Hi
You have several options.

Instant Indicia is a special version of Drupal 6 which gives you online recording more or less out of the box, with no need to install additional modules etc. So, you could install Instant Indicia (it should be supported by most low cost hosting providers) then choose your own theme and add content pages - there would be little need for custom development. You might even be able to make use of some of the other custom modules we have under the Indicia banner, e.g. modules for species account pages or forums.

You can install Drupal 6 and add the modules required for Indicia, but there is little benefit to this approach now than using Instant Indicia.

You could opt for Drupal 7, then migrate the existing Indicia modules to it. We might be able to share the effort of doing this in some way as Drupal 7 support would be useful for Indicia in general now.

You could install another content management system of your own choice then integrate Indicia into it yourself. As long as the content management system supports custom PHP (the language used for Indicia form building) in the pages this is achievable though there has been a lot of effort put into the tight integration into Drupal 6 which you would either have to reproduce or lose out on. So this approach will definitely require more effort.

You can write standalone PHP pages which do the online recording. This approach will take more of a learning curve. If you opt for a content management system which is not compatible with PHP on the pages, or develop the site using Ruby, then you would either have to build these standalone pages or install a second Drupal content management system just for the online recording. Either way this approach seems to be overcomplicating things unnecessarily especially considering you are starting from scratch. I'd be interested to know your reasons for thinking of Ruby?

If you are looking for the path of least resistance, I would definitely think about using Instant Indicia as it is. The Instant Indicia tutorials give you a course which takes about 3 hours (excluding the installation) and introduces you to the basics of setting up online recording as well as adding your own content, all without any coding. The one thing you might want to seek assistance on is setting up a webserver with the installation ready for you to try.

Best wishes and good luck!

Hi catwasp.

I'd just like to add to John's answer by stepping back a little further to talk about some basics of website building in case it is unfamiliar to you. I'm thinking from reading your post that I may be able to add a little extra clarity.

First of all, I describe websites as static or dynamic. A static website is like a book and is the same every time you visit it. On the other hand, a dynamic website can be different each time you visit it. When you view a web page, what your browser shows you is information that is structured in a format called HTML that has been sent to your browser from a web server. Anyone who can use a word processor could create a simple static website by saving their documents as HTML on to a web server. On the other hand, to create a dynamic website, a skilled programmer is needed to write code that calculates the HTML to output as your web pages. Programmers have a choice of languages that they could use to write a website including Ruby and PHP.

Now, rather than starting from scratch each time a new website is being built, programmers have created frameworks of code that they can reuse again and again to make developing websites quicker and easier. Rails is such a framework for Ruby and one part of Indicia is built on a framework called Kohana for PHP. What is important to realise is that, even though you are using a framework, you still need a programmer to build the website and that is important because programmers are expensive.

When you are building a website there are 3 things that you need people to work on. First is the programmer's job of making it function, second is the graphic designer's job of making it look good and third is the content editor's job of getting the words right. Those 3 characters are in decreasing order of cost. The thing is, you may need the programmer to get your graphics and your words on to the web page and you may need them every time you want to make a change. Now that could get really expensive. Watch out for maintenance costs as well as set up costs.

Now along come content management systems (CMS). A CMS is a clever website that takes the programmer out of the process of building a website. You do need someone knowledgeable enough in IT to install it and configure it but this is not programming. You also need someone with knowledge about your particular CMS if you want a custom graphic design. However, there are freely downloadable designs for popular CMS that you can simply intall and use if you are not fussy. The content you edit online, through the website itself. This means that any competent computer user can create and edit the content on the website. Now that is good value. Moreover, everyone in your organisation can help maintain their bit of the website so that the task is shared.

At the Biological Records Centre we would now only create websites using a CMS unless there was a very special reason not to. We chose Drupal as our CMS because it is free, it is good and it had already been adopted for iSpot by the Open University and by the Natural History Museum. We valued the fact that there were others in the recording community with whom we could share knowledge.

To use Indicia online recording within Drupal (only version 6 currently) requires someone with IT skills to install and configure the software. To use Indicia for online recording in any other context requires that programmer again. I am sure that converting the Indicia Drupal module to version 7 would be simpler than rewriting it for another CMS as thousands of other modules have been converted already and it is a well documented and partly automated task. The only problem with Drupal 6 is that it will cease to be maintained when Drupal 8 is released (which is planned for August 2013). If there are users choosing not to use Indicia because it is not available for Drupal 7 this is an important message for us to hear.

There are alternatives to Indicia but a couple of its key advantages are that
- it allows a website owner to create any number of custom surveys capturing any desired attributes;
- the website owner can easily add tabular, graphed or mapped survey results to their site;
- record verification is assisted by NBN rulesets;
- by participating in record sharing agreements, you can access records submitted to other organisations in your area;
- it is supported by NBN, JNCC, BRC

Finally, as a word of caution, Drupal and Indicia are powerful and flexible pieces of software but, inevitably, this makes them reasonably complex to get to grips with. I would certainly advocate a training course as a good way to get going although I am not aware of any Indicia courses currently being planned.

Jim Bacon.

Really great advice here and I'd agree with all of it. My recommendation would definitely be to investigate Drupal closely. It has definitely been settled on within the biodiversity informatics community as a bit of a standard. A very good book aimed at non-programmers is available, it's called Using Drupal. I can recommend it.

In regards to frameworks (like Ruby on Rails), CMSs (like Drupal) and systems like Indicia (which is also a framework of sorts), I liken them to fitted kitchens. While you can buy the pre-made kitchen components and fit them yourself, it's a process that usually involves several trades such as a kitchen designer, a fitter, plumber, electrician and flooring specialist. It's not a job for a complete beginner in DIY. So the frameworks are like the components of the kitchen - it takes skill and experience to design the outcome and put the components together, even though the components are all pre-made, standardised and modular. If you're an experience DIYer, the challenge might be an enjoyable one, but if you just want to get it done already, it's worth getting some help.

There are also grades of difficulty involved. Learning Rails for instance is harder than putting together a basic Drupal site, although once you get into Drupal customisation they're about equal (although Ruby is a much more elegant, well-designed language than PHP it has to be said).

Instant Indicia does make things MUCH easier, but still there is a learning curve. It's like getting the fitting of your kitchen done but still being left with, say, the tiling and fitting of handles. No big deal if you're experienced with these things already, and it's good to have that bit of flexibility. What's more, as you gain experience you can start customising your Instant Indicia, which is where the kitchen metaphor breaks down. You can't really customise a kitchen once it's in, but you can go on customising Indicia all you like.

Here's what I've been working on:

- I've set up our own warehouse on an Ubuntu Linux server. This can be hosted very cheaply although it is a burden to set up an maintain.

- I'm going to use Instant Indicia on a seperate Memset server. They offer free hosting for charities, and they're one of the best hosts in the business, so this is ideal (they're also based in Guildford and are a 'green' company, so even better for you Catherine!).

- When it comes time to redesign our main website I will probably base it on Drupal due to its popularity and the integration potential with Indicia.

Finally: +1 for a Drupal 7 version! Yes please! Will upgrading from existing Drupal 6 Indicia to Drupal 7 be feasible?

Oh, and by the way, there's an Indica chatroom you can pop into and ask questions on here: http://jabbr.net/#/rooms/indicia. I hang out there most days.

Good point about the Lynda.com videos. I just had a look and there are some free samples for both Drupal and Ruby on Rails:

Drupal 7: http://j.mp/OczgbE
Ruby on Rails: http://j.mp/OczmzY

The links in blue are the free samples; Deciding whether to use Drupal looks like a good start. :-)

For info, since my last post I have heard that more Indicia training is in the pipeline, particularly for users who have already got to grips with the basics. Paula Lightfoot at the NBN is organising things and will doubtless announce through the NBN newsletter/website when plans are confirmed.

Jim Bacon.

Great new Jim!
I'm not sure to get funds to cover the costs for coming in England for such an interesting course,
but I will greately appreciate if you could post the details in this forum as soon as they come out!

Andrea

Funny you should ask, Ben. If you look at the list of changes to the Indicia code right now you will see they are all about Drupal 7. All within the last hour or two. Maybe John will have an announcement for us soon.

You can obtain the Drupal 7 iForm module from the repository using an SVN client and try it out (we use TortoiseSVN). It is not the whole story but it is very encouraging. I'd be wanting the EasyLogin module converted too.

I'm feeling it is very definitely time to be getting on to Drupal 7.

Jim Bacon.