When a site is out-of-date and/or its CMS is limited, often the best solution is a site migration. The migration is an opportunity to implement an entirely new look-and-feel, mobilize the site, fix navigation, re-assess the site’s goals, and re-organize content. A migration provides an opportunity to run the site on a CMS that is more powerful and more user-friendly like Joomla. Randy is the migration lead and content strategist for the migration project of the Joomla! Community Magazine which includes over a thousand articles filled with links, images, and attachments. He will share the challenges that the project faces, the strategy for migration, and a high-level explanation of the approach in Joomla. The discussion will be suitable for the business-minded who must understand the issues and make decisions accordingly as well as for the developer who must implement a solution.

1. Site Migration and
Content Strategy
RANDY CAREY
iCueProject.com
Careytech.com

2. This presentation is delivered live with my commentary. To help it communicate through slides-
only, in this slide deck I have added annotations to provide a bit more explanation.
example annotation

3. • Careytech Studios
• iCue Project
My main work is [a] developing websites and custom applications for clients (or for
agencies with client projects) and [b] Through the iCue Project I focus on developing tools
and techniques for improving the web management experience.

4. JCM Migration Project
I just accepted the role of migration lead
and content strategist for migrating the
Joomla Community Magazine (JCM) into
Joomla 3.x and core content.

5. JCM Migration Project
Joomla is an international project, and the migration project team members come from all over.

6. This presentation
• Site Migration
• Content Strategy
This presentation covers two areas: migration of web
sites and content strategy. The latter is an important (and
often overlooked) part of site migration.
For each of these areas, I will be referring to our
approach in the JCM Migration.

7. Site Migration
Site Migration
Every site that lives for a few years needs a revision to keep up with the times. Very frequently
this will require a migration from one technology to a more modern and more appropriate one.

8. Why Migrate?
Site Migration
Because there is a cost to migrate (money, time,
human and emotional resources), we naturally want
to evaluate the returned value.
or “When to migrate?”

9. site redesign (visual)
Site Migration  Why Migrate?
The most obvious reason to a client is that a
migration enables a new visual design.

10. update or change CMS
Site Migration  Why Migrate?
Often the migration is needed so we can install
an upgraded or more appropriate CMS.
A rich and powerful CMS like Joomla 3.x adds a
lot of new features and opportunities…

11. add new features
Site Migration  Why Migrate?
The new CMS can offer new features, such as
Joomla 3’s content versioning…

12. new or better technology
Site Migration  Why Migrate?
…or take advantage of new technology such
as responsive design.

13. re-organize site’s content
Site Migration  Why Migrate?
The need to reorganize a site and its content can
suggest a migration. Such reorganization should
be considered as part of any migration project.

14. improve workflow for content management
Site Migration  Why Migrate?
Likewise, the need to improve
the workflow of content
managers can either demand a
migration or at least be
considered during a migration.
Are the workflow steps logical, intuitive,
and streamlined? I have another
presentation on this:
http://www.slideshare.net/careytech/strea
mlining-the-clients-workflows-in-joomla

15. improve workflow for content management
Site Migration  Why Migrate?
before
after

16. change vendor
Site Migration  Why Migrate?
A legitimate (but not ideal) reason for
conducting a site migration is the
change of vendor. If a client wants to
change vendors for reasons of trust or
competence, the client often has to
change to that vendor’s supported CMS.
But a client should never pick a vendor with a
proprietary CMS. That is vendor lock-in, among other
negatives.

17. not just one, sum of all
Site Migration  Why Migrate?
The point: When evaluating the value of
migrating, consider the value of all these.

18. recent example
Site Migration  Why Migrate?
I shared an example where the motivating reason to
migrate was to upgrade form Joomla 1.5 to 3.x so
that we could replace an outdated e-store with a
modern component.
Once the migration was complete, the client realized
they ought to invest in a new visual design and a
reorganization of navigation and content

19. recent example
Site Migration  Why Migrate?
So what could have been done during migration
was undertaken in a second phase.

20. Site Migration  Why Migrate?
Again: Have the client consider all of these when faced with a decision about
migration. Taken together, the client is more apt to choose to migrate, and the
client will end up with a better product upon completion of the migration.

21. What is it that we are migrating?
Site Migration  Migrate what?
We ought to think about exactly what it is that is
getting migrated…

22. Content
Site Migration  Migrate what?

23. Content - metadata
Site Migration  Migrate what?
• SEO meta fields
• old URL -> 301 redirect
• category membership
• content organization
• tags
• image attributes

24. features / behavior / brand
Site Migration  Migrate what?

25. automation -vs- human effort
Site Migration  automation
It would be nice if we could automate the whole
process, but that is not realistic
For smaller sites, it seems easier to just copy-and-paste.
But reasons to automate:
• a site with hundreds to thousands of items (articles,
product data)
• Data that would be tedious or error-prone to do by
hand.

26. automation and human review
Site Migration  automation
I feel everything that gets
automated needs to be reviewed
by a human.

27. JCM Project
Site Migration  JCM Project
Now I’ll share a bit about the
migration approach we will be
taking for the JCM.

28. Site Migration  JCM Project  what we want
The current site is on Joomla 2.5 and K2. We
want the site running on the latest version of
Joomla (3.x) and to use core (com_content) as
much as we can.

29. improved workflow
Site Migration  JCM Project  what we want
The editorial team reports that they
want workflows that are streamlined
and more efficient.
Workflows span the registration and approval of
an author, creation and submission of a new
article, editorial review and editing of an article,
linking translated articles to the originals,
managing the articles within an issue, and
publishing the issue.

30. refreshed design
Site Migration  JCM Project  what we want
? ? ? ?
This is a great opportunity for a visual redesign.

31. new features:
Site Migration  JCM Project  what we want
• responsive
• microdata
• content versioning
• single button publishing
• Joomla’s ACL
• better tagging
The move to 3.x will buy us these new features
and capabilities

32. asset management:
Site Migration  JCM Project  what we want
We will be reworking our digital asset
management. For example, an author or
editor should see only the images relevant for
the article currently being edited.

33. future-proof content:
Site Migration  JCM Project  what we want
This is the time for us to work toward
separating content from format so that the
content of an article will easily import into
other and future channels.

34. our approach
Site Migration  JCM Project
So how do we plan to do this…

35. migrate just the content (and relevant metadata)
Site Migration  JCM Project  approach

36. segment work, work concurrently
Site Migration  JCM Project  approach
visual design build template
incrementally prototype and build behavior
public UX, multi-language issues, workflows, ACL, content structures, etc
content migration
review migrated content
initial
requirements

37. Site Migration  JCM Project  approach
visual design build templates
prototype behavior
public UX, multi-language issues, workflows, ACL, content structures, etc
content migration
review migrated content
initial
requirements
prototype and iterate
discovery informs all other work
By iterating the prototype, we’ll get quick
feedback from the stakeholders. Whenever
we learn new information or a need to change
an assumption, we quickly inform the whole
team so other work can adapt to the newly
discovered changes.

38. prototype behavior
content structures
content migration:
Site Migration  JCM Project  approach
content migration
We need to discover the exact content structures
that the new site will need. Prototyping will
inform the content migration work.
Content migration will be automated
through a tool and the tool’s code will be
adjusted and tested until we see it getting all
content into the new content structures.

39. review and clean migrated content
Site Migration  JCM Project  approach
The ‘body’ of content needs to be
migrated early so that a team of
volunteers can review each of over
a thousand articles for how well
the migrated content works within
a responsive design, and to
identify and fix inline styling.

40. content migration: review & clean migrated content
Site Migration  JCM Project  approach
content migration
review migrated content
…this means that content migration needs to
migrate the main content early (so the
volunteers can start their work on the large
set of articles. But later on, the migration
will need to leave this content in place while
updating other fields as needed. (example: the
hit count cannot be updated until the last minute before we
throw the switch to the new site.)

41. small team, experts, empower experts
Site Migration  JCM Project  approach

42. Migration Recap:
Site Migration  recap

43. Why migrate?
Site Migration  recap
• weight benefits of all opportunities
• opportunities

44. What can be migrated?
Site Migration  recap
• content
• meta-data (SEO, etc.)
• features/apps (Whatever the site’s tribe expects)
• branding

45. Automation
Site Migration  recap
• human review

46. JCM approach
Site Migration  recap
• only content
rethink and rebuild everything else
• work concurrently, iteratively

47. What is content strategy?
Content Strategy 

48. What is content strategy?
Content Strategy 
Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance
of useful, usable content.
-- Kristina Halverson

49. Role of a content strategist
Content Strategy 
• Lead the stakeholders into
an articulated content strategy.

50. Role of a content strategist
Content Strategy 
• Lead the stakeholders into
an articulated content strategy.
• Provide expertise, guidance, and recommendations.
• Do or oversee the work

51. JCM Project
Content Strategy  JCM Project
I will discuss content strategy in
terms of the JCM Migration
project.

52. content structures
How will data live in 3.x ?
Content Strategy  JCM Project
From the movie Apollo 13, where technicians realize that the filters on the LEM are different from those
on the capsule. They needed to find a way to merge the two systems.
In our project, the data structures of K2 are not identical to those of Joomla 3.x

53. content structures
How will data live in 3.x ?
Content Strategy  JCM Project

54. -----
-
content migration strategy
Content Strategy  JCM Project
K2 Content
• -----
• ---
• --------
• -
• ---
• ------
• ---
• ----------
Article
---
-
--------
---
new
migration index
The migration process must create
records in a custom table, records
that track the relationships
between the old site’s content and
the new records

55. -----
-
content migration strategy
Content Strategy  JCM Project
K2 Content
• -----
• ---
• --------
• -
• ---
• ------
• ---
• ----------
Article
---
-
--------
---
existing
migration index
When the migration routine needs
to adjust or add new content, it
will reference the migration index
table.

56. metadata migration strategy
Content Strategy  JCM Project
K2 Content
• -----
• ---
• --------
• -
• ---
• ------
• ---
• ----------
• SEO meta fields
• old URL -> 301 redirect
• article -> monthly issue
• tags and categories
• image attributes

57. multi-lingual
articles, editions
Content Strategy  JCM Project
We need to accommodate articles in multiple
languages as well as special editions dedicated
to a particulare language
(below is English and Spanish editions)

58. editorial workflow
Content Strategy  JCM Project
ACL
We will use a role-based approach for
authors and editorial staff, so that we can
better manage workflows and editorial UX.

59. editorial workflow
Content Strategy  JCM Project
create edit tag /SEO publish

60. workflow = notification and tracking
Content Strategy  JCM Project
create edit tag /SEO publish
• ***
• ***
• ***
• ***
• ***
notification tracking
Workflow might include governance (who can do what), but it is more about notifying people
and providing some tracking of the state of workflows (in this case, the state of each submitted article)

61. workflow ->
Content Strategy  JCM Project
streamline steps
7 steps 3 steps

62. authoring / editorial UX
Content Strategy  JCM Project
Where we can,
we will apply a
streamlined
approach to
editorial roles.

63. authoring / editorial UX
Content Strategy  JCM Project
For example, a person should see only the
fields relevant to that person’s role.

64. authoring / editorial UX
Content Strategy  JCM Project
…and the toolbar should be
minimalized to display only
few buttons and to provide
only those editing features
that person should have
access to.

65. toolbar : semantic markup
Content Strategy  JCM Project  select topics
<span style="color: #800000;"><em>getInstance()</em></span>
<em class=“jcm-code-snippet”>getInstance()</em>
<span class=“jcm-author”>
<div class=“jcm-caption”>
<code> </code>
<cite> </cite>
We plan to provide new JCE buttons that will
apply ‘semantic’ markup.
examples of code from buttons that apply
‘semantic’ markup
AVOID inlining
replace with CSS classes

66. blobs -> chunks
Content Strategy  JCM Project  select topics
blob approach
chunks approach

67. blobs -> chunks
Content Strategy  JCM Project  select topics
1
2
3
4
5 6 7 8 9
We can identify at least 9 chunks for an author’s bio form

68. blobs -> chunks
Content Strategy  JCM Project  select topics
truncation fails
gasp… truncation is not a good technique when
we need short versions of the same content

69. blobs -> chunks
Content Strategy  JCM Project  select topics
we need two fields/versions for ‘same content’

70. blobs -> chunks
Content Strategy  JCM Project  select topics
…A recent article on
how Flipboard
assemble articles
shows that they
maintain multiple
versions of the same
image
cropped
full width
smaller version

71. Content Strategy Recap:
Content Strategy  recap

72. What does content strategy plan for?
Content Strategy  recap
• creation of content
• management of content
• publication of content
• governance of content

73. What is the role of content strategist?
Content Strategy  recap
• articulate a strategy
• guide, recommend, oversee

74. areas to consider
Content Strategy  recap
• content structures
• workflow of content authoring and management
• governance (ACL)
• improve toolbar (semantic markup)
• future-proof for multiple channels

75. Questions? Discussions?
Site Migration and Content Strategy
Randy Carey
• iCue Project – web architect
• JCM – migration lead and content strategist

76. Site Migration and
Content Strategy
RANDY CAREY
iCueProject.com
Careytech.com