This session is about gradual migration.

Let’s take vdab.be
Not long ago all the static pages between the tools were made of lovingly handcrafted HTML. The task for our team was to transform this in a Drupal site that would do the repetitive work for them, that would make it easier to edit pages without technical knowledge, and still give the designers enough freedom. And more time to be creative.

Why not a big bang move?

• Migration from HTML to any CMS is hard to automate. In HTML, every page is more or less it's own content type. In Drupal, that' a bad idea.
• VDAB, like many other companies, has a small webteam and constantly changing content. There are no resources for double maintenance of the whole website during the complete migration period.
• We don't want to lose our excellent Google ranking.

How do we pull it off?
Well, come and hear us talk about

• invisible turn-over to production
• invisibly opening up directory per directory
• first the content, then the redesign
• some tools are becoming responsive and the website, of course, responds along
• the learning path for the vdab webteam and designers towards appreciating Drupal - the love was not so big to start with :-)
• the learning path for the IT department towards trusting Drupal - the love had to grow too

A bit of context

The VDAB is a flemish government agency whose main tasks are to broker between job seekers and vacancies, to bridge knowledge gaps and reduce the Flemish unemployment rate.
The www.vdab.be website is the first stop for people looking for a job in Flanders.

Our intranet and call center knowledge base were in a previous step migrated from an old CMS to Drupal. We’re working in a multisite setup and more knowledge bases will be added.

We use Google Search Appliance (GSA) for ‘faceted searching’, not an obvious combination with Drupal maybe, but which does have some advantages.

Klara Binon
Project Manager, Drupal team, VDAB

Darek krzywania
Scrum Master, Cegeka