Zero to Go in 13 Days: Part 2 - Dev Stuff / Case Study of Enmetric.com

Case Study: Enmetric.com Hook 42

ZERO TO GO IN 13 DAYS
A Case Study of Enmetric.com
Part 2: The dev stuff

Kristen Pol
kristen@hook42.com

answers@hook42.com 1


Who are we?

Aimee

Kristen


Get hooked: Strengths Services Clients
Hook 42
Drupal Zero to Go Startups

Flexible. Web Content Second Small
Management Opinion Business

Work smart.
Enterprise
Rescue Midsize
Content
Fix complex problems. Mission Business
Publication

Integrate anything. Custom
Application Add-ons Enterprise
Integration
Culture chameleon.

Strategic
Scale for growth. Moving
Technology Education
House
Leadership

Deploy correctly.
Systems
Helping Hand
Architecture
Work efficiently.



Presentation Takeaways
• Correctly defining the project prepares you
for success.

• You CAN do things Good, Right, and Fast.

• Not just the destination, but how you get
there.

• Process, techniques, and tools used.

• Drupal changes from day-to-day.

• Ask us Questions along the way.



Client: Business Need
Enmetric
Systems • Upcoming conference
• Large press release
• 3 page HTML site from 2010
• No one “got” what they did

Constraints
• Don’t bother our resources
• Use newly final branding
• Leverage existing, but dated, copy
http://www.enmetric.com
Environment
Green Technology

• 3 business folks (sign-off)
Plug Load Management
• 1 dev / designer
Hardware + Software • 2 ops-type people


Zero to Go: Enmetric Functional.
Start Professional.
What does it EOB Platform to grow.
mean?? May 23 By 7 June 2012.

Today

Every project has a
different “zero”.

Most projects aren’t at a
true “zero” point.

“Go” can mean a lot of
things.

Results may vary.



Development • Fairly simple site
Guidelines:
The big picture. • Easy for client to update

• Generic but flexible content
format
• Platform for future growth

Simple, but flexible.
• Wiggle room to play with new
Fast, but done right.
modules, but…
Use the latest and • Super tight deadline
greatest when it makes
sense.



Application
Architecture:
The buckets.
Wysiwyg &
Media
Content
Slideshow
Architecture

Layout Contact
Mechanism Form

Reality: there are a lot of
moving parts to account Distribution
The Theme
for, even for a small site. Website
Sometimes it “sounds”
bigger to the client than
initially requested.

Do it The Drupal Way.



Distributions:
A starting point.

Core
Contrib /
Custom
Modules

Config

There are simple
distributions.

There are complex
distributions.

Does it have most of
your functionality, or
Distribution
provide a good
foundation to build
upon?



Distributions:
The choices.

There are simple
distributions.

There are complex
distributions.

Does it have most of
your functionality, or
provide a good
foundation to build
upon? http://buytaert.net/acquia-product-strategy-and-vision


Distributions: Acquia Drupal
The choices. • Acquia
• Simple
• Common modules
• Get from acquia.com only

Open Enterprise
• Level Ten Design
• Business focus
• Apps (blog, events, forum…)
• 8,780 downloads
Some big companies
build and sponsor
distributions.
Panopoly
Issues can get resolved • Chapter Three
faster due to company • Panels & Apps
sponsorship. (wysiwyg, images, theme, search…)
• 2,652 downloads
Get the best practices.



Distributions:
What was chosen?
The choice.
• Drupal 7 Core
• Build what we need
• Use Drush
Was it a good choice?
• Probably
• Other distributions were buggy or had
too much going on

What would we chose next time?
• Panopoly
Sometimes you just • Once bugs are ironed out, it looks
need to build from
scratch.
awesome


Layouts:
Where does it
go?
Regions
Blocks

Pages

How do you put content
where you want it?

Can you change it later? Layout
Can you have pages
with different layouts?



Layouts: Core + Template files
• Core regions and blocks
The choices. • Custom .tpl files
• Custom theme functions

Display Suite
• View modes for entities with
different layouts
• Drag-n-drop
• Views and panels integration

Omega + Delta + Context
• Grid-based, HTML5, responsive
theme
• Contextual layouts (conditions &
reactions)

Panels (and friends)
• merlinofchaos (Earl Miles)
In Drupal, there are • Panel pages, mini panels, panel
often lots of ways to do nodes, panels everywhere
the same thing. • Drag-n-drop



Layouts:
The choice. What was chosen?
• Panels / Panels Everywhere (with a little
Display Suite)
• Already knew how to use it
• Popular
• Yes
• We needed to go fast
• Solid technology
• Panels (+ Display Suite)
To go fast, use what you
or, maybe,
know if it fits the • Omega + Delta + Context (+ Display Suite)
requirements.



Content
Architecture:
Smart and
reusable Entities /
Nodes
content. Blocks

Fields

Content
Easy to create and edit.

Flexible.



Nodes: Home Page
• Singleton
The content • Hero images
• Highlights
types. • Main content

Contact Page
• Singleton
• Company name / address / phone
/ emails
• Main content

Article
• Title / summary / main content
• Date / place / source / image
• Tags
• Subsections (Field Collection)

Singletons are okay. Basic Page
• Title
Build the content types • Main content
that make sense for your • Subsections (Field Collection)
site.



Field Collection: • Field Collection
Reuse your
content • Groups of fields
structure.
• Reuse on any entity

• Nested collections

• Watch out!!! Revisions not
yet supported (patch being
Fields should match
finalized)
your content needs.

Balance flexibility and
structure.



Blocks: • Bean: Block entities aren’t
Beans are good
for you! nodes
• Block types

• Block fields

• Edit contextual link

• Was a bit buggy upon start-
Blocks should match
up
your content needs.

Balance flexibility and
structure.



Content What was chosen?
Architecture:
• Nodes + Field Collection + Bean
The choice.
• Structure and flexibility
• Logical
• Yes*
• *Issue with Field Collection + Revisions so
spent a lot of time creating a patch and
interim solution until patch is finalized and
committed

• Nodes + Field Collection (patched!) + Bean
• Create a Bean library?
Entities and fields rock! • Create a reusable page with subsections?


Content
Handling:
Intuitive and
flexible. Wysiwyg
Media

Formatting

Content

Flexible and extensible.



Content • Wysiwyg
Handling:
• TinyMCE
The choices.
• CKEditor
• Aloha*

• Media handling
• Media module
• Image/media fields

• Formatting

• Image presets

Flexible and extensible.
• Wysiwyg plugins


Content
Handling: What was chosen?
The choice. • TinyMCE + Media 2.x
• Popular editor
• Insert media within editor (media library)
• Maybe
• Media 2.x is still buggy (e.g. videos)
• Bleeding edge
• Panopoly Wysiwyg (finetuned
TinyMCE+Media 2.x), or…
What you see isn’t
always what you get, but • Spark?
you can get close.



Contact
Management:
Keep track of
important Contact
Form
people. Emails

Admin
Pages

Track important
information.

Notify business via
email.
Contact Management
Notify contact via email.

Find contacts easily.



Contact • Core contact
Management:
The choices. • Webform
• Node
• Entityform
• Forms
• Red Hen CRM
• CiviCRM
Do you need a
lightweight or • Custom form (FAPI)
heavyweight solution?



Contact
Management: What was chosen?
The choice. • Entityforms
• Contact Form with internal notes and
status
• Added custom view page for admin
• It was okay
• Potential to rival Webform
• Bleeding edge
Consider what your • Light weight: Node or Entityforms
admin and business
users need to do with • Medium / heavy weight: Red Hen CRM?
the contact data.



Theming:
Make it look
pretty.
Regions
CSS

Does it need to be
responsive to other Templates
device widths?

Do you need a mobile-
specific theme?

Do you want to design
on a grid?

Do you want a theme
Theme
with lots of functionality
built-in or just the bare
bones?



Theming: • Zen
The choices.
• Omega

• Adaptive Theme

• Precision

• And many more…

Starter themes can be
lightweight or heavy.



Theming:
The choice.
What was chosen?
• Adaptive Theme (AT Panels Everywhere)
• Responsive media queries
• Works with Panels Everywhere
• Yes, but no SASS or LESS
• Easy to use
• Some responsive settings in the UI
• Adaptive Theme, or
• Zen (+ Zen Grids), or
• Omega (+ Delta + Context)
Lots of choices for good • Use SASS
starter themes.



Then and Now
Old Site New Site



Takeaways: Good 
Good, Bad, • Parallel Work
and Meh • Drupal 7
• Content structure and handling: Bean, Field
Collection, and Workbench
• Responsive theme
Bad 
• Go-live too accelerated.
• We like more testing to remove irritating bugs
(Field Collection + revisions).
• No Features due to accelerated pace.
Meh. 
• Adding functionality = adding debug time.
• Entityforms for contact management.
Lessons are always
learned. • Media 2.x needs some work.

Zero to Go in 13 Days: Part 2 - Dev Stuff / Case Study of Enmetric.com

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Featured

Featured (20)

Zero to Go in 13 Days: Part 2 - Dev Stuff / Case Study of Enmetric.com

Editor's Notes