Web Building With Drupal

ObjectivesWhat is a CMS?Why Drupal?Is there a learning curve?How did MRRL set up the new

site?What modules were used?How did the process work?Was it a success?What lessons were learned?

What Is A CMS?Content Management SystemDatabase – with a fancy User

InterfaceSeparation of content and “look”Lots of ‘em for free

◦Drupal◦Joomla◦Wordpress◦(lots of very expensive options, too)

Why Drupal?‘Cause everybody else is doing

it?◦http://drupalib.interoperating.info/libr

ary_sites◦http://drupalib.interoperating.info/

node/88Lots of library-specific modules?

◦http://drupalib.interoperating.info/library_modules

It’s free?It has a very active developer

community?◦http://drupal.org/project/Modules

Is there a learning curve?Yes.Lynda.com – online training

videosDrupalcon – conference with

LOTS of learning opportunities◦Drupaltrainer.com

Drupal handbook – community-created help for every part of Drupal, core to modules

How did MRRL set up the new site?LSTA Grant (thank you, State

Library!)New server, hands-on training &

graphic designInstalled Drupal, set up after trainingInstalled modulesThemed the siteTrained content providersPopulated the contentReleased Nov. 17th, 2009

What modules were used?LOTSFirst – Views, CCK, Administration

MenuNext – Webform, Panels,

Themekey, MailExtras – Embedded Media, Nice

Menus, Tabs, Twitter, Flickr, etc….More modules = more

functionality + slower response times

How did the process work?Training

◦I went to hands-on administrator training◦I trained content managers both in groups

and one-on-one◦Each subject expert got a user name &

password and access to their “role”Content

◦Entered content from old site◦Created new features possible with Drupal

Easy feed aggregation, custom front page,

◦Decisions – blocks, pages, panels or views?

How did the process work?Theme

◦Graphic designer gave me HTML/CSS◦I transferred that to Drupal PHP

theme◦Used Themekey and Taxonomy to

determine which pages get Main, Teen or Child themes

Maintenance◦Weekly updates to Drupal & modules◦Database backups – VERY

IMPORTANT◦Ongoing content training to staff

Was it a success?

ABSOLUTELY42% sustained growth in website visitors

What lessons were learned?No tech support – you have to find the

answers yourselfSeek training – there is a learning curveBe flexible – some things work, some

don’t; be willing to drop stuff that doesn’t work

Seek opinions – get input from staff, patrons, random folks on the street

Be creative – Drupal offers a LOT of ways to do things & a lot of things to do!