Drupal (core)

I had a 'fun' and puzzling scenario present itself recently as I finished moving more of my Drupal multisite installations over to HTTPS using Let's Encrypt certificates. I've been running this website—along with six other Drupal 7 sites—on an Nginx ... [More] installation for years. A few of the multisite installs use bare domains, (e.g. jeffgeerling.com instead of www. jeffgeerling.com), and because of that, I have some http redirects on Nginx to make sure people always end up on the canonical domain (e.g. example.com instead of www. example.com). My Nginx configuration is spread across multiple .conf files, e.g.: [Less]

As Agile practitioners we work to transform complex, environments, could our knowledge, experiences and skills be cross pollinated to transform the very complex! i.e. society? Continue reading →

Significance of Voice Interface for Media and Publishers Shankar Sat, 11/24/2018 - 12:00 “Read out the headlines on the front page of today’s edition of The New York Times newspaper”. Say something like this to Google Home or Amazon ... [More] Echo and you will get to listen to a voice reading out the news. Forget swiping, scrolling and typing, just talk to a voice assistant and hear what you want. Voice interfaces are all the rage in recent times. Not only is it helpful for your personal use, but organisations from different industries can find it meritorious. When it comes to new publishing opportunities, voice interfaces are right up there alongside artificial intelligence, augmented reality and blockchain. This world is not a part of a fairy tale and voice interface do pose a few challenges. Before we see how publishing companies make a great use of voice assistants, let’s explore voice interfaces a bit. What exactly are voice interfaces? Voice user interfaces (VUIs) enable the user to communicate with a system through voice or speech commands. Amazon Alexa, Echo dot, Google Home, Google Mini, Siri, Cortana and the Google Assistant some of the great examples of VUI.  The primary advantage of a VUI is that it enables you to interact with a product hands-free, eyes-free. The primary advantage of a VUI is that it enables you to interact with a product hands-free, eyes-free. Applying the same design guidelines to VUIs as to Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) is impossible. There are no visual affordances in a VUI. That means when you are looking at a GUI, you have no apparent indications of what the interface can do or what are the options available. When designing VUI actions, it is of paramount significance that the system clearly lays down possible interaction options, lets the user know what functionality is he/she is using and limit the amount of information to an amount that the user can remember. Now, why are they important? It’s growing at an alarming pace and Gartner, a research firm, says that it is a trend, no discussion. You can see ‘Virtual Assistant’ in the graphical representation of emerging technologies below. Source: GartnerVUI is getting better and better. In just an year, the betterment is apparently visible. Whether it is Google Home or Siri, advancements are impeccable as can be seen in the following graph. Things that publishers need to know There is a land grab to own skills and in the arena of VUI, skills can be split into two categories. First is the branded skills that are connected to your brand and could not be owned by any other organisation. Skills like TED’s ‘play the latest TED Talk’ action and the Wall Street Journal’s ‘What’s News?’ come into this category. Another category is the one that encompasses more generic skills like “Alexa, give me the headlines on sports” or “Okay Google, give me the stock market news”. Ownership of such generic skills would give you the sole authority over all the categories from the creation of first-mover advantage in the market as brands race to the capturing skills before they are gone. This can make things tougher for brands who are looking to extract market-specific skills in both the generic and branded categories. And like most things, it is all about finding the right target. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners stated in a study that Amazon Echo customer spend 66% more than average Amazon customers. This goes to say that Amazon can now afford to sell Echo devices at a lesser price than originally planned. They can even occasionally take a loss on devices for gaining a greater share of consumer spending. The inference that we get from this for the publishers is that optimising for voice search could result in a revenue boost. Benefits of voice assistants for publishers Emphasising on Customer Experience Fabrice Rousseau, Amazon’s general manager of Alexa skills, emphasised on reinventing customer experience with the help of voice technology in his keynote address at the CMO Digital Insight Summit. He said, “When we moved from desktop to mobile we didn’t bring the desktop experience to mobile, we invented a very specific mobile experience”. He further stated, “When you move from mobile to voice don’t bring your mobile experience. Just invent an experience that is unique to voice.” One of the greatest examples of the importance of customer experience through voice technology can be seen through Amazon Audible. If you are a fan of audiobooks, the odds are that Amazon is your preferred place to shop. Of all the ways Amazon has been able to prove its hegemony in the book market, its share of audiobook sales probably represents its most formidable dominance. Branding with skills It is of utmost importance to note that, as far as most of the publishers are concerned, although the VUIs have been storming the market, there’s still plenitude of advancements in the pipeline. In spite of early triumphs with branded skills and flash briefings, VUIs still operate at a fairly low level such as following the commands to play music or read out your appointment dates. With that being said, many publishers are already working on plans for expansion. With the land grab to own skills still underway, the ones who make the first move will taste the success in the future. What are the major challenges? Dearth of personality Voice assistants’ dearth of personality is one of the foremost concerns of publishers. Chris Gathercole, the head of FTLabs at the Financial Times, and his team used Amazon Polly for converting existing text articles into audio that is then delivered by ‘Artificial Amy’. What they observed was that ‘Amy’ was quick to learn and was also cost-effective but her lack of human-like characteristics was irksome and killed the humour or nuance of a piece. Banal and disturbing Automated voices are often either of banal nature or straight up disturbing which can put users off. An amalgamation of artificial and human voices could temper the issue with a voice actor reading parts of the text and a computerised voice contributing further snippets. Automated voices are often either of banal nature or straight up disturbing Privacy concerns There are privacy concerns hovering around the ownership of devices that are essentially perpetually eavesdropping on your home. Consumer Watchdog, a customer advocacy group, stated in a study. “These patents show that smart devices target moments in between screen time to monitor sleep habits, listen in on dinner conversations, and track when users shower. Access to this data can flesh out Google and Amazon’s profiles of their users in order to help them more accurately server targeted ads”. Conclusion Conversations will evolve into an integral element of digital experiences. Interfaces that enable people to use natural language - from chatbots based on typing and reading to voice interfaces that are based on speaking and listening - are highly popular but also very immature. However, with more devices without screens being connected, more consumers will look to voice for controlling their efforts and to perform more intricate tasks. Enterprises including publishing companies need guidance from Customer Experience (CX) pros so that their efforts at building conversational interfaces help customers instead of driving them away. Looking for CX pro? Looking no further than OpenSense Labs as we strongly believe in offering a wonderful digital experience through a suite of services. Contact us at [email protected] to know more about the benefits of voice interface for a publishing company. blog banner blog image voice assistant voice interface media and publishing Blog Type Articles Is it a good read ? On [Less]

27 Attendees representing 18 Drupal events from around the world.Friday, November 8, 2018 — Drupal Event Organizers 1st Meeting — More people where on the call but some just called inIt’s been almost one month since I wrote the blog post, “DrupalCamp ... [More] Organizers Unite: Is it Time for Camp Organizers to Become an Official Working Group” and a ton of things have transpired that will catapult us into 2019 with some great momentum. With the support of the many Drupal evangelists, over 50 Drupal event organizers from around the world signed up to attend our first official / unofficial video call.Then on Friday, November 8, a few hours leading up to the video call, The Drupal Governance Taskforce 2018 Proposal was released. This proposal was put together by the Governance Taskforce in an effort establish a community directive that helps create the next generation of Drupalers. One of the recommendations in this proposal was to provide in-person events, more support, and to establish a Drupal community events working group. The timing of the proposal was perfect for our call. It was really great to see that us organizers were not the only ones who acknowledged that our community events are crucial to Drupal adoption.Are you a Drupal Event Organizer? Well, join us at our next meeting on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, at 12 pm (EST). Register HereWhen the time came to start the call I was a little nervous that not very many people would attend and then all of a sudden the chimes started going off and faces appeared on the screen. After 5 minutes we had 25 people on the call. It was inspirational to be a part of something big. It felt like we were the United Nations :).Flags of all the Countries that were representedCountries RepresentedCanada, Mumbai, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.Drupal Events RepresentedBADCamp(2), Drupal Association(2), Drupal North, Drupal Camp Asheville, DrupalCamp Atlanta, Drupal Camp Chattanooga, DrupalCamp Colorado, DrupalCorn(2), Drupaldelphia, Drupal Mountain Camp, Drupal Camp Mumbai, DrupalCamp New Jersey, Florida Drupal Camp (2),Frontend United, GovCon, MidCamp(2), NED Camp(4),Victoria BC Meetup.Major Points from the November 9th Meeting The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, at 12 pm (EST). Register Here Comment on Governance Taskforce Proposal Issue To help Dries Buytaert, prioritize the recommendation of creating a Community Events Working Group, we need as many people as possible to comment on this issue. Please view the issue and indicate why you believe this working group is critical to the success of Drupal. Comment now! DrupalCamp Website Starter Kit Out of all of the discussions, the common pain point is that the website takes up too much of our limited resources. The idea of an event starter kit, instead of a distribution, was really intriguing to us all. We also discussed all of the events donating funding to hire a professional project manager to scope out what a starter kit would look like. Drupal.org Events Website Many of us use the great Drupical to let us know what events are happening. But if you don’t know about that website there is nowhere on Drupal.org that is easily accessible that promotes Drupal events. The idea that was brought to the table was to design a new section of the community page that is a space specifically for promoting and producing Drupal events. A Centralized Drupal Event Statistics HubAnother website related item that was brought up was the idea of centralized data hub that event organizers could submit crucial data of events (attendance, budget, programing etc.) so that Drupal.org could display the data and allow for data manipulation. For example, it would be great to know how many people attended Drupal events in one year. This data would be extremely powerful as it could help organizers to compare events, drive corporate sponsorships and adoption, and get more people involved with Drupal. DrupalTV — A website with all Drupal VideosThe topic around Drupal video content came up and one of the biggest issues was that videos are all over the place and are not organized. To solve this problem, the idea of a centralized website (DrupalTV) where videos were tagged by topic, presenter, module, etc.. would allow for content to be easily found. This idea was started before our meeting and you can see a proof of concept here. I was very happy to be a part of this first meeting and I hope that Drupal leadership also sees the work we do as critical and will make us an official working group. There were a lot of great conversations that took place so I am sure that I have missed something. Feel free to comment and let me know and I will update the post.Are you a Drupal Event Organizer? Well, join us at our next meeting on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, at 12 pm (EST). Register HereYou can also join the Drupal Event Organizers Slack community. You can also register for any of our meetings to be added to our emailing list.Drupal Event Organizers 1st Meeting Recap. Next Meeting Jan 8, 2019 was originally published in Drupal Atlanta on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. [Less]

Accessibility & Healthcare: Drupal is Binding the Two Vasundhra Fri, 11/23/2018 - 19:37 While constructing a hospital building what is the most important factor which provides safe access to all the people? My whole attention is ... [More] diverted upon the very first priority of virtual planning, and that is building of ramps. If you ask "why?”, the answer would wind up to one conclusion - Ease of accessibility disabled individuals.  Imagine if the design of the building can secure modular equality, how important is it to ensure equality through web standards? According to the World Health Organization, about 15% of the world’s population lives with some form of disability.    With the mere principles of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, the web has harmonized the requirements for equal web access. Accessibility summarizes to be even more vital if you are a part of the healthcare industry. Serving the patients and employees via web accessibility becomes the duty of the healthcare organizations. The Role Of Web Accessibility In Healthcare Patients with disabilities are entitled to receive quality healthcare the way others do, and hospitals may be unintentionally shutting their doors for the audience with disabilities by not implementing accessibility on their websites.  Healthcare activities like booking appointments, checking reports, paying bills, searching for physicians and other medical roles have rapidly moved online. While online operations have resulted in patients convenience and avoided them with the hustle of extended queues, what kind of treatment are disabled people imparted with?  A patient who is visually impaired visits your healthcare website to look for better treatment options but fails to decipher what’s on the page, and then immediately leaves the website.  An example of failed engagement, this was a frustrating experience for her. Similarly, patients with disability and limited dexterity also need assistive technology to mesh with any website.  Assistive technologies like screen readers help the visually impaired individual read text and data on the screen.  Hence the need for quality healthcare website is a must in situations like these. Healthcare websites should be smartly designed for the common good of every individual. Because: Web accessibility provides everyone with equal standards. Every person regardless of their physical ability is able to access information.   It comes hand in hand with the features ensuring universal usability of information making abbreviations and unfamiliar medical terminology easy to define.     It ensures that people with visual disability can understand motion or static media with alt text that can be read out loud by screen readers and people with hearing disability are assisted with caption in videos.    Not limited to visuals and audio, web accessibility also ensures that people who have motor control restrictions, disabled arms, can use the website without a computer mouse or other pointing devices like touchpad or touchscreen. It is important to synchronize it with the visual content to contextualize them. Web Accessibility for healthcare organizations is not only an option but a major requirement. Why Web Accessibility is a Major Requirement? Section 508 of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, Level AA states that all the websites (majorly the healthcare organizations) need to provide equal standards to all the individuals. If the healthcare providers fail to meet the accessibility guidelines, as demanded by ADA, they become open to legal actions.     According to the guidelines: The accessibility standards of the website should aim to meet the AA standards. The standards are organized under four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. It should list the accessibility features of the website which includes, alt text, skip links and ARIA attributes. Ensures that the page can be used without a mouse (with the help of keyboard) Ensures sufficient color contrast for the text.  It should involve the advice of the common tasks such as increasing text size and viewing PDF files. It should grant with the contact information if the user has difficulty accessing parts of the website.    Can I get away without implementing these accessibility standards? If the question “can I get away without implementing accessibility standards” is knocking your head right now then, you must read what happened to Tenet Healthcare in 2016.  In 2016, Tenet Healthcare, (which operates several Florida hospital) was named under class action complaint on the behalf of visually impaired individuals. The complaint alleged that the hospital’s website was not accessible to blind individuals with screen reader technology, and violated the rule of ADA title III. Thus imposing legal actions against them, with the addition of a huge penalty.  According to ADA Title III, 4965 federal cases were filed in starting six months of 2018. If the filing continued at the same rate there would be close to 10,000 cases at the end of the year. (30% increase over 2017)    Over the past several years, healthcare industries have increasingly become the target of government plaintiffs, complaining about disability discrimination. If you think you can get away with it then think again. Not complying with web accessibility in healthcare can not only mean that you will suffer lawsuits but will be penalized and public shaming might turn into financial losses soon.  How does Healthcare Organizations Ensure Web Accessibility? Apart from serving the guidelines of ADA title III, the evolution of technology has fundamentally altered and powered the healthcare industries. For sustaining the health and the fitness of the people, innovation plays a crucial role in medical science. This is how it contributes to the healthcare industry. Screen enlargement and screen reading software  Screen enlargement software allows the magnification of the computer screen so that the screen can easily be read, and allows the audience to see whatever is there on the screen. For those who have a poor eyesight, talking software is available that can read the text on the page. In short screen readers. Screen reading software like JAWS, NVDA, talk button etc helps the user attain this task.   Text-to-speech Text-to-speech has helped the patients understand the digital content by providing a simpler audio version. This is potentially helpful for those who might have literacy issues, a neurodevelopmental disorder, low vision, elderly population, and anyone else searching for a simpler way to access the digital content on the go.  Text to speech loudly reads the important medical information to the patients which might include descriptions of the diseases, medical prescriptions, and drug data leaflets. This type of information needs to be well understood to avoid any type of misuse. Thus, by providing this option to the patients, the digital revolution in healthcare marks equal standards for the diverse audience out there.   Medication Tools People with disability have several medications to follow, and missed doses might end up in an exacerbation of the medical circumstances. In severe cases, it can even lead to a series of consequences that result in hospitalization. The patients who are visually impaired or suffering from other reading disorders can easily use these medication tools. These tools help the patients remember the accurate time for their medication by altering them with their medicine. Not only this, but these tools also keep an adequate check of their heart rate and reminds them about their scheduled appointments. There are products that help the audience with this task, products like AdhereTech, Amiko.IO, MyUBox, MedMinder and Vitality GlowCaps. How Is Drupal the Best Option For Healthcare Websites? If the healthcare organizations are looking for a platform which is cost-effective when it comes to growing need of the healthcare system for the patients, Drupal tends to shine in that part.  There is no doubt that Drupal powered healthcare technologies bestow a better living.  It is not only simple to use and work upon but it also makes it easier for healthcare organizations to handle data and documentation.  The major role which Drupal plays in all these healthcare websites is providing them with quality accessibility for the diverse audience. How? Well, here are some of the changes which Drupal 8 made around accessibility to ensure that your website starts with a strong foundation` Automatic Alternative TextAutomatic Alternative Text generates descriptive information of an image.  To help the visually impaired individuals understand the all sort of medical images alt text is used.  Screen Readers and other text read software read these images or pages out loud with the help of automatic alternative text. The module helps in generating an adequate description of an image or a webpage in a human-readable language with complete sentences. The description is based on a collection of content tags and description provided by the editor.    WAI-ARIA Another W3 published set of standards, WAI-ARIA deals with making certain content type available for the users. Drag and Drop functionality is a great example of this. Drupal 8 follows all the guidelines of WAI-ARIA to make users more understandable to the assistive technologies.   Aural Alerts Users with visual impairment cannot see visual updates on the page such as color changes, animations or texts appended to the content. In this case, Drupal presents a JavaScript method Drupal.announce() which constructs an “aria-live” element on the page. Drupal.announce accepts a string to be read by an audio UA.    Block ARIA Landmark RoleBlock ARIA Landmark Roles module is used to provide programmatic access to a certain section of pages, in other words, they provide an easy way for users using assistive technology to skip over blocks of content that are repeated on multiple pages and notify them of the programmatic structure of the page.  The module adds to the additional elements of the configuration form that permits the user to assign ARIA landmarks (which can be used to navigate from section to section). All the attributes are added to the elements on the page to define the areas like the main content or maybe the navigation region. A visually impaired person can easily find a navigation menu with the help of this module and simply jump to the navigation landmark. Landmarks also help people with disability by providing them with keyboard only navigation to a certain section of pages   CKEditor AbbreviationCKEditor Abbreviation modules help to add a button to CKEditor for inserting and editing abbreviations. If any type of abbreviation tags is selected, the context menu would also contain a link to edit the abbreviations.   CKEditor Accessibility CheckerCKEditor Accessibility Checker module is an innovative solution that allows you to inspect the accessibility level of the content created on CKEditor, and immediately solves any issue that is found.  Conclusion Healthcare technologies are evolving at a very rapid pace, and meeting the accessibility standards also reap the benefit from the technical standpoint. Every organization is committed and focused on serving its patients whether it is a healthcare organization or a website development organization, the audience is the very first key to every accessibility standards. Drupal has been contributing to each one, granting user and digital experience in every sector.  At OpenSense Labs the objective of such apprehensions has always been the number one priority. Contact us at [email protected] to build an accessibility solution by integration Drupal with healthcare technologies. blog banner blog image Drupal Drupal 8 Alternative text Web Accessibility Drupal accessibility Screen readers CKEditor Accessibility Checker Block ARIA Landmark Roles WAI-ARIA Blog Type Articles Is it a good read ? On [Less]

A Beginner’s Guide to a Medical Device CMS Akshita Fri, 11/23/2018 - 15:34 Medical devices save countless lives each year and can dramatically improve the quality of life of millions of people. However, the development and ... [More] manufacturing of advanced medical devices is a complex, time-consuming and investment-intensive process.  In a bid to scale up their services, life sciences and healthcare service providers need well-curated technology to market their products and services.  More than the device, the technology used in the backend to curate the information and compile it is important than ever.  Here’s a beginner's guide to the medical device CMS.  What is a Medical Device CMS? Healthcare professionals who are responsible for technology management require a balanced and effective content management system with possible medical device integration. A medical device CMS is the one that provides an easy integration matrix between a medical device (hardware) and a data management system (software).    The main purpose of it is to provide a better monitoring of the data collected by the hardware devices while storing it for the future.  Some of the best examples of medical devices would include insulin monitor, fitness tracker bands, heart rate monitoring devices - to detect stroke, sleep tracking devices, among others. A medical device CMS balances the hardware-software relationship   An ideal medical device CMS address the following:  Ability to store and forward the acquired data from a hardware device Manage and format the data in the required standards Here's how Drupal is faring in the Healthcare technology trends.  From Pulse to the Report The dramatic increase in smartphone usage and portable devices have triggered the emergence of stand-alone health and medical devices and software apps.  Wearable sensor-devices play a critical role in monitoring the health of a person. These devices can record real-time information about one's physiological condition and motion activities.  These devices can be identified on the basis of their sensors and accordingly fall in the predefined categories. They are capable of measuring physiological signs such as heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, respiration rate, electromyogram, electrodermal activity, and in most cases even insulin.  Wearable sensor-devices play a critical role in monitoring the health of a person.  Micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) based miniature motion sensors are used to measure activity related to signals from the body movement.  The measured and processed data is then transmitted to the remote healthcare facility (or to the smartphones) over the internet. Security, here, is the major concern since a secured communication channel would safeguard the privacy of (sensitive) personal medical data of an individual.  Tips for Medical Device Developers and Organizations When planning to build a healthcare device, it is important to choose a CMS that gives an accurate representation of data and disseminates the data (in different forms of content) to different platform while adapting to the various screens and sizes too.  The CMS must provide the following features: Security: Under the HIPAA Privacy rules, healthcare services providers must ensure automatic log off, encryption and decryption of data, tracking logs that record activity on hardware and software.  The technology at the backend must ensure that the health data can be accessed by limited people and secured under definitive measures. SSL certificate is one of the implementations.    Remote Access: The information procured from the medical device should be easily accessible to the individual and healthcare provider, who can then monitor the changes. Easy tracking of data is on screen with various elements present while providing the necessary training material in itself.     User-friendly: Usability is an important aspect of medical device designing. A balance between aesthetics and usability is important for small devices like track bands. Use of flat design, icons, enabling scrolling, 3D look, small text to reduce visual density can give a cleaner look with a minimalistic look.    Responsive presentation of the data: While medical devices can be of different shapes and screen sizes, the CMS must ensure that the content is presentable in various mobile devices to keep the user interface intact. The flow (dissemination) of content must be consistent flowing on to the screens regardless of the device.  Exploring the Medical Device CMS. Here’s What Healthcare Professionals Need.  As against the common misapprehension, a CMS is responsible not just for the written content but for every piece of information that can be used to create and manage digital documents.  In the above section, the process of the gathering information has been discussed in details and it should come as no surprise how important a CMS is in the process. Not any CMS can be the choice for a medical device. This list will help you filter out the features of a CMS required from an ideal choice.  An Effective Document and Content Management Establishing a system for mapping and managing the documentation of various users and their records can be a heftier task.   When selecting a CMS for medical devices, healthcare organizations recognize the need to have easy document management solutions.  The CMS must ease the process of generating and maintaining records resulting from the micro-electro-mechanical system while presenting them in different types as per the requirement. As the service provider, it should be able to track, manage, and store information and documents related to the patient’s health. A medical device CMS needs to be an effective document management system. Supporting a wide variety of document types, an effective solution would seamlessly integrate all procured health information (scanned charts and data, clinical paperwork, referrals, and more) into the patient’s profile. Additionally it should provide enough storage to hold all the patients’ data without letting your application or website bend or break.  Before narrowing down to one, ensure that the CMS supports the following content types: Text documents Graphics Web pages All image types Reports Multimedia Multiple Device Support Assuming that the user must be using one particular device type would mean a major blunder on the user interface. When developing a sophisticated web application compatible with different devices, it is important to ensure the CMS provides provision to elements like HTML5 to build a responsive application.  Adding a rich user experience using various capabilities will ensure various stakeholders (such as physicians and patient) accessing the desired information easily. It should act as a centralised content dissemination platform for serving digital content on screens. Text format, SMS, e-mail and other alerts on mobile phones can cover the rapidly growing smaller screens generation.  A Secure and Privacy of Data While electronic methods provide increased efficiency and mobility, HIPAA ensures that appropriate steps are taken by the organization to safeguard the information and maintain the integrity and privacy of ePHI.  Medical devices share patient information with other technologies which could compromise patients’ privacy and security if hacked. Holding personal information like name, contact information, patient’s medical information, security can’t be compromised when considering a CMS for medical devices.  Without proper security protocols in place, personal and confidential information could be misused by any person or organization interested in exploiting the data for personal gain. Under HIPAA, a series of regulatory standards are outlined to ensure the protected health information (PHI) is not disclosed and remain safe under the law. The CMS must ensure a secure access to the system with data encryption repeatedly happening in the backend. Salting and hashing of the database, strong password policy, session limits, and single sign-on systems are enforced.  Proper data validation can be done to prevents XSS, CSRF, DDOS, and other malicious data entry. Easy integration with Third-Party Application  A perfect product doesn’t exist.  A CMS that would offer you all the features without external support doesn’t exist. Since medical healthcare providing organizations are repeatedly moving towards electronic health records (EHR) to store the medical history and offer a splendid digital experience to the patients.  An ideal CMS here would provide easy integration and smooth workflow after integration without compromising on the security.  Working with a lot of devices and data, there are chances of inconsistency and content duplicacy, in order to avoid these issues in real time, a possible synergy needs to be created between the CMS and the third party tools.  CMS compatibility with the third party tools is important.    Web Accessibility  To ensure universal healthcare in today's times, governments penalize healthcare facilities not complying with web accessibility guidelines.  People with disability face inequality, violation of dignity, and face injustices in walks of life. As their support system, how can the healthcare organizations which are supposed to act as the pillar of support not enforce web accessibility guidelines on their own website? From the legal perspective, penalties can risk reputational loss, financial loss, or a class-action lawsuit. Failing to meet the web accessibility standards, healthcare service providers can leave the disabled patients frustrated and discriminated against.  Everything has shifted online and patients are seeking information online more than they are consulting doctors for real. Web accessibility is more crucial than ever for the healthcare industry as differently abled people jump to receive information online.  Poor contrast, no resize feature, no aural alerts, no keyboard navigation access can leave many visitors with bitterness and confusion. Therefore, it is important for an ideal CMS to provide web accessibility features at its core. If not user experience then under section 508, organizations are compelled to make all web technologies fully usable by people with various disabilities.  The role of the CMS doesn’t end with integrating various devices and process, the more complied with the web accessibility law, the better can healthcare service provider serve quality healthcare. Not only do healthcare organization reach out with an improved brand message but consumer experience as well.  A Centralized Content Management System “A content repository is a database of (digital) content with an associated set of data management, search and access methods allowing various application-independent access to the content with the ability to store and modify content.” The proliferation of content from a variety of sources can create an enormous challenge. As the unstructured content grows, data loss becomes a hard reality. Healthcare organizations need to look for a flexible approach that supports interoperability with a wide array of popular systems and products.  A CMS that is robust and can be worked as a central content management repository storing a variety of content formats, facilitating read/write capabilities, control access. Information shared through one platform (say a fitband) to be updated in real-time across all the connected systems (EHR System). As a content repository, it must provide efficient storage to integrate content, easy versioning, import/ export of content, content manager accessibility for all the documents and the content, records retention management system providing the capability of document-imaging. Community-based CMS Communities help you evolve. Promoting direct communication between service provider and end user, communities can actually boost the product development cycle. Handling a diverse set of stakeholders as a means of increasing quality management and regulatory compliance while reducing risk, the provision of building communities can ease one thing for marketers. Covering general FAQs, or major technical problems, communities provide the user with a platform to connect with.  Software as a Medical Device In an August 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a draft guidance document which details it as one of the fastest growing trends in medical devices: Software as a Medical Device, or SaMD. With “one week workout” and “six-minute cardio” going crazy for the now health conscious millennials medical devices are a big success. To ensure the safety of these devices and the people using them, they need to pass the quality check by the FDA.  Software as a Medical device is a software intended to be used for one or more medical purposes that perform the objective without being part of a hardware medical device, 2014, IMDRF report. It is a concept proposed by FDA. Prepared with precise guidelines and regulations, FDA assesses the safety and efficacy of new devices that go to the market. Software intended to be used for one or more medical purposes that perform the objective without being part of a hardware medical device. SaMD may interface with other physical devices, but it must run on general computing platforms (or mobile devices), and may be used in combination with other medical devices. Some examples of SaMD devices are: Software that allows MRI and other types of medical imaging to be viewed on regular mobile devices Software that performs image processing in to detect cancer Treatment planning applications that supply information Software that regulates an installed medical device, like a pacemaker BMI and body fat calculators, and heart rate monitors An important distinction here is that the software doesn’t meet the definition of SaMD if its intended purpose is to power a hardware medical device.  Accordingly, the categories for software medical devices distinguish software applications across two key dimensions: The significance of Information – Devices that are used directly in the treatment or diagnosis of patient illnesses are expected to obtain higher standards of clinical evidence, including obtaining both scientific and analytical validity, as well as assessing clinical performance.   State of Disease – When a SaMD is used as an intervention for a critical disease, it must be tested more rigorously than if its intended use is in detecting non-serious illnesses. Conclusion Being fit is the new fad. Because of which healthcare-medical devices are increasingly becoming popular. At the same time, the importance of the software behind the curtain cannot be denied.   With the rapid development in technologies such as wireless, embedded, nanotechnology and so on it has become possible to develop handy systems and devices. At OpenSense Labs, we understand that with technology advancing, healthcare software needs to be an all-rounder. They need to be secure, robust and easy to integrate with other technologies and platforms.  Drop a mail at [email protected] or give a shout out on Twitter @OpenSenseLabs to talk about possible synergies.  blog banner blog image Medical Device CMS Healthcare Provider Content Management System Security Content Management Electronic Health Record Blog Type Articles Is it a good read ? On [Less]

Integrating Document Management System with Drupal Shankar Fri, 11/23/2018 - 15:12 There is a moment of realisation when we see how much we have actually evolved while reading a novel where the story takes us into the 20th century. ... [More] When we see characters in that novel, who go to the office and have to keep an account of all the company documents that just keeps mounting up, we sense the burned-out feeling of all those office-goers. And then there is this internet era where all the documents are digitally managed, searched, shared and archived. Such is the effect of digitisation that something like a Document Management System helps an organisation to go paperless and govern complex files in an organised way. Instead of searching for files and consuming a lot of time and effort, the Document Management System (DMS) is a one-stop destination for streamlining business workflow and improving team collaboration in the process. It helps in letting go of papers and having a positive change in the environment. Drupal, as one of the leading open source content management framework, has the provision for handling document management with a suite of modules. Let’s look at what DMS is exactly before we plunge into Drupal’s efficacy. What is a Document Management System? Document management system refers to the system that is developed specifically for authoring and governing electronic documents. Creating, sharing, organising, and archiving the documents are managed by DMS. It simplifies these processes for enhancing productivity while managing the documents digitally. Its central electronic location streamlines the process of finding documents, saves your time in the process, and helps you manage more of your organisation’s core operations. Document management system refers to the system that is developed specifically for authoring and governing electronic documents. DMS is quintessential. A compilation of statistics by Business.com delineates that document management is right up there and is very essential for efficacious business workflow. In a survey, IDC stated that 21.3% of productivity is lost because of convolutions in handling the document. Another report by M-Files states that poor document storage amounts to 50% of the loss of time due to difficulty while searching. Harris interactive says in a study that 83% of knowledge workers lose time in versioning and e-signatures reduce timearound times by 80% according to Ombud Inc. Categories of Document Management System The two common types of DMS include cloud-based and self-hosted. Cloud-based DMS In this case, the software is hosted by your provider which is accessible online. As long as you are connected to the internet, it is possible logging into the system. You won’t require an IT team for installation to keep it running properly. You can tap into the system from anywhere and anytime while files are automatically saved in the cloud thereby reducing the need for regular backups. Self-hosted DMS Unlike Cloud-based DMS, it is stored on your company’s servers. It is possible to store as many files as your server allows. The challenge lies in regularly backing up files manually. It is great for users who value being in control of their own system and do not have to rely on others to keep it running. Features of Document Management System Storage: DMS lets you archive your files in a single location so that they can be retrieved, stored and shared easily for future use. Security: DMS helps you in avoiding unauthorised access by implementing role-based permissions for file entry. Some systems also restrict IP addresses. Version control: You do not have to handle numerous copies of a single document thereby staying in control of your document’s versions. You can see all the versions made and sends alerts to all the members about the most up-to-date version. Indexing: You can index files systematically for a swift, simple retrieval later on given its file key. Uploading: You can upload documents in bulk efficiently. Editing: It is easier to apply adjustments and modifications to a PDF file. Branding: It is possible to define your organisation’s branding by setting up its colour, theme and logo to convey your brand’s look and feel. On-the-go: You can access your files using mobile devices. This helps in easily capturing images of documents and uploading them swiftly. Synchronising files: Online files with the copies of documents stored in your system can be synced which helps in updating the team members with the latest documents. Audit trail: Referring to a document’s path in its lifecycle, audit trail feature of DMS helps in fetching detailed reports on the path that the file has followed. Merits of a Document Management System Centralisation: DMS lets you organise your file easily using tags and labels thereby centralising the document management. Team collaboration: DMS allows team members to view and edit a document at the same time. Data security: Many Document Management Systems implement a role-based access control for permitting entry only to specific users to the document. File retrieval: Simple by using a keyword or keyphrase, you can look for a specific file. You can also use a document remotely. Regulatory compliance: DMS leverages features like audit trails, security and backups to ensure regulatory compliance like the 21 CFR Part 11 and Annex 11. Carbon footprint: Choosing DMS ensures that you are reducing carbon footprint by going paperless. Examples of Document Management System Alfresco, an open source Enterprise Content Management (ECM), offers document management, collaboration, knowledge and web content management, record and image management, content repository and workflow. Seed DMS, an open source DMS, is user-friendly. It serves as a fully developed enterprise-ready platform for tracing, accessing, storing and sharing documents. M-Files is another useful and easy-to-implement DMS. It helps in governing your information securely with its Check-out feature. LogicalDOC is an open-source Java-based system which improves productivity and collaboration of document management system. Ademero supports centralised control mechanism for storing documents at a single vault and allows scanned documents to be converted into PDFs using Optical Character Recognition feature. How can Drupal be integrated with Document Management Systems? Drupal offers an amazing set of modules and distributions that can help in incorporating the features of DMS. Vardoc: Knowledge base system and documentation site Vardoc, which is a knowledge base system, a wiki system and a DMS, is Drupal distribution built for hosting an enormous amount of content in a structured and easy to find format. It lets you develop a connected organisation, product or knowledge area. This is built on top of Varbase, which is an open source Drupal 8 distribution, and offers some useful functionalities like editorial features, search function, taxonomy, user management and customisable themes. Moreover, it delivers top-of-the-line non-functional requirements like enterprise security, high performance, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), accessibility compliance and so on. Document Module Document module provides complete integration with Drupal node system and acts as a DMS for Drupal. This module adds a custom node type - document. Every document that you will create will be a Drupal node and therefore will reap the benefits available to a node. It has the support for document revisions/versioning. The custom fields added by the module to the Document node type are accessible in Views. It also has the support for theming. Moreover, the documents, being nodes, are entirely indexable by the Drupal search system. This module also provides its own custom search for documents. This module is available only for Drupal 7 version. CMIS API CMIS API is a suite of modules primarily offering an API for connecting to Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) compliant systems to bi-directionally syncing content between the CMIS ECM system and Drupal. It also comes with features like creating, updating, browsing and searching content in the CMIS ECM system through the Drupal interface. The objective of CMIS API is to offer an easy-to-use, web content management front-end in Drupal for ECM systems that are, most often than not, unfamiliar to web content managers. Filedepot Filedepot module gives you a Google Docs like feel. It is an integrated file management module that supports role and user-based security. You can save the documents outside the Drupal public directory for safe access. Files of all type can be stored in filedepot and its flexible permission model lets you delegate folder administration to other users. You can simply drag and drop files from local desktop and upload them in bulk. Also, users can receive notification of new files being added or altered. You can flag the document as ‘locked’ in order to alert users that it is being updated. This module is available only for Drupal 7 version. Alfresco Module Alfresco module provides integration between Drupal and Alfresco Enterprise CMS. It helps you in developing Drupal sites using the Alfresco’s document management repository for storing and sharing documents. It governs Alfresco content items as Drupal nodes with the help of custom content type (Alfresco item). It also offers a Content Construction Kit (CCK) field type for Alfresco content items. Bundled with AJAX-based repository browser, it lets you visualise, upload, search and retrieve nodes from the Alfresco repository. Please note that this module is not covered by Drupal’s security advisory policy. Web File Manager WebFM module is based on a hierarchical directory structure and leverages AJAX for letting the administrators arrange files on the server in a similar way as done with file managers on the personal systems. This improves the manageability of huge collections of documents. It lets you define permissions by role and file user ID. You can also attach files to numerous nodes and/or comments. This module is not covered by Drupal’s security advisory policy. Conclusion Document Management Systems are essential for product documentation sites, agencies who want to document software, documentation for open source products/projects, organisations who want to document their process and online user manuals. Integrating DMS with Drupal is a praiseworthy option as you get the best of Drupal’s robust content management functionalities and the power of specialised DMS. Drupal experts at OpenSense Labs are committed to delivering an incredible digital experience with its suite of services. Contact us at [email protected] to leverage the power of Drupal and the DMS. blog banner blog image Document Management System DMS Drupal module Drupal 8 Blog Type Articles Is it a good read ? On [Less]

We've created a small Drupal module that brings pure CSS animated snowflakes into your Drupal site.

Can Drupal Manage My Content? Vasundhra Thu, 11/22/2018 - 20:22 How Drupal is helping to construct better paths in the journey of content management? As a content strategist, we know that “Content is the King”. We hustle every day ... [More] to create splendid content that’s deserving of even getting close to that royal title - because let's face it, we all want our content to be unique and surprising.  The content can vary from blogs to forms to contact address. The question, however, is - which CMS can help you manage the content that directly impacts the reader's mind, letting the audience engage with your brand the way you want them to?  The resounding answer has to be - Drupal!  Drupal provides its users with many types and varieties of content that helps them to manage the website in terms of ranking and traffic. Drupal provides the users with intuitive modules which allow them to build their own content types that have their own set of fields. But What is a Content-Type? In order to catch the attention of the user, content is produced in various ways such as in the form of an article, newsletter, polls, listings, landing page, among others.  Content types provide the website with a list of content that allows the content editors to add new content to the site. In other words, it enables the user to manage the settings for a category of information in a centralized and reusable manner.  Types of Content Needed   Drupal is one such CMS which has been providing the content editors with modules to handle all the types of content in a website. These modules provide the website with features and capabilities that can be customized.  Homepage  How many times have you judged a website by its homepage? Well, maybe almost every time.  According to the CEO of Klout Fire, to impress and engage the audience on a website, it needs to orchestrate everything, in other words, the first 15 seconds of the website is the most crucial seconds that engage and delight a customer. Homepage, therefore, becomes important.  Drupal modules like Panels and Ctool help you bring out a homepage with a customized layout that engages with its audience well.     Blogs From students to businessmen, blogging has grown out to be a platform used by millions. One of the popular mediums to promote business, blogging must be part of every business.  Part of the core now (as a content type), Drupal’s blog module allows authorized users to build and maintain any type of blog. It provides the content editors with standard blogging functionality to the site, where users with defined permissions can create, edit, and update blogs.    E-newsletters Another popular marketing initiative, newsletters are frequently used to keep the audience informed and offer promotional content. Many businesses and marketers use newsletters to promote their products and services.  An effective way of maintaining and providing the audience with topics that are current and trending, newsletters offer organizations a unique opportunity to nurture and educate the target audience.   There are essentially two ways to build a newsletter in Drupal.    Newsletter module strictly aims at the frequency or number of contents. It is especially recommended for people that need more than one newsletter list for their site. Newsletter module aims to be a full blown newsletter solution for Drupal 7.  Simplenews module brings the new content type that can be sent via email to all the subscribers of the associated newsletter.  Other options in Drupal include MailUp Newsletter Module, mailman, and MailChimp.    Landing Pages  A crucial part of the inbound marketing strategy, building, and testing landing pages is one of the top five challenges faced by B2B marketers.  Drupal has paragraph module to create templates for landing page and stacks module to allow content editors to create complex pages without the need of developers. Companies see a 55% increase in leads when they increase their number of landing pages from 10 to 15.    And much more Other content types involve guides, book pages, tutorials, case studies, and infographics.  Drupal consists of modules like book helper, book module that help to build interesting and interactive guides. Apart from this, the charts module provide a good way for the user to visualize a lot of information. Content, Marketing, and Drupal: What is There for Marketers? Websites using Drupal 8 has grown up to 51 percent in 2018 in comparison to the previous year.   Easy content management can easily be one of the reasons for its popularity.  But there is more to it. More as to why you must opt for Drupal.   Reducing the Cost Drupal does not induce any licensing cost. Old news, but it is free.  Other than the software cost, the visual designs of your Drupal website can be completely rebuilt without investing in the backend architecture. Drupal is also completely customizable from the get-go even with respect to the editor tools, workflows, and roles. This involves the money that would go towards the customization of the projects. Thus, benefiting the marketers in terms of budget and funds.  Content and Personalization According to the Content Marketing Institute, 71% of the content editors customize their content on the basis of audience interest. Content types like blogs, landing pages, newsletter, infographics are important factors that contribute to the ideal way of reaching and interacting with the customers. These content types deliver relevant information to the audience based on their interests and motivations.  Drupal lets you deliver personalized content.  Drupal’s Acquia Lift, a data-driven personalization module that brings content and customer data together from multiple sources, providing customized experiences across any channel or device.  Most importantly, it allows businesses to construct a consistent personalized experience across digital platforms. Providing easy integration with third-party tools Drupal further facilitates the personalization process.  Building Custom Content Types with Drupal As a marketer, if your needs vary from the ones mentioned above or if you are looking to build some new type of content type for your audience to devour, Drupal helps you with that too.  Build news sections, postcards, manuals with Drupal without coding.  Without any coding, with the use of content construction kit (CCK) and views modules, you can build new content types and produce advanced custom views for those types.  Ease of Adding  Multimedia Content  Since we know that people are more likely to remember images and videos, how can we afford to not add them in our blogs?  Drupal’s Media Library provides a views-based browser for previously uploaded media. You can also add media to content via media field, either by selecting from existing media or by uploading new media.  Not just this, with oEmbed support now, it allows the embedding of external media, such as YouTube and Vimeo videos. Using Drupal features and functionalities along with digital media solution enhances the ensured reusability and real-time tracking of media assets.  Drupal, is the whole framework for administering content on the website. Adding Themes to the Content Types The one-size-fits-all theory doesn’t work in the internet era.  While themes ensure that your website looks great your one theme won’t be compatible with the different types of content on your website.  Drupal has replaced the PHP Template with the all-new Twig Template in its latest update, which not only makes it easy to edit themes but customize the ones according to your needs very easily.  With the addition of new template engine, Drupal gives you responsive and mobile-friendly themes.  The main goal is to deliver the audience with the power of overriding all the templates and change the front end for modifications. Therefore the visual design of a website can be entirely rebuilt with the help of Drupal, without actually spending on any back-end architecture differences.  All the Drupal Themes for 2018 SEO Friendly People trust search engines. In fact, 50% of visitors are more likely to click a result if the brand appears multiple times in search engine results.  Writing great content will not suffice, your CMS have to have SEO capabilities in order to make your business visible.  According to a survey by Neil Patel Digital, SEO is the 2nd most used practices of all time that affects the traffic of a website.  When it comes to Drupal, there are a variety of SEO friendly modules that help the website reach a better rank. The extensive list of SEO modules includes Page Title, SEO Checklist, Meta tags, Taxonomy Title, HTML Purifier, Real-time SEO.  Drupal’s out-of-the-box schema tags help search engines identify what the page is about, its relevant and how useful will it be for a specific query.  Drupal presents the users with a comprehensive control over the URL structure with the help of modules like  Pathauto, and maintain a clean understandable URL structure with the help of Global Redirect.  Content  Monitoring For a content marketing strategy to be successful, it needs to be underpinned by data. After all, how do you decide if some information is tangible or not? Or how else would you know how your content is performing? Since data never lies, you need to have actual audience insights for your next marketing strategy.    Google Analytics is one of the best tools for monitoring the traffic on a website while providing real-time updates about the number of visitors, how much time they are spending,  popular pages visited by them among other information.    Drupal’s Google Analytics module lets you add the Google Analytics web statistics tracking system to your website, so you can: Selectively track and exclude certain users, roles and pages. Monitor different types of links  Monitor the type of files that are being downloaded from your pages Community and Engagement  Among all the marketing strategies, fostering customer loyalty brings results. Businesses seeking to build more engagement and repo among its users can’t miss out on community outreach.  Content, community, and business go hand in hand.   Community brings engagement. And engagement returning users.  In order to ensure a splendid digital experience, the ideal CMS must provide value to integrate with community building technologies.  With a community of more than 200,000 people, Drupal is the best example of what it can do for the community platforms. You can serve your audience better if you know what they are looking for. Integrating with almost all the acknowledged ERP systems which are available like Alfresco, Salesforce, Bynder, and SugarCRM. Additionally, Drupal grants marketers with modules like Disqus and HybridAuth Social Login to connect with the audience. It allows them to connect more strongly with customers and transform more prospects into buyers.   Drupal helps power up the websites with chatbot for an interactive and a guiding experience to the user. It can incorporate the Chatbots and connect with the people giving them a better user experience.  Conclusion Increasing traffic, retention and conversion is mostly the main agenda of every website holder, and Drupal contributes vividly in this part as a content manager. It offers a dozen powerful modules for maintaining and creating content.  Create personalized content with OpenSense Labs, drop a mail at [email protected] and experience the best content management services and solutions.   blog banner blog image Drupal Drupal 8 Drupal 8 Content Types Drupal modules Drupal Personalization Drupal Themes Content Types Blog Community Blog Type Articles Is it a good read ? On [Less]

Update: Re-published for DrupalSouth 2018 edition The PreviousNext team are sponsoring and helping to run the sprint day on Wednesday, December 5th 2018, and there are a few things you can do now to hit the ground running on the day. ... [More] by Kim Pepper / 22 November 2018 What's a Sprint Day about anyway? Contribution Sprints are a great opportunity to get involved in contributing to Drupal. Contributions don't have to be just about code. Issue triage, documentation, and manual testing are examples of non-code contributions. If you are new to contributing, you can take a look at the New Contributor tasks on the Drupal.org Contributor Tasks page. While there will be experienced contributors there on the day to help, keep in mind, this is not a training session. :-) Set Up a Development Environment There is more than one way to shear a sheep, and there is also more than one way to set up a local development environment for working on Drupal. We've create a Drupal project starter kit for sprint attendees which should speed up this process. Head over to https://github.com/previousnext/drupal-project and follow the README. If you have any issues, feel free to post them in the Github issue queue https://github.com/previousnext/drupal-project/issues and we'll try and resolve them before the day. Find Issues to Work On If you want to see what might be an interesting issue to work on, head over to the Drupal.org Issue Queue and look for issues tagged with 'DrupalSouth 2018'. These are issues that others have tagged. You can also tag an issue yourself to be added to the list. Being face-to-face with fellow contributors is a great opportunity to have discussions and put forward ideas. Don't feel like you need to come away from the day having completed lines and lines of code. We look forward to seeing you all there! Tagged DrupalSouth, Code Sprint [Less]