A case study of the ARHU Website done in Drupal and launched in September, 2009. Presented by Megan Weng, IT Coordinator for the College of Arts and Humanities, University of Maryland.

1. An Inside Look at the New ARHU College Web Site Megan Weng February 3, 2010 1

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

4. Strengths and challenges of DrupalsolutionNot for

5. A Brief History Launched 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 3

6. 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 4

7. Basic Facts of ARHU Site 5

8. Project Phase The Project From Start to Finish Requirements Phase Design Phase Implementation 6

9. Requirements Phase (I) Problems in the existing site Difficult to navigate/find information Difficult to maintain/outdated information Outdated design & technology (site designed 10 years ago) Criteria for the new site Easy to navigate Easy to maintain Restrict access rights Consistent look & feel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!!! 7

10. 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 8

11. Requirements Phase (III) Primary Audience Current Students Perspective Students Faculty Staff: Department Chairs, Dean’s Administrations Alumni Donors General Public 9

12. Requirements Phase (IV) Review of existing web site Review of peer institutions web site Discussions with stakeholders The Result: Web Site Architecture 10

13. Web Site Architecture 11

14. Design Phase Design mock ups produced based on information architecture and presented to stakeholders for feedbacks 12 Before After

15. CMS Evaluation Open Source vs Commercial Products Platforms consideration Evaluation Drupal Joomla Plone ezpublish 13

16. 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 14

18. Features (II) Fellowship Database Employment Database News & Events Database CCK module Views module 17

19. Features (III) Google Analytic Enabled Google Analytic module Password Protected pages Protected Node module Online forms with Spam control Webform module reCAPTCHA module 18

20. Features (IV) These features will be incorporated into the next Drupal upgrade Workflow Rules Granular Privileges Taxonomy ? Multi-site diagram next slide 19

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22. Challenges/Limitations/Complaints Performance 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! 21

23. Strengths of Drupal Solution Very 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 22

24. Next Steps Continue to improve the design and user experience Improving performance Utilize the social networking/media features of Drupal Blogging, forums, RSS, audio/video Providing consistent themes/templates for departments Applications development within Drupal or without Drupal? Keep an eye on Drupal 7… 23

25. Q & A If you like to hear a talk on a particular feature discussed today, please let me know! 24