Web Design Company, Hampshire UK

Myself and a colleague decided to create a camping website about 18 months ago. This was before I was able to develop websites and so I tackled the content creation while he planned, designed and built the site.

We had previously looked online and found that although there are many camping websites, most seem to have shops attached and the information contained was just an afterthought. We decided to create campinginfo to bring a more honest approach to camping websites one which was not just based around trying to sell our products but to use the experiences of those around us to inform people about ‘real’ camping.

This is campinginfo.org as it exists now.

Much of the effectiveness of the site comes from the design. It is build with SEO in mind and this has worked wonders.

Let’s put it this way. The other day I was checking the analytics of the site and noticed a sharp increase in hits coming from one site. I looked more closely and realised these hits were coming from the BBC.

See the page here.

As you can see, apart from campinginfo, there are two other sites that have been used as links… Wikipedia and The Camping and Caravanning Club. The fact that they have been able to find and link to the article is a real plus for us, especially as the site was only created a year ago.

We are currently in the planning stages of moving campinginfo to a different installation. This is an exciting time and one which will hopefully mean we can start competing with the big boys. We want to stick to our mantra of providing honest, down to earth advice and I will keep you posted as this becomes a reality.

The guv’nor has decided that our website would be better served being based on wordpress than it’s current Joomla installation. This has meant searching through the vast number of designers that we wished to work with. We finally settled on a design which we feel really brings something new to our site.

The sheer volume of designs available for wordpress means that you are blessed as a developer. In other words, you pay a very small amount of money for a fantastic design that incorperates functionality with beauty.

When changing your template with WordPress it is very important that you are flexible with your approach. Each design and therefore template has it’s own ways of accessing the full potential. Usually there will be examples of just what the template can do that are included as pages within the navigation. If not just checkout the demo.

Here is the new site

You can see how we have used the the built-in functionality to make the site stand out. Take a look at the ‘Latest from our Blog’ section at the bottom of the ‘home page’. The simple combination of content with margins and an image, makes the site look professional and different.

On this page here

This is a page I am not so happy with.

Oh dear!

We had an idea to include vector portraits of ourselves as it seems to be the ‘in’ thing. Sadly I have ended up looking like I am made of rubber. Not so good.

Things have moved ahead apace this week. Whilst still working on 4myboat we have decided to start developing another directory to extend campinginfo.org. This is on the back of the BBC using a campinginfo article as a further info link on one of their programs.

As I mentioned, we are going to be using Zoo Business Directory a solution developed by Yoo Themes. I stumbled across a problem this week and found finding a solution time comsuming. Here is a quick fix.

When installing Zoo 2.1, you attempt to upload the file and after a long wait, the screen turns white. After navigating to the backend you realise that although the system is not broken, the updated file has not been installed.  I tried this a few times but had no luck and so begins the arduous task of trying to work out why. There is a smattering of information on this topic but most of it is confused or at least it confused me. These are the 3 likely causes as I found them.

• The server is not equipped with mbstrpos
• The maximum execution time of the installation (which is 30 seconds) has been exceeded.
• Zoo 2.1 is in Beta development. Use Zoo 2.0 until a stable release appears.

In the end I contact support and they provided this quick and effective solution.

• Download the latest Zoo Version and unpack it.
• Upload this directory to your server. They advised using the /tmp directory.
• Navigate to the extentions installer in the backend and specify the directory where you uploaded the files.
• Click on install and Bob’s your uncle.

It worked! In actual fact a simple workaround for something that initially appeared to be quite tricky.

Hope this helps.

Currently contracting at boxChilli Media, I have been asked to create an international yacht directory. The first step was to test out various sollutions available on the market, to ensure the finished product meets boxChilli’s needs and those of their clients.

The first product that I tried was DirectoryPress which I have talked in a previous post. The second was Sobi2. Sobi is an extension for Joomla and decribes itself as being ‘one of the first components for Joomla! with content construction support.’ After tinkering with Sobi for a day, it became apparent that to really get the best from the system it would take the addition a number of a few reasonably priced extensions which I quickly purchased.

sigsiu.net

Just as I was about to jump into designing the final directory, I was introduced to Zoo 2.0 from Yoo Themes. I instantly was unsure of my inital decision. Zoo 2.0 ‘is a flexible and powerful content application builder to manage your content’, a similar claim to that of Sobi2. We immediately purchased the App Bundle which included the business directory as well as other useful apps. Again, I have tinkered with Zoo for a day and have managed to make a good looking, effective directory in just a couple of hours. The support seems good so far and the documentation appears to meet the needs of beginners and developers alike.

A few of the things that I really like about Zoo are that the CSS is already set up to look good. The modules are included with the installation, so that there is very little to research into or buy. Just turn everything on, work out what you need and style it…… Easy. I will report back in a couple of weeks when the directory is finished.