drupalib A place for library drupallers to hang out

The Library is responsible for auditing non-academic aspects of theses, dissertations, and graduate-level projects submitted at Simon Fraser University. For over four years, we have required that students 'submit' their theses (i.e., register with the Library) using a simple web form that populated an Excel spreadsheet, which in turn was used by our Theses Office to process the semester's batch. Even though we still require that students submit a printed thesis, we have found that most students (over 90%) provide a PDF version for submission to our Institutional Repository.

This January we launched our second-generation thesis submission and management system. It is a Drupal 'application' in the sense that it focuses on narrowly defined user tasks, triggers, and back-room workflows to a much greater extent than most general CMS-based websites do:

1. Students log into the site using their library credentials, and their student ID, SFU email address, and full name are prepopulated in the submission form (a CCK node edit form) from their library record.
2. After they log in, they enter their thesis title, abstract, supervisor's name, pagination details, keywords, and call number, and they can upload one or more files.
3. Students can log in at a later date, but if they do, they cannot edit any of the fields they have populated the first time they logged in; they can only upload and replace files.
4. A series of receipt emails are generated when the student registers a thesis, including one to the student and one to the departmental graduate secretary. Other triggers that generate emails include when the Theses Office enters a date in the "Submission complete" field and when the Theses Office completes its audit.
5. The Theses Office audits the submission for requirements such as approval from the academic department, ethics review and copyright documentation, and technical requirements such as title page and document formatting.
6. Theses Office staff can send emails from within the application detailing specific problems with the submission. Responses from the student are not recorded in the app, however.
7. The app can generate various PDF forms containing submission-specific values, using a custom module that incorporates the TCPDF library. These forms include copyright licenses the student must sign and slips attached to each thesis containing details to be used by the bindery service.
8. Uploaded files are automatically renamed to incorporate the "ETD ID" for a thesis, a unique identifier based on the node ID generated by Drupal. Also, on upload, the application generates JHOVE output for each file, and records basic preservation metadata on all files in a database table.
9. The app provides comma-delimited files to Grad Records staff listing all students who have completed their submission requirements. Grad Records logs in, clicks on a link to a view, refines their query, and clicks on a CSV icon to generate the file. Thanks Views and View Bonus Pack!
10. We generate DSpace import packages for theses after they have been audited, and corresponding MARC records for loading into our ILS. One interesting (i.e., nerdy) feature we've built into the app is for an XML-RPC client in the script that creates that MARC records to automatically update each thesis record in the Drupal app with the URL in our DSpace IR.
11. The site runs on https, since students are entering personal information and Grad Records is downloading lists that contain the same information. Apart from buying the certificate and configuring Apache to use it, we had to do nothing to configure Drupal to use https.

Lessons learned: Manipulating CCK fields via form_alter() can be a real pain in the behind (example threads on d.o.); it's very important to think about system-level CCK field naming conventions before you touch a keyboard, since you cannot change them; the core upload module, and the way Drupal 6.x handles files in general, pales in comparison with the rich APIs available for manipulating nodes.

We are working with Grad Studies and other units on campus to remove the requirement for the student to submit a printed version of their thesis, and this new submission and management application will prepare us very well to go paperless.