Selfie-post at bluedrop.fr - Our news!

Dear friends, colleagues, partners, associates, moms and dads, beloved audience, my love… let’s try to give you some of our updates, aside from the tech watch, module updates, experience feedback on our exotic projects!

First comes the Team!

We’ve decided not to do everything at once. Our motto: Health comes first, ours yes, but yours as well. We have opted for sustainable growth, where anyone can, at his own pace, make use of his/her skills over time within the team. We’re trying to choose among 5 to 10 conception and development substantial projects to launch over the year. And we will dedicate all the time that’s left to develop the service center, build the capacity of our professionals, ensure maintenance and consolidate our relationship with our loyal customers. We have welcomed 2 developers during the last quarter, but we are still looking for a project manager (French speakers only (1)), with a technical background. Interested? Do not hesitate to contact us…

Part of the developers’ team (Where did all the girls go?)

New architectures

Based on our history with Drupal 8, we have faced new decoupling models. Since the community has become increasingly worried about the evolution of the monolithic CMS (2) and about the javascript competition in processing the interfaces elements, our full focus has now turned to projects with a more complex architecture, with the sole aim to have CMS-connected “micro-services”.  In a nutshell, let’s choose Drupal for all the qualities it has to offer. Let’s decouple it each time another solution brings more guarantees, more flexibility, performance or fluency.

So as far as we are concerned, we prefer not to run in all directions. We’d rather perform one task at a time, but do it well. We have chosen VueJS(3) and ReactJS to decouple Drupal by interpolating a JavaScript framework into the Drupal front end, as we have chosen fast and easy-to-use Phalcon php (4)  when it comes to launching job-specific processes. With regards to decoupling we have conducted 2 interesting projects last quarter.

• For the Régie des Transports de Marseille and its Metropole, we have developed a true documented API (developed with Phalcon and documented with Blueprint). While integration tests are still ongoing, we are hoping to launch the site during Q4. Such an API manages all functionalities linked to the tools of transport (itineraries, real time, tickets, subscription, etc).
• For Arkopharma, we jointly developed with React JD and connected with its CRM. This development, decoupled with NodeJS on the back-end and deployment, allowed us to deliver our first ever Progressive Web App (5)

In other words, we always keep pace with the technological evolution. But not only...

Ongoing & New Projects.

In the respect of code, tests, and releases- Here’s the summary: we are currently finalizing the redesign of the RTM, CGT and SAEMES websites. We have launched the new website of Mazda Energie and the one for the loyalty program of Arkopharma.  We have been providing technical assistance and carrying out the maintenance of our partners’ projects, whether professionals or not, agencies or not. More and more projects are in production on our Drupal-dedicated hosting environment. Was there something else we could do, knowing that the past quarter has been shaken by security matters? Yes: 2 pizza parties to apply critical updates to Drupal 6, 7 and 8! (6)

As for new features, we are pleased to start conceiving 3 important projects- Redesigning the Cereq site (Drupal 8), undertaking the maintenance of Anact, developing a site engine for Anact’s regional antennas (Drupal 8) and creating the Office for climate Education site, a project carried out jointly by the ‘Main à la Pâte Foundation’ and the Pierre Simon Laplace Institute. It is paramount to mention in this context the names of the agencies joining our Drupal service center -Boléro, J'nov and Atelier 101 – in addition to maintenance/ management projects launched during the last quarter with the Animal Protection Society (SPA), MyPhotosAgency or even Biolit carried out by Planète Mer... 

We leave the rest for the next quarterly issue!

Service Center and new tools

As we have mentioned in our last editorial, the service center is being developed. Our collaboration with different agencies, whether competitors or complementary agencies, is a success and already monopolizes half of our staff (and therefore energy). Our technical assistance contracts, without any commitment, allow us to deal with the problems in terms of development, code review, architecture, devOps or system administration. To go even further, we have also made proposals for a privileged space, the Bluedrop Club, that is first designed for our professional partners, and that encompasses all the tools necessary for your teams to work.

In terms of tooling, we are not in favor of multiplying the elements. It is noteworthy that during the last quarter, Sketch has been definitively adopted for UX and UI conception and BugHerd’s use has been mainstreamed to keep records of all front-end feedbacks during the acceptance phase. It might seem to you as a trivial detail, but for us, it’s a big deal.

We hope that this fresh feed will consolidate your faith in us. We wish you nothing but the patience to listen, to exchange information… You will sure hit some bumps in the road, but only then can you reap the fruits of success.

And always remember: when there’s a will, there’s a way!

See you in three months!

Kisses

Notes (to related articles in French): 
(1) Ce qui s'énonce clairement se comprend aisément - Vous pouvez le dire en français
(2)  Retour sur notre série de posts :
Partie 1 : Le CMS Drupal en déclin ou transition
Partie 2 : La fin du monolithe
Partie 3 : La concurrence est rude
(3) Drupal et VueJS : notre découplage efficace...
(4) Phalcon et Drupal : Le duo gagnant ?
(5) Tout savoir sur les Progressive Web Apps
(6) Ici, il n'y a pas d'urgences... On n'est pas à la Timone !

OUr view from the office :))