ARHU Drupal Presentation 2/3
- 1. An Inside Look at the New ARHU College Web SiteMegan WengFebruary 3, 20101
- 2. This talk is forDetailed technical discussions of Drupal2Discussing the process of building the ARHU website with Drupal
- 3. An overview of the features and how they are supported by Drupal
- 4. Strengths and challenges of DrupalsolutionNot for
- 5. A Brief HistoryLaunched on September, 2009Took a year from requirement to 1st launchTotally built in house through a Drupal pilot project with OIT and hosted by OIT3
- 6. Basic Facts of ARHU SiteIn Drupal 6.9~190 pages including all external linksSupports ~15 usersUses 30+ modulesThree menu systemsPrimary Menu, Main Menu, and top MenuBasic featuresIn-context editingLDAP integratedGoogle Analytics enabledForms with CaptchaPassword Protected pagesFellowship/Employment/News/Events Databaseand more…Continues to evolve4
- 7. Basic Facts of ARHU Site5
- 8. Project PhaseThe Project From Start to FinishRequirements PhaseDesign PhaseImplementation6
- 9. Requirements Phase (I)Problems in the existing siteDifficult to navigate/find informationDifficult to maintain/outdated informationOutdated design & technology (site designed 10 years ago)Criteria for the new siteEasy to navigateEasy to maintainRestrict access rightsConsistent look & feelSolution: Content Management System!!!7
- 10. Requirements Phase (II)Primary GoalsFor perspective students to apply to ARHUFor current students to obtain information on resourcesFor current students to communicate with other students For alumni & friends to donate to ARHUFor alumni to connect with ARUH and other alumniFor staff/faculty to obtain information on resources & researchFor inter-department communications 8
- 11. Requirements Phase (III)Primary AudienceCurrent StudentsPerspective StudentsFacultyStaff: Department Chairs, Dean’s AdministrationsAlumniDonorsGeneral Public9
- 12. Requirements Phase (IV)Review of existing web siteReview of peer institutions web siteDiscussions with stakeholdersThe Result: Web Site Architecture10
- 14. Design PhaseDesign mock ups produced based on information architecture and presented to stakeholders for feedbacks12BeforeAfter
- 15. CMS EvaluationOpen Source vs Commercial ProductsPlatforms considerationEvaluationDrupalJoomlaPloneezpublish13
- 16. Implementation (I)Theme Developmentused zen theme as starting pointheavy CSS styling (FireBug!!!) Major browsers support was a big challengeheavy usage of Block to control layoutNavigation: menu systemsNice Menu moduleDefine Content TypesCCK moduleExamples: Event, News, Fellowship, Job14
- 17. Implementation (II)Development ProcessBefore First Release in 9/200915After First ReleaseFeatures (I)In-context editingAdministration menu moduleLDAP IntegratedLDAP moduleWYSIWYG editorsFCKeditor moduleIMCS module files uploading – images, pdf, docHome PageViews modulePanels module: multiple views on one pageDynamic Display Block module: slide show16
- 18. Features (II)Fellowship DatabaseEmployment DatabaseNews & Events DatabaseCCK moduleViews module17
- 19. Features (III)Google Analytic EnabledGoogle Analytic modulePassword Protected pagesProtected Node moduleOnline forms with Spam controlWebform modulereCAPTCHA module18
- 20. Features (IV)These features will be incorporated into the next Drupal upgradeWorkflowRulesGranular PrivilegesTaxonomy? Multi-sitediagram next slide19
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- 22. Challenges/Limitations/ComplaintsPerformance issue!Turn on Drupal optimization: Site Configuration -> PerformanceOpcode caching on PHPSome features are supported multiple ways, while some features are not fully developedImage galleryWorkflowTheme development can be very challengingCSS styling can be painful! Heavy CSS styling causes side effectsMigration between environments is a pain!21
- 23. Strengths of Drupal SolutionVery easy to learn/use for the usersVery flexibleLots of modules offering lots of featuresLarge community of user basePowerful social networking features22
- 24. Next StepsContinue to improve the design and user experienceImproving performanceUtilize the social networking/media features of DrupalBlogging, forums, RSS, audio/videoProviding consistent themes/templates for departmentsApplications development within Drupal or without Drupal?Keep an eye on Drupal 7…23
- 25. Q & AIf you like to hear a talk on a particular feature discussed today, please let me know!24