Path2usa – The Open Source Development

Path2usa is a complete survival guide to USA providing information on USA Visa, Visitor Visa, H1 Visa, Green card, Visitor insurance for USA and visitor medical insurance. We designed and developed the complete website using PHP Mysql based framework (Codeigniter) with the power of VbDrupal.

Challenges for the team

The main challenge for our OpenSource team was to utilize the capability of VbDrupal & codeigniter and come up with a synchronized solution.

Why Codeigniter & VbDrupal?

The Path2usa framework is truly a light weighted one. The core system requires only elite group of libraries unlike many other Path2usa frameworks asking for more resources. Additional libraries are loaded dynamically upon request, based on needs of a given process, so the base system is very lean and quite fast. Path2usa framework uses the Model-View- Controller approach, which allows great separation between logic and presentation.

The argument of applying Codeigniter and VbDrupal is simply to maximize performance, capability and flexibility of this model in the smallest and lightest possible package.

Advantage of taking Codeigniter & VbDrupal

• Dynamic Instantiation

In Path2usa framework, components are loaded and routines are executed only when requested, rather than globally.

• Loose Coupling

Coupling is the degree to which components of a system rely on each other. The fewer components depend on each other the more reusable and flexible the system becomes. Our goal was a very loosely coupled system.

• Component Singularity

Singularity is the degree to which components have a narrowly focused purpose. In Path2usa framework, each class and its functions are highly autonomous in order to allow maximum usefulness.

Things which we achieved through VbDrupal for Path2usa.com are:

• VbDrupal can be used on a working site and forum with existing users.
• Authentication and synchronizations in both directions.
• Automatic creation of users.
• Synchronizations of account info usernames, passwords, emails, signatures, avatars, user level.
• Synchronizations of profile info when Drupal profile module is enabled.
• Support of Drupal profile, signatures forum, avatar selection, birthdays modules.
• Custom Content Types and Views — The Content Construction Kit (CCK) and Views modules are applied to create new content types and create advanced custom views without writing any code.