An Inside Look at the New ARHU College Web Site

Megan WengFebruary 3, 2010

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This talk is for

Detailed technical discussions of Drupal

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• Discussing the process of building the ARHU website with Drupal

• An overview of the features and how they are supported by Drupal

• Strengths and challenges of Drupal solution

Not for

A Brief HistoryLaunched on September, 2009

Took a year from requirement to 1st launch

Totally built in house through a Drupal pilot project with OIT and hosted by OIT

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Basic Facts of ARHU Site In Drupal 6.9 ~190 pages including all external links Supports ~15 users Uses 30+ modules Three menu systems

Primary Menu, Main Menu, and top Menu Basic features

In-context editing LDAP integrated Google Analytics enabled Forms with Captcha Password Protected pages Fellowship/Employment/News/Events Database and more…

Continues to evolve

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Basic Facts of ARHU Site

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Project PhaseThe Project From Start to Finish

Requirements PhaseDesign PhaseImplementation

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Requirements Phase (I)Problems in the existing site Difficult to navigate/find information Difficult to maintain/outdated information Outdated design & technology (site designed 10 years ago)

Criteria for the new site Easy to navigate Easy to maintain

Restrict access rights Consistent look & feel

Solution: Content Management System!!!

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Requirements Phase (II) Primary Goals

For perspective students to apply to ARHU

For current students to obtain information on resources

For current students to communicate with other students

For alumni & friends to donate to ARHU

For alumni to connect with ARUH and other alumni

For staff/faculty to obtain information on resources & research

For inter-department communications

 

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Requirements Phase (III)Primary Audience

Current Students

Perspective Students

Faculty

Staff: Department Chairs, Dean’s Administrations

Alumni

Donors

General Public

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Requirements Phase (IV)Review of existing web site

Review of peer institutions web site

Discussions with stakeholders

The Result: Web Site Architecture

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Web Site Architecture

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Design Phase Design mock ups produced based on information architecture and

presented to stakeholders for feedbacks

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Before After

CMS EvaluationOpen Source vs Commercial ProductsPlatforms considerationEvaluation

DrupalJoomlaPloneezpublish

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Implementation (I)Theme Development

used zen theme as starting point heavy CSS styling (FireBug!!!) Major browsers support was a big

challenge heavy usage of Block to control layout

Navigation: menu systems Nice Menu module

Define Content Types CCK module Examples: Event, News, Fellowship, Job

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Implementation (II)Development Process

Before First Release in 9/2009

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– After First Release

Features (I) In-context editing

Administration menu module

LDAP Integrated LDAP module

WYSIWYG editors FCKeditor module IMCS module files

uploading – images, pdf, doc

Home Page Views module Panels module: multiple

views on one page Dynamic Display Block

module: slide show16

Features (II)Fellowship DatabaseEmployment DatabaseNews & Events

DatabaseCCK moduleViews module

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Features (III)Google Analytic

EnabledGoogle Analytic module

Password Protected pagesProtected Node module

Online forms with Spam controlWebform modulereCAPTCHA module

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Features (IV)These features will be incorporated into the next

Drupal upgrade

WorkflowRules

Granular PrivilegesTaxonomy?

Multi-sitediagram next slide

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Challenges/Limitations/ComplaintsPerformance issue!

Turn on Drupal optimization: Site Configuration -> Performance

Opcode caching on PHP

Some features are supported multiple ways, while some features are not fully developed Image gallery Workflow

Theme development can be very challenging CSS styling can be painful! Heavy CSS styling causes side

effects

Migration between environments is a pain!

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Strengths of Drupal SolutionVery easy to learn/use for the users

Very flexible

Lots of modules offering lots of features

Large community of user base

Powerful social networking features

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Next StepsContinue to improve the design and user experience

Improving performance

Utilize the social networking/media features of DrupalBlogging, forums, RSS, audio/video

Providing consistent themes/templates for departments

Applications development within Drupal or without Drupal?

Keep an eye on Drupal 7…

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Q & AIf you like to hear a talk on a particular

feature discussed today, please let me know!

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