MuniWeb

I began by researching free, open source CMS alternatives and eventually decided to go with Drupal, primarily because of its very powerful module system -- much of the functionality we would need has already been created by a very active developer community.

Significant work was devoted to discovering and installing the third-party modules that would power the features that RDS was expecting. A lot of extra effort was avoided by using code that already existed. Additionally, I needed to simplify the default Drupal user experience because (1) Drupal can be extremely feature-heavy and cluttered, especially with many modules enabled; and (2) the average Honduran is not very proficient at or comfortable with using computers.

MuniWeb being a very customized version of Drupal, I had a lot of leeway in disabling or commenting out features that the average user would never need or use. This included entire sections (module management, for example) and superfluous form elements (for data that MuniWeb doesn't take advantage of). The end result is a simpler Drupal that's easier to navigate and doesn't overpower users with too many options.

MuniWeb also piggybacks on top of the standard Drupal templating system, with added support for retrieving and displaying custom content (a page can be one of various types: news, events, photo, etc.).

By default, Drupal uses the same template as the front-facing website for all its administrative tasks. This is undesirable since it doesn't help users effectively distinguish between (what they consider) the website and the administration of it.

So, I designed and implemented a separate adminstrative template. While navigating the website, administrators see what any other visitor would see (except for a small menu of adminstrative links stuck to the top of the page). Adminstrative tasks, however, are presented without all the surrounding visual noise of the public website's design. Tasks are also obvious and easier to navigate thanks to drop-down menus across the top.

MuniWeb was delivered to RDS after nearly one year of research and development. A new municipal website can be launched in under an hour, providing any Honduran city or town with an easy-to-manage website complete with a news listing, an events calendar, a photo gallery, a business directory, and a public forum. Initial reaction has been enthusiastic and RDS plans to put MuniWeb to good use, eventually launching websites for more than a hundred municipalites throughout the country.