Chx in NYC / NEED Drupal Developers

This past week I had to opportunity to sit in on a Drupal NYC group meeting. We were honored to have Károly Négyesi (aka chx) do a presentation for us about the future of Drupal releases.

I won't be able to do the presentation justice, but I will highlight a few points that I found to be interesting.

Drupal 6 issue queue had no issues in it during the meeting, this means the final release will be out very soon. Till then you can enjoy the RC2 release.

Drupal 6 has improved Form API, which includes the work that Nate Haug (aka quicksketch) has done with AHAH was quickly incorporated into core (adding more form fields without page reload). The installation procedure has become increasingly more user friendly, with the exception that there may be a need to increase the max_memory for PHP.

Drupal 6 also introduces the Schema API. Schema API will allow developers to work with Drupal no matter what type of database is being used. This will make module development similar to how we currently deal with Form API. Expect an even larger adoption by larger companies that were hesitant to adopt Drupal because they were running Oracle databses.

Drupal 6 has gotten a reputation of being the internationalization release, with easy translation to other languages. Although alot of ground has been covered for internationalization, there still needs to be alot of work from the community and developers to write better code and translation files, myself included.

Side Note
Drupal 6 also has a method of theming that may only require CSS modification. This concept deserves an entire post of it's own.
Read more about that at Lullabot.com

Drupal 7, could possibly have a quicker release timeframe than Drupal 6. It's expected that the core functions of CCK and Views will find their way into Drupal core. I expect this to be a release that installation profiles really take off. There's alot of buzz in the community and just as many opportunist, I mean entrepreneurs, that will put together modules and content types for specific needs and sell it as a package.
Again, expect more enhancements to Schema API and internationalization.

Károly Négyesi (aka chx) continued on to discuss the path until Drupal 9, where it was suggested that we may be going more towards and Object Oriented (OO) design, both in syntax and the way data is handled. There is hesitation about this because most coder hobbiest come from a functional programming background, many OO coders have some sort of secondary education in Computer Science. But, OO has it's benefits and it's inevitable that it has to happen. Again, expect more enhancements to Schema API and internationalization.

Which leads me to the title of this post, "The NEED for Drupal Developers". From my personal experience and conversations with friends that are in this field. There is an abundance of work available for us. The rate at which small, medium, and large size companies are adopting Drupal is exponential. We are lucky as a community to have this type of buzz about our CMS. Unfortunately, what it does do, is take away from our experienced contributors (I'm working really hard to get to that level). So I suggest 2 types of developers that we as community members should seek from our acquaintances.

Developer Type 1 (the tech friend):
I think the Lullabots are a great example of what Drupal Developers should be doing, when time is available. I personally have a few techy friends that I have easily convinced into using Drupal. It's great as a developer to know these individuals and it's apparent who will succeed. Look for that person who can easily pick up Drupal, play with modules, read tutorials and get a jump on things by themselves. Put yourself out there as a resource to them, take your time to teach them and answer their questions. Keep in mind that this type of person is different from the random person asking questions in #Drupal. You have a good understanding of their abilities, and if they've made it this far you should be somewhat impressed.

This type of developer would be great as an assistant for new projects. CCK and Views is alot of what they will be good with. It helps too if they have a strong understanding of CSS. There's no huge need for this type of developer to know how to code a module or override a theme, but a basic understanding of PHP would help.

Developer Type 2 (the PHP guru):
Assuming that this PHP guru does not live and die by Object Oriented programming, this would be a great person to bring into the Drupal community. I wouldn't think this person would need much more than a few hours sit down to explain how Drupal API works and provide them with examples how a module is built, which would follow with how the hook system work, and finally exposure to themeing.

This developer would be right on track to work side by side with you on projects. A few minutes to review the code that they have created, point out places for improvement or the "Drupal Way" to get things accomplished.

For those of you that have known me over the past 2 or 3 years may be shocked by me making these request. I used to have the mindset that if more people get involved there's less work for me in the long run. I have since done a 180 and I think it's important for the future of Drupal if we can bring in more people at all skill levels and identify their abilities. We will all be able to make strong teams and impress clients at all levels how efficient we are working with the best CMS available.