Based on Drupal 8, the new version will focus streamlining the platform
The European Commission has started working on the next version of Joinup, the collaboration platform for eGovernment professionals. Users are the main focus of the upgrade, which will make the platform easier to use. Access to and sharing of interoperability solutions will be streamlined, and the developers are making it more straightforward to contribute to the platform’s projects and communities.
Joinup will be using version 8 of the Drupal content management system. Joinup is currently using Drupal 6, which will soon no longer be actively maintained by the Drupal community. Developers working for the European Commission decided to skip an upgrade to version 7, attracted by the performance and scalability improvements in version 8, unveiled last month.
A key aim for the developers is to make the platform easier for users, with the upgrade covering registration, contribution and sharing of solutions. For example, by implementing the European Commission’s Authentication Service (ECAS), access becomes easier for those registered on other ECAS-enabled services.
The new version will also make Joinup easier to use on mobile devices, automatically adapting content organisation to the screen-size.
Model information
The upcoming version of Joinup will reorganise the 4000 interoperability solutions available on the platform. Currently, Joinup provides access to ICT solutions that are hosted on the platform, and by aggregation, those on repositories managed by public administrations in the Member States.
The new version will improve the management and modelling of project information, using a Sparql Triplestore database, which allows the efficient use of ADMS, a standard method to describe interoperability solutions.
This should make eGovernment solutions easier to find, download and reuse. At the same time, the overhaul should ease the workload, reducing the number of manual checks of introductory texts, licences and other project-related information.
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