Lutsk City Council website: a community portal with a document search function

We migrated the official website of Lutsk City Council from an outdated Drupal installation to a new platform, featuring a responsive interface, full-text document search and access to public information. The website has been live since 2018.

Client: Lutsk City Council · Sector: public sector · Year: 2018 · Services: bespoke development, technical support · Live website: lutskrada.gov.ua

Requirement: to move away from the outdated Drupal system without the city losing out

The city council’s previous portal ran on an outdated version of Drupal: updating it was becoming increasingly risky, and residents found it difficult to locate documents, decisions and services. The city needed to migrate to a modern platform — with a complete transfer of content and no disruption to the official website’s operation.

We completed this project for 1 hryvnia. This was a conscious decision: ideil operates in Lutsk, and the portal, which residents use every day, is a case where contributing to the city is more important than the fee. Social responsibility here is not an abstract concept, but a tangible product.

A new architecture rather than patching up the old one

Migration isn’t simply transferring pages ‘as they were’. We have completely redesigned the portal’s architecture and information structure: the sections are organised around residents’ use cases, rather than the organisation’s structure. The homepage provides quick access to key city services, and the responsive interface works equally well on smartphones, tablets and desktops — which is crucial for a resource that people visit to get things done, often using their phones.

A search engine that reads documents, not just headings

The main headache for users of a government portal is finding a specific decision, order or its annex. We have developed a search system that indexes not only the website’s pages but also the content of attached files in PDF, DOCX, XLSX, TXT and RTF formats. A resident or journalist can find a document by its number, surname or keyword — even if the text they need is contained in a scanned table within an attachment.

Public information and the structure of the city council

A separate section of the portal provides access to public information in accordance with legal requirements: documents are published in a structured manner, rather than being dumped into a news feed. The city council structure guide shows departments, divisions and officials — making it clear who is responsible for what and where to turn for assistance.

Post-launch support

A government portal cannot be ‘launched and forgotten’: requirements change, new sections appear, and documents accumulate. We provide technical support for the site — this ensures stability and enables the council to develop the resource without its own development team.

Result

• The portal has been operational since 2018 — migration from Drupal was carried out with a complete transfer of content
• Full-text search covers the website’s pages and documents in five file formats (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, TXT, RTF)
• Public information and the city council’s organisational structure are available to residents in one place

Do you need a portal for a community, city or government organisation? Take a look at how we build complex web systems and related public sector case studies — the Diia.Business platform, Digital State for the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, and the local media outlet ‘Chronicles of Liubart’. Tell us about your project.