Sector(s)
Team Members
Project Team
About the project
The Plains Anthropological Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization serving archaeologists and anthropologists studying the Great Plains region. The society is represented by its members and an all-volunteer board of directors, managing memberships, annual conferences, and the Plains Anthropologist journal.
Goals and Requirements:
The society needed to modernize its aging Drupal 8 platform before it reached end-of-life, replacing the outdated Ubercart e-commerce system with a modern solution while preserving complex membership workflows, conference registration systems, and payment integrations. The migration had to be executed with zero downtime to avoid disrupting member services.
Ubercart to Commerce Migration:
CodeLift executed a complete migration from the legacy Ubercart system to Drupal Commerce, rebuilding product configurations, payment workflows, and order management. Custom development ensured membership purchases automatically assign member roles through event subscribers that trigger on order completion, making the membership experience seamless for both the society and their members.
Legacy Data Cleanup:
Specialized migration scripts cleaned up legacy product data and Ubercart remnants from the database, ensuring a clean transition to the new Commerce architecture while preserving historical order references.
Complex Membership System:
The platform manages multiple membership tiers including lifetime members, current members, board members, and conference organizers -- over 10 distinct roles in total. Each role has specific permissions and content access, all preserved during the migration with automatic role assignment upon purchase completion.
Conference Registration Workflows:
Over 30 webforms handle conference registrations, presenter submissions, symposium organization, meeting preferences, and donations. All forms and their submission data were migrated with full functionality intact.
PayPal Integration:
The PayPal payment gateway was configured for Drupal Commerce, enabling secure online payments for memberships, conference registrations, and donations. User registration during checkout streamlines the membership purchase process.
Migration by the Numbers:
- 0 minutes of downtime during migration
- 30+ webforms migrated with data intact
- 50+ administrative Views preserved
- 10+ membership roles and permissions maintained
- PayPal payment integration fully operational
- Ongoing SLA: always on the latest Drupal version
The Solution:
Plains Anthropological Society now operates on Drupal 10+ with a modern Commerce-based e-commerce system. The platform manages membership renewals, conference registrations, and donations through a secure, mobile-friendly interface. Automatic role assignment ensures members gain immediate access to member-only content upon payment completion.
Client Testimonial:
"CodeLift successfully migrated our complex membership and conference registration system to Drupal 10. The transition from our legacy e-commerce platform to Drupal Commerce was seamless, and our members experienced no disruption during the upgrade." -- Plains Anthropological Society
Ongoing Maintenance:
Under CodeLift's ongoing maintenance agreement, Plains Anthropological Society stays on the latest Drupal version with regular security updates. The platform was upgraded from Drupal 10.4.2 to 10.4.4 as part of routine maintenance, demonstrating the continuous care provided under the SLA.
Why Drupal was chosen
Technical Specifications
Drupal version:
