ITServices will be replacing the application currently being used as the content management system for our WebPublish service.

 

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Background

 

In 2005, ITServices partnered with Marketing and Communications to provision a simple web content authoring tool, WebPublish. Since then we have seen a steady uptake in its use. WebPublish is built on Apache Lenya and there are several drivers for its review and replacement, including:

 

• The Apache Lenya developer community has dwindled down to almost nothing.
• As we fall further behind in patches we are exposing security risks.
• A subset of our user base would like greater functionality than what is possible within WebPublish.

Investigation Process

 

A team from within ITServices was assembled in the latter half of 2011 to investigate a possible replacement for Apache Lenya and recommend a proposed solution.

 

Requirements

 

The following high-level requirements were identified as must-haves for any proposed solution:

 

• ease of use for non-technical users;
• conform to Visual Identity and Accessibility Standards;
• active developer community; and
• scalable application architecture.

Value Assessment List

 

The team then created a value assessment list to help determine what was valued as essential and important assets of a new application. The  list was developed based on the expertise of the team members, and by conducting interviews with a variety of stakeholders across campus (both users and non-users of WebPublish). Not surprisingly, the key findings were as follows:

 

1. Important to current WebPublish users: Ease of use / Usability
2. Important to non-WebPublish users: Feature set / Flexibility

Shortlisting the Applications

 

The next step was to narrow down a shortlist of applications to investigate further. Here the expertise of the team was supplemented by input from Gartner and from a review of the Higher Ed CMS Usage Survey, 2011. The list of applications subject to more intensive scrutiny was narrowed to:

 

• Liferay;
• Cascade;
• SharePoint;
• WorkPress; and
• Drupal.

Application Evaluation

 

The team then created a matrix based on the value assessment list which was used to evaluate and rank each application. Amongst the factors considered:

 

• which application is best suited to the requirements of this institution;
• ease of migration from the current application;
• future possibilities; and
• costs.

Recommendation

 

The evaluation process revealed that there was one application that stood out above all the rest - the open source content management system Drupal, which:

 

• meets the requirements;
• is highly customizable;
• is feature-rich; and
• has an active developer community, both within other higher-ed institutions and at Queen's.

Next Steps

 

In spring 2012, a project team will be assembled for the implementation of Drupal as the new application behind WebPublish. Once the team has been assembled, key deliverables and timelines will be established. Developing a plan to support the migration of current WebPublish sites to Drupal is part of the scope of this project.

 

 

Updated 5 March 2012