From Vancouver to Vladivostok, from rotting in-house spaghetti to - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

From Vancouver to Vladivostok, from rotting in-house spaghetti to Drupal

Migrating osce.org

Press and Public Information Section • Gottfried Nindl, Graham Patterson • Version 1.0 (26.11.09)

• sce.org

http://www.osce.org

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About the OSCE Business Case Information Architecture Software Architecture Migration Usability Testing Conclusion

Content

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About the OSCE

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What is the OSCE?

• World’s largest regional security organization
• History: Cold War and Berlin Wall
• Comprehensive approach to security
• Forum for dialogue
• Practical work in the field

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Where is the OSCE?

...from Vancouver to Vladivostok 56 participating states, 18 field missions…

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Business Case

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Motivation

• Large decentralized website
• Small central webteam
• Inflexible technology (CMS)
• Rigid content model
• Confusing information architecture
• Search engine (un)optimization

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Objectives

• Multilingual capability
• Better workflow
• Better content organization
• Improved information architecture
• Flexible, community-maintained CMS
• SEO

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Open Source CMS Evaluation

• 4 serious candidates

Drupal (PHP) Plone (Python) TYPO3 (PHP) OpenCMS (Java)

• 15 criteria

Perspective Templating Back-end Technology Repository Content Delivery Search Engine Security URL structure Scalability Building forms Building modules Content types

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So, why Drupal?

• Pros

> Best balance between core features and simplicity > Small core (footprint), numerous useful modules > Large, friendly community > Reference sites

• Cons

> Back end usability > No high-level Ajax support > Ancient design (no OO!)

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Proof of Concept

• Can the chosen CMS deliver?
• Tasks

> Front end theme => easy, by templating > Content types => hard, custom modules > Workflow => good enough > Data migration => Use APIs, e. g. node > SEO => clean URLs, taxonomies

• Lessons learned

> Drupal can do almost anything we can think of  > Drupal needs a roadmap > Buggy modules > Active participation in community recommended

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Information Architecture

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Content Model

• 40 sub sites & portals
• 22 content types
• 12 field types
• 15 vocabularies
• Node queues & rules
• Numerous views

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Implementation

• Sub sites & portals

as tagged pages

• CCK for content typing
• Vocabularies as conditionals
• ‘Hot content’ as node queues
• Views for generic lists

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Software Architecture

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High Availability/Performance Cluster

• Cost-effective solution
• Squid proxy boosts performance
• Service failover
• Heartbeat monitors servers
• DRDB replicates databases/files

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Software Design Patterns

• Single entry point
• Notify responsible
• Action  Procedure
• Extension by convention
• Flexible data model
• Embedded markers & scriptlets

Front Controller Template View Observer/Visitor Plugins Transaction Script Modules

Db

Class Table Inheritance

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Used Modules (currently 38)

Misc:

Apache Solr, Hash tokens (custom), i18n, Pathauto, Querypath, Subscriptions, Token

Content:

CCK, Content Taxonomy, Date, Email, Filefield Filefield Paths, Imageapi, Imagecache, Imagefield, Link, Nodereference Explorer, Nodequeue, Phone, Quotation (custom)

Development:

Devel, SimpleTest

Import/Export:

Data Migration (custom), Import, Node Export, Taxonomy Export, Gateway (custom)

Workflow:

Rules, Workflow

User Interface:

Admin Menu, FCK Editor, JQuery UI, JQuery Update, Menu Block, Lightbox2 ,Views, Taxonomy Navigation (custom)

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Migration

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Approach

• Three phase strategy:

> Data extraction > Data mapping > Data verification

• Content Audit

> Spot checks to fix biggest issues

• Custom import script

> CCK nodes & Aliases (ca. 50,000 items) > Menus > Taxonomies > Users > Subscriptions

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Implementation

• Complex data extraction strategies (SQL)
• Flag and mark items
• Import module: http://drupal.org/project/import

> Uses batch API (progress bar) > Hook import_stage() > Hook import_process()

• OO batch factory with identity map

for creating assets, references & assignments

• Verify results with Simpletests: http://drupal.org/project/simpletest

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Usability

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Problems

• Back end usability poor (especially for non-geeks)
• The UI is not very scalable
• Built-in widgets are very cumbersome
• No high-level Ajax library
• Custom implementation required (Nodereference Explorer)

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Nodereference Explorer Context

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Our solution: Nodereference Explorer

• Project http://drupal.org/project/nodereference_explorer
• Metaphor: File Explorer
• Responsive dialog (overlay)
• Customizable components

> Theme > Displays > Filters > Preview

• Demo link

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Community

• Quite small project
• Start February 2009
• Maintaining is time intensive
• 73 issues focus on functionality, hardly on design
• Great community => Thank you very much!!
• BUT, think about new ways of collaboration, apart from issue list …

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Testing

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General testing

• No battle plan survives contact with the enemy – Field Marshal von Moltke
• No website survives contact with its users – OSCE webteam
• Beta site under construction
• Internal and external testers
• Formal (recorded) and informal (ad-hoc) tests
• Front-end and back-end

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Usability testing

• Front end

> IA (clear enough?) > Navigation (ease of use) > Findability (organizational structure vs thematic vs geographic) > Responsiveness

• Back end

> Need to manage transition from a simpler CMS > Are typical users (non-geeks) comfortable with the interface? > Common tasks should be quick and easy > Are steps to complete a task memorizable? > How do users react if they can’t complete a task? > What help is available?

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Conclusion

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Conclusion

• Drupal will be a big step forward for the OSCE
• Great contributions from community – thank you!
• Contributing back and maintaining: Nodereference Explorer
• But… feedback from testing and post-launch crucial
• Questions, comments…?

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Contact

• Velimir Alic (Public Website Manager): User ID 406104
• Gottfried Nindl (Web Developer): User ID 421442
• Webteam: webteam@osce.org
• Front End Developer needed:

apply at http://employment.osce.org till December 3rd, 2009