The Microsites Platform is a stand-alone microsite system, reusing many features from the main LocalGov Drupal CMS.
It offers councils unparalleled control of their entire digital estate.
It allows a single site to run many individual sites.
From just one instance digital teams can create multiple, distinct, websites that are easily updated and maintained.
Once the microsite system is set up, a new site can be configured in moments.
Each microsite has its own distinct users, content, files and domain.
A microsite admin can set up the site’s appearance through the UI and a site editor can create multi-column content-rich pages, blogs, news articles, events and directories.
And when the site has run its course, the microsite controller can shut it down with the click of a button.
Problem-solving
The Microsites Platform solves a number of problems faced by local councils.
Many digital teams find themselves supporting numerous websites across departments and services.
These sites often share functionality, but each is created from scratch, and often maintained by third parties, with little oversight for the core web team.
Councils spend considerable money, time and energy ensuring these sites are secure, up-to-date, accessible and valuable.
Our Microsites platform can help solve these problems.
Features
Time-saving centralised control
The microsites platform uses a single code and database, needing only one site to host and maintain all your microsites.
This means that a microsite controller has oversight of all of the active sites, making it easy to oversee all the sites they manage.
For additional control and security, a microsite controller can see all the people who have access to the sites,
Useful separation of content and content team
A user is given access to each microsite individually.
This means that you can have wholly different teams editing each site if needed. However, where teams manage multiple microsites, their access details are the same.
Content is unique to each microsite - this includes pages, media, taxonomy terms and menus.
A microsite admin can decide which types of content to enable on each microsite. For example, one site could be a dedicated blog site, while another may have the full feature set.
An excellent content editor experience
We’ve built an impressive set of features for content editors helping them to create unique, stand-out content.
Editors can add multiple sections of one, two or three-columns.. These can have different widths and background colours, allowing you to create attractive page layouts.
You can also:
- drag and drop content between sections,
- duplicate content items or whole sections.
We have a rich suite of content items that can easily be extended to allow for more options. Items include:
- videos
- images
- tables
- accordions,
- promo blocks
- embedded content
Highly configurable site design
Each site can be configured to use a bespoke set of colours and typography.
A microsite admin can set up the content they want to appear in the header and footer and the site’s colours and typography.
The platform is also set up to allow a bespoke theme to be set on a site-by-site basis.
Image of a Microsites demo site.
Full Feature set
Unlimited* number of sites from one instance
Appearance
- base theme built on localgov_base
- customisable through the UI
- bespoke themes
- responsive menus
Content types
- Blogs
- Contact forms
- Directories (with venues, pages, promo pages)
- Events
- News
- Page
Content editor features
- accessibility checker
- flexible layout builder on most content types
- choice of admin themes
- rich content (videos etc)
Roles
- Content controller
- Microsite admin
- Microsite editor
Demonstration sites
We've created some example sites for fictional Scarfolk Council. All are from a single install, to give you an idea of the flexibility of microsites.
- demo 1 - Scarfolk independent living
- demo 2 - Filming Scarfolkshire (not current available)
- demo 3 - Scarfolk People's Park (pictured above)
- demo 4 - Scarfolk digital team blog
If you'd like to have a play with any or all of the sites, as a Controller, Admin or Editor, drop us a line to hello@localgovdrupal.org
Or just grab the code and start using it!
Microsites work was supported by the Local Digital Fund.
Development was carried out by Agile Collective and Annertech, with contributions from a number of our member councils.