Migration of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews website
Project type
Website migration
Industry
Culture and art
Technologies
Scope of work
Web development, content migration
The Problem
- Problem Website based on the outdated Drupal 7 version
- Potential problems with data security
- Problems with the website’s responsiveness
About the Client
The Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN is located in Warsaw and is one of Poland's most important centers of Jewish history and culture. It is a place of remembrance for those who contributed to preserving the Jewish heritage in Poland, both before and after the Holocaust. POLIN is also considered a dynamic educational center that organizes conferences, workshops, and lectures. All events aim to promote intercultural understanding and dialogue.
The Challenge
Our client wanted to migrate the website 1:1 to a newer Drupal version with only a few visual changes in the shortest possible time. We have planned only a few improvements, for example, incorrect displaying of the website on mobile devices.
The Goal
Upgrading Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 requires numerous changes in website code – it is more like building the website from scratch rather than running small updates. That is why only experienced developers can do this without obstacles. Besides increasing security, migration to Drupal 8 provides access to the extended content editor – CKEditor. It is a giant facilitation for websites with a lot of articles like POLIN.
The Solution
We developed a solution that enabled us to migrate the website from D7 to D8 without significant changes in graphic design. The improvements were largely visible on the system admins' part. POLIN gained a simple and intuitive admin panel. One of the enhancements for users was improving the website’s accessibility on mobile devices.
Solution Details
Custom migration modules
To run the Drupal 7 migration efficiently, we created custom modules that vastly facilitated the whole process. Our programmers designed and implemented:
- Content migration module
- Image cropping migration module
- Menu migration module
- Content search module with a multilingual keyboard
Such a solution enabled us to migrate content and images without changing the layout of POLIN’s website.
Mobile version extension
POLIN’s Drupal 7-based website had responsiveness problems – the majority of texts and images were not displaying correctly. That is why we decided to adjust the website for mobile devices. Thanks to that, the mobile version of the website has the vast majority of desktop version functions.
The Effects
We migrated and improved The Museum’s website
We adjusted the website to the client’s requirements. We migrated all necessary elements and improved the mobile version’s performance. Here’s what we achieved:
Migration to the latest Drupal version - 8
Transparent administration panel
Highest security
Transparent and intuitive text editor
Improved website’s performance
Comprehensive possibilities for website development in the futur
Statistics
4
3
600
2
Build your Drupal project with Smartbees