WordPress as a CMS - Case Study of an Organizational Intranet
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This document discusses using WordPress as a content management system for an organizational intranet. The goals of the project were to improve information architecture, usability, search, and allow more decentralized content control. WordPress Multisite was implemented with custom themes and plugins. Key features included aggregated feeds and events across sites, standardized branding, and an anonymous feedback blog. Lessons learned included the need for table editing, ongoing training, custom CSS classes, and ensuring server performance for a large WordPress Multisite installation.
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WordPress as a CMS - Case Study of an Organizational Intranet
- 1. Technology Hotspot & Salon WordPress Case Study WPMU as a CMS for Organizational Intranet Anca Mosoiu Tech Liminal 268 14th Street, Oakland, CA 94612 | Open 11-7 Monday - Friday | More info: http://www.techliminal.com Content in this presentation is Copyright (c) 2010 Tech Liminal. CC-Share-Alike. Feel free to use stuff from this presentation, but leave a link to Tech Liminal
- 2. Introduction Anca Tech Liminal • Web Developer • Technology Hotspot & Salon • Information Architect • Co-Working • 15 years of experience in • Workshops, Conferences technology & marketing orgs • Expert, friendly help with web & • Freelancer, Entrepreneur social media [email protected] www.techliminal.com
- 3. Agenda • The Goals • The Implementation • Key Features • Lessons Learned www.techliminal.com
- 5. Project Overview • Govt. organization with approximately 300 employees • Intranet: • Static HTML pages, updated by only 1 person • Twiki, Jira, eRooms, and proprietary systems for solving specific problems • Lots of documents, images, some video www.techliminal.com
- 6. Project Goals • Improve Information Architecture & Usability • New Look and Feel that can be used across apps • Allow individual contributors greater control of their content outside of the Twiki pages • Provide a platform for feedback, blogs, and other dynamic elements • Improve internal Search Results through improved content organization • Migrate existing (internal) WordPress blogs to new environment www.techliminal.com
- 7. Why WordPress? • Simple tool with lots customization capability • Existing users within the organization • PHP / WordPress programming expertise in organization • Open Source platform • WPMU allows for more granular permissions and organization www.techliminal.com
- 9. The Solution Aggregate Feeds from other announcements from tools and areas all site areas Aggregate events postings from all site areas www.techliminal.com
- 10. The Intranet Consistent look for all site areas - This is the PR Dashboard More feeds - useful for PR team Lots of link to internal content www.techliminal.com
- 11. WordPress Architecture SVN (source control) WPMU LDAP (authentication) Customizations People Apps (Web Service) App Server App Server: WPMU DB Uploads Linux, Apache, PHP VPS, 1.5 GB RAM DB Server NFS Mount www.techliminal.com
- 12. WPMU Architecture • Theme: Thesis 1.7 (started w/ 1.6) • Ease of customization • Good features for creating standardized L&F • Plugins • WPMU LDAP • Sitewide Tags • Breadcrumbs NavXT • Alkivia SidePosts (Customized) • FlexiPages • TinyMCE Advanced www.techliminal.com
- 13. Deployment and Adoption • Project launched May 20th • Stakeholders have been adding content, updating their sites • Ongoing training is needed to reinforce and drive adoption www.techliminal.com
- 14. Key Features
- 15. Site Areas • Each Site Area = 1 “Blog” • Specific set of people to update, maintain • Some have sub-blogs • Same look and feel, standardized widget placement • Combined through Navigation Menu www.techliminal.com
- 16. Links - the All-Purpose Tool! • Many landing pages = “Link Farms” • Links were also used for Site Navigation • Customized Links widget www.techliminal.com
- 17. This Week’s Events • Feature is intended to replace weekly emails • Aggregate content from within site areas • Custom development www.techliminal.com
- 18. “Safety Blog” • A place for feedback from the community, with responses from Safety Team • All employees have been added as “contributors” • Anonymous feedback through Contact Form 7 • Email notification using • Peter’s Collaboration Emails • Subscribe2 www.techliminal.com
- 19. Lessons Learned
- 20. Content and Authoring • People must be able to create Tables in their editor • Ongoing Training and support will drive adoption - Intranet Manager will continue to work w/ stakeholders as they become familiar with yet another internal app • WP levels of access & permissions provide a great light- weight workflow for publishing content www.techliminal.com
- 21. Design • Custom Classes are very helpful on Widgets • Thesis approach to CSS took some getting used to • Thesis import/export of options was VERY useful www.techliminal.com
- 22. Development and Performance • RSS feeds (and the default widget) were slow and somewhat problematic • For WPMU, you really need a whole server • Sitewide Tags plugin saved a ton of time in terms of aggregating content • Setting up new sites takes some time - need to configure several plugins www.techliminal.com
- 23. And one last one... • Bureaucratic purchasing departments have a hard time buying through PayPal - if you want to sell a theme, provide a mailing address and contact # www.techliminal.com
- 24. Q&A