During the first half of 2014 the PH-DT and PH-SFT groups published their new websites. They are the result of a technical student’s project and involved cooperation between two PH groups: the DT group funded the student, whilst the SFT group proved the supervision and software expertise. This successful synergy resulted in a complete redesign of the websites, showing the variety of projects that are taking place within the two groups as well as the  wide range of competencies they provide. At the same time a stable, sustainable and easily maintainable web infrastructure has been built.

The websites are powered by Drupal which is a powerful open-source content management system that is heavily used and supported by CERN. The Drupal infrastructure offered by CERN was a cornerstone for our work as we were able easily to profit from the CERN theme, toolbar, log in mechanism, user’s database, and Indico meetings functionality.

The PH-DT group has a new website following a succesfull collaboration between the PH-DT and PH-SFT groups. 

The project’s timeline was divided into three parts. At first we cooperated closely with a small core team of PH DT members (including the DT group leader, the DT secretariat and contact persons from the various group activities) and tried to identify their requirements. The next step was to create an initial design for the product, receive their feedback and based on that make further improvements.  One of the challenges was to ensure that each activity had a set of pages that present their specific and unique work and at the same time have a common look and feel throughout the whole site. Once the DT site was ready, work started to re-design the SFT website in order to provide a similar 'look-and-feel'.

The new webapges of the PH-SFT group that were released a month later. 

Finally, we did not neglect the fact that training on how to use and maintain the website needed to be provided. On top of providing documentation, a one afternoon Drupal training session was held for the PH-DT members. This general-purpose training was complemented by specific sessions for the secretariat of the PH-DT group in order to make the transition to the new website as smooth as possible.

The project lasted for eleven intense months. We are proud of the modern way in which we consistently present the activities of the software and detector groups on the web, helping them in having the impact and resonance they deserve within the Organisation and for the general public.

The new DT website can be viewed here and for the new SFT website click here.