For this article, we enlisted front end developer, Abby Milberg, to give us a little inspiration for Drupal 8 theme building. Abby is the expert here, so I'll let her take it away.
A preprocess function creates or modifies variables and render arrays (arrays of data structured in specific ways that Drupal knows how to render as HTML) before they’re rendered and/or passed to a template.
When maintaining a Drupal 8 site in production, it’s often necessary to make changes within the site’s database, specifically when it comes to modifying settings or data that is not handled by Drupal’s YAML file-based configuration management API. Some common examples of settings or data not handled by the configuration management API include the following:
As some of its biggest strengths as a first-in-class Content Management System, Drupal 8’s Entity API and Field API provide for both the creation and maintenance of powerful, structured data architectures with relative ease.
For years, community members from Chattanooga talked about their local camp. These community members routinely support other camps, through attendance, volunteerism, and by giving talks. It was our time to return the favor.
Hook 42 not only sponsored the event, but delivered a training and two sessions. From our team Jonathan and Adam attended, and they really enjoyed the time there.
Amphenol Corporation is a global leader in connectors, cables, and interconnect systems. Their products and services support multiple industries and globally distributed clients. Hook 42 implemented a Google Search Appliance replacement leveraging Elasticsearch and Scrapy to crawl, index, and display federated search results from over 100 of their corporate websites on the main Drupal 8 corporate website. The enterprise federated search project was completed on-time and on budget in a compressed schedule, creating a sound platform for ongoing search enhancements in the future.
Go Overseas provides a service to connect people with meaningful travel programs, such as volunteer, study, or teaching engagements in countries around the world. Go Overseas worked with Hook 42 for consulting and development for their Drupal 6 to Drupal 8 migration project. We also ran SEO health checks and continued, beyond the original engagement, to work with Go Overseas on performance monitoring and ongoing improvements to their site and its architecture.
Friendly, Easy-to-Use, Travel, Image-Rich, Mobile-Friendly
Large Migration, Maintain Existing Redesign, Time-Challenged, Custom CRM, Custom Cron Jobs, Maintain SEO, Large Development Team
Custom User Workflows, Responsive Design, High-Traffic Landing Pages, Media and Document Management, Private Messaging and Chat, Custom Tools & Reports
We audited their complex Drupal 6 site and estimated the effort to migrate it to Drupal 8. Under a very tight deadline, we provided Drupal 8 architectural guidance, migration code implementation, and both backend and frontend development. We also ran SEO health checks, executed the Drupal 6 to Drupal 8 migration scripts, and provided launch support during the site cutover.
We continue to work with Go Overseas on Drupal 8 architecture and development projects such as advanced landing page creation, file structure improvements, and performance monitoring and enhancements.
Marageti is an online travel agency with experts specializing in group tours and cruises. Marageti's parent company, Zicasso, focuses on customized luxury tours. Zicasso and Hook 42 have been working together since 2012. We helped Zicasso's Marageti team architect, build, and launch their Drupal 8 website to highlight their guided group tour and cruise vacations.
Founded in 1891, the Stanford Cantor Arts Center museum hosts an international collection of more that 38,000 works of art. Their previous website, built in 2006, was outdated and limited. Cantor selected Hook 42 to architect and develop their new responsive, component-based website using Drupal 8.
Beautiful, Image-Rich, Engaging, Modern, Responsive, Design Gap Remediation
Rich Media Management, Respects Image Usage Rights, Component-Based Flexible Content Tools, Reusable Content, Event Importer, Modern Front-end Technologies
Stanford Cantor Arts Center underwent a substantial redesign and needed a development partner to implement the site in Drupal 8. Hook 42 created a solid content strategy and toolkit for the small, non-technical content contributor team to artistically showcase their collections, exhibitions, and events. Our team leveraged web components and a solid pattern library to ensure the branding and display was consistent across pages, regardless of the configuration of the content components. In addition to the beautiful and responsive site, Hook 42 architected and developed a custom integration to the main Stanford events feed to automatically populate museum content on the site over time.
Read the UI Patterns Module article by Ryan Bateman that explores the use of the Drupal module leveraged for the websites modular content creation tools.
We analyzed the bold, photo-centric design to create a flexible, component-driven content strategy for a variety of possible layouts. We surveyed existing Drupal 8 contributed projects and the Stanford Web Services framework prototype to determine the best architecture. We created an automated tool for pulling in Cantor-specific events from the main Stanford events feed while allowing for content customization. In the end, Hook 42 built a successful and robust website for the Cantor Arts Center that simplified content entry while providing great flexibility for showcasing their outstanding art collection.
We continue to help the Cantor team by providing ongoing Drupal 8 maintenance and support. You can learn more about this project by watching the 2019 DrupalCon case study presentation.
We held discussions to highlight the thought leadership involved in each step of the process, reviewing key pieces of the project that would be valuable to the Drupal community.
A Cantor Arts Center website case study presentation was delivered by the team at Stanford Drupal Camp 2018. Later, at BADCamp 2018, Kristen Pol and Ryan Bateman presented on the topic. Following the BADCamp presentation was yet another discussion by Kristen Pol and Ryan Bateman at DrupalCon 2019.
National Nurses United (NNU) is the largest organization of registered nurses in the United States. Its website provides a service to connect regional Registered Nurses organizations and unite future, current, and retired nurses to support humanitarian and political causes. NNU selected Hook 42 for their ExpressionEngine to Drupal 8 migration project in a very tight timeline.
Brand adherence, Design “refresh”, Responsive, Interactive, Engaging, User-Friendly, High Conversion, Accessible
Custom Data Structure Migration, Enable New Content Structures From Redesign, Time-Challenged, Custom CRM integration, Maintain SEO, Large File Footprint
ExpressionEngine to Drupal 8 migration, Display of historic content with fresh updates, Improvements for User Experience, Blue State Digital CRM Integration
We audited their custom ExpressionEngine implementation from their past hosting provider and estimated the effort to migrate it to Drupal 8. We provided a scalable content strategy, Drupal 8 architecture and implementation, migration code implementation, and both backend and frontend development. We also ran SEO health checks, executed the ExpressionEngine to Drupal 8 migration scripts, and provided launch support during the site cutover.
We continued to work with National Nurses United by providing technical training to their internal staff and ongoing Drupal 8 development maintenance and support.