From Open Source to On Your
Phone: Using Drupal to Develop
the Library’s Mobile Website
PROF. JUNIOR TIDAL
LIBRARY
JTIDAL@CITYTECH.CUNY.EDU
TWITTER: @JUNIORTIDAL
HTTP://LIBRARY.CITYTECH.CUNY.EDU
04.05.13
What Are We Talking About?
 Mobile Device Usage
 Open Source
 How the Library Uses Open Source
 The Library’s Open Source Based Mobile Site
 Why a Mobile Site Instead of an Application
 eBooks, the Desktop Site and the Mobile Site
 The Future
Mobile Device Usage Has Increased
 As of December, 2012
 87% of all American own a cell phone
 45% own smartphones
 As of January 2013
 26% of Americans own an e-reader
 31% own a tablet computer
City Tech Students
 Students are visiting the library website using:
 iPhones
 iPads
 iPod Touch and Classic
 Sony Arc
 Other Android Devices
Mobile Device Usage
 Visits during the Fall 2011 semester
 2,547
 Visits during the Fall 2012 semester
 3,920
Open Source
• Open source refers to freely available, community
supported source code.
• Even though open source is freely available, there
may not be a large enough community to support
particular products
• Open source projects may cease without warning.
• The library uses a variety of open source products.
Open Source Software Used By the Library
RedHat Linux
 Linux is an open source operating system
 The library’s web server is powered by the Red Hat
distribution
Apache Web Server
 Apache allows users to connect to the library’s
website.
 This open-source program powers more than 100
million websites.
Drupal
 Drupal is an open source web content management
system or CMS
 This CMS utilizes PHP and MySQL to present web
pages.
 The library’s website is based on Drupal 6.
Piwik
 Piwik is a web analytics tool.
Clickheat
 Clickheat is an analytics program that tracks the
most clicked on areas of a web page.
MediaWiki
 MediaWiki is the same platform that power
Wikipedia.
 The library utilizes it for internal communication.
WebMin
 WebMin is an open source configuration tool.
 It allows server administration through a GUI-based
web browser.
WordPress
 WordPress is a blogging platform.
 The library uses it as a blog.
PHPMyAdmin
 PHPMyAdmin is another web-based GUI.
 We can administer MySQL over the web instead of
connecting to the server through the command line.
The Library’s Mobile Site
 The library uses a separate installation of Drupal 7
to manage our mobile website.
 Like the desktop version, we uses the Apache web
server hosted by City Tech CIS
 The mobile website uses jQuery Mobile, a touchoptimized web framework, through a Drupal theme
 Drupal 7 was selected due to the large support
community of librarians
Mobile Website Vs Mobile Application
 Why use a mobile website?
 Using a library mobile website allows for greater
cross-platform compatibility
 Mobile applications require more programming
 A mobile website is more cost effective since we do
not have to develop a separate iOS (Apple)
application and Android application
eBooks and PHP Parsing
 eBook resources are becoming more popular.
 The mobile site uses a PHP script to harvest eBook
resources from the desktop site.
 This intended for mobile and tablet users.
 This is used so there isn’t redundant maintained
between the two sites.
 Once a new eBook resource is added, it is
automatically available on the mobile site.
The Future of the Library’s Mobile Site
 More resources are moving towards mobile and





tablet computing
Usability testing
Continued hardware capability
iPads used as catalog stations
CUNY Catalog Mobile ready
Utilizing more mobile technology for library services
such as GPS, and SMS services.
Wrap Up
 Mobile Device Usage
 Open Source
 How the Library Uses Open Source
 The Library’s Open Source Based Mobile Site
 Why a Mobile Site Instead of an Application
 eBooks, the Desktop Site and the Mobile Site
 The Future
Questions?
Thanks!