Mobile interface to content management system based on HTML5 and Drupal: A case study

摘要

The paper describes a case study of providing a content management system for maintaining and updating high volume of content in various forms like text, data, audio, video etc and providing a facility for user to access from anywhere using mobile devices. The application requires a cross platform application development environment and the paper describes the experience and challenges in developing the application. This application was developed in collaboration with National Informatics Center (NIC), to explore the feasibility of this approach and technologies for e-Governance applications. It comprises of an HTML5 application based on the PhoneGap libraries and a Drupal 7 module which interfaces the web application with Drupal utilizing the power of JQuery Mobile. The PhoneGap SDK provides an API that is an abstraction layer providing the developer with access to hardware and platform specific features. As PhoneGap abstracts the native mobile platform, the same code can be used on multiple mobile platforms with minimal change, making the application available to a wider audience. The application developed was tested with Android, iphone and Blackberry platforms. HTML5, suitable for cross-platform mobile applications, can run on smart phones and tablets. Installing the application on a mobile device allows device to integrate with Drupal powered websites.