H-Net Commons
A custom Drupal 10 platform supporting 200,000+ scholars
Client Overview
H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online is an international interdisciplinary organization of scholars and teachers dedicated to advancing humanities and social science research and communication. Their flagship platform, the H-Net Commons, is a vibrant, user-driven digital space that enables scholars to collaborate, share announcements, and engage in moderated academic discussions across over 100 topic-based networks.
The Challenge
The H-Net Commons had been running on Drupal 7 since its launch in 2012. As Drupal 7 approached its official end-of-life, H-Net needed to modernize their platform to maintain long-term security, add new features, and deliver a better experience—especially on mobile devices. The previous site’s architecture relied heavily on outdated modules like Panels and Panelizer, which were difficult for editors to use and no longer supported.
Additionally, their existing custom notification system, which generated and sent hundreds of thousands of personalized daily digest emails to members, was struggling under the load of increasing user accounts.
The Solution
Zengenuity was contracted to rebuild the Commons as a modern, scalable, and editor-friendly platform using Drupal 10. The project involved a full redesign, custom development, and a complex data migration spanning millions of user-generated content items.
Key Improvements
- Drag-and-drop editing using Layout Builder with Paragraphs, replacing the difficult-to-use Panels system.
- A complete overhaul of the daily notification system, dramatically improving performance and reliability.
- A robust search system with advanced filtering and saved searches, allowing users to subscribe to tailored alerts.
- Integrated the Commons with H-Net’s Job Guide platform, enabling seamless cross-promotion of job postings across relevant networks.
The Migration of Millions of User-Generated Content Items
Migrating from Drupal 7 to 10 meant rebuilding the site architecture from the ground up. To maintain the Commons existing library of content, we relied on Drupal core’s migration framework, heavily extended with custom process plugins to clean and normalize inconsistently entered data from millions of content items. Special care was taken to preserve URLs and metadata critical for SEO and historical references.
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The Results
H-Net’s editors now enjoy a far more intuitive and powerful editing interface, and users benefit from faster performance and better tools to stay informed and engaged.
- Improved editorial workflow with modern layout tools
- Streamlined subscription system for personalized notifications
- Significantly improved performance and reliability
Deliverables & Features
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