OpenSourcery

The Linux Foundation serves a worldwide community of developers and users. Their stated mission is to Promote, Protect, and Standardize the Linux ecosystem by providing unified resources and services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed platforms. More than ever, LinuxFoundation.org helps further that mission with web-based tools and vital user-generated content.

Story

The Linux Foundation and OpenSourcery began working together in the summer of 2008, with the goal of transforming the Linux Foundation's corporate site to reflect the vibrant community it supports. Their existing site was informative and, in some ways, well loved. Long-time users knew how to access the information they needed and were familiar with the site's architecture. But in the final analysis their site architecture was not tenable. The Foundation had accumulated a number of web properties, including the Linux OpenPrinting site and a number of Programs sub-domains, which had been cobbled together to serve immediate needs. Moving forward, the combined properties needed to coalesce under a single, forward-thinking architecture. Enter OpenSourcery.

Developing a new Linux Foundation site presented several challenges, which can largely be grouped into two buckets: 1) unifying deep and diverse content into a well-architected site and 2) developing a clean interface that doesn't overwhelm visitors with options.

Solving the primary challenge required open communication between OpenSourcery and the Linux Foundation. We had to ask the right questions, consider the variety of use cases, and design the site accordingly. The discovery process is well suited to our development process, which you can read about in more detail below.

Perhaps the most creative solutions employed during the development have to do with the second challenge: Linux Foundation's user interface. We realized that visitors could easily get overwhelmed by an overabundance of tabs and conflicting images. On the other hand, we wanted to avoid Flash and non-accessible JavaScript so the site could remain accessible and easily indexed by search engines. We solved both of these problems with a combination of contributed and custom modules, details of which can be found below. The result is an attractive site that makes it easy for each user to quickly access what she needs, without sacrificing the Linux Foundation's goals of completeness and accessibility. OpenSourcery is proud to have collaborated with such a talented team, and we look forward to supporting the Linux Foundation's mission in the future.

Development Process

OpenSourcery had assembled a Linux Foundation team during the development of a previous project: the Linux Foundation Video Site. From the start of their corporate site refactor, we were familiar with the Linux Foundation's project team and goals. We employed our development process from the project's beginning. We maintained close contact throughout, iterated in short bursts, and frequently pushed code so the Linux Foundation would know where their project stood at all times. Our process also allowed them to guide development by prioritizing tasks, which kept the complex project on budget and on time.

Technical Details

• jQuery front page slideshow (no Flash!) via ddblock and custom Views templates (see second image, left)
• Pure jQuery/css to take five panel panes and create the front page tab section (see third image, left)
• Organic Groups for the Linux Developer Network
• Nodequeue, Panels and extensive Views work throughout
• RSS content aggregation from other Linux Foundation web properties via the feedapi module
• Extensive custom theme development (as a subtheme of the Zen theme)
• Robust content publication workflow via the Workflow, Workspace, Actions and Triggers modules
• Ubercart for online membership registration
• LDAP integration allowing user accounts to traverse across all of Linux Foundation's web properties