Beyond Websites: Drupal as Data Pipeline for Digital Signage

Digital signs are a completely different creature than standard websites, mobile applications, or really just about anything else you might be building. Every stage of digital signage project must be customized and tailored specifically to this medium. In particular, delivery mechanisms for digital signage must be perfectly engineered to ensure that fast, accurate, and consistent data will flow. Unfortunately, even with the API first nature of Drupal 8, Drupal itself isn't sufficient to facilitate all necessary steps to deliver data to a sign. Worse, by adding in additional technologies, you muddy the waters even farther and make testing that much more difficult! 

This talk is very focused on making a data pipeline for digital signage successful. It will discuss testing methodologies (using Behat and PHPunit), focus on available technologies that can be used as a delivery mechanism (Rest, Internet of Things, etc.), and even delve into what makes a pipeline viable (vs. not so much). We also will examine on how to include Drupal in this pipeline to capitalize on the key features that come with the CMS and its associated contrib modules (e.g. Workflow, Roles & Permissions, Forms, Content, Digital Asset Management, etc.). Much of what we will discuss can be more broadly applied to Digital Experience beyond websites and signage as well!

Topics Covered:

• Methodologies for building the data pipeline
• Testing with Behat / PHPunit
• Integrating Drupal and its features / capabilities
• Powering Digital Experiences (broadly)

Who Should Attend?
The information in this session will be targeted at those with a current digital signage implementation or those that are interested in developing one.

This session will include basic snippets of PHP and examples of Behat / PHPunit tests. Basic development experience recommended but not required.