From Open Source to On Your Phone: Using Drupal to Develop the Library’s Mobile Website

PROF. JUNIOR TIDALLIBRARY

[email protected]: @JUNIORTIDAL

HTTP://LIBRARY.CITYTECH.CUNY.EDU04.05.13

From Open Source to On Your Phone: Using Drupal to

Develop the Library’s Mobile Website

What Are We Talking About?

Mobile Device UsageOpen SourceHow the Library Uses Open SourceThe Library’s Open Source Based Mobile SiteWhy a Mobile Site Instead of an ApplicationeBooks, the Desktop Site and the Mobile SiteThe Future

Mobile Device Usage Has Increased

As of December, 201287% of all American own a cell phone45% own smartphones

As of January 201326% of Americans own an e-reader31% own a tablet computer

City Tech Students

Students are visiting the library website using:

iPhones iPadsiPod Touch and ClassicSony ArcOther Android Devices

Mobile Device Usage

Visits during the Fall 2011 semester2,547

Visits during the Fall 2012 semester3,920

Open Source

• Open source refers to freely available, community supported source code.

• Even though open source is freely available, there may not be a large enough community to support particular products

• Open source projects may cease without warning.

• The library uses a variety of open source products.

Open Source Software Used By the Library

RedHat Linux

Linux is an open source operating systemThe library’s web server is powered by the

Red Hat distribution

Apache Web Server

Apache allows users to connect to the library’s website.

This open-source program powers more than 100 million websites.

Drupal

Drupal is an open source web content management system or CMS

This CMS utilizes PHP and MySQL to present web pages.

The library’s website is based on Drupal 6.

Piwik

Piwik is a web analytics tool.

Clickheat

Clickheat is an analytics program that tracks the most clicked on areas of a web page.

MediaWiki

MediaWiki is the same platform that power Wikipedia.

The library utilizes it for internal communication.

WebMin

WebMin is an open source configuration tool.It allows server administration through a

GUI-based web browser.

WordPress

WordPress is a blogging platform.The library uses it as a blog.

PHPMyAdmin

PHPMyAdmin is another web-based GUI.We can administer MySQL over the web

instead of connecting to the server through the command line.

The Library’s Mobile Site

The library uses a separate installation of Drupal 7 to manage our mobile website.

Like the desktop version, we uses the Apache web server hosted by City Tech CIS

The mobile website uses jQuery Mobile, a touch-optimized web framework, through a Drupal theme

Drupal 7 was selected due to the large support community of librarians

Mobile Website Vs Mobile Application

Why use a mobile website?Using a library mobile website allows for

greater cross-platform compatibilityMobile applications require more

programmingA mobile website is more cost effective since

we do not have to develop a separate iOS (Apple) application and Android application

eBooks and PHP Parsing

eBook resources are becoming more popular.The mobile site uses a PHP script to harvest

eBook resources from the desktop site.This intended for mobile and tablet users.This is used so there isn’t redundant

maintained between the two sites.Once a new eBook resource is added, it is

automatically available on the mobile site.

The Future of the Library’s Mobile Site

More resources are moving towards mobile and tablet computing

Usability testingContinued hardware capabilityiPads used as catalog stationsCUNY Catalog Mobile readyUtilizing more mobile technology for library

services such as GPS, and SMS services.

Wrap Up

Mobile Device UsageOpen SourceHow the Library Uses Open SourceThe Library’s Open Source Based Mobile SiteWhy a Mobile Site Instead of an ApplicationeBooks, the Desktop Site and the Mobile SiteThe Future

Questions?

Thanks!