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Website Case Study: Kineo E-Learning

Website Case Study: Kineo E-Learning

A global leader in E-Learning solutions, Kineo needed to update their website, and employed Philip Locke of Fastnet Web Design to help them get the job done. The previous Kineo website was running on Mambo, and it was time for an upgrade to Joomla! Using available migration tools, Fastnet Web Design was able to keep the content, categories and menu structure in place as they cautiously moved the large database and site from Mambo to Joomla 1.0, then to Joomla 1.5 successfully. Today, Philip will share with us how he made the successful transition to Joomla in just 8 short weeks.

Client: Kineo
URL: http://www.kineo.com
Development Time: 8 Weeks
Category: Education

Client Bio

Kineo's experience on over 400 e-learning solutions using Moodle, ranges from compliance training for major banks; to management skills for retail organisations; to training for teachers working with students. Using Moodle they have innovated to develop a rapid approach that enables them to deliver business benefits faster and more cost-effectively for their clients, whether short rapid e-learning projects or a large custom e-learning project. During 2010, Kineo and Marks and Spencer struck gold at this year's E-learning Age Awards, with the M&S Café Service project being recognised by the judges as the best e-learning private sector project of 2010.

Developer: Fastnet Web Design
Developer URL: http://www.fastnetwebdesign.co.uk/

Developer Bio

Based on the south coast of the UK, Fastnet Web Design has established itself as a respected digital online web agency, providing specialist Joomla! development, web design & branding. Fastnet focus on web usability while maintaining a strong commitment to their clients' online goals, schedules, and budget. They cater for small business websites and startups, through to enterprise corporate establishments. All solutions, whether they involve full websites or Joomla! extension development, focus on the goals of the client while being mindful of the needs of end users.

Development Team

Philip Locke, along with one part-time freelancer, kept this hugely satisfying project on target and made the daunting task of transiting from Mambo run smoothly. Philip had to consider the different options when it came to using or customising existing extensions or whether to build new ones from scratch, as the originating website was built on Mambo v4.5.2.

The Challenge

The old Kineo website was built on Mambo v4.5.2 and they had decided that migrating/upgrading to the latest Joomla! version was time well spent, as their business was rapidly moving forward and they needed to keep up with the advancements that Joomla! offered both their users and administrators.

The main challenge was that Kineo did not want a new design, they wanted to replicate their look/feel and functionality that already existed. This wasn't an easy task as the Mambo site used multiple (7) templates and very old extensions built for Mambo. Another key area that had to be gaureanteed was their Google SEO and URL naming convention — it had to be ensured that no disruption would take place with their ranking, internal or inbound links.

The Solution

The main aim of this project was to move replicate Kineo's existing web presense, but move from Mambo v4.5.2 to the latest Joomla! version.

After the Mambo website was transferred to an early Joomla v1.0 installation, the mtwMigrator extension was used and was the saviour to allowing the migration of all the data of the old database, the sections, categories, etc to a clean Joomla v1.5 version.

The second obstacle was that the Mambo website was utilising seven different templates and all of these not only had to be replicated, but also put into just one template for administrator friendliness. Fastnet ended up with one template with many collapsible positions and a 'no frontpage content' element. Also, dependant on the positions selected, the template could potentially look quite different. With over 800 articles and 200+ plus modules, this was quite complex as no articles or modules were going to be dropped during the migration — all had to be used as in the old Mambo setup.

As soon as the website was up and running on Joomla v1.5 it was almost plain sailing... a new extension here snd there, apart from the fact that the SEO already obtained by the Mambo website had to be maintained. This is where SH404SEF came into play and performed admirably, and allowed Fastnet to perform a totally synced structure of the URL's already known by Google.

The Extensions

SH404SEF - http://dev.anything-digital.com/sh404SEF/
JCE - http://www.joomlacontenteditor.net
JCE Extended Image Manager
JCE Media Manager
JCE File Manager
Akeeba BAckup - http://www.akeebabackup.com/
RSForm Pro - http://www.rsjoomla.com/
JosDewPlayer - http://extensions.joomla.org/

Final Thoughts

The project was a huge success and Kineo are now moving forward inhouse with the website on Joomla v.1.5 as a result of the migration. Philip said, “We rely heavily on Joomla! as our CMS of choice and without the help of some of the fantastic extensions and people within the community, we wouldn't have a business. We loved being a part of the Kineo migration process and it serves as a reminder that virtually anything can be done with Joomla!.”

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