administrator 06/26/2007 - 11:19
Aloha! BYUH Webmasters!
By now you should have received in your emails a copy of the PROPOSED policy for the CMS implementation for Fall 2007 (Click here to view the draft policy in PDF). This policy is designed to unify all BYUH websites to work towards a unified look and feel.
We hope that this blog will help answer any concerns and questions that you might have on CMS Drupal or your feedback on the proposed CMS Implementation policy. As we planning to also redesign the BYUH website for Fall, your ideas and feedback on improving the site would be greatly appreciated. Mahalo!
BYUH Web team
Everyone has a different taste of food, sports, art, culture and looks. I think that BYU Hawaii website needs a fresh look, and I think have a standard look is important whether it is built on CMS Drupal, CSS, PHP or HTML. I would not consider using Joomla because we would have to install Joomla to every department that exists in BYU Hawaii.
However, with Drupal, you install the main files once as a base installation. You then take a settings.php file and install that into other departments. I think that with Drupal, you save server space compared to Joomla installation.
I think alot of feedback and comments from everyone wil help the webteam come up with something that will work.
I've used Drupal for a short time on a personal project but the majority of my work has been with Joomla. At this point I can't say that Drupal has totally won me over yet especially in the admin user interface.
Here are some questions I have about the implementation:
1. Do you have a timeframe for the new implementation and when you want our sites to have made the conversion?
2. Will there be the option of using a different CMS like Joomla but applying the new look and feel?
3. Do you have a list of the modules you will install for all sites?
4. If we need a new module or want to create one is there going to be some
approval or review process we'll need to go through?
There are have been some admin user interface issues with Drupal and we have been able to find help from the Drupal community and have recently got a Drupal book that is very resourceful. We would be glad to work out those issues with you.There has been hours of research and consultation with other institutions and experts, we feel that Drupal would work out better with our enviornment.
Our time frame is Fall 2007. We are hoping the sooner we get the feedback for the policy and get and official theme approved we can start working with individual departments in installing CMS and training. We would like to limit the number of CMS installations and have the ability to have a standardized theme. As for the modules we don't see that being a big issue. Thanks.
Aloha Web Team,
I like the idea of a standard CMS for all the departments. That gives all of them the same look and feel and give the department the ability to make changes easier. Concerning the implementation of this project, I have couple of question that I want to ask:
1- How much you will allow the department to customize or change the template. Certainly, departments would like to have some ways to customize the standard in the way that represents the department the most. Apply a strict template may take a way the unique and distinguish character of each department. Ex. Housing may want to have something show that this is a housing office website??!!
2- For the current developing website, do you recommend the web master to switch to the new template now or later?
Thank you all for your great effort.
Thank you for your comments. Such feedback is what we hope can help us work out issues early. Firstly, we are using Drupal (CMS) and the theme that we would like to standardize is:
1. The Universities main navigation on all department pages, (i.e Current Students, Faculty, on the very top menu.
2. A deparment will have the freedom of putting pictures and placing their own navigation on the left sidebar of their pages. Content and pictures will be the departments discretion. However, we ask that the department follow the policy and stick with the BYUH offical color code.
At this point we are in the development stage and we would very much like to get valuable feeback such as yours before going live. Thanks.
Webteam