A member of a global confederation of 17 organizations, this rights-based entity fights poverty and injustice by connecting grassroots initiatives (through partner NGOs) with advocacy and policy-making at local, national and global levels. Our Drupal support team helped them identify and problems with the website and payment gateway, and developed their Trailwalker website from scratch in Drupal 7.
Key Highlights:
- With new implementations of payment gateways in place, the chances of payment failure online are significantly reduced
- Created a simple form for donation
- Developed the Trailwalker website well in time for the fund raising event in Mumbai
About the project
The Goals
- Under-performing payment gateways: There were multiple payment gateways on the client website. There were inconsistencies in the implementation which would sometime throw up blank pages. they wanted this donation payment process to be simplified. We found bugs on the payment gateways and implemented a new ICICI gateway.
- Working with multiple teams: Prior to working with us, the client worked with multiple agencies. These agencies needed to work together, but there was no effective coordination mechanism in place.
- Need for cost-effective support: the client didn’t have a in-house technical know-how about maintaining a website. Hence monitoring of projects and vendors was not an easy task either. They were dependent on vendors to solve everyday technical problems, which was not working out to be cost effective for them. They were looking for a vendor who could deliver support reliably as well as cost effectively. Our team suggested a new option that reduced the costing by half.
- Trailwalker website: the client needed the Trailwalker website functional before Mumbai event. It was decided that instead of fixing the implementation done earlier, they should create the website from scratch. they wanted to model the new website on the Trailwalker Australia website. We developed the website even though they didn’t have access to the backend of the Australia website.
The Solution
The client agreed to have work in the agile method. We put in place a bi-weekly sprint to resolve specific issues. Our team figured out that the website could perform much better if the servers were configured properly. Our server hosting partner, Keen & Able worked on the servers. They found configuration errors, unnecessary backups and logins that were slowing the servers down. All these problems were fixed by their team.
the client also wanted to move their hosting to a cheaper option. Our team suggested a new option that reduced the hosting cost by half. The team re-installed all the applications on the new server box within two weeks without the site seeing any downtime.
We also found bugs in the HDFC payment gateway implementation. Our team did a fresh implementation and also implemented a new ICICI payment gateway.
Why Drupal was chosen
- The client needed a platform which could provide a capability of managing the content themselves. Drupal provides these capabilities and was best fit with these set of requirements.
- Drupal was also well suited for many of the project’s requirements because of its large community support, flexibility of integration with other systems and regular security updates.
Technical Specifications
Drupal version:
Key modules/theme/distribution used:
- Features module allowed us to easily export the configuration from one environment to another (for instance, what modules need to be enabled or set as dependencies etc). This module heavily helped in making deployments easier and more robust.
- The Panels module allowed us to create customized layouts for multiple uses. At its core it is a drag and drop content manager that lets you visually design a layout and place content within that layout. Integration with other systems allows you to create nodes and landing pages that use this, and even override system pages such as taxonomy and the node page so that you can customize the layout of your site with very fine grained permissions.
The Business Benefits
- Improved browsing experience: The client's website doesn’t slow down or show up bank pages anymore. This has led to a better browsing experience.
- No more payment failures: Because of payment gateway errors , the client was losing out on a lot of donations. After our support started, such failures are rare.
- Cost savings: Our recommendation for alternate server hosting has reduced the cost by half.
- Peace of mind: Their team doesn’t have to deal with multiple agencies any more. We are the only agency they work with. This allows them to focus on working towards their core agenda. ensures that the website functions smoothly.
- Successful Oxfam Trailwalker Mumbai: After building an efficient website, the client organized Mumbai Trailwalker that raised more than Rupees 5 million.
- Keeping tabs on website performance: We share monthly maintenance reports with the client. This enables their managers to keep track of every new development on the their website, functioning of their payment gateways and other details.
