Jennifer Alexander and Bryan Mayjor from Oregon State University gave a presentation on using Drupal to manage their websites. Basically, their task involved creating websites to support three 600+ page books on pest management they had printed. Drupal helped them achieve this task.
The first thing they shared was the lessons learned:
- Invest in things that you will reuse.
- Allocate time for the project and define the scope.
- Know where the funding is coming from. $2 from each book went back to funding the project.
- Takes a team to make the project happen.
- It takes the right technology.
The gave an entertaining presentation where participants could choose the topic that interested them.
Designing for Mobile
The first topic selected was Mobile-First Approach. The presenters pointed out that they were striving for a site that would automatically adjust for different screen sizes. They noted that 61% leave a website not optimized for small touch screens, and 91% of higher education websites are not mobile friendly. This will become a major problem soon because “Google says it plans to demote Web sites in mobile search results if they don’t work properly on mobile devices.”
Importing and Managing Images
The next area chosen for discussion was Houston, We Have an Image Problem. During this portion of the presentation, Mayjor explained how they could import and sync thousands of images, basically, on the fly. He added they used the Feeds module to import images. The Feeds module can import images based on an RSS feed, OPML file, or CSV file. They were using a CSV file. They uploaded the large-scale images and automatically created thumbnails during the import.
Responsive Themes and Development Tools
The next section that was expounded upon was Responsive Web Design. Mayjor stressed that they wanted a site that would optimize display based on the width of the device. He said it was important not to duplicate efforts unnecessarily. They opted for a responsive HTML5 theme and subtheme. Mayjor mentioned four themes: Zen, Omega, Adaptive theme, and bootstrap, and mentioned that they use Adaptive Theme.
While demonstrating these different areas, Mayjor used some different tools that I found interesting. The first was an IOS Simulator, which he used to show the Website with different screen sizes. The other was called Drush; a Drupal Shell. He could change the site using a command-line shell. A useful way to manage the site.
I enjoyed the presentation because of the topic and how they organized the presentation. While I will probably not be using Drupal, the concepts mentioned are worth keeping in mind.
