Presented by Product Director Karen Borchert from Phase2 Technology and Senior Developer Jay Callicot with Mediacurrent at DrupalCamp Atlanta. This presentation walk you through the five stages of building an app for Drupal.

1. Apps: Start to Finish
Building an App for Drupal 7 Distributions

2. Who’s Here
Karen Borchert Jay Callicott
Product Director Developer
Phase2 Technology Mediacurrent

3. Today’s Goal
Show how Mediacurrent built an Events
app for the OpenPublic distribution.

4. What is an app?
The Apps module wraps a layer of
usability (discoverability, installation,
configuration, demo content) around
existing Drupal functionality.

5. Are Apps &
Features the
same thing?

6. Why Apps for Distros?
➡ Keeps distributions lighter
➡ Provides specific functionality for
specific use cases
➡ Allows for multiple third party
solutions, rather than giving
preference to one

7. Five Big Steps:
1. Plan
2. Build
3. Package
4. Submit it
5. Go Live

8. PLAN.

9. An app identifies a
distinct problem for
a specific audience,
and solves it
completely.

10. 1. What Problem
Are You Solving?

11. Problem
➡ Most public institutions have events
➡ Institutions need a way to publicize
information about events in a way that is
accessible to the public on their web site
➡ OpenPublic does not accomplish this “out
of the box”

12. 2. Who is this
app for?

13. Audience
Public institutions...
➡ Nonprofit organizations
➡ Government agencies
➡ Government departments
...who regularly hold events and want to
inform the public about them.

14. 3. How will this app
be used?

15. Use Case: Public Institution
➡ Institution has an event to publicize.
➡ Site administrator creates an event:
➡ where
➡ when
➡ description
➡ who
➡ Event Appears on calendar.

17. 4. Which
distribution is it for?

18. Which Distribution?

19. Checklist #1
✓ Does it solve a specific, discrete problem?
✓ Does it solve a problem for a specific
audience?
✓ Does it solve the problem completely?
✓ Can you tweet it? (describe it in 140
characters or less)

20. “with new Events App by
@mediacurrent, public sector orgs
now have a way to publicize events
on @OpenPublic with calendar and
events listings.”

21. BUILD.

22. 5. What are the
components?

23. Modules Used
Existing:
➡ Address Field
➡ Views 3x
New:
➡ None needed

24. 6. Can we
contribute
anything back?

25. Anything to Contribute?
➡ This solution relies on only contributed
modules
➡ The apps, features themselves are
open source

26. 7. Which pieces do
we need to build?

27. Components to Build
➡ Event content type
➡ Events view
➡ A little css

28. 8. Ok, Build it!

30. Checklist #2
✓ Did you seek out existing modules?
✓ Did you contribute back new modules
to Drupal.org?
✓ Is it kit compliant?
✓ Does it address the defined use cases?

31. PACKAGE.

32. 9. Gather the Assets

33. Manifest.app
Logo
Screenshot

34. openpublic_event.info

35. 10. Build
configuration page

37. 11. Build the default
content

39. 12. Test it!

40. Testing Procedure
➡ Load a fresh database (Drop old one
first)
➡ Remove everything from modules
directory except your app
➡ Have “Development server”enabled
➡ Remove everything from temp
directory / update-*

42. Checklist #3
✓ Does the app install?
✓ Can you configure the app?
✓ Can you turn on and off default
content?
✓ Can you uninstall it?
✓ Does it show up everywhere it's
supposed to on installation, and
disappear as needed on uninstall?

43. SUBMIT IT.

44. 13. Put it
somewhere

45. Mediacurrent Feature Server

46. 14. Submit App

47. What We Sent:
Zipped file with:
➡ Manifest.app file
➡ Images

48. How does a distro owner
decide which apps?
✓ Sound Architecture
✓ Stable Construction
✓ Reliable Performance
✓ Compliance
✓ Open App Standard

49. GO LIVE!

51. Get Started
➡ Download OpenPublic Beta3
➡ Check out documentation on
community.openpublicapp.com
➡ Contact the OpenPublic and/or
OpenPublish team at Phase2