Any plan or possible to merge Backdrop with Drupal7 ? there are 430k D7 which no where to go, but backdrop only has 2k, its kind of wasting the opportunities for both sides, I have few big D7 sites but no willing to upgrade to D9 forever, if backdrop has stronger community to develop the commerce side which will make big difference...

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Merging Drupal7 and Backdrop is not possible for technical reasons, which are comprehensively described by BWPanda and Herb.

But I want to point out one more reason of a practical nature.

I've been using Backdrop since 2016, and at that time Backdrop had much less features than it does today. Both functional capabilities and the number of modules for Drupal 7 that have been converted to Backdrop.

Over the years, I've gradually converted almost all websites that were previously built with Drupal 7 to Backdrop. That was about 50 websites of my clients. At the same time, all the websites I launched after 2016 were built with Backdrop.

This experience makes me think that merging Drupal 7 and Backdrop is not only technically impossible, but also practically undesirable.

Why? Because Backdrop is already technically and functionally a much more perfect content management system, extremely convenient, secure and reliable, and merging with Drupal 7 would be a huge step back.

True, during this time I had to overcome quite a few difficulties to learn how Backdrop sites are made. Although based on Drupal 7 and very similar, familiar.

Immediately after the installation of Backdrop, one feels in a familiar environment and does not have to explore an unfamiliar system administration interface.

But some habits acquired from working with Drupal 7 must be forgotten, new concepts must be mastered - most notably the idea of Layouts and the different approach to theme development and web content design.

This required effort would probably make the transition to Backdrop difficult for those who still prefer to stick with Drupal 7. I understand them. Drupal 7 is a time-tested and wonderful system that still does an excellent job. The effort to learn new work techniques can still be avoided.

However, this cannot last forever. The Internet and technology are developing and Drupal 7 is already quite an old system that does not allow the use of a number of advantages that the development of the modern Internet and browsers already allow.

The examples are hundreds, but I will point out just two huge advantages of Backdrop - the mobile-responsive admin interface and the much greater accessibility, both for people with visual impairments and for search engines who also have serious visual impairments :)

My transition to Backdrop was also made easier by the extremely responsive community. I've asked dozens if not hundreds of questions on this forum and have always been met with understanding and incredible support (even though I'm not a native English speaker and probably often expressed myself in a way that was difficult to understand).

So my advice to anyone still clinging to Drupal 7 is: go ahead. Even if there are problems, they will be solved, but first you need to describe and report them. Things will not happen by themselves if you are not part of the process because in the development of software it is of great importance to test it in the practical work of as many people as possible.

It's not a matter of just downloading Backdrop and installing it. Be active in the community and contribute your experience and suggestions to the development of the system.

This is the way to "merge" Drupal 7 and Backdrop. This merger requires and expects your participation as well.

And the Backdrop community may be relatively small, but let's distinguish between quantity and quality. The people at Backdrop community (I am not member of it) have built a highly collaborative and efficient productive network based on the best traditions of organizing open source projects, where you'll quickly know you're among friends.

So don't wait for some "merger" of Drupal 7 with Backdrop, there won't be. Join the still small number of 2400 sites that work with Backdrop and you will soon realize that you have made one of the important and good choices in your life and professional development.

I have few big D7 sites, now I can't spend money to develop the commercial part, but I don't want to upgrade to 9 because of the composer things

It sounds like Backdrop might be a better fit for your sites than Drupal, but you're hesitant to migrate over because "backdrop's commercial part and the community is weak as well."

I'd suggest that Backdrop's community would only strengthen with more people coming over from Drupal (or indeed anywhere). So it's a catch-22: Backdrop's community is seen as small/weak because of the lack of members, but it can't grow/strengthen because people are hesitant to move over.

My solution is to just 'bite-the-bullet' and move your sites to Backdrop. Contribute to our community (via feature requests, pull requests, documentation additions/updates, posting about your experience on social media, chatting with the community in Zulip/the forum, etc.). You never know - you might be the catalyst that starts the bulk migration of D7 users to Backdrop...

A merge isn't possible. Even if the code and functionality are similar, Backdrop's values and principles are very different from Drupal's: https://backdropcms.org/philosophy That alone makes the two projects incompatible (in terms of combining them).

Comments

There's no plan to merge the two.

I'm not even sure what that would look like. How do you see it happening? Would all the Backdrop sites have to change to Drupal 7?

In a way there's already a lot of crossover between the two, sharing of code changes, bug fixes, porting of modules.

A merge isn't possible. Even if the code and functionality are similar, Backdrop's values and principles are very different from Drupal's: https://backdropcms.org/philosophy That alone makes the two projects incompatible (in terms of combining them).

the tug of war game has taken many years, its hurting the users, Drupal is waiting for those 430k D7 to move up to 9, I just don't see this going to happen in next few years. totally wasting all user's time. my problem can be a case, I have few big D7 sites, now I can't spend money to develop the commercial part, but I don't want to upgrade to 9 because of the composer things, but also backdrop's commercial part and the community is weak as well. I am just try to find out where should go. the best option I can think of is combine backdrop and drupal7 to become a powerful one, then immediately those 430k will move on.  

I have few big D7 sites, now I can't spend money to develop the commercial part, but I don't want to upgrade to 9 because of the composer things

It sounds like Backdrop might be a better fit for your sites than Drupal, but you're hesitant to migrate over because "backdrop's commercial part and the community is weak as well."

I'd suggest that Backdrop's community would only strengthen with more people coming over from Drupal (or indeed anywhere). So it's a catch-22: Backdrop's community is seen as small/weak because of the lack of members, but it can't grow/strengthen because people are hesitant to move over.

My solution is to just 'bite-the-bullet' and move your sites to Backdrop. Contribute to our community (via feature requests, pull requests, documentation additions/updates, posting about your experience on social media, chatting with the community in Zulip/the forum, etc.). You never know - you might be the catalyst that starts the bulk migration of D7 users to Backdrop...

Merging Drupal7 and Backdrop is not possible for technical reasons, which are comprehensively described by BWPanda and Herb.

But I want to point out one more reason of a practical nature.

I've been using Backdrop since 2016, and at that time Backdrop had much less features than it does today. Both functional capabilities and the number of modules for Drupal 7 that have been converted to Backdrop.

Over the years, I've gradually converted almost all websites that were previously built with Drupal 7 to Backdrop. That was about 50 websites of my clients. At the same time, all the websites I launched after 2016 were built with Backdrop.

This experience makes me think that merging Drupal 7 and Backdrop is not only technically impossible, but also practically undesirable.

Why? Because Backdrop is already technically and functionally a much more perfect content management system, extremely convenient, secure and reliable, and merging with Drupal 7 would be a huge step back.

True, during this time I had to overcome quite a few difficulties to learn how Backdrop sites are made. Although based on Drupal 7 and very similar, familiar.

Immediately after the installation of Backdrop, one feels in a familiar environment and does not have to explore an unfamiliar system administration interface.

But some habits acquired from working with Drupal 7 must be forgotten, new concepts must be mastered - most notably the idea of Layouts and the different approach to theme development and web content design.

This required effort would probably make the transition to Backdrop difficult for those who still prefer to stick with Drupal 7. I understand them. Drupal 7 is a time-tested and wonderful system that still does an excellent job. The effort to learn new work techniques can still be avoided.

However, this cannot last forever. The Internet and technology are developing and Drupal 7 is already quite an old system that does not allow the use of a number of advantages that the development of the modern Internet and browsers already allow.

The examples are hundreds, but I will point out just two huge advantages of Backdrop - the mobile-responsive admin interface and the much greater accessibility, both for people with visual impairments and for search engines who also have serious visual impairments :)

My transition to Backdrop was also made easier by the extremely responsive community. I've asked dozens if not hundreds of questions on this forum and have always been met with understanding and incredible support (even though I'm not a native English speaker and probably often expressed myself in a way that was difficult to understand).

So my advice to anyone still clinging to Drupal 7 is: go ahead. Even if there are problems, they will be solved, but first you need to describe and report them. Things will not happen by themselves if you are not part of the process because in the development of software it is of great importance to test it in the practical work of as many people as possible.

It's not a matter of just downloading Backdrop and installing it. Be active in the community and contribute your experience and suggestions to the development of the system.

This is the way to "merge" Drupal 7 and Backdrop. This merger requires and expects your participation as well.

And the Backdrop community may be relatively small, but let's distinguish between quantity and quality. The people at Backdrop community (I am not member of it) have built a highly collaborative and efficient productive network based on the best traditions of organizing open source projects, where you'll quickly know you're among friends.

So don't wait for some "merger" of Drupal 7 with Backdrop, there won't be. Join the still small number of 2400 sites that work with Backdrop and you will soon realize that you have made one of the important and good choices in your life and professional development.

as I mentioned "the tug of war game has taken many years", both side has their own "values and principles", there is no problem to keep asking people come to backdrop, but after many years, the result is not great ( software is great but usage not ) if both side can sit down to workout a way to combine both "values and principles", maybe it will save many years for this competition.

It is not a matter of combining values and principles, but the decisions taken and the resulting code.

  • The Drupal community decided to move to Composer and Symfony; the Backdrop community decided not to make that change.
  • The Drupal community decided not to add new features to Drupal 7.x; the Backdrop community decided to fork Drupal 7.x (right when it was changing to Drupal 8.x) and add new features.
  • The Drupal community decided that Drupal 7.x will not be supported past November, 2023 (if the date has not been changed again); the Backdrop community is still supporting Backdrop 1.x and will support it past November, 2023.