Goal of the session is to explore some case studies for advanced content types to meet the needs of government agencies. This session will cover recent government case studies for taking content types to a whole new level to allow our clients control over: Order of content Moderation of content Revisioning of content Bundle Publishing Using tools such as Rules, Workbench, Node References, Context, and many more! We'll go over the decision making process and why content types were a better route than nodequeues or simple view filters.

2. Complex Content
Structures and
Workflow with
Drupal
May 19, 2012
Krystee Dryer @krysgeek
Jeannette Modic @moondancerjen

3. Introduction
Balance Interactive is a full service web design &
development agency. We help our clients strategically use
online technology by using a holistic approach to their
needs.
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com

4. Content Problem
More and more of our projects
have a big need for specialized
structured pages that are easy to
maintain and have revisioning,
archiving and workflow processes
attached to them.
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com

5. Normal Drupal Solution
Create special content types such as Slideshow and Callouts
and use with normal Page content type. Special items like
slideshows can be selected and ordered by nodequeues.
Advantages:
• Easy to define content type
• Reduce your number of content types to manage
Disadvantages:
• Old data cannot be preserved
• Page content go through moderation, revisioning and
workflow, but other elements cannot
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com

6. Better Drupal Solution
Create a content type for that special type of page, such as
home page or top level page, and have all elements of the
page as fields.
Advantages:
• Eliminate unnecessary fields from normal interior pages
• Revisions and archives of content can be saved
• Whole pages (with all elements) can go through required
moderation and workflow processes
Disadvantages:
• Adds to your list of content types
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com

7. Better Drupal Solution
Create separate content types for each type of page and include all
elements as fields (text, file, node references, etc).
Order of elements displayed can be handled in a drag and drop
fashion. Revisioning is handled through normal node revisioning.
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com

8. Better Drupal Solution
Using the Workbench
Moderation module, custom
workflow states can be defined
to move the custom content
type to the point of being
published on the live site.
The Rules module can
be used to unpublish
old homepages once a
new one is published,
so they are not
accessible by search.
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com

9. Special Cases – Bundle Publishing
Problem: Content needs to be packaged
together and move together in a
workflow process.
Ready to
Example: Multipage Reports Ready to be
Published
be
Published
Tip: This solution can also be used for
Ready to
be
Published
archiving content or bulk unpublishing
content.
Parent Node Publishes them
all when set to Published.
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com

10. Special Cases – Bundle Publishing
Solution: Use a combination of Books, Workbench Suite, and
Rules to bundle content and move it through a workflow.
•Use the Book module to relate child items to parent
items
•Use Workbench Moderation States for moving content
through the workflow
•When the parent node is moved to the Published state a
custom Rule will be triggered that will check all the
children nodes
•If the children are “Ready to be Published” then the
Rule will loop through and publish them all
•If they are not, then no nodes will be published and an
error message will be printed
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com

11. Special Cases - Dates
Problem: Multiple dates need to be attached one document.
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com

12. Special Cases - Dates
Solution: Have fields for each date type and use the computed
field module to make all of the inputted dates into one date that
can be used for display and sorting.
• Use client’s business logic to determine what date takes
precedence
• Translate this logic into PHP conditionals
• Recalculate date every time item is revised
• Use the calculated date in the template and views with
appropriate label
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com

13. Special Cases – Styling Options
Problem: The client needs automatic styling on slide show text
or callouts to account for image differences.
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com

14. Special Cases – Styling Options
Solution: Create a field with radio buttons to list styling options
and use that to output as necessary.
Use this field to add the selected
color into the class of the
slideshow view and let the
stylesheet define the styling
associated with each selection.
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com

15. More Info
Balance Blog: www.balanceinteractive.org/blog
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com

16. QUESTIONS?
Contact us:
krystee.dryer@balanceinteractive.com
jeannette.modic@balanceinteractive.com
Follow us: @krysgeek, @moondancerjen
Drupal username: krysgeek, moondancerjen
View slides: http://slidesha.re/J4pWUM
Balance Interactive Inc. www.BalanceInteractive.com