This presentation is about an admissions portal that Evolvign WEb is building for a large Canadian university. Requirements have included an intuitive application process for applicants and a flexible form building system for university administrators. The slides include overview of the project and some of the technical details including: * How we've used entities to structure complex data * Implementing custom fields and validation * How we're using Drupal 7's advanced Form API features * Some of the interesting modules we're using The presentation wraps up with a demo of the new Simple Field module that we've contributed on drupal.org/project/simple_field.

1. Drupal 7 in Higher
Education Case Study
Alex Dergachev
Co-founder
@evolvingweb

2. Business Problem:
Overhaul the Online Application process for a leading
Canadian university.

3. Admissions Portal App
• Overhaul the system for applying to
grad school
• Graduate students apply to university
• Secretaries manage application
questions
• Professors evaluate applications

4. Exiting Admissions Form

5. Updated UI (Drupal)

6. Faculty Requirements

7. Existing Form: Not Customizable

8. Paper-Based Reference Letters

9. Paper-Based Evaluation System

10. ERP Integration
Sungard
Banner /
Oracle based
ERP

11. Why Drupal?

12. Existing Drupal Properties

13. Multilingual Requirements

14. Flexibility, Configuration

15. Canadian
+ Universities

16. Project Structure
• March 2011 - May 2012
• Completed phases: • Future phases:
• App Prototype: • Evaluation workflow
April / May 2011
• Integration with:
• Dept. Control ERP,
Prototype: ECMS,
October/Nov 2011 eCommerce,
etc...

17. What we’ve done

18. Overhaul of User Experience

19. Application Form Fields

20. Custom Validation

21. Custom Fields

22. Departmental Fields

23. Referee Request Workflow

24. Saving/Submitting Applications

25. UI for Department Administrators

26. Attach Questions to Programs

27. Easy to Add Questions

28. Demo of Admin UI

29. Very Few Contrib Modules
Logintoboggan
Masquerade
i18n
Beautytips
Entity Translation
Features
Strongarm Field validation
UUID Date
References
Context
Behavior Weights
Fieldgroup
Ctools
Views

30. Features created
gap_applicant_interface
gap_application_process
gap_banner_fields
gap_referee_process
gap_administrative_interface
gap_content_structure
gap_configuration_settings

31. Custom Modules - 1
404 ./gap/gap.module
26 ./gap/gap.install
8 ./node_bundle/node_bundle.install
453 ./node_bundle/node_bundle_reference/node_bundle_reference.module
353 ./node_bundle/node_bundle.module
31 ./node_bundle/node_bundle.views.inc
579 ./gap_referee/gap_referee.module
221 ./gap_referee/includes/referee_step.inc
136 ./gap_referee/includes/form.inc
38 ./gap_referee/includes/welcome_step.inc
21 ./gap_referee/gap_referee.install
33 ./gap_referee/gap_referee.block.inc
13 ./gap_referee/gap_referee.views.inc
573 ./gap_multistep/gap_multistep.module
158 ./gap_multistep/includes/review_step.inc
307 ./gap_multistep/includes/form.inc
289 ./gap_multistep/includes/entity_step.inc
248 ./gap_multistep/includes/step.inc
396 ./gap_multistep/gap_multistep.helpers.inc
80 ./gap_multistep/gap_multistep.field_group.inc
303 ./gap_validation/gap_validation.module
117 ./gap_help_popups/gap_help_popups.module
91 ./gap_configuration_settings/gap_configuration_settings.features.field.inc
26 ./gap_configuration_settings/gap_configuration_settings.features.menu_custom.inc
7 ./gap_configuration_settings/gap_configuration_settings.module
382 ./gap_configuration_settings/gap_configuration_settings.features.user_permission.inc
122 ./gap_configuration_settings/gap_configuration_settings.features.filter.inc
32 ./gap_configuration_settings/gap_configuration_settings.features.user_role.inc
36 ./gap_configuration_settings/gap_configuration_settings.features.inc
208 ./gap_configuration_settings/gap_configuration_settings.features.menu_links.inc
347 ./gap_configuration_settings/gap_configuration_settings.strongarm.inc
139 ./gap_configuration_settings/gap_configuration_settings.context.inc
25 ./gap_referee_process/gap_referee_process.features.user_permission.inc
44 ./gap_referee_process/gap_referee_process.features.inc
7 ./gap_referee_process/gap_referee_process.module
150 ./gap_referee_process/gap_referee_process.strongarm.inc
18 ./gap_referee_process/gap_referee_process.install
1384 ./gap_referee_process/gap_referee_process.features.field.inc
86 ./gap_referee_process/gap_referee_process.context.inc
59 ./gap_date/gap_date.module
217 ./gap_views/gap_views.module
10 ./gap_views/views/handlers/gap_views_handler_field_token.inc
30 ./gap_views/views/handlers/gap_views_handler_field_question_used_by.inc
16 ./gap_views/views/handlers/gap_views_handler_field_question_type.inc
95 ./gap_views/views/handlers/gap_views_handler_relationship_reverse.inc
16 ./gap_views/views/handlers/gap_views_handler_field_department_id.inc
21 ./gap_views/views/handlers/gap_views_handler_argument_banner_id_prefix.inc

32. Custom Modules - 2
41 ./gap_error_jump/gap_error_jump.module
25 ./gap_applicant_interface/gap_applicant_interface.features.menu_custom.inc
42 ./gap_applicant_interface/gap_applicant_interface.context.inc
7 ./gap_applicant_interface/gap_applicant_interface.module
75 ./gap_applicant_interface/gap_applicant_interface.features.menu_links.inc
25 ./gap_applicant_interface/gap_applicant_interface.features.inc
871 ./gap_applicant_interface/gap_applicant_interface.views_default.inc
281 ./gap_import/gap_import.module
48 ./gap_import/gap_import.drush.inc
22 ./gap_app_form/views/handlers/gap_app_form_handler_field_application_deadline.inc
144 ./gap_app_form/gap_app_form.views.inc
350 ./gap_app_form/gap_app_form.module
262 ./gap_app_form/includes/form.inc
245 ./gap_app_form/includes/apply_step.inc
105 ./gap_app_form/includes/submit_step.inc
62 ./gap_app_form/gap_app_form.blocks.inc
290 ./gap_app_form/gap_app_form.helper.inc
65 ./gap_app_form/gap_app_form.install
15 ./gap_question_ui/views/handlers/gap_question_ui_handler_argument_department_or_global.inc
15 ./gap_question_ui/views/handlers/gap_question_ui_handler_argument_question_not_attached.inc
95 ./gap_question_ui/gap_question_ui.admin.inc
215 ./gap_question_ui/gap_question_ui.question_types.inc
314 ./gap_question_ui/gap_question_ui.question_api.inc
252 ./gap_question_ui/gap_question_ui.install
168 ./gap_question_ui/gap_question_ui.entity.inc
1111 ./gap_question_ui/gap_question_ui.module
31 ./gap_question_ui/gap_question_ui.entity_ui.inc
18 ./gap_hacks/gap_hacks.module
279 ./gap_department/gap_department.admin.inc
436 ./gap_department/gap_department.module
23 ./gap_department/gap_department.entity.inc
35 ./gap_department/gap_department.install
44 ./gap_application_process/gap_application_process.features.inc
38 ./gap_application_process/gap_application_process.features.user_permission.inc
51 ./gap_application_process/gap_application_process.strongarm.inc
49 ./gap_application_process/gap_application_process.context.inc
796 ./gap_application_process/gap_application_process.features.field.inc
7 ./gap_application_process/gap_application_process.module
21 ./gap_beautytips_help/gap_beautytips_help.install
179 ./gap_beautytips_help/gap_beautytips_help.module

33. Custom Modules - 3
220 ./gap_fields/gap_fields.module
36 ./gap_fields/gap_address/gap_address.install
861 ./gap_fields/gap_address/gap_address.module
15 ./gap_fields/gap_phone/gap_phone.install
553 ./gap_fields/gap_phone/gap_phone.module
101 ./gap_fields/gap_fields.drush.inc
254 ./gap_fields/gap_academic_history/gap_academic_history.form.inc
55 ./gap_fields/gap_academic_history/gap_academic_history.autocomplete.inc
202 ./gap_fields/gap_academic_history/gap_academic_history.program.inc
544 ./gap_fields/gap_academic_history/includes/value.inc
87 ./gap_fields/gap_academic_history/gap_academic_history.formatter.inc
90 ./gap_fields/gap_academic_history/gap_academic_history.module
38 ./gap_fields/gap_academic_history/gap_academic_history.install
53 ./gap_fields/gap_academic_history/gap_academic_history.validation.inc
17 ./gap_fields/gap_academic_history/gap_academic_history.saving.inc
207 ./gap_fields/includes/value.inc
176 ./gap_fields/gap_conditionally_required/gap_conditionally_required.module
2 ./gap_fields/gap_conditionally_required/gap_conditionally_required.install
239 ./gap_fields/gap_fields.install
380 ./gap_fields/gap_countryprov/gap_countryprov.module
16 ./gap_fields/gap_countryprov/gap_countryprov.install
19653 total

34. Custom Modules
gap_department node_bundle
gap_import gap_app_form
gap_views gap_fields
gap gap_question_ui
gap_hacks gap_beautytips_help
gap_error_jump gap_referee
gap_multistep gap_date
gap_validation gap_help_popups

35. Contributing Back:
Simple Fields

36. Manage Simple Fields

37. Create Simple Field

38. Create Simple Field

39. Demo:
http://master.simplefield.ewdev.ca
Project:
http://drupal.org/project/simple_field

40. Thank You!
Alex Dergachev
@evolvingweb