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HANDI Web Platform Outline RequirementHANDI currently running with a temporary web site built using Wordpress and this need tobe replaced with a rich web platform that can better meet our immediate needs and be easily

extended to meet future requirements.This document deals with member/public facing services. There are some additionalfunctionality we might want for internal management.We have selected Drupal to build this platform as this open source content Management systemwould seem capable of meeting all of our needs

1 General RequirementsBelow are some general requirements that apply to all of the different functions that need to

be supported by the web platform. In all cases it would appear that Drupals architecture andphilosophy will help us meet these requirements.

1.1 Design

The site needs to have a contemporary visual design consistent with an organisation that aimsto promote visual and user interface design We need to be seen to practice what we preach.The design need to be consistent across the site and with HANDIs corporate image in othermedia.Drupal Themes should make this straightforward

1.2 Ease of Content Maintenance

There are likely to be many content owners for different parts of the site. They should be able tomanage the content for which they are responsible with minimal web editing or Drupal skills.

As a CMS this is a basic feature of Drupal.

1.3 Sophisticated Access Control

It is likely that there will be at least five classes of external users of the platform, possibly more

Public Members

Subscribers Promoters HANDI Executive and Officers

Each will have different privileges in most areas of the site.Different functional areas of the site and classes of content will be managed by differentindividuals. These will include content mangers (responsible for content) and administrators(responsible for administration of functionality) as well as site technical and visual design

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authorities with site wide responsibility for technical and visual design.Drupal has support for flexible and sophisticated access control.

1.4 Localisation

We want to build a UK site using British English, UK vocabulary, formats and conventions.Drupal has comprehensive tools for localisation and multiple language support so it should beeasy to localise any non-UK stuff in the Drupal core or modules.

1.5 Content Types

We will need to be able to handle still images, video and audio in relation to a number ofthe specific requirements below. We may wish to provide some video and audio content asdownloadable podcasts for use offline as well as online.Drupal has core capabilities and modules to support these requirements.

1.6 User Comments

2 Specific RequirementsThis section lists the specific functionality requirements. In rough order of priority.

2.1 Static Content

Static pages about HANDI taking much of the static content currently on the Wordpress siteWe need to consider further how we might like to extend static content

2.2 News and Blogs

We need a news section where we can include latest news from HANDI and also a facility forselected members to blog. The current functionality of the Wordpress sites works well here andwe need to integrate similar functionality into the platform

2.3 Member Registration and Database

These needs to replace and extend the registration and member management currently

provided using survey monkey and Ewans cobbled up Access database.We will need to do further work to develop the detail of this requirement, but as a base theplatform needs to:

Allow user to register and maintain their own account information and profiles. Registering as abasic member should be automatic (with email validation) some other classes of membershipmay require admin approval and some classes may require payment which we should be ableto do online. Might also want to provide a facility for members to make donations.

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Enable user administration and communication. E.g. mailshots, invites, renewals, welcomemessages, notifications

2.4 Discussion Forum

We need to be able to provide a multiple threaded discussion forums. Access to and privilegesin particular forums may depend on user class and some rights may be subject to adminapproval.User should be able to set up and manage email notifications in relation to forums and ideallyshould be able to operate entirely by email or entirely online (or in some hybrid way) to matchtheir preferred way of working.

2.5 Knowledge Repository

We need a place where we can maintain expert guidance on the various aspects of appdevelopment and deployment. It seems that a wiki approach might be best allow authorised

contributors to submit, and then collaborator maintain and improve such material. Write accessto the wiki may need to be subject to approval by content section owners on a section bysection basis.The repository needs to be structured so that it can be easily browsed and support easysearching

2.6 Dating

To help people look for partners. Linking people with ideas to developers to people with specialexpertise to people with business models/finance.

2.7 Directory

A directory on which people can register app, tools, services, standards etc. Probably some ofthis links to Dating while some to the knowledge repository

2.8 Questions and Answer

A mechanism for people to ask questions and for others to provide answers and improveanswers provided by others. Maybe with some form of reputation management like the wayStack Exchangehttp://stackexchange.com/

2.9 Document repositorySomewhere to store and share documents probably. Needs to be browsable, linkable andsearchable

2.10 Events Management

Facilities like eventwww.eventbrite.co.uk, probably happy to stick with using an externalprovider, but there may some value in integration with other stuff. E.g to make it easier to

http://stackexchange.com/http://stackexchange.com/http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/

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police member only events or special member pricingMight also be better to have own facilities to avoid having to pay commission to externalproviders for chargeable events.

2.11 Source code repositoryNot sure we need this we could just use external provider like source forge

3 Development ApproachDrupal allows us to separate various aspect of web platform design and creation so thatdifferent individuals/teams can lead on different aspect e.g.

Visual design UI design

Content creation

Embedded applications

Etc

We need to confirm this decomposition and identify people to lead in each.Some sort of Hack Day approach might be appropriate to build a version 0.9 of the platform.Which would allow us to get together to refine the requirement and build a prototype. However,for this to be successful some initial preparation will be required to clarify these requirementsand build a 0.1 version skeleton ahead of the hack on which we could work.Some further work to flesh out and model some of the requirements above would also be helpful

A successful Hack Day would require people with expertise in the various aspects aboveincluding some experienced Drupal developers and those without Drupal experience wouldneed to undertake some familiarisation and training ahead of the Hack to enable them toparticipate effectively.Work would also be required to identify which parts of the Drupal core and contributed modulesare the best candidates to meet our initial requirements