Jan
23
2008
Today PopSci.com relaunched on the Drupal free open source content management system.
(As I write this, the DNS is still flipping back and forth, so if you don't see something like the screenshot above, you might try again in a little while.)
Some of the things we did for the site include development of the "Drupal Markup Engine" for editorial placement of images within the content (soon to be contributed), development of the Node Carousel module, development of a custom search module that parses out results by node type (also soon to be contributed), import of a sizeable Oracle-based Vignette 7 database, plus three Typepad imports, integration with Omniture, integration with Onstream video service, a custom integration with YouTube (with the ability to add other video services pretty easily), and integration with HSX to tie in PopSci's PPX features.
We'll be blogging about these and other things in the coming days. We also hope to present a full case study at DrupalCon Boston 2008, with Popular Science Web Editor Megan Miller and Associate Web Editor John Mahoney joining us in the effort.
At various times, our entire team put their shoulders to the wheel on this project. I couldn't be prouder.
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Comments
Mikkel Høgh writes:
I daresay, that is very nicely done. There is a small problem, however - if you have NoScript or similar, and thus no JavaScript disabled when you load popsci.com, the node carousel widget will break the layout horribly. Might I suggest you make some CSS-wizardry to make it degrade gracefully?
Laura writes:
Unfortunately that wasn't part of the scope of this iteration. Looking at it for the future, though.
Laura writes:
The latest iteration does a bit better on this score.
Eriksen Costa writes:
Hi Laura,
This site is amazing. It's in the same level as NYObserver and RakeMag! Would you share your thoughts and techniques used in development as a Drupal Case?
Congrats!
Laura writes:
Thanks, Eriksen! We intend to -- here, in Boston and on d.o.
manuee writes:
Please I do not know wether you the Boston DrupalCon's conferences are going to be recorded and hosted somewhere, but the whole world would owe you all a big beer if it was the case! :D
At least this one would surely be an interesting presentation.
Aside of that, I just browsed the site a bit, I think you have done a great job - and I am looking foward to the new modules :D
P.S. First time visitor, subscribing to RSS...
Laura writes:
The Boston DrupalCon folks and the Drupal Association are looking into the possibilities of video archives of the entire conference. It's a technical challenge requiring more than good spirit and a videocam. (Good sound is always a priority.) Thanks for your interest and kind words!
Milkweed110 on the PPX writes:
I hate dupral. Hate it. And so do the rest of the popsci.com users. We all get weird error messages like this:
Warning: Unknown: failed to open stream: Too many open files in Unknown on line 0
and
Warning: Unknown: Failed opening '/appl/webdata/HSX/popsci/portfolio/index.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in Unknown on line 0
And that's on the days where we can actually access the site, when it doesn't give us a funky error message about installing Dupral and won't let us navigate.
That never happened with the old software. I wish that popsci would go back to using it, as Dupral is more trouble than it's worth.
Laura writes:
I'm sorry you're experiencing a problem. The error you report relates to HSX, the PPX service, not from Drupal. In fact, http://ppx.popsci.com is not Drupal at all -- it's just designed to look the same.
If you are experiencing problems, the best course is to report with specific information to PopSci.com so they can prioritize the issue. Software is software, and detailed bug reports from users help developers make it better.
Thanks for visiting!
Greg Nulik writes:
I have been trying to find the archive page that the editor said would be added to popsci that covers the 136 years so I don't have to make page copies of certain articles I'm interested about at the library, but I couldn't find a page that was explicitly that.
I wish they would also have a picture on the subscriber resources page that showed what subscriber number they're mentioning you have to input, as I have no clue.
Is there a chance either one of these will happen?