Evaluate the whole idea of the Evaluator guide

I apologize: That page is not generated from the Official Docs project anymore. It is now a freely editable page.

I have seen an old core issue asking for a script to check if the system can run Drupal. I had a look but I don't see it. As I recall it was old and stale, there was no interest in writing such a script. I may have closed it due to lack of interest.

For me, the evaluator guide should be the simplest way for anyone to test a Drupal site. AFAIK, that is simplytest.me, so we should just provide basic help for using that service and be done. And instructions are needed because I just tested simplytest.me for 'Starshot' and 'Umami' and both fail. In fact, 'Umami' has never worked for me.

And quick-start should not be used. Every time I tested it would stop working after a few minutes, so I don't think that is helpful.

Yeah agreed, the page can always link to other pages for installing Drupal locally, it doesn't need to duplicate the instructions.

Drupal CMS is supposed to be working on a demo platform, so everything should probably point there anyway? Maybe the page could be redirected to the Drupal CMS landing/demo page?

I agree on all counts @hansfn, I also think it was too difficult for an evaluator, not only on Windows, but also MacOS and Linux.

• Installing DDEV: Requires too many steps
• Manual PHP: Getting the right PHP packages is difficult
• Legacy PHP tools: XAMPP doesn't work out of the box
• Quick Start: Freezes 🐛 quick-start installation stops responding Active after a while for some users ... (maybe everyone?)
• Simplytest: Used to be great, but got unstable after the creator Patrick D left ... It may have been working well for a period? But I tried it right now, and it crashed, with "There was a build error -- This may be the error:"
  It's too bad that Simplytest don't have tests, to catch these recurring errors ... It looks like they have two sponsors, so in theory there is funding ... but maybe not enough?

I'm starting to think that the "quick-start" approach is only useful for people that already have a decent PHP setup.

I think we are "between chairs" here, since who is this evaluator page supposed to be for? For example, is it a CEO or non-developer person responsible for choosing the next CMS, not necessarily technically skilled, but happens to run a perfectly optimized PHP set up on their machine, with MySQL? This is like finding a unicorn, in my opinion.

Seasoned developers who writes Docker scripts in their sleep can get DDEV up and running easily. Also, who sets up manually a perfectly optimized PHP set up on their machine these days, and MySQL? Not the head of a small or medium sized company, who's not a developer. This person just needs to click somewhere in the browser, and then get Drupal, and check it out.

Since Drupal CMS will be launched January 15 2025 with an online trial experience, it can be used for evaluation. So maybe this issue can be set to postponed, and then January 15 2025, everything below "Requirements" on the https://www.drupal.org/docs/official_docs/evaluator-guide → can be replaced with a link to the Drupal CMS online trial experience?

Try Drupal

Try Drupal CMS in the browser, or install it locally with DDEV.

Just as long as the Drupal CMS online trial doesn't require registration, paying with credit card, etc. ... :)

I don't think we should postpone this issue, for me this is part of 🌱 Consolidate local development environment documentation to recommend DDEV Active which has already been open for more than a year. The duplication of instructions for a local development environment is already a longstanding problem.

Sure, then let's point it to the Drupal CMS RC page, replacing everything below "Requirements" on the Evaluator guide → :

Try Drupal

Try Drupal CMS, or install Drupal locally with DDEV.

#8 sounds like a good idea to me - can we just make those edits? I'm not sure who 'owns' this page?

I updated the page, so changing Status to "Needs review" here and there.

I went to https://new.drupal.org/drupal-cms/release-candidate and used the big 'get started' button on the right. That took me to DDEV docs install page which of course do not explain how to install Drupal CMS. I think this should direct people to the 'Try it locally heading' and use those steps.

If I pretend to be an evaluator I would like to find on this page the following, beginning with a range of options for getting a site I can evaluate.

First. Easiest.
This would be simplytest.me. Either direct to a wiki page or a few sentences to help someone to know what to select on the simplytest.me start page.

Second. Needs CLI skill
This would be quick-start. And link to the wiki page for how to setup for quick-start. All instructions should be on the wiki page.

Third. Advanced
This would be DDEV and a link to https://www.drupal.org/docs/getting-started/installing-drupal/install-dr... →

Followed by a 'What's Next' that would direct to the User Guide.

I am not sure that this page needs any sentences about the developer sections of the docs. For me, that is separate and besides that is in the block.

I would remove all the note-tips because three on a small page is overwhelming. And for me, that is distracting.

Oh, I found the issue about a script to check requirements before attempting to install.

@quietone, I agree with your list of descending technical user requirements, if only the tools worked ...

Simplytest.me is broken

Like I commented in #6 📌 Evaluate the whole idea of the Evaluator guide Active , Simplytest.me does not work, who knows for how long? So we shouldn't send new users there, see 🐛 quick-start installation stops responding Active .

Drupal Quick-start freezes

Like I also commented in #6, for you, me and others, Quick-start freezes after a minute, 🐛 quick-start installation stops responding Active .
@catch, @hansfn, and @avpadernod, does it work for you?

Drupal CMS is supposed to launch an online trial experience in a month, at January 15 2025, so that will be lowest barrier to entry, and we can add that to the evaluator guide, as the recommended method?

1. Easiest
   Drupal CMS online trial experience, launches January 15 2025
2. Needs CLI skill
   DDEV and a link to https://www.drupal.org/docs/getting-started/installing-drupal/install-dr... →

I am not sure that this page needs any sentences about the developer sections of the docs. For me, that is separate and besides that is in the block.

I would remove all the note-tips because three on a small page is overwhelming. And for me, that is distracting.

Great suggestion, I removed the tips, and rewrote the intro text.

Simplytest.me works for me, with Drupal 10. It does not work when I click on the Starshot button.

Thanks @avpaderno. I should have made it clearer that I am referring to the Starshot and umami "One Click Demos", which I'll add in my comment above.

mkdir drupal && cd drupal && curl -sSL https://www.drupal.org/download-latest/tar.gz | tar -xz --strip-components=1 and php -d memory_limit=256M ./core/scripts/drupal quick-start demo_umami worked for me. They installed Drupal 11.0.9 with the Demo: Umami Food Magazine installation profile, which I was able to test.

Thanks @avpaderno. We can all get it up and running. The problem some of us see, is that it stops responding, after using it for some time.

I have added Simplytest.me as the first option on the Evaluator guide, since as you wrote, the Drupal core option works well.

but it works well for you browsing for several minutes?

I kept going from page to page for some minutes; I then waited some minutes and started again to browse the site. It did not stop to respond.
I could make a more intensive test after dinner.

Thanks for fast feedback @apaderno, it's great. And you know what, it actually looks like Drupal Quick Start command doesn't hang any longer ... It worked for several minutes. I went away and resumed, and everything seems to work well still, which is fantastic.

I used these commands:

git clone https://git.drupalcode.org/project/drupal.git qs && cd qs
ddev config --project-type php
ddev start
ddev composer install
ddev php -d memory_limit=256M core/scripts/drupal quick-start demo_umami

It was ready here: https://qs.ddev.site/

So I have added Drupal Quick Start to the Evaluator guide, at the last position. When the Drupal CMS online trial experience is launched, we can move it to the top, so the order is this?

1. Drupal CMS
2. Simplytest.me
3. Drupal core with DDEV
4. Drupal Quick Start

Getting the right PHP environment set up for the Quick Start command is also difficult, as is installing DDEV ... or should this eventually be the order -- or maybe not until the "Check for required PHP packages"-script is ready?

1. Drupal CMS
2. Simplytest.me
3. Drupal Quick Start
4. Drupal core with DDEV

QuickStart probably does not give issues when using a Linux distribution with the most recent packages.
I used Ubuntu 24.10 and I had no problems because that and because I had already all the required packages installed. For somebody who wants to just test Drupal, DDEV is probably the easier solution, assuming DDEV is already used as development tool.