- Mediacurrent collaborated with InterMedia Outdoors to redesign their family of websites using Drupal. This required migrating content from a legacy CMS to Drupal.
- The result was a modernized website design and social network allowing users quick access to vast content. The Drupal-powered site improved scalability and allowed for social features and customization.
- Key goals were improved usability, branding, content findability, and high scalability to handle the site's large traffic. The hosting architecture and development process ensured these goals were met.
A draft paper on Open Source Content Management Systems for Small and Medium Businesses.
This was presented at the Linux Asia Conference in India in 2006.
A draft paper on Open Source Content Management Systems for Small and Medium Businesses.
This was presented at the Linux Asia Conference in India in 2006.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rTUIfzsKTM
Abstract:
Social business is all about adding the people back in! This session will provide an overview of different technologies for delivering exceptional SOCIAL digital experiences with IBM WebSphere Portal and integrating with IBM Connections and external social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter. The technologies described will include Community Pages, the Social Rendering feature of IBM Web Content Manager (WCM), the out-of-the-box IBM Connections portlets, IBM's Social Business Toolkit, and custom portlets built with IBM Web Experience Factory and IBM Rational Application Developer.
Speakers:
Adam Ginsburg, Product Manager, IBM Exceptional Digital Experience
Jonathan Booth, Senior Architect, IBM Exceptional Digital Experience Tooling
IBM SBT: http://developer.ibm.com/social
Review of new features coming in Alfresco 4. Hear how the new interface supports drag and drop upload. Alfresco now supports Social Channel Publishing, allowing users to publish to YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, etc. Now includes Activiti and Apache Solr.
Supporting View Transition Design of Smartphone Applications Using Web Templ...nkazuki
This slide is for presentation in International Conference on Web Engineering 2012 at Berlin.
The abstract from published paper is as follows;
Many developers have implemented native smartphone applications (NSAs) that have the same functionalities as those of existing web applications (WAs). They need to redesign web pages as views of NSAs owing to their constraints, such as compact displays. However, it can produce a NSA with low global navigability. We propose a framework that can support developers in designing view transitions of NSAs on the basis of WAs. We focus on web templates to leverage well-designed web page transitions. Our framework 1) extracts a page transition model from a WA to create candidate view transitions of a NSA, 2) provides an interface where developers design these views to solve the constraints, and 3) suggests design modifications to increase global navigability calculated by proposed criteria of navigation costs for users. After examining case studies, we concluded that our framework could support developers to design easy-to-navigate NSAs.
Presentation given to the Onati Workshop on 'One World, Different Cultures, Clashing Values: Legal Education in a Global Context', Onati, Spain. Hosted by the International Institute for the Sociology of Law, April 2009. Paper available.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rTUIfzsKTM
Abstract:
Social business is all about adding the people back in! This session will provide an overview of different technologies for delivering exceptional SOCIAL digital experiences with IBM WebSphere Portal and integrating with IBM Connections and external social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter. The technologies described will include Community Pages, the Social Rendering feature of IBM Web Content Manager (WCM), the out-of-the-box IBM Connections portlets, IBM's Social Business Toolkit, and custom portlets built with IBM Web Experience Factory and IBM Rational Application Developer.
Speakers:
Adam Ginsburg, Product Manager, IBM Exceptional Digital Experience
Jonathan Booth, Senior Architect, IBM Exceptional Digital Experience Tooling
IBM SBT: http://developer.ibm.com/social
Review of new features coming in Alfresco 4. Hear how the new interface supports drag and drop upload. Alfresco now supports Social Channel Publishing, allowing users to publish to YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, etc. Now includes Activiti and Apache Solr.
Supporting View Transition Design of Smartphone Applications Using Web Templ...nkazuki
This slide is for presentation in International Conference on Web Engineering 2012 at Berlin.
The abstract from published paper is as follows;
Many developers have implemented native smartphone applications (NSAs) that have the same functionalities as those of existing web applications (WAs). They need to redesign web pages as views of NSAs owing to their constraints, such as compact displays. However, it can produce a NSA with low global navigability. We propose a framework that can support developers in designing view transitions of NSAs on the basis of WAs. We focus on web templates to leverage well-designed web page transitions. Our framework 1) extracts a page transition model from a WA to create candidate view transitions of a NSA, 2) provides an interface where developers design these views to solve the constraints, and 3) suggests design modifications to increase global navigability calculated by proposed criteria of navigation costs for users. After examining case studies, we concluded that our framework could support developers to design easy-to-navigate NSAs.
Presentation given to the Onati Workshop on 'One World, Different Cultures, Clashing Values: Legal Education in a Global Context', Onati, Spain. Hosted by the International Institute for the Sociology of Law, April 2009. Paper available.
Divisions Council - Education Committee (Summer 2011)
Introduction
This report provides a description of existing services, both external and in-house, available to APA divisions for hosting and broadcasting webcasts to their members and other interested professionals, and specifically looks at the external Planning Webcast series. In addition, it includes an analysis of options for expanding these services. The report was produced in response to a request from the APA Divisions Council (DC), as follows:
Mission Statement *
To develop DC’s recommendations for educational programs, professional development and mentoring to be provided by divisions.
1. To seek opportunities for complementary efforts among divisions, and with APA's component groups, including the Chapter Presidents Council (CPC), Student Representative Council (SRC), and American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).
2. The committee will also consider collaboration opportunities with external organizations where it serves APA's interests and furthers the adopted Development Plan.
“In addition to its standing mission, the DC Education Committee (EC) shall develop one or more models through which Divisions may both deliver Certification Maintenance (CM) content and also generate additional sources of revenue for Divisions. The Committee shall consider current APA policies regarding access to Webinar software and the pricing of such access. Also, in building a revenue or business model, consider the pricing of other CM offerings, especially Webinars.”
Towards these objectives, key team members were recruited at the National Conference in Boston. Refer to Appendix 2 for committee composition.
(Tags: aicp, american, association, chapter, committee, conference, council, education, external, goto, internal, meeting, planning, revenue, series, service, sponsor, training, utah, webcast)
Content Management Systems Overview
Definition and Features of CMS
• CMS is software that facilitates the creation, alteration, publication, and distribution of digital content.
• It focuses on content quality, making it easier for users to create and manage their content.
Key Features of a CMS Friendly User Interface
• Accessibility is a key characteristic of a good CMS.
• Modern CMSs have WYSIWYG editors for text formatting and Markdown for simple text formatting.
• Effective media management tools are essential for maintaining visually appealing and well-organized content.
• Publishing tools include content scheduling and drafting.
• SEO tools improve content visibility and traffic in search engines.
CMS Categories
• OpenSource vs. Proprietary
• Opensource solutions like Squarespace and Wix provide professional support but limited customization.
• Hosted vs. Self-Hosted
• The technical infrastructure is managed by hosted CMSs at a recurring cost.
Popular CMSs
• WordPress: Known for its flexibility and numerous plugins and themes.
• Joomla: Offers improved features and can be fully customized.
• Drupal: Ideal for high-profile websites.
• Squarespace: Provides attractive templates and user-friendly design.
• Wix: Offers a simple drag-and-drop builder.
Choosing the Right CMS
• Assessing your needs, scalability, customization, community and support are key factors.
• Setting up a CMS includes basic steps like configuring servers, installing software, and initial configurations.
• Advanced features include integration with online selling platforms, support for multiple languages, and monitoring of visitor behavior using analytics tools and reporting.
The portal was a central point of access for thought articles, news, documents, business opportunities, and connecting with other professionals in the same sector - Asset Publisher Portlet, Filtration, Internationalization, OpenX
What CMS to choose? WordPress - Joomla! - DrupalWrocode
If you are a website content manager/company owner/content owner/ chief marketing officer or any other position that is closely related to website content management, you must read this presentation. I compared the most popular CMSs using the following indicators:
- creation and maintenance costs
- the level of difficulty in creating websites with each CMS
- advantages and disadvantages of any CMS system
If you have an opinion about CMS, share your thoughts or write to me if you want to talk about which system will be more suitable for your needs.
Content Management System is a software application used for creating and managing digital content.
It allows multiple users in a synergetic environment with multiple features.
It is used for enterprise or web content management, including formatting, version control, indexing, searching etc.
There are different types of CMS such as SharePoint, Umbraco, Sitefinity, Sitecore etc.
In the dynamic landscape of web development, Content Management Systems (CMS) play a pivotal role in shaping the digital presence of businesses, organizations, and individuals.
A Few Key Benefits:
Faster scale-ups
Better control
Easier manageability
Easier upgrades
Lower TCO
Also check out 6-step Process to Saas-enable Your Product.
A tale of scale & speed: How the US Navy is enabling software delivery from l...sonjaschweigert1
Rapid and secure feature delivery is a goal across every application team and every branch of the DoD. The Navy’s DevSecOps platform, Party Barge, has achieved:
- Reduction in onboarding time from 5 weeks to 1 day
- Improved developer experience and productivity through actionable findings and reduction of false positives
- Maintenance of superior security standards and inherent policy enforcement with Authorization to Operate (ATO)
Development teams can ship efficiently and ensure applications are cyber ready for Navy Authorizing Officials (AOs). In this webinar, Sigma Defense and Anchore will give attendees a look behind the scenes and demo secure pipeline automation and security artifacts that speed up application ATO and time to production.
We will cover:
- How to remove silos in DevSecOps
- How to build efficient development pipeline roles and component templates
- How to deliver security artifacts that matter for ATO’s (SBOMs, vulnerability reports, and policy evidence)
- How to streamline operations with automated policy checks on container images
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 5DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 5. In this session, we will cover CI/CD with devops.
Topics covered:
CI/CD with in UiPath
End-to-end overview of CI/CD pipeline with Azure devops
Speaker:
Lyndsey Byblow, Test Suite Sales Engineer @ UiPath, Inc.
GridMate - End to end testing is a critical piece to ensure quality and avoid...ThomasParaiso2
End to end testing is a critical piece to ensure quality and avoid regressions. In this session, we share our journey building an E2E testing pipeline for GridMate components (LWC and Aura) using Cypress, JSForce, FakerJS…
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Climate Impact of Software Testing at Nordic Testing DaysKari Kakkonen
My slides at Nordic Testing Days 6.6.2024
Climate impact / sustainability of software testing discussed on the talk. ICT and testing must carry their part of global responsibility to help with the climat warming. We can minimize the carbon footprint but we can also have a carbon handprint, a positive impact on the climate. Quality characteristics can be added with sustainability, and then measured continuously. Test environments can be used less, and in smaller scale and on demand. Test techniques can be used in optimizing or minimizing number of tests. Test automation can be used to speed up testing.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Unlocking Productivity: Leveraging the Potential of Copilot in Microsoft 365, a presentation by Christoforos Vlachos, Senior Solutions Manager – Modern Workplace, Uni Systems
Dr. Sean Tan, Head of Data Science, Changi Airport Group
Discover how Changi Airport Group (CAG) leverages graph technologies and generative AI to revolutionize their search capabilities. This session delves into the unique search needs of CAG’s diverse passengers and customers, showcasing how graph data structures enhance the accuracy and relevance of AI-generated search results, mitigating the risk of “hallucinations” and improving the overall customer journey.
Removing Uninteresting Bytes in Software FuzzingAftab Hussain
Imagine a world where software fuzzing, the process of mutating bytes in test seeds to uncover hidden and erroneous program behaviors, becomes faster and more effective. A lot depends on the initial seeds, which can significantly dictate the trajectory of a fuzzing campaign, particularly in terms of how long it takes to uncover interesting behaviour in your code. We introduce DIAR, a technique designed to speedup fuzzing campaigns by pinpointing and eliminating those uninteresting bytes in the seeds. Picture this: instead of wasting valuable resources on meaningless mutations in large, bloated seeds, DIAR removes the unnecessary bytes, streamlining the entire process.
In this work, we equipped AFL, a popular fuzzer, with DIAR and examined two critical Linux libraries -- Libxml's xmllint, a tool for parsing xml documents, and Binutil's readelf, an essential debugging and security analysis command-line tool used to display detailed information about ELF (Executable and Linkable Format). Our preliminary results show that AFL+DIAR does not only discover new paths more quickly but also achieves higher coverage overall. This work thus showcases how starting with lean and optimized seeds can lead to faster, more comprehensive fuzzing campaigns -- and DIAR helps you find such seeds.
- These are slides of the talk given at IEEE International Conference on Software Testing Verification and Validation Workshop, ICSTW 2022.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Threats to mobile devices are more prevalent and increasing in scope and complexity. Users of mobile devices desire to take full advantage of the features
available on those devices, but many of the features provide convenience and capability but sacrifice security. This best practices guide outlines steps the users can take to better protect personal devices and information.
Essentials of Automations: The Art of Triggers and Actions in FMESafe Software
In this second installment of our Essentials of Automations webinar series, we’ll explore the landscape of triggers and actions, guiding you through the nuances of authoring and adapting workspaces for seamless automations. Gain an understanding of the full spectrum of triggers and actions available in FME, empowering you to enhance your workspaces for efficient automation.
We’ll kick things off by showcasing the most commonly used event-based triggers, introducing you to various automation workflows like manual triggers, schedules, directory watchers, and more. Plus, see how these elements play out in real scenarios.
Whether you’re tweaking your current setup or building from the ground up, this session will arm you with the tools and insights needed to transform your FME usage into a powerhouse of productivity. Join us to discover effective strategies that simplify complex processes, enhancing your productivity and transforming your data management practices with FME. Let’s turn complexity into clarity and make your workspaces work wonders!
Sudheer Mechineni, Head of Application Frameworks, Standard Chartered Bank
Discover how Standard Chartered Bank harnessed the power of Neo4j to transform complex data access challenges into a dynamic, scalable graph database solution. This keynote will cover their journey from initial adoption to deploying a fully automated, enterprise-grade causal cluster, highlighting key strategies for modelling organisational changes and ensuring robust disaster recovery. Learn how these innovations have not only enhanced Standard Chartered Bank’s data infrastructure but also positioned them as pioneers in the banking sector’s adoption of graph technology.
1. CASE STUDY
In-Fisherman.com
Presented By
5755 North Point Pkwy – 60
Alpharetta, GA 30022
P 678.580.1690
F 770.360.5776
www.mediacurrent.com
2. ABSTRACT
Mediacurrent collaborated with InterMedia Outdoors, Inc. to redesign their family of interactive websites
using the Drupal content management system as a foundation. This required the migration and
restructuring of content from several websites hosted by a legacy content management system (CMS.)
The result was a fresh, modern web design and a social network that allowed Intermedia’s users to
access a vast repository of content quickly and easily.
COMPANY PROFILE
InterMedia Outdoors, Inc. (IMO), is the leading multimedia company serving the needs of outdoors
enthusiasts. The IMO brand boasts the largest network of websites (16 total) dedicated to hunting,
shooting and fishing; a portfolio of 15 magazines including powerful brands such as In-Fisherman, Florida
Sportsman, Guns & Ammo, Petersen’s Hunting, and Fly Fisherman; 25 market-leading television
productions; 2 syndicated radio shows; 200+ hours of television programming and one television network
– The Sportsman Channel. InterMedia Outdoors serves the interests of 80 million devoted sportsmen in
the pursuit of their passions.
CHALLENGE
In-Fisherman.com is the premier online destination for anglers worldwide. The site serves to complement
the print magazine In-fisherman, a 30 year staple in the outdoor publishing industry. In-Fisherman.com
was initially built using a proprietary CMS that was inflexible and troublesome to customize - features
such as social networking and tagging were difficult and time consuming to implement. However, these
challenges played into the strength of Drupal.
The aggregate site traffic of IMO’s portfolio of sites reached nearly 100 million page views during the first
6 months of 2008, and numbers continued to climb. More specifically, the In-Fisherman.com site
3. averages 67,789 user visits, 266,379 page visits, and an average of 4:1 page visits/user visits in a typical
month. Thus, scalability was at top of mind throughout the project.
WHY DRUPAL?
The decision for IMO to use Drupal came after an unsuccessful attempt to build out In-Fisherman.com
with another CMS. The deciding factors for selecting Drupal were:
Scalability - Drupal was perceived as the most scalable and extensible open source option.
Cost - No licensing fees.
Multi-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. Multiple databases would keep
distinct areas of the site operational in the event of database failure from server load. The user data is
stored in its own database and the gear/angler/www sites are set-up to seamlessly pull user data
from that separate database.
Hosting - The expected traffic for the site demanded a low-cost enterprise level hosting environment.
Drupal and the LAMP stack were a natural fit.
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. IMO was looking for a community with solid leadership and momentum.
In addition, the Mediacurrent offices were local to the project stakeholders and allowed for enhanced
interaction.
GOALS
In our initial planning sessions, several primary goals were indentified. The most important success
factors included:
1) Usability – Create an engaging web experience for users by leveraging IMO’s vast repository of
sportsman-related content and video. The new site functionality would take user participation to a
new level.
2) Branding – Provide a more modern, contemporary look and feel that reinforced the magazine brand.
3) 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 preferences. This
needed to work for both anonymous and registered users. The objective was based on articles the
user has previously visited as well as interests specified in a registered user’s profile.
4) Scalability – Build with scalability in mind. IMO has several high traffic sites in their corporate
umbrella. Careful consideration needed to be given to scaling, isolating points of failure and
configuring the site to fail “gracefully.”
4. HOSTING ARCHITECTURE
In-Fisherman.com needed to handle thousands of page views per day. The hosting environment required
the ability to balance anonymous page requests, authenticated page requests and traffic spikes
effectively. IMO’s system administrator spent months of research, planning, and devising an internal
hosting infrastructure that was enterprise caliber. The hosting architecture consists of a series of shuttle
servers storing cached content, a file server and a dual database cluster. Page requests are routed
through a Cisco Load Balancer. The balancer identifies a shuttle server that’s “open” for serving the input
based on the number of requests it’s processing at that time. Stress tests on the enterprise server
architecture proved that Drupal was more than capable of handling. The idea of using memcache or
Xcache was tossed around, but abandoned in the end, because the hosting environment’s performance
testing exceeded requirements.
DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
IMO’s team developed the initial requirements document, which was beneficial. Mediacurrent adopted an
Agile methodology for developing the site. A team of 2-6 developers simultaneously worked in
conjunction with IMO’s management team throughout the process. Development progress was tracked
through the open-source project management tool called Active Collab, and its web-based ticketing
system. Active Collab’s commenting feature helped the Mediacurrent team collaborate effectively. There
is no shortage of other project management tools out there, but for what it is worth we felt Active Collab
fulfilled our needs. Overall, task management and dialogue between IMO and Mediacurrent was primarily
handled by a project manager, and frequent updates were exchanged on a daily basis. Weekly stand up
calls with IMO stakeholders provided an opportunity for more formal question and answers, and for
valuable debriefing time.
DESIGN AND THEMING
Intermedia Outdoors tapped a New York-based agency to create the user interface design for the site
months before Mediacurrent started site development. Mediacurrent chose the Zen theme to adapt the
In-Fisherman.com design. The Zen theme dramatically cut design time. As requirements shifted, the
5. highly relevant CSS structure of the Zen theme allowed for impromptu changes to the UI without breaking
page layouts. Mediacurrent also built several custom modules to streamline theming.
The custom content module was used in place of Panels (at the time Panels 6.x was not recommended
for production use). This allowed for complex content presentation on the front page and species channel
pages. Several custom Flash-related modules were written to provide XML data to Flash widgets across
the site. These modules create XML data based on taxonomy. Mediacurrent’s final theme was extensible
and flexible enough to withstand numerous IMO design changes just before the site’s alpha release.
SIGNIFICANT OBSTACLES AND SOLUTIONS
As with almost any sizable enterprise site there were some challenges to overcome. The most notable
included:
Timeline – 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 pages. The use of a ticketing
system helped the process tremendously.
Multiple themers – With several developers involved in theming, the team needed to coordinate
everyone’s efforts. Team members notified each other via IM whenever new CSS classes were
created so as not to duplicate effort.
Search - For a general site searching, the Google Search Appliance (GSA) was used. Mediacurrent
had to modify it according to client requirements, which called for sorting by criteria unavailable in the
standard GSA. The solution was to limit the number of results, which were then reordered if the
default sorting was not used. Mediacurrent also added a theme function so the result set would match
the user interface design.
Sharing Data across multiple domains – The In-Fisherman.com site uses several databases to
support high-volume traffic. The technique used relied heavily on Drupal’s multi-site configuration.
Drupal points to a particular database, based on the subdomain of the URL. This posed a problem for
blocks that presented data across multiple subdomains. IMO didn’t want to make database calls from
one subdomain to another. To solve this, Mediacurrent created a set of modules that would “flatten” a
block’s content to a serialized array and store it in a flat file. Thus, block content on one subdomain
could be read by another subdomain without a database request. Another challenge of multiple
domains is making Drupal’s menu system point to the correct domain when routing a page request,
without having to use absolute URL’s. Mediacurrent created the Multidomain to pass navigation and
/user paths through a custom_url_rewrite_outbound() function. A switch statement in the function
assigns the correct domain for a given path. Without this module, absolute URL paths would have to
be written everywhere to accommodate multiple domains.
Optimization of multipage nodes – The article content type needed to present up to 6 pages of
content. Mediacurrent decided that the pagination module would not meet IMO’s specific
requirements. Our development team employed multipage articles, using a combination of theme
overrides in template.php and customization in the node.tpl file. For search engine optimization, the
article URL’s needed a page number appended to the path instead of appended to a query string.
This was challenging because Drupal perceived the additional argument as a new path alias. The
development team wrote a custom module to intercept the clean URL and detect a page number at
the end. The page number is stored and Drupal redirects to the node page.
6. Data Import – IMO had lots of content (1200+ fishing articles) to be imported. Prior to Drupal, the
IMO editorial team managed these articles in FilemakerPro. IMO’s team created a PHP script to
parse a FilemakerPro XML file and generate a CSV file that was compatible with the Node Import
module. The wide array of metadata required that Node Import and various other modules such as
File Field and Image Field to be customized extensively. Once these modifications were complete,
Drupal processed the import to completion in an hour. Images were uploaded via FTP to the
development server and placed in the “files” directory.
Enterprise level hosting and establishing fault-tolerance –To meet In-Fisherman.com’s stability
needs, the IMO team configured a hosting architecture that did not require additional optimization and
caching modules. Multiple databases for content and user accounts ensured that the site degraded
gracefully in the event of database failure. IMO’s system architect devised a technique to accomplish
this by leveraging Drupal’s multi-site capability along with prefixing table names with database names
in each site’s settings.php file.
MODULE LIST
The In-Fisherman.com site used a large, diverse set of contributory modules – thank you Drupal
community. There were staples like CCK, Views, PathAuto and Imagecache, as well as an assortment of
others. DrupalModules.com became a terrific resource for module reviews, release state and
descriptions. Some of the other more noteworthy contributory modules included:
Nice 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.
CUSTOM MODULES
Developing the site involved extending or completely customizing quite a few modules – many of which
will be contributed back to the community. Here is a summary:
Alternating 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.
7. 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.
IMO 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 Drupal install.
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.
Solunar Month: 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.
TRAINING/DOCUMENTATION
Documentation was implemented using a Drupal intranet that could be referenced and updated by IMO
staff, while development was simultaneously taking place. The online nature of the documentation
enhances knowledge transfer and allows for commenting, interaction, and help updates far faster than
traditional methods.
The site uses the book module to organize topics in a “tree” structure. A tagging scheme allowed help
topics to be displayed by subject. A WYSIWYG editor (FCKeditor) makes editing easy and efficient for
neophyte staffers and provides easy uploading of screen grabs. Terms and concepts between help
articles were extensively hyperlinked, allowing users of all skill levels to drill down to the appropriate level
of detail.
The documentation was written with the layman in mind (i.e. new user/developer to Drupal). This is more
difficult than it sounds, because as developers get more entrenched in the project, they tend to forget the
issues that stymie beginners. The availability of content in a web environment was seen as being more
beneficial and user-friendly than a traditional training manual in paper or PDF form.
Each help topic was summarized, then interviews were conducted by the documentation specialist to
determine the details of module dependencies and logic flow.
8. LESSON LEARNED…FOR THE NEXT TIME
Here are some takeaways from the project for developers and corporations (especially publishers) who
are contemplating Drupal for a sizable implementation:
1) Break the project down into chunks – there were are a lot of moving parts and concepts; keep the
core group of stakeholders as small as possible to streamline decision-making.
2) Use a proven recipe of modules – although we did a lot, avoid customization whenever possible.
3) Acquire original source code from all third-party front-end widget developers as soon as possible.
Upon receipt, immediately test to verify Drupal is “talking” to the widget correctly and vice-versa.
4) Orient designers on the “Drupal way” and overall theming best practices. Have your development
team review designs during the creative phase to ensure the designs reflect features and functionality
established by the selected module set.
ABOUT US
Mediacurrent is an Atlanta, Georgia based interactive firm that has developed a specialization and consulting vertical
within the free, open-source content management system (CMS) called Drupal. Mediacurrent offers strategic
direction and tactical implementation of an array of creative and technical solutions. For more information regarding
Mediacurrent’s services and portfolio please visit www.mediacurrent.com.