by Denise

To the untrained eye, Community Media Center on Bridge Street is a maze of wood slabs, classic TV sets and oases of deep armchairs. In the heart of CMC-Bridge sits the IT staff where Web Developer Ron Woldyk, near right, is coding the ticker tape of 1s and 0s that will be the structure for TheRapidian.org.

Early in the project, we decided TheRapidian.org would operate from a content management system called Drupal. In a nutshell, CMS’ organize the look and function of a web site while also processing input from text fields and uploads. Drupal is all the rage with media nonprofits due to its social networking versatility and strong open source community.

“I think Drupal is a good choice for this situation now that I’ve gotten more into it,” Ron said. With little Drupal experience on CMC’s IT staff, Ron stepped up and has been wrestling with the CMS ever since. This is no small feat. Drupal has often been criticized for its high learning curve and inaccessibility.

“If you were to download Drupal as a general user and get it installed, you would not be able to just go with it. You could do a blog, an article that goes to the home page, but anything else…” Ron shook his head. “[But Drupal] gives you the opportunity to set specifically what you want.”

Imagine Drupal as Mr. Potato Head, where the spud is the core of the web site and the add-ons—eyes, glasses, beards, mustaches, arms and shoes—are modules that pull from the @TheRapidian Twitter feed or from a Flickr photo bank to display photos on the front page. They add some flavor to the plain spud—what color eyes, which way are they looking—but if accessories are mismatched or limbs are missing, it’s glaring. And there can be countless modules for whatever function you’re looking to create.

Ron often finds himself having to make little changes to the code to make things work.

“Some of the issues I have with Drupal is that I can’t just code it. If I make that little box module, I’m having to do multiple steps within the administration of Drupal and setting some of the PHP code, and having to find my way around that is difficult sometimes.”

Despite this, a good third of the web site is already set. The framework is in place and nearly 30 modules are waiting for the trigger. What’s left? Two very big thirds: setting permissions for user roles, from anonymous visitors to site editors; and setting up two essential Drupal modules: CCK and views. Who else thinks Ron deserves a cupcake?