Join, or Die.
Converting an Organization to Drupal
Chattanooga State Community College
Presented at Drupal Camp Atlanta 2018
Bill Crum
Director, Web Applications Technology
bill.crum@chattanoogastate.edu
(423) 697-2639
Jeremy O'Brien
Developer, Web Applications Technology
jeremy.obrien@chattanoogastate.edu
(423) 697-4428
Charles Fannin
Developer, Web Applications Technology
charles.fannin@chattanoogastate.edu
(423) 697-5522
https://goo.gl/btrXYr
(slides)
History/Background
Web Presence at Chattanooga State
Circa 1990 - Early 2000s - FrontPage / Site hosted on Microsoft Infrastructure (IIS)
Microsoft
History/Background
Web Presence at Chattanooga State
2009: Omniupdate CMS / Linux Hosting On-site
Other subsites on various platforms (Linux/Microsoft)
Microsoft
History/Background
Web Presence at Chattanooga State
2013 to Present: Migration to Drupal CMS / Pantheon Hosting Off-site
Other sites hosted mostly on Linux in Drupal CMS, on-site
Why Change?
Microsoft
Wide Range of Products/Technologies
Web Calendar - Bedework, then Wordpress
OmniUpdate - enterprise CMS
Hard-coded sites
Custom CMS for athletic roster, catalog management, and schedule management
Road to Drupal
2013: OmniUpdate expensive and contract up for renewal!
Enter Open Source
The Contenders: Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal
The Contenders
Joomla: Too cumbersome
Wordpress: Familiar but vulnerable
Drupal: Flexibility
The Winner: Drupal (Why?)
Security
Community Support
Flexibility
Cost Effective
Community Support
Researching Drupal
Meeting the Community
Found Meet-up on Drupal.org
Attended first Meet-up on March 16th, 2013
Attended Florida DrupalCamp April 2013
Getting Involved in Drupal:
https://www.drupal.org/getting-involved
IT Level-up
Exposed to Drupal 11 years ago
Examined current IT-supported projects
Started self-training
Started attending Meet-ups
Selling Drupal
Selling to Marketing
Presented to Marketing VP, Supervisor, and Director
Selling Points
Save $5000/year
Dedicated Security
Stringent contribution policies
Large community involvement
Selling Points (continued)
Local Assistance (Community)
Large Adoption by University and other large organizations
Tennesee Board of Regents adoption (our governing body)
Selling to IT Services
Security
Improved Workflow
Improved Collaboration
Fits Disaster Recovery Plan - off-site hosting
Beginning of our "dream" team
Integration With Other On-Premise Systems
Ellucian Banner (ERP System)
Microsoft Active Directory (Authentication System)
Single Sign On to 3rd Party Applications
Ad-hoc Needs
Workflow
Integration With ERP System (Banner)
Single Sign On Functionality Through Custom Modules
Data Integration Utilizing 3rd Party Data Product with API
Integration With Active Directory
Centralized Authentication
How did we do it?
The Nuts and Bolts of Converting to Drupal
The Voice of Experience
Contracted with CodeJourneymen (AKA Lee Walker) for Site Discovery
The Voice of Experience (continued)
Reviewed content of existing site
Talked through intended features
Walked us through a proper Drupal workflow
Git Workflow
Pantheon
Time to Build It (or lack of time)
What We Had to Learn (quickly)
Pantheon Workflow
Git Workflow
PHPStorm
Custom module development
OSX/Linux, Drush, CLI, Nginx, Apache, SASS
Build Team
Marketing: 1 designer, 1 designer/developer
IT Services: 1 developer
Major Challenges
Migration of Content from Enterprise CMS
Catalog Integration
Building an Enterprise level site while learning
Other Drupal Projects on Campus
IT Services Focused
IT Services Main Site
IT Services Workflows and Access Request
Hardware Inventory System
Campus Focused
TigerWeb (Student Portal - replaced enterprise Ellucian Luminis)
Campus Directory
The Daily Bengal (Employee Portal - recently launched)
TCAT Time Tracking System
Future Projects
All new sites in Drupal 8
Conversion of Drupal 7 sites to Drupal 8
Conversion of paper forms to electronic workflows (IT to begin piloting middle of November)
Questions/Comments?
Bill Crum
Director, Web Applications Technology
bill.crum@chattanoogastate.edu
(423) 697-2639
Jeremy O'Brien
Developer, Web Applications Technology
jeremy.obrien@chattanoogastate.edu
(423) 697-4428
Charles Fannin
Developer, Web Applications Technology
charles.fannin@chattanoogastate.edu
(423) 697-5522
https://goo.gl/btrXYr
(slides)