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Community contributions
Anyone who has worked with Drupal at least once is aware of the immense potential the Drupal community has to offer. All over the world, communities varying in size deal with the challenges faced by the province of Utrecht: offering various experiences tailored to different audiences while maintaining a common DNA and look & feel. Their experiences, tips and tricks never failed to help our experts move forward, always in the right, proven direction.
Governing a province like Utrecht can benefit from a veritable, digital ecosystem. Multiple websites fit for the various purposes a province wants to serve, all of them recognisable and interconnected through branding. This is what the Utrecht province asked us to build.
Our main tool: Drupal. Multiple websites, united by a single codebase.
We developed several Drupal websites for the Province of Utrecht based on a single codebase with multisite setup. This architecture meets the wishes of the province to give all (sub-)websites the same functionality and look and feel. An additional advantage is that updates and optimisations can now be carried out for all websites at once and that we can set up a new sub-site with all the functionality of the other websites within a day.
About the project
One thing stood clear from the very beginning: in developing this new website, the visitor's experience should be top priority at all times. In other words: how do we ensure that visitors can easily find information and arrange matters online? The advanced search function on the homepage plays an important role in this: it features autocomplete and fast navigation to frequently viewed pages. Topics are clearly arranged and follow-up pages contain editable quick links.
Sub-sites that form the bigger picture
Another important requirement is working with sub-sites. The province currently has about ten websites and wanted all websites to have the same functionality and look and feel. To do this as efficiently as possible, we set up an architecture of one codebase with a multisite setup in Drupal. This way, updates and optimisations only need to be adjusted in one place and are immediately available for all sub-websites.
A sub-site a day
Each website does have its own database, which means that the content of the various websites is separated. This is not only more convenient, but it is also easier to search and manage permissions for each website. With the new architecture, we can set up a new sub-site with all the functionality of the other websites in less than a day's time. Using Single Sign-On, all authorised employees have access to the CMS of all websites and the image bank.
Results that speak for themselves
Why Drupal was chosen
Housing a small legion of Drupal experts, we pitched Drupal for the an important role in developing this digital ecosystem. Our specialists already knew how to make the most of open-source technology like Drupal and its many advantages, like low licence costs and easy sub-site setup. We even had relevant experience with applying Drupal to governmental projects - helping us to get off to a great start along with the client.
Technical Specifications
Drupal version:
