ACIAR is an Australian Government statutory authority that operates as part of Australia's Aid Program within the portfolio of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It contributes to the aid program objectives of advancing Australia's national interest through poverty reduction and sustainable development.

In 2002, Agileware developed a custom content management system for the ACIAR website using Lotus Domino. This system integrated with the existing Project Information System Database (PISA) which was also developed using Lotus Notes/Domino. On a nightly basis, data from PISA was automatically extracted, reformatted and published on the ACIAR website.

In 2007, Agileware was contracted to migrate the existing Lotus Domino based content management system to Drupal. This change was brought about to utilise the more advanced content management features of Drupal, leverage from the Drupal open source community contributed modules and make better use of Web 2.0 technologies.

The brief for the new ACIAR website using Drupal was to:

• Retain the existing website design, layout and features
• Migrate all existing website content from the previous Lotus Domino system
• Continue to provide automated integration with PISA
• Provide advanced full-text search capabilities above that already provided by Lotus Domino
• Switch over to the new system without major noticeable change
• Provide training for ACIAR staff in Drupal
• Integrate Drupal with ACIAR's existing Microsoft servers

Over the next few months, Agileware developed:

• A series of custom Drupal modules to emulate the features provided by the Lotus Domino system
• Drupal modules to manage and generate AGLS metadata
• Data migration code to automate the migrate of website content from the Lotus Domino system and into the new Drupal website. Domino data was exported to XML and then re-imported into Drupal. This included the Lotus Domino rich text format, file attachments and images.
• System integration code to automate the extraction, reformatting and publishing of content from the PISA
• Custom Drupal theme which was almost identical to the previous website
• Integration with Apache Nutch and Apache Lucene to provide full-text search capabilities

Extensive user testing was performed throughout the project to ensure that migrated content, website features, website design, PISA integration and search were acceptable to ACIAR.

ACIAR IT primarily manage Microsoft servers. So Agileware recommended that the new website be installed on SUSE Enterprise Linux Server running as a virtual machine within VMWare Enterprise Server. This enabled ACIAR IT staff to manage the installation without requiring a high-level of Linux skills. Agileware created a set of scripts to automate daily backups and full disaster recovery backup is done using the virtual machine and VMWare. As well as implemented remote system monitoring, with triggers and alerts.

When the new ACIAR website was launched, the data migration code was executed and the switch was seamless, all previous website content was available in the new website as well as the new features.

Since launching the ACIAR website, Agileware and ACIAR have continued to deploy improvements to the website, which include:

• Replacing the Apache Nutch and Apache Lucene search engine with the FunnelBack search engine. To provide more reliable content indexing, better control over search results, featured search, click-back tracking, easier search administration, search statitics and more.
• A mash-up with Google Maps, PISA and the website, enabling projects to be dynamically plotted on Google Maps.
• Creation of a low-bandwidth website theme for access by mobile devices and low-bandwidth users
• Adding a feature to enable audio and video files to be uploaded and streamed directly from the website.
• Adding Web 2.0-type widgets for integration with social bookmarking and sharing websites
• A mash-up with Flickr, PISA and the website, enabling images to be uploaded to Flickr, tagged and then viewed as a slideshow on project pages and other content.

The ACIAR website, developed using Drupal with the Funnelback search engine and deployed on top of SUSE Enterprise Linux Server is a stable and extensible platform from which ACIAR can continue to grow and engage their audience.

Agileware continue to provide help desk, on-demand support and remote administration services for the ACIAR website.

Website available at http://www.aciar.gov.au