In-Fisherman.com - Building an Enterprise Level Drupal Site
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The document outlines the case study of in-fisherman.com, detailing the development of an enterprise-level Drupal site aimed at enhancing user experience and scalability. It discusses the project's challenges, including data import and multi-domain management, and highlights the need for a flexible and cost-effective CMS. Key modules and techniques used, as well as lessons learned from the development process, are also provided.
In-Fisherman.com - Building an Enterprise Level Drupal Site
- 1. Case Study: In-Fisherman.com – Building an Enterprise Level Drupal SiteAn overview of the development process, lessons learned and successful techniques for team-based development projectsPresented by Paul Chason & Josh Estep
- 2. Presenter Bio: Paul Chason, Managing PartnerMediacurrent Founder – established March 2004Master’s Degree Medical IllustrationStints at WebMD, Home DepotBring left and right brain expertise to MediacurrentSelf-taught web developerASP.NET / SQL Server, PHP / MySQL, Flash Actionscript, Javascript, CSS, XHTMLAdobe CS Expert
- 3. Presenter Bio: Josh Estep, Drupal DeveloperBS Computer ScienceDrupal “Swiss Army Knife” – themer, module developer, MySQL guru4 years Drupal development experience at large media companyXHTML, CSS, Photoshop, Javascript, Perl, PHP, Linux, C++, Java
- 4. Client ProfileInterMedia Outdoors, Inc. (IMO), is the leading multimedia company serving the needs of outdoors enthusiastsBoasts the largest network of websites (16 total) dedicated to hunting, shooting and fishingWebsites serve to complement print magazines
- 5. ChallengeEnsure site could be easily managed by in-house development teamBuild a scalable site that can perform under averages of 67,789 user visits, 266,379 page visits, and an average of 4:1 page visits/user visits in a typical monthLeverage Drupal’s social-networking features such as tagging, commenting and user generated content to entice new users
- 6. Why Drupal?Scalability - Drupal was perceived as the most scalable and extensible open source optionCost - No licensing feesMulti-site / multi-database architecture - Drupal’s flexible multi-site configuration would allow IMO to store content and user data in multiple databases for a single site. Hosting - The expected traffic for the site demanded a low-cost enterprise level hosting environmen; Drupaland the LAMP stack were a natural fit
- 7. Why Drupal?Flexibility - IMO's previous CMS was inflexible, making it difficult to implement new and innovative features. Drupal’s modular framework, API and theme override capabilities made it the top choice Theme customization - Drupal’s separation of presentation and business logic through the theme layer allowed the In-Fisherman.com UI to undergo significant revisions during and after development Active development community - A fragile economy encouraged open source software vs. a proprietary vendor solution and allowed IMO to not be “locked in” to one vendor
- 8. In-Fisherman.com GoalsBetter User Experience - Create an engaging web experience for users by leveraging IMO’s vast repository of sportsman-related content and videoBranding - Provide a more modern, contemporary look and feel that reinforced the magazine brandIntriguing Content - Give anglers the ability to quickly find the information they’re seeking by using a well defined taxonomy structure and lists of articles tailored toward a user’s individual preferencesScalability - Careful consideration needed to be given to scaling, isolating points of failure and configuring the site to fail “gracefully”
- 9. Hosting Architecture“Shuttle” servers store cached contentPage requests routed through Cisco Load Balancer, balancer identifies open shuttleMySQL DB master / slave
- 10. Development ProcessUI design completed without Drupal in mindLoose set of requirementsAgile approachActive Collab for project management Weekly stand up calls with clientUse Skype for up to the minute communication among development teamOh Noooo!
- 11. Design & ThemingWorked with NYC-based Brooklyn Design Foundry to implement custom themeAdapted UI design to Zen themeBuilt “Custom Content” module in place of PanelsDeveloped custom modules for generating Flash widgets and associated XML dataFlexibility of Zen allowed for numerous design tweaks during final theming phase
- 12. Obstacles & SolutionsTimeline - Developing 3-4 enterprise class sites in a compressed timeframe (5 or 6 months)Limited information architecture specifications - Project stakeholders met often to discuss items such as data query logic for blocks and layout format of node edit pagesMultiple themers - With several developers involved in theming, the team needed to coordinate everyone’s effortsSearch - For a general site searching, the Google Search Appliance (GSA) was used
- 13. Obstacles & SolutionsSharing Data across multiple domains - The In-Fisherman.com site uses several databases to support high-volume trafficBlock Flattener moduleMultidomain moduleOptimization of multipage nodes - The article content type needed to present up to 6 pages of contentCombination of theme overrides in template.php and customization in the node.tpl fileCustom module to intercept the clean URL and detect a page number at the end
- 14. Obstacles & SolutionsData Import - IMO had lots of content (1200+ fishing articles) to be imported from Filemaker Pro databaseEnterprise level hosting and establishing fault-tolerance – In-Fisherman.com traffic demanded a hosting infrastucture capable of high loadMultiple Drupal databases with master/slave database serversIf one section of site fails, the other section doesn’t fail with itPartition user data, editorial content and user-generated content
- 15. In-Fisherman.com Contributed ModulesNice Menus: This easy-to-configure module gave the site’s primary navigation a set JavaScript drop down menus.Fivestar: Allows site users to rate content.Workflow: Gives content contributors the ability to promote content and have it approved by an editor before it’s published.Transliteration: This module “sanitizes” file names for user uploaded content, helping oddly named files become readable by the file server.String Overrides: Gives site administrators a simple way to replace text that’s passed through the Drupal API t() function.TinyMCE: A WYSIWYG editor that gives content contributors the ability to style web site copy.
- 16. In-Fisherman.com Custom ModulesAlternating Content Background Manager: This allows site administrators to update the background images used by an accordion flash widget without having to update XML manually. New images are saved to specific filenames referenced in the XML.Block Flattener and Block Flattener Reader: These modules allow block data to be shared between subdomains without directly accessing a database for block content.Gear Related Articles: This module outputs block content to a flat file for sharing across subdomains, similar to the Block Flattener module.Profanity Input Filter: This provides rudimentary, context-based input filtering via a modifiable set of rules. Site administrators can insert custom string rules of prohibited content. The module then replaces the prohibited strings with asterisks.Fish Profile: Adds radio button-based fields to the profile form and reorganizes the fields.Gear Related Articles Export: Saves block data to a flat file for use by blocks in other subdomains thereby reducing cross domain database calls.
- 17. In-Fisherman.com Custom ModulesIMO import Fix: A helper module that assists in correcting file paths, taxonomy assignments and string replacements during the article import process.In-Fisherman Form Alters: Handles all form alter logic for In-Fisherman.com.Multidomain: Manages the subdomain links for a multi-site Drupalinstall.Node Process: Processes node page calls, allowing nodes to have multiple pages.Profanity Input Filter: Provides an input that can filter profane words or phrases based on a set of rules.SolunarMonth: The In-Fisherman site provides solunar calendars, which provide the best lunar fishing phase in any given month. This module supplies the solunar_month content type for the calendar. CCK couldn’t be utilized because the number of fields required by this content type consistently maxed out PHP’s memory allocation when loading the node edit form. The module also supplies a dynamic XML menu item for a given month and year together.WWW Advanced Search: Generates an advanced search form page, containing category-based filters.
- 18. Training & DocumentationNever overlook the level of effort neededUsed Drupal for documentation repository, leveraging the book moduleTargeted toward developers and content managersGive simple directions and use examples
- 19. Lessons LearnedBreak the project down into chunksUse a proven recipe of modulesAcquire 3rd party code as soon as possibleOrient designers on the “Drupal way”
- 20. For more information on MediacurrentVisit www.mediacurrent.comwww.twitter.com/mediacurrentpaul.chason@mediacurrent.comjosh.estep@mediacurrent.com