The WGBH.org Development Blog

As they say at NASA we here at WGBH Online are in official launch mode! I can almost count on both hands the number of days until we light the candle under our new TV Programs and Schedules. The clock is ticking and we’re very busy trying to make sure this rocket won’t explode on the launch pad.

Our new production system is up (well, mostly) and ready for our content producers to begin entering content in preparation for launch. This mainly involves adding information to TV programs that we don’t get through our PBS/TV Guide data feed (series descriptions, photos, related sidebar items, etc.).

The only piece of the puzzle that we’ll be unable to have in place in time for launch is memcache integration. As of now, there isn’t a version of the module yet for Drupal 6. I asked Robert Douglass - one of the memcache module maintainers and somebody we’ve worked with in the past and a good guy - about the D6 version of memcache and he said it’s coming soon. In the meantime, we’re preparing to launch with traditional Drupal database caching.

What could wrong?

So the plan here is to get the content producers producing, well, content on the new system next week while Pete and I and our beloved buddies in the IT department work on system and application benchmarking and tuning. We’re having a MySQL consultant come in next week to help tune that end of things. I’ve been running benchmarking tests using Apache’s ab utility, and Pete has been tinkering with getting the Boost module (a file-based caching mechanism) running on D6. I was aware of Boost before but we hadn’t been planning on using it at launch, but now that memcache is on hold we’re giving it a go.

Again, really, what could wrong?

Oh yeah, plus I have a bunch of work to do to integrate the new TV schedules with the rest of WGBH.org which is not yet being ported to Drupal (like, um, the home page).

The biggest news of this week, however and by far, is that we had a visit by a very special guest - Drupal core developer (and local resident) Moshe Weitzman! You know somebody is important in the Drupal world when they have a URL like drupal.org/NAME.

We made the connection with Moshe a few weeks back and he’s been kind enough to offer some Drupal help and advice that’s already saved us a lot of headaches. So, we wanted to meet him in person to say thanks.

Moshe came by and we gave him a tour of the new WGBH facilities and then he, Pete and i went across the street and had a nice lunch. Moshe is a very nice guy and we had a great time meeting him and talking Drupal (amongst other things). In fact, Moshe was the one who encouraged us to give Boost a try. Thanks Moshe!

There you have it! Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for me to get back to mission control.

It’s official - WGBH Online has gone into testing mode for the new TV Programs and Schedules module!

I’ve whipped up a whole mess of this:

I’m talking about the user documentation, not the coffee. All of our documentation has been posted to the WGBH Online wiki.

The obvious advantage here is that not only can everybody access the documentation but they can edit it as they see fit! Love that.

Anyhow, yesterday I shared this documentation with our little content production team and had a training session on the new system. They will now spend the next week testing out the functionality and implementation on our test suite. That means Pete and I will shift into bug fixing mode for a bit.

After that our next big step is to get the staging suite configured and running properly. What’s the difference between our test suite and our staging suite, you ask?

Good question.

Well, the test suite is a stand alone server, much like our development suite, with everything on the same box (MySQL, Drupal, Apache, etc). The test suite is used for testing functionality, design implementation, etc.

Our staging suite, on the other hand, is meant to mimic the real live environment in which the new site will run (e.g. separate web and database servers, uses Memcache, etc.). It will allow us to ensure that the new site will function properly when we launch it live and, more importantly, that it will coexists peacefully with our current site. Recall that we’re not converting all of WGBH.org to Drupal just yet. The first phase will only involve the TV programs and schedules. All of our other content (home page, radio programs/schedules/playlists, kids section, etc. etc.) will remain in our current CMS and be served by our existing application for the time being.

So, we need to ensure that the two systems will work properly together. The staging suite will also be a place where IT can work out system upgrades and such before attempting them on the live systems.

Once we have our staging suite configured and running smoothly, we will focus on application and database tuning. After that, we’ll be ready to begin the launch phase!

Exciting? That’s one word for it.

Of course, we’re also busy thinking about life after the launch of TV programs and schedules on Drupal. That’s when things will get really interesting. We’re rethinking everything: information architecture, look and feel, personalization, the whole she-bang. While we’ve been busy with TV schedules, others have been busy meeting and thinking about the bigger picture. As part of that process, we’ve diagrammed out all of the content currently on the site. It looks something like this:

Actually, that’s only half of it. Here’s the other half:

You can see we still have lots of work to do…

I’m on vacation next week meaning Pete is running the shop! Lucky him!