If You Don't Like Having Choices, Don't Do It With Drupal

Whenever I am talking to someone about Drupal, I almost inevitably find myself mentioning that there is usually more than one way to do something in Drupal. Even without making it a point to say this, I usually find myself saying it in some form or the other. And I find many reminders of this - when I am working on a project, talking to a potential client, etc. - more times than not, Doing It With Drupal means you have choices.

I was answering some questions about Drupal in a forum recently and found another instance of this bit of "Drupal truth". The answers I was providing pertained to solving a specific situation for a new Drupal site. Even without deliberately trying to come up with multiple alternatives, I found myself explaining a few different ways to achieve a specific solution.

And that is one of many things that I really enjoy about Drupal. Presented with virtually any task or project, there are likely to be many ways to accomplish the task and build a solution. In fact, I started wondering if I could think of a particular scenario in Drupal in which there would be only one solution. Thus far, I can't think of one.

So the moral of this short story is, if you are someone who doesn't like to have choices, don't do it with Drupal. You'll be frustrated with the "more than one way to do it" scenario. Oh certainly there are best practices and better ways to accomplish some tasks, but you will still find you have choices. On the other hand, if you like having choices in life, I think you're going to really love getting to know Drupal better.

Disclaimer: Drupal is an open source program, sometimes labeled as a content management system. This is not an article about a dating service.