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I'm on a project to build some interactive data visualizations in D3. At no time during the discussion phase with the client did they mention the site had to be in Drupal.

We've now developed a draft site, and my team builds sites with just HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and no one has experience with Drupal. I know it's technically possible to implement what we've done in Drupal, but way beyond the scope of what was agreed upon.

The client seems open to having a launch page in Drupal that goes to the non-Drupal site with the fancy data viz stuff, but I'm not really sure how to go about this. Any recommendations?

All I can think of right now is just to have bunch of links back and forth between the two platforms, but seems kludgy.

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  • iframes? JS inline replacement? Don't think there's really a way to embed a whole site within the Drupal architecture. – Darvanen Sep 3 '15 at 1:12
  • Thanks, the iFrame thing was something the team tossed around today. I think I'll at least play with that idea. thanks again – Tom Sep 4 '15 at 3:16
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Hard to say from your post if there is any real content management involved here, but if so - if Drupal is a requirement and your expertise is in JS - maybe look at a decoupled approach?

... in Headless Drupal, the visitor will see pages created with Javascript frameworks such as Angular.js or Backbone.js. They will not see a traditional Drupal theme. That's where the "Headless" name comes from: Drupal's head / theme is missing.

In this situation, Drupal is mainly used as store for data that is then read by the framework. The normal Drupal interface is still used by users to enter the content that will appear on the website.

Source: What is Headless Drupal? (OSTraining)

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    Thank you for the response. I didn't even realize there was a headless mode. And yes, you're right, there's really no content management here. It's just an arbitrary decision made by someone with little knowledge. They think... "oh, it's web based? Well, we put that in Drupal". – Tom Sep 4 '15 at 3:15
  • Where does the data for the visualizations come from? If it's sourced from somewhere else or static then I can't see the point in having a CMS at all. But I suspect you already know that. :) If you can't tell them it's silly, at least know that there are ways to integrate Drupal into your site build rather than the other way around, which is one way to look at the whole headless concept. Good luck! – othermachines Sep 4 '15 at 5:50
  • The comes from a survey. Once compiled, it will not change. However, there is content that might change. The client can't be specific as to this requirement. Our team met for a few hours yesterday, and we hashed out a plan to have links on our non-Drupal site take the user to content that may or may not exist in the future. – Tom Sep 4 '15 at 15:50

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