Paddle

Paddle improves the authoring experience and is intended for informative websites.
The user interface is simplified to make content editing a lot easier than with a standard Drupal installation.

Remarkable features

A generic workflow. Very useful tool for teams of editors. Paddle therefore provides extra user roles. Read only users can review content before it’s even published. Editors can edit content, manage assets and menus. Their content has to be approved by chief editors before it gets published.

Point and click interface to adapt the visual identity of your website to your liking. Choose a general color palette and font. Make changes for links and titles. Provide a logo, header image and background image, if you want to.
You can even experiment with theme changes and preview them on your real website content before activating the changes.
By default restricted to user roles: chief editor and site manager.

By default, Paddle offers basic and landing pages. Landing pages exist with several predefined page layouts. Basic pages have a fixed layout. There’s room for extra content at the right and bottom region of the page. We developed several types of panes to fill up those regions. Some examples are: image pane, navigation pane, page content pane, Google Custom Search pane, …

An extensive Paddle Store makes it possible for the user to expand his own website with additional features.
By default restricted to user role: site manager.

Recommended modules

The Paddle Store gives you free access to these optional features:

• Contact person: show information of persons, mostly contact information, on multiple pages of your website without having to copy paste that information.
• Faceted search: provide an easy way to filter large result sets, based on tags linked to content.
• Google Analytics: add your Google Analytics code and start tracking your website visitors.
• Google Custom Search: add your Google Custom Search Engine ID (CSE ID) and API key. Activate it in your theme, and enjoy Google search results.
• MailChimp: put newsletter subscription forms on your website.
• Mega drop down menu: configure submenus that drop down when a visitor hovers over his parent menu item in the main menu navigation bar. Choose a 2, 3 or 4 column layout.
• News: post news. Get an overview page. Link to the overview or specific items from within multiple other pages.
• Organisational unit: show organisational information, mostly contact information, on multiple pages of your website without having to copy paste that information.
• Simple contact form: let website visitors easily contact you through a simple contact form. Configure global settings, like the recipient. Change settings on a per-form basis, if wanted.
• Quiz: test the knowledge of your visitors with a multiple choice quiz.

Quality checks

• Every feature that is written specifically for Paddle is covered by an automated test. All tests have to succeed whenever a new version gets released. Also, coding standards are checked.
• Paddle got an accessibility audit by AnySurfer and got WCAG 2.0 A compliant.
• Paddle got a security audit by Acquia. All remarks have been addressed.
• Paddle got a performance audit by Acquia. Meanwhile, most of the remarks have been addressed. We constantly monitor performance through New Relic.

Use case: the Flemish Government

kañooh is Paddle’s answer on the request of the Flemish Government to develop a brand new Drupal-based CMS with a focus on content users. One of the main requirements for the kañooh platform was an excellent usability design in front- and back-end, aligned with the Flemish brand guidelines.

When a kañooh website is ordered, it can easily be deployed within the day. Users without any technical background can maintain their own pages and menu structure without being confronted with the overload of technical options that Drupal presents out-of-the-box.

More information at www.kanooh.be, in Dutch.

Sites made with Paddle

• www.onderwijs.vlaanderen.be (Flemish Department of Education)
• www.ovam.be (Public Waste Agency of Flanders)
• www.energiesparen.be
• www.thuisindestad.be
• www.taaltelefoon.be
• ...