Small company website

NNF · 2006-07-17 22:25:55

Hi everyone,

I’m the maintainer of a small company’s website, and I’d like to start this post off with a little bit of history. The old company website (here you can see a screenshot… ugh) was created together about 6 months ago (IIRC), and was created rather hastily: it was all flat HTML, and even though the website isn’t that large, it was a PITA to maintain. So, I went on a crusade to find a CMS that should be free, run on PHP/MySQL and, most of all, be SIMPLE and LIGHT. I tried so many different ones, including stuff like Joomla! and Drupal, which everyone seems to regard so highly, but none of them would suit my needs; most were too big and bulky, so I would get lost while trying to customize it to my liking. Others had server requirements I couldn’t meet witht he shared hosting we’re using. A CMS called “CMS Made Simple” actually came quite close, but when I was about to start using it, I discovered that it simply lacked the functionality I was looking for.

Then, when I was just about to give up, somewhere I found a link to the Textpattern website. And bingo… it was perfect! In some aspects, it actually reminds me of an old Perl script called “NewsPro”, which I used to work with ages ago, and always enjoyed doing so. I must admit the learning curve was quite steep in the beginning, but once you “get” TextPattern, it is very easy to work with. It is structured and written in such a way that it actually makes sense which, as far as I’m concerned, is a rarity among today’s CMSs. Most seem to be geared towards community-driven websites which all more or less have the same look and feel to them, and little mind is paid to those of use who just want a website. I also applaud the absence of needlessly complicated stuff like a WYSIWYG-editor. TextPattern is very simple, yet incredibly versatile.

Anyway, after quite a few weeks of working on the site in my spare time, it is finally done and up and running. I have made use of the following plugins:

bas_lightbox 0.4
etz_crumbs 0.7 (because sadly, the default breadcrumbs refuse to spit out the current article’s title)
glx_admin_image (who doesn’t use it?)
glx_hl_current
zem_contact_reborn

And finally, here’s the URL: www.evatec.info.

I’m quite happy with the way this redesign turned out; the only thing I’m not sure about are the “image galleries” which you will find on some of the individual product pages, like here. I think it has kind of an “amateurish” look to it, but I’m not sure what else to do with these images.

Some additional information: the website has been tested in IE6, IE7, Mozilla Firefox 1.5 and Opera 8.53, and seems to work well in all of them. IE seemed to occassionally hiccup on the contact forms because of <code>display: -moz-inline-box</code>, which is there because Firefox (sadly) lacks support for <code>display: inline-block</code>, but I think I tackled that issue. As you may be able to tell from looking at the source, I’m kind of an XHTML/CSS freak; the entire websites validates as XHTML 1.0 Strict, and I have made extensive use of CSS.

Well I guess this is about it… if you’ve made it this far then thanks for reading, and have a nice day!

Last edited by NNF (2006-07-18 10:38:47)

Infi · 2006-07-18 00:37:00

Good job. Much cleaner. Nice review of Textpattern, too. :)

Displaying product images of varying size aesthetically is a toughie that I never tackled to my own satisfaction, either. If you’re not inclined to crop them to a uniform size, you might want to check out this recent article at A List Apart.

Also (just a thought), I’d expect to see the menu of other products at the top right of the detail page, rather than bunched at the bottom? For ease of navigation, I’d rather not scroll, but that’s probably just me. :)

Last edited by Infi (2006-07-18 00:49:00)

nardo · 2006-07-18 01:37:14

re: individual product images

one way is to enclose all images in a box, like how Photostack does it

maniqui · 2006-07-18 02:56:50

Nice site… I like it!

Check the search that isn’t working… it points to a test subdomain.

Infi · 2006-07-18 03:26:53

Wow. Speak of the devil….

No sooner do I say ALA, than a plugin update based on that very solution is uploaded to the resource site: wlk_mp

The initial reviews seem good. (Can’t believe I missed this one.)

The only thing I’ve never really liked about blocking images photostack-style, is that – while spacing images equidistant to each other is good and works well for a comp sheet – it still looks blocky no matter what you do to it.

All a matter of personal taste, I’m sure.

Last edited by Infi (2006-07-18 03:47:44)

NNF · 2006-07-18 09:44:57

Thanks for the comments everyone :)

Also (just a thought), I’d expect to see the menu of other products at the top right of the detail page, rather than bunched at the bottom? For ease of navigation, I’d rather not scroll, but that’s probably just me. :)

Well the idea behind that was that someone would read/scroll through the page and the end up at the bottom, where he or she would be able to conveniently go to the other products. I wasn’t quite happy with the way it turned out, though, so I have replaced it with a sort of “tabbed” navigation bar near the top (using <code>glx_hl_current</code>). Looks better, IMO.

Check the search that isn’t working… it points to a test subdomain.

Fixed, thanks!

No sooner do I say ALA, than a plugin update based on that very solution is uploaded to the resource site: wlk_mp

Hehe, that’s fast. It doesn’t seem like what I’m looking for, though; for now I have simply made square thumbnails, and made them smaller. Looks much better now!

Last edited by NNF (2006-07-18 11:33:14)

els · 2006-07-19 22:20:24

Nice, clean and clear. Much better than the old one.
I like the way you styled the search results.

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#1 2006-07-17 22:25:55

Small company website

#2 2006-07-18 00:37:00

Re: Small company website

#3 2006-07-18 01:37:14

Re: Small company website

#4 2006-07-18 02:56:50

Re: Small company website

#5 2006-07-18 03:26:53

Re: Small company website

#6 2006-07-18 09:44:57

Re: Small company website

#7 2006-07-19 22:20:24

Re: Small company website

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