Using open source software to design, develop, and deploy a collaborative Web site

Tools and techniques for getting relatively complicated Web sites up and running quickly

Project Overview

July 2006

Today, Web sites are a necessary element of business and the tools to create and deploy them are becoming easier to use. However, for complicated sites that require more than just the standard methods of interaction and update, Web site development is still not turnkey. Many customizations are often necessary for each application within an organization.

The open source community has provided a number of tools that begin to work together quite well toward the development of complicated Web sites. This collection of articles from members of the IBM Internet Technology Group shows you how to use open source tools as a basis and provides a methodology and set of enhancements to simplify the process of Web site development. While customization is still necessary, these articles demonstrate the use of tools and techniques to get relatively complicated Web sites up and running quickly.

In this series of articles, the Internet Technology Group team describes a fictitious organization that requires a customized Web site that includes, among other things, document storage, discussion groups, specialized workgroups, conference scheduling, and schedule session descriptions. They illustrate the creation of this Web site using the following open source tools:

• Drupal - An open source content management system
• MySQL - An open source database store
• PHP - A Web-based language for supporting dynamic content with PHPMyAdmin and SQLBrowse
• Apache - An open source Web server
• Eclipse - An open source development environment
• CVS - A source code management system that tracks changes in your code

The team begins by introducing the business scenario and the factors that drove them to choose open source tools and by describing a flexible design methodology to address the process of designing applications. This process can be used to design a user experience for Web sites or applications. They then provide step-by-step guidelines to the installation and use of the development tool suite described above. These guidelines include:

• Building your development environment
• Getting started with Drupal
• Observing the interaction of Drupal with other software tools (such as MySQL, Ajax, and PHP)
• Building custom Drupal modules
• Deploying and tuning your installation

Along the way, the team compares this approach with other options and discusses possible enhancements to this suite of tools by connecting to other software components.

Link to project implementation.

Resources

Participate in the Using open source software to design, develop, and deploy a collaborative Web site series forum.

RSS feed for this series. (Find out more about RSS.)

Visit the developerWorks open source zone to get more articles and tutorials about open source tools.

Innovate your business with IBM products. Check out IBM trial downloads to find out how.

Project Implementation

Part 1: Introduction and overview
July 2006
This first article introduces the business scenario and describes the factors that drove the Internet Technology Group team to choose open source tools and Drupal over other content management systems available today.

Part 2: Design for an effective user experience
July 2006
Follow along as the Internet Technology Group team redesigns an existing Web site, analyzing business goals and users' goals, evaluating the existing site, and iteratively refining alternative solutions based on user feedback.

Part 3: Building your development environment in Windows
August 2006
Install and configure in this tutorial all the software necessary to develop a Drupal-based Web site in Windows, including Eclipse, PHP, and more. When you're done, you will have a blank development canvas that you can use for any development project.

Part 4: Building your development environment in Linux
August 2006
Install and configure in this tutorial all the software necessary to develop a Drupal-based Web site in Linux, including Eclipse, PHP, and more. When you're done, you will have a blank development canvas that you can use for any development project.

Part 5: Getting started with Drupal
August 2006
Learn about the Drupal programming model used in developing Web sites, and explore different types of content, developing new features using modules, implementing hooks to enable those modules, and site URL design.

Part 6: Building a custom module in Drupal
September 2006
Create a custom Drupal module for announcements. Learn about implementation and use code samples to create your own custom module.

Part 7: Structuring content for theming using XHTML
October 2006
Explore methods to structure content delivered by Drupal during the development of a new extranet Web site.

Part 8: Styling content for theming using CSS
October 2006
Learn methods for structuring the content of a new extranet Web site, including how to change the presentation and styling of the content delivered by Drupal.

Resources

Participate in the Using open source software to design, develop, and deploy a collaborative Web site series forum.

RSS feed for this series. (Find out more about RSS.)