How to use Drupal as editorial system for online and print

There are many tools, to re-use Drupal content in InDesign or to create PDF-files. But these solutions are sometimes not efficient enough to be used in a professional publishing environment. The main topics we faced in one of our projects were:

- How can I create a print variant from online content or vice versa directly in Drupal, to handle print specific text modifications in Drupal?

- How can the prepared content be placed in InDesign without using copy and paste?

- How can we save time and effort by using automation in formatting the content loaded from Drupal to InDesign to create high quality print products or PDF-files?

- How can changes to the content be updated automatically in the other system?

In our session, we will present how we solved these problems.

First, we found a way to create a print version from an online article in Drupal. This is not just about creating a simple print copy of the online article. Instead, we implemented a mapping mechanism, where specific fields from one content type (online) are mapped to dedicated fields of another content type used for the print channel. As a result, the online article can have a different structure as the print type or can contain fields that are not relevant for print and are thus ignored. This mapping also allows users to create an online version from a print variant in print centric workflows.

After creating the content types for online and print and setting up the mapping, an editor can create channel-specific versions of articles (online or print) and then, just by pressing a button, derive channel-specific versions of that article and begin to customize the content.

To place the article from Drupal in InDesign, we added a content search function to InDesign, allowing the editor or page designer to search for articles directly in Drupal. The content of the articles found is displayed in InDesign and the entire article or single fields can be placed in the document. Article structure and layout data coming from Drupal (e.g., Headlines, Info Boxes, Images, Interlines, Sub Headlines, character formats…) are automatically applied to the article during the placement process to format the article according to defined layout rules. Any content updates made in InDesign or Drupal are automatically transferred to the other system so that both systems are always up to date with the latest version.