As an aside, content from Ed’s old Blogger account was transported via the handy WordPress ‘import’ function. Although imported in an untidy spaghetti like inline code fashion, it certainly relived the burden of having to paste each and every blog post. All in all, it’s a great function for a prolific Blogger based blogger looking to upgrade to a self hosted WordPress outfit.

For the actual programming of the blog, customised template pages were utilised for the ‘about’ , ‘newest’, and ‘archive’ pages. The ‘about’ page saw the use of custom fields to extend WordPress’s CMS capabilities to allow Ed to post both images and descriptions of his favourite books. The ‘newest’ page leveraged a custom page template so as to order and limit the latest posts by date, while similarly, the ‘archive’ displays category headings and related posts by date.

In addition to customised Facebook and Twitter plugins, a user subscription and Google sitemap plugin rounded out the build.

In order for the website owner to manage his own content, WordPress was used as a CMS (content management system). Each page is editable, while images can be uploaded to a specific category, which will then appear on the website automatically re-sized. The quotations and contact pages feature forms that check for incorrect email addresses and make sure compulsory fields are satified. Here’s a screenshot of the site:

To see it in action, go to here.

To see it in action, visit: www.montrose-partnership.com

Surrey Van Sales trader website, Trading Vans, is a mash-up utilising data from Google Base and eBay, and mapping API, Google Maps. The development images, above and below, illustrate the home page and a search results page, respectively.

The vehicle results column lies to the left and is updated using AJAX to aviod page refreshing. Once a vehicle is selected, its details are generated in a content area beneath the map, which is set out in tabs for ease of use. The open tab’s a basic description for a brief overview, next to a tab of photos (see below) and a tab full of detailed information. The vehicle content area is also populated by AJAX.

The Google and eBay APIs are accessed using object orientated PHP. The script queries the server to see if cURL is enabled, if not, a socket connection is use to access the data.

Carried out for a West London based design agency, this job entailed taking a psd design and bringing it to life via XHTML/CSS and the wonderful jQuery JavaScript library. The vertical menu is set to stay in place while the content area to the right changes to reflect whatever the user chooses to click on.

jQuery’s chaining ability is put to thorough use as each menu link sets off a series of events; the menu itself – inc. child elements – expands and contracts, and the content area is repopulated. The following picture illustrates what happens when a specific wedding ring is clicked. The content area changes to a large ring with a column of thumbnail rings situated to the side. The thumbs can be navigated with arrows and clicked to expand and fill up the content area. Again, this is all performed using jQuery.

CSS sprites were implemented for the menu’s hover states, however, the selected ‘active’ state is actioned using jQuery. Here’s one of the sprites:

All in all, an interesting exercise in the uses of CSS and jQuery, which indeed makes for clean uncomplicated code.

With the Photoshop designs in hand, I set about cutting and marking them up with XHTML and CSS. With the basic interface complete, work was started on the server side. This involved coding a number of scripts in PHP to search for and display properties, all accessed through a MySQL database.

Once a property’s selected from the results list, the user’s taken to an individual proprty page, as above. In order to upload properties to the website, an admin section was built behind a password protected log in.

The code and database design for this project are bespoke, as a content management system for the entire site wasn’t needed. Had it been, and had a property blog been stressed, the project would have been WordPress based. To sum up, I coded the entire site, but did not carry out the design work.

Having left full employment to start their own electrical business, DRC Electrical wasted no time in commissioning a website. The site was built using WordPress for both blogging and content management purposes. It was also integrated with Twitter for quick fire communication.

As a new business in a saturated industry, SEO is crucial for DRC. After keyword analysis, it was determined that the search term ‘electrician surbiton’ is key for generating bread and butter business. Following further SEO work, the site now appears at the top of Google’s page-one; and consequently, is enjoying a steady flow of quality traffic.

For updating the site via a mobile when out and about, a Twitter feed was incorporated and placed prominantly at the top. When needing to post results live from a competetion, short sharp Tweets are perfect.

SEO figured highly in the remit; like any other business, it’s important to reach new members through appropriate search terms. For ‘bjj surrey’, Nova Forca has climbed to third position on page-one of Google beneath the local business listings. It’s not long before they’ll adorn the top spot. For ‘bjj london’ – a very competitive search – they’re at the top of page-two and climbing.

As the site’s coded well and utilises a semantic CMS such as WordPress, it’s well poised to do well in the search rankings under a variety of seach terms. Naturally, the site’s SEO process requires ongoing analysis of keywords related to their industry, and its data from Google Analytics. Additional inbound links will serve as a bonus.