Ubercart Takes the Spotlight at TechRepublic
In:
17Mar2009
I was alerted earlier today by one of my colleagues at Commerce Guys about a certain article I might be interested in reading. Intrigued, I followed his link and was excited to find a blog post by Jack Wallen in TechRepublic's Product Spotlight covering Ubercart.
The review is quite simple and presents Ubercart in a good light, stating that "Ubercart is incredibly flexible, reliable, and suitable for small- to large-businesses." Obviously, this wouldn't be true if it weren't for the strengths of Drupal and the efforts of the entire Drupal community. The review does fairly point out that documentation is a weak point, especially for the 2.x branch. Another gentle reminder that some things just have to get done.
The bottom line? "If you are looking for an e-commerce solution, and you can deploy Drupal, Ubercart is your tool." Thanks, Jack. We'll get that documentation written, and we trust that Drupal will keep getting easier and easier to deploy. 
Comments
#1 Drupal will keep getting
Submitted by splash112 (not verified) on Wed, 03/18/2009 - 04:07.
Drupal will keep getting easier and easier to deploy.
How? It's downloading a package, uploading it back to the server, fill in database details and press ok. Kind of hard to screw up... Of course, when you want to make something a little more special. The same goes for Ubercart. Even without any experience you should be able to have a complete working site + shop working in a day, provided you can read the documentation and know how to Google for things you don't understand at once.
Good luck with the kid btw! Last few months should have been an awesome experience, all in all.
Bye
Mark
#2 Try installing and using
Submitted by peach - all drupal themes (not verified) on Wed, 03/18/2009 - 04:57.
Try installing and using Wordpress! Those guys are define what is "Easier". Joomla is easier too.
#3 Even without any experience
Submitted by Tom Geller (not verified) on Wed, 03/18/2009 - 10:09.
Even without any experience you should be able to have a complete working site + shop working in a day
That's only true for people who have extensive technology experience already. In the general public as a whole, I'd say less than 1% of them could do it in a day; maybe 5% could do it in a week.
One could reasonably argue that the market for Drupal/Übercart isn't "everyone". But certainly it's somewhere between my "everybody" and your "people with extensive technology experience".
IMHO, natch.
--Tom
#4 I'm going to agree with the
Submitted by Ryan on Wed, 03/18/2009 - 13:05.
I'm going to agree with the posters above, Mark, and just say that even understanding the difference between files on a web server and a connection to a MySQL database is impossible for most people. Installers take a lot of the pain out of that, but even now you still have to create a database and database user w/ appropriate permissions to install Drupal. We can simplify that, I'm sure.
However, deployment in my opinion doesn't stop there. Installation of modules, and even configuration of modules, isn't deployment. I think it's fair to say that while I can put together a full store in under an hour, someone "on the outside" would simply never be able to do it without paying someone like me for my time.
So, UberDrupal will help out with that for Ubercart users, but then you'll still need it to look good and function well for your customers. Our documentation on that is sparse, but Top Notch Themes is getting us there w/ their quick start guides.
There's just always more we can do to simplify things...