White House Releases Open Source Code

WhiteHouse.gov released custom code used to develop their open platform built on Drupal. The majority of the code used in the web site of the White House is already open source, but developers are now releasing new code -distributed as Drupal modules- in order to benefit others.

The released code is 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." said Dave Cole, Senior Advisor to the CIO of the Executive Office of the President.

"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." said Cole.

The code released by the White House add functionalities to Drupal in 3 ways: Scalability, Communication and Accessibility.

A new module named "Context HTTP Headers" allows developers to add metadata to the content they serve, for example putting different cache times for different pages.

The White House released another module called "Node Embed", that allows easier management for photos and videos on sites. The module was used to meet the government accessibility standard, Section 508. As part of that compliance, all images on the site should have the appropriate metadata to make them readable on by screen reading software, explained Cole.