Presentation from the Drupal BOF Session at UNC CAUSE 2010. http://www.unccause.org/cause10/sessions/how-we-drupal-how-do-you-drupal/

2. Drupal at
UNC Charlotte
Mark Shropshire - mdshrops@uncc.edu
Business & Technology Applications Analyst
Student Union, Activites and Recreation IT

3. • Using Drupal since 2005 in Student Affairs
• Small pockets of Drupal on campus since then
• Departmental Drupal theme developed in early
2010
• UNC Charlotte rolled out www.uncc.edu (home
page and upper tier pages) with Drupal 6.x in
Aug 2010
• Many departments now interested in Drupal
and making plans to migrate

4. Student Union, Activities
and Recreation Drupal
• Drupal 4.6-6.x (Getting excited about D7!)
• Single site and multi-site installs
• We build web sites and web applications with
Drupal

5. Student Union, Activities
and Recreation Drupal
• Infrastructure - OS X Servers (Debian Linux
too)
• Latest Drupal 6.x platform includes: Standard
modules, install profile, features (blog, events,
etc.), Drush and other scripts to deploy.

6. Drupal at Appalachian State
UNC Cause Conference
November 8, 2010

7. Drupal at Appalachian State
• Drupal 6 Web Content Management system
• Focused on overall web content management -
not just the CMS software
• Full central web support
• Turnkey web site creation and site migrations
• Centrally managed Drupal codebase
• In-house design, information architecture, and
custom module programming support
• 140 completed sites in production / 24 sites in
development (as of Nov 2010) (current list at
cms.appstate.edu)

8. Hardware and Hosting
• Dell blade server
• 2 Blades - Dual Quad Core Nehalem - 96gb RAM
• Storage - Netapp SAN - 1.5TB space connected via
Fiber Channel
• VM Ware ESX 4
• VM Ware V Center Server / V Sphere Client
• RHEL 5.5 w/ advanced application stack channel

9. Codebase Management
• GIT repository is used to manage our codebase
(previously used subversion)
• Changes and updates are tested on the CMSPilot
dev server
• Once testing is finished, its committed to the
repo and a new version tag is created
• Updates then pushed out through to deployed
production sites

10. Meet with the Client
• Will this be an ASU themed site, or will it require
a custom design?
• New Site: What pages will they need?
• Existing Site: Will any content be changing?
• What programming will they need to make
updating the site easier (i.e. news, event
calendar, photo gallery)
• Are there any deadlines that need to be met?
• What URLs will be used for the site?

11. Project Management
• Add project to webteam Open Atrium project
management site
• Create development site
• Develop site plan for organization of content into
most user-friendly format
• Input menu structure into development site (for
larger sites)
• Obtain client approval on site plan

12. Site Building
• Migrate content into development site
• Set up any custom content types that are
needed
• Obtain client approval on completed
development site

13. Site Review
• Web Policy Violations
• Strong Recommendations
• Best Practices / Personal Preference

14. Web Policy Violations
• EO policy link
• Privacy statement
• ALT attributes for non-background images
• Alternate content for multimedia resources
• Readable by Jaws/Fangs

15. Recommendations
• Page title changes
• Contact information
• Appalachian State University clearly identified
• Disclaimer link
• Copyright information
• No grammatical errors
• Clear link destinations
• Operable links
• Site works in all supported browsers

16. Best Practices
• Consistent, easy to use navigation
• Clearly written copy
• Logical organizational structure
• Meets information needs of audience
• Logical folder and file naming convention
• Appropriately sized images
• Validated HTML and CSS
• Maps link to official campus map

17. Site Deployment
• Submit development site to site review
committee for feedback and comments
• Complete required site review changes
• Set up URL redirects (existing site)
• Submit ticket to deploy the site
• Set up access via roles:
– Site Manager
– Moderator
– Author

18. User and Role Management
• Single signon authentication is handled
through Cosign
• Most users are given the Moderator role
• Site Manager role is given to ITS consultants
• Admin role is reserved for ASU Web Team and
main web consultants for each college

19. Training
• Signing in
• Adding a page
• Editing a page
• Menus
• Blocks
• Adding custom content
• How to access online help

20. Follow Up
• Add moderators and authors to Drupal email
listserv
• Add site to CMS completed website progress
list
• Follow up on website project and Drupal
training to ensure client satisfaction

21. Challenges
• Reservations about migrating to Drupal
– Previous system changes
– Capabilities
• Large sites that are not able to be completely
migrated
• Users who want full admin access

22. Benefits
• Security & Stability: Limited production server
access and managed codebase
• Consistency: The design and organization of the
University’s websites are more consistent, making
them easier to use
• Updated Content: Drupal makes it easy for the
people that best understand the content to keep
websites up to date, so the information is more
accurate and current

23. Thank You…
Questions?
App State Web Team:
Stephen Taylor (University Webmaster) – taylorsa1@appstate.edu
Michelle Melton (Lead Site Migrator) – meltonml@appstate.edu
Zach Seifts (Drupal Programmer) – seiftsze@appstate.edu
Ericka Hudspeth (Site Migration Assistant) - hudspethea@appstate.edu
Ivan Ditscheiner (Docs and Help Guides) - ditscheinerid@appstate.edu