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WhiteHouse.gov Releases Open Source Code

April 21, 2010 at 4:26 PM ET by
Summary: 
As part of its commitment to openness, transparency and collaboration, WhiteHouse.gov is releasing some of the custom code it has developed. The code builds upon the Drupal platform and is open for anyone to review, use or modify.

As part of our ongoing effort to develop an open platform for WhiteHouse.gov, we're releasing some of the custom code we've developed. This code is available for anyone to review, use, or modify. We're excited to see how developers across the world put our work to good use in their own applications.

By releasing some of our code, we get the benefit of more people reviewing and improving it. In fact, the majority of the code for WhiteHouse.gov is already open source as part of the Drupal project. The code we're releasing today adds to Drupal's functionality in three key ways:

1. Scalability: We're releasing a module called "Context HTTP Headers," which allows site builders to add new metadata to the content they serve.  We use this to tell our servers how to handle specific pages, such as cache this type of page for 15 minutes or that type for 30. A second module that addresses scalability is called "Akamai" and it allows our website to integrate with our Content Delivery Network, Akamai.

2. Communication: Many government agencies have active email programs that they use to communicate with the public about the services they provide. We have a mailing list for the White House, where you can get updates about new content and initiatives. To enable more dynamic emails tailored to users' preferences, we've integrated one of the popular services for government email programs with our CMS in the new module, "GovDelivery".

3. Accessibility: We take very seriously our obligation to make sure WhiteHouse.gov is as accessible as possible and are committed to meeting the government accessibility standard, Section 508.  As part of that compliance, we want to make sure all images on our site have the appropriate metadata to make them readable on by screen reading software. To help us meet this, while making it easier to manage the rich photos and video content you see on our site, we've developed "Node Embed."