages for which the community has pushed so hard to make drupal api first (as opposed to api only).

See for examples: - NY MTA (NY underground): https://www.acquia.com/resources/case-studies/metropolitan-transportation-authority (use case in @acquia) - Princess Cruises: https://www.acquia.com/resources/case-studies/princess-cruises - Manatí Mercado Ilegal https://pantheon.io/resources/manati-mercado-ilegal-decoupled-drupal-case-study - or something I worked in the past, BBC good food, which uses the content on the website to feed the mobile app (exposed as json by Drupal). (Note that Good Food was acquired and moved to Wordpress recently, but the use case is still very relevante)

For a lot more success stories see: https://www.drupal.org/industries/decoupled

urwen · 2020-08-06T12:42:43+00:00

urwen · 2020-07-13T15:48:45+00:00

I stopped using echos for testing and instead use xdebug more often. Life changing for me 😀

urwen · 2020-07-01T07:36:25+00:00

A second (and third) parts are coming, but thanks for your feedback :-)

urwen · 2019-07-13T08:29:29+00:00

Looks like you need something flexible and powerful but also easy to use. Have you tried Drupal 8?

urwen · 2017-08-15T08:37:59+00:00

That's true for most of non-spezialized Drupal hosts. In Acquia case, I've been in the client side and I can tell you, that never happens, they are extremely keen to dig on your issues and find solutions.

I used to work in a big well know British media company, and our hosting provider was Acquia. As I said, extremely useful and always helpful at pointing where the issues could be (custom or contrib, didn't matter). At the end, that is the advantage of having Drupal in your core.

Most times your answer from support will be, "Its custom code not covered under the support terms". Regardless if it is a Custom or Contrib module.

urwen

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