Challenge
We tackle the most complex digital challenges for North America’s top enterprises. Every day, our teams are challenged to break new ground and deliver cutting edge experiences. Boring is not in our vocabulary.
We tackle the most complex digital challenges for North America’s top enterprises. Every day, our teams are challenged to break new ground and deliver cutting edge experiences. Boring is not in our vocabulary.
Our project teams work in cohesive units called PODs. This means that you work with the same team on each project, enabling efficient collaboration as you learn and grow together.
We are obsessed with learning. Our team members have the opportunity to learn all aspects of their team’s work. Each member is able to contribute in various ways while they discover their passion.
Pier 21’s recently launched website had been built using Drupal 7. The new website was important to their branding initiatives and in helping visitors plan a museum visit, book rooms for events, and shop online. The website, however, did not meet its basic business objective of helping to grow government funding by increasing user volume and engagement at the rate they needed.
The museum’s new website was experiencing a moderate uptick in numbers from providing broader user experience. They wanted to sustain that growth by creating a deeper experience. To achieve this Pier 21 wanted to allow web visitors to explore their family immigration histories through the museum’s “Canadian Immigration Stories” collection.
The growing collection was built using CollectiveAccess, museum industry software used for creating catalogues. The issue was that open source developers had stopped working on cross-functionality between Drupal and CollectiveAccess and they were no longer version compatible. The museum needed the platforms to work together in order to give website visitors access to the museum’s developing collection.
The Pier21 team understood the effort required. They also recognized that the work was beyond the capabilities of their in-house staff, so they needed to work with an agency that had the expertise to solve their complex technical issue.
Drupal has great standard features, like easy content authoring, reliable performance, and excellent security. But what sets it apart is its flexibility; modularity is one of its core principles. Its tools help you build the versatile, structured content that dynamic web experiences need. After a few clicks, you can access a full Drupal installation!
To provide access from the museum’s website to its stories collection, the OPIN team created a multistep project plan. The work began with an analysis of the technical characteristics of the collections software to determine and create suitable files and file types for exporting.
Since the dates had been entered in a variety of formats, the data was massaged to adjust for the discrepancies in its entry. An importer was configured to bring the files from CollectiveAccess into the website. Those files were integrated into Drupal and a new content type for site visitors was created, allowing controlled access to the information and separate handling capabilities.
The new tool is not dependent on the version of CollectiveAccess. As new releases of both Drupal and CollectiveAccess are issued, the tool will continue to work without the compatibility problems that hindered the Pier 21 team in the past.
Following completion and resolution of the project, the museum staff received training so that they are able to work independently to add the collections data to the website.
Pier 21 needed their immigration stories to be made available to the public via their website, which the current site could not process.
Although the technical team at OPIN had never used CollectiveAccess, they were able to work collaboratively with the client to learn, analyze and produce a solution. The resulting exportable CollectiveAccess .xml files can be imported into Drupal by museum staff, making the collection of immigration stories available to the public through the Pier 21 website.
Working with the museum to fully understand their needs, build a solution and manipulate the data to efficiently integrate the collection has created a cutting-edge solution to a complex problem. After completion, the number of repeat website visitors increased significantly and the solution provided the first step in turning the client vision into a reality.
The relationship between OPIN and the museum continues as the team creates additional functionality and an improved user experience with projects ranging from providing website access to ships’ passenger lists to allowing more precise site search.
To learn more or to discuss your next project; send us an email and talk to an expert!
135 Laurier Ave. West, Suite 100
Ottawa, ON K1P 5J2
TEL: 1 (877) 257-6746
153 Regent Street
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
TEL: 1 (877) 257-6746