Web development in Scotland – flash

Flash can produce some great looking sites but it can be expensive to put together and it is not very SEO friendly at the moment. By all means use flash but use in sparingly and don’t blow the budget. As web developers we can come up with decent features without resorting to flash.

Web developers in Scotland – fashion

One of the things we notice in web development world is fashion. Images can look dated fast, styles of presentation can look old within months and glitzy animation can suddenly look old hat. We’d recommend holding back on too many expensive whiz bang things and encourage good solid functionality.

Web development in Scotland – shopping carts

A reliable shopping cart is pretty important if you are adding ecommerce. They come in a variety of formats – some free and some expensive. As web developers we build our own – sometime based on others base implementations. We do that so we can stay in control.

Web developers in Scotland – ecommerce

Ecommerce is the quickest way to turn interest into business. So if you have the option to add a shop, then check things out to see what is feasible. Paypal can be a good way to get things started on a limited budget. A decent web development company will help out.

Web development in Scotland – selling

Whatever you are writing for your website the chances are that you want to generate sales. So make sure that all your copy has the benefits of what you offer made obvious. As web developers we often recommend to put call to actions in numerous and multiple locations to help with the chance of converting a visitor to a customer.

Web developers in Scotland – interest

Keeping the interest fresh on your site can be pretty tricky, so regular news and new features are important. Systems like that need good timed content and steady management.

Web development in Scotland – registration

Many CMS systems will provide the ability for visitors to create user accounts. This helps create loyalty if you have resources or information hidden behind the scenes. If you are building customer loyalty via registration type benefits then you will probably need web development help to take care of the tricky areas.

Web developers in Scotland – mobile

As browsers on mobile phones become more sophisticated (Safari on the iphone) then it becomes more important to think about usability on small screens. So if mobility is a factor then consider simple interfaces – good web developers can help.

Web development in Scotland – browsers

When developing your website its important to check it’s behaviour on the various browser – IE, Firefox, Safari etc. Each browser has its own way of handling certain things such as determining widths – so check and double check as web developers we have to.

Web developers in Scotland – width

It’s often just a question of taste but sometimes it also depends on how much you have to say. Some websites will expand their width automatically to ensure they use all the screen available while others are fixed width to either allow the web developer to stay in control of layout or if there isn’t really much info to display.

Web development in Scotland – html

Behind all websites is HTML but thankfully CMS helps web developers avoid that as much as possible. Nonetheless good HTML skills will ensure you get the most from the CMS package you want. As web developers obviously our HTML skills are put to good use often.

Web developers in Scotland – social bookmarking

As you add interesting news and articles to your website a simple way to promote your site is to add the news to a social bookmarking website such as Digg. If you are lucky and have something that appeals then you may attract increased traffic. Social Bookmarking can be a help in website promotion and as web developers we have added bookmarking facilities to much of what we do.

Web development in Scotland – micro sites

If you have a site with a great deal of information and diverse products you may decide to build one or more Micro Sites. This helps with customer focus and to some extent can also help build the back links that can influence SEO and Pagerank. In the world of the web an extra website might be worth the effort.

Web developers in Scotland – promotion

Once you have your website you will want to promote it. As web developers we also offer SEO and marketing advice. In short the best way to promote your website is through Word of Mouse – so use blogs, social bookmarking, online PR and PPC. And of course get your SEO act together.

Web development in Scotland – taglines

As you pull your website together you may suddenly realise that you need a tagline ie XYZ Limited for the best Mutton Pies in Scotland. Makee sure that when you add it to your website that it goes in as a piece of text – not a graphic. If you put it in as an image then google will miss it. We tend to add our own taglines to the breadcrumb trail for the menus.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for enterprise Search

The Enterprise Search facilities within Sharepoint allow users subject to their permissions to look deep into the organization records and data sets. Searches can look into libraries, email folders and as you would expect websites as well.

Web developers in Scotland – timed content

One of the great features of a good CMS is the ability to load up copy and then release it gradually over time article by article. This means that marketing campaigns can be set up and executed in an extremely planned manner. Within our DNN CMS we have such facilities all part of being DNN web developers.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for blogs

Blogs may have grown up as part of the wider internet but are now seen as an effective and easy to implement way of spreading information across the organisation. Sharepoint allows for the easy creation and management of blogs ensuring information can flow easily.

Web development in Scotland – background music

Many CMS packages allow web developers to add background music that automatically starts when the website page is loaded. We don’t encourage this – it can be a bit of a surprise in a quiet office.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for Business Intelligence

Sharepoint provides a range of tools and services to keep your team informed of the latest information. Excel spreadsheets can be exposed as can all manner of reports and charts.

Web developers in Scotland – resources

If you want to add something interesting to your website then a collection of online resources is a good idea. Documents normally in PDF format that give handy and easy to read facts are always welcome. So think about what you can give away – givers gain!

Sharepoint support in Scotland for survey management

Sharepoint plays up the feasibility of using web based forms to gain feedback and survey information. Typical uses could include customer or workforce satisfaction surveys to help you business maintain and improve its performance.

Web development in Scotland – FTP

Many HTML websites simply rely on FTP to get the HTML files live. In CMS packages this is less common as you are entering the copy and images directly onto the server. Web development has come on along way in a short space of time and as web developers we seldom use FTP as a transfer mechanism when developing websites.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for searching for people

Users within your Sharepoint systems can create their own personal profiles and as you would expect these profiles can be searched – allowing large organisations to get the right people connected to the right people.

Web developers in Scotland – security

Wherever you get your hosting from make sure that there is a strong security policy in place and protection set up from viruses. We host with a reputable firm who look after this for us.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for searching public folders

If permitted by administration levels Sharepoint can allow searches to dig deep into public file folders ensuring that your businesses valuable data is used to the utmost.

Web development in Scotland – hosting

As web developers we chose to host our customer’s websites. This gave us maximum flexibility and confidence. It reduced the number of unknowns and it has allowed us to do develop our DNN CMS package without worrying about a separate hosting company having possible restrictions. Hosting can be pretty cheap and pretty lousy as well – but when we supply hosting it comes with support to make sure we can keep our customer websites looking fresh.

Sharepoint support in Scotland using other documents

In addition to using its own templates for websites, Sharepoint allows the user to convert documents such as Word documents into webpages. This can ensure that pages can be created rapidly if required from existing material.

Web developers in Scotland – costs

How much will it cost me? It all depends! Websites are difficult to give prices on and often being able to explain the budget is the quickest way to find out what sort of website you can get. A few hundred will get you little more than a static 4 or 5 page site while several thousands could get you not a lot more if you go to an image consultant type web developer. Set a budget and produce a set of wants and find someone you can trust. It all depends on what you want and what you can afford.

Sharepoint support in Scotland and Visual Studio

Sharepoint allows much of its preconfigured world to be customised and the recommended tools often lie within Microsoft Visual Studio - so if you need to go beyond the standard out the box offerring you will need a good bunch of software developers.

Web development in Scotland – privacy

Just as the Ts and Cs are important so is a Privacy Statement. This is there to make sure that you declare what you will do with any information gathered. Perhaps you will share it – perhaps you want – but whatever you do you have to declare it. Again as web developers we provide a fairly generic Privacy statement and let our customers refine as required.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for parallel workflows

Sharepoint supports workflow templates and workflow customisation to ensure that businesses can operate efficiently. These workflows can also be configured to operate in parallel where more that one set of tasks can be carried out at the same time. This ensures that the real world doesnt get held up by an inappropriate one task at a time workflow.

Web developers in Scotland – terms and conditions

It is now essential that you have a page available that describes the terms and conditions of your website. It is there to make sure that your visitor is made aware that you may use cookies and that you don’t guarantee anything. As web developers we do this as standard now for our customer and let them change it if they feel it appropriate.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for email alerts

An important feature in Sharepoint is the ability for workflows to trigger email alerts to the next link in the chain. This ensures that jobs can be progressed effectively as one step completes.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for site structure

Significant sites can be created with Sharepoint and managing the multiple pages can be daunting. Within Sharepoint a Site Manager is provided to show the hierarchy and allow adminsitration levels to modify and streamline the site.

Web development in Scotland – contact

Just as an About page is important so is the Contact page. Although your contact details should really be on every page you might as well also have a contact page that can provide fuller details including maps and directions to get to your premises. Thankfully for us as web developers Google has ensured it is easy to pop a map onto a website – so have a look and do the same.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for searching email

If permitted by administration levels Sharepoint can allow searches to dig deep into email folders ensuring that nothing stays lost.

Biztalk in Scotland – what does Biztalk Pipeline Execution mean

Pipelines allow messages to be processed before and/or after they pass through the Message Box. The execution activities can transformation or even encryption type activities. Biztalk

Sharepoint support in Scotland for search relevance

Inbuilt to the search facilities in Sharepoint is the ability to ascertain relevance by looking at various parameters such as anchor text and depth within a menu structure.

Web development in Scotland – be regular

One of the things that many website owners do is forget to keep things updated. Try and build in some regular activity to review and update your website. As web developers we see the benefits from regular updates – it keeps the customer coming back and it also helps with SEO.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for searching documents

The Enterprise Search facilities within Sharepoint allow documents to be searched fast to retrieve the information needed. When adding documents you can also add meta data to ensure that Search works fast and effectively every time.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is a Biztalk Message Box

The Biztalk MessageBox is a SQL Data Database where the messages pass through. Easy.

Web developers in Scotland – video

As web developers we are often asked to add video to websites. We use DNN and have our own control that makes that dead easy. We basically hook into YouTube. If you prefer to host your own videos and do your own streaming then you will need a server capable of that.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for targeted audiences

By defining content based on the type of visitor or audience who may find it of interest Sharepoint websites ensure that users obtain relevant and interesting content at all times. The result is a system which can target content at specific audience types.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is a Biztalk Send Port

A Biztalk Send Port accepts messages from a Message Box and then sends them on. However, the Send Port itself can have Maps or Pipelines associate with it allowing the message to be altered prior to its onward journey.

The Send Port is a highly flexible Biztalk endpoint to allow messages to reach their end destination.

Web development in Scotland – using RSS

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is supported by almost all good CMS packages. Basically it allows your website to publish some of its copy as an easy to digest string of text. Not only is that preferable to some humans – the search engines also like it. An of course your own site can include RSS feeds from other sites if you want to publish other businesses news. As web developers we prefer to publish our own RSS feeds rather than use other folks.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for website personalisation

Personalisation features well within Sharepoint providing the user with the comfort of having some control over the environment that they work in. RSS feeds, for instance, are one area where a user can potentially define their own preferences.

Biztalk in Scotland – what does Biztalk pub/sub mean

In Biztalk the term pub/sub is used. All it means in crude terms is that messages are subscribed for (subscription) by the Send Ports – ie they declare what they want. And the publisher (Pub) is in essence simply broadcasting or notifying the interested parties.

Web developers in Scotland – size

Size isn’t everything but in the web development world size does matter. Websites that have “depth” will by their nature probably attract more attention than thin websites. As web developers we find that the most compelling way to build depth is to add news and resources making the site genuinely interesting to the web visitor.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for managing tasks

Sharepoint supplies various techniques for creating and managing tasks with workflow being such a core part of Sharepoint alerts notify users of the tasks required of them and a specific users task list will follow them around the areas or connected websites as they move around the Sharepoint controlled environment.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is a Biztalk Receive Port

As the name suggests a Receive Port takes messages into the system if enabled to do so. If handling XML then XSLT transformations can be applied to handle multiple different message types making the Receive Port potentially very flexible. Once a message received it is passed through the Message Box (a SQL Database).

Web development in Scotland – structure

When you are laying out your website it is important to think about the website menu structure. As web developers we have got used to going this and it sort of becomes obvious. For new comers think about logical groupings of products and services and keep them together. For SEO purposes ensure that you don’t put too many different things you do on one page – ideally one page equals one message.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for site templates

A variety of site templates are supplied with Sharepoint to ensure a consistency of look and feel across the enterprise regardless of what the visitor or user is looking at. Portal, mini sites, libraries and search results can all take on a common look. And if desired you can of course design your own templates.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is a Biztalk Port

The physical in and out areas of Biztalk are called Ports. As you would expect you can have a Receive Port (for accepting incoming messages) and a Send Port (for dispatching outgoing messages).

Web developers in Scotland – copy

The copy on your website is the arguably the most important thing on your website. As web developers we have taken the view that it’s easier for us to do the first draft and then let customer’s tweek it. We have found that it can be a bit of a challenge for some folks new to the web to come up with the correct copy. And of course ideally it should be written with SEO in mind. So we do the first drafts to get things moving fast.

Nonetheless copy with a strong sales message is essential.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for workflow management

To administer documents potentially for compliance issues Sharepoint comes with a variety of predefined workflows (though you can design your own). Typical of the ready to go workflows are those for seeking approval, gaining comments, getting sign off and even time based expiry of documents.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is a Biztalk artifact

A Biztalk artifact simply refers to the various elements within Biztalk that makes the whole system operate. For instance Orchestrations, Pipelines and Ports are all Biztalks artifacts.

Web development in Scotland – images

Choosing images for your website can be hard work but needn’t be expensive. As web developers we use online stock image galleries which are relatively cheap. We tend to look for series of images so that we can keep a consistent feel through the site. And we also tend to prefer images on a white background so that they give maximum flexibility when laying out the website.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for document publishing

Sharepoint allows documents to be shared easily but importantly when a document is uploaded a workflow can be invoked – either from a predefined workflow list or a specific custom built workflow specific to you business. This ensures that review and approval can be managed and administered easily, ensuring your published documents meet your quality and compliance requirements.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is the Biztalk Business Rules Engine

The Business Rules Engine within Biztalk allows non technical folks to modift parameters to influence the underlying behaviour of the Biztalk system. It ensures that when simple changes are required that these can be made a t manager level rather than at a technical level.

Web developers in Scotland – layout

Once you have settled on a CMS you need to think about web layout. The web development capabilities of most CMS encourage the web developer to choose a layout template. That makes good sense and as you look around the web you will see that the vast majority of websites are laid out in a fixed column type style.

A good layout shouldn’t confuse the website visitor – so stick with something akin to a newspaper layout and you won’t go far wrong.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for wikis

Wikipedia may have trail blazed the way but more and more organizations are seeing the benefit of setting up their own internal wikis to ensure that best available information is presented to the workforce. Wikis within Sharepoint are an effective way of spreading knowledge throughout your business.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is Biztalk Business Activity Monitoring

BAM or Business Acitivity Monitoring in Biztalk is simply a way to monitor and report on the activities that Biztalk is carrying out. In essence it’s a reporting tool.

Web development in Scotland – we use DNN

The web development package we use is the unlikely named DotNetNuke – DNN. It’s written in .Net and as we are very experienced in Microsoft .Net development it made good sense. We have extended it significantly to add in lots and lots of extra functionality and capability.

Although a Microsoft based CMS it’s an open source package – BSD. That makes it a great platform to use are there are lots of experts out there.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for form creation and reliable data

Sharepoint provides the capability to create web based form to let your business gather information effectively. Forms can check data on entry to ensure that the data is valid before being stored in your databases.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is the Biztalk Orchestration Designer

The Biztalk Orchestration Designer is a visual designer to let you build simple flows to control activity based on the content of the messages passing through Biztalk. Because of its visual nature it allows designers and business analysts to discuss things easily.

Web developers in Scotland – choosing a CMS

You can shell out good cash and buy a CMS – not a bad idea but often Open Source CMS packages are a better deal. Maintained by legions of dedicated coders they can offer better support in some cases than commercially available packages.

Some CMS packages are tailored toward specific target markets – photographers for example. However it better to choose a more open and generic CMS as it is almost bound to have a richer feature set and will therefore be better when it comes to web development.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for enterprise content management

Enterprise Content Management within Sharepoint provides the content management you would expect but also embraces content other than website content such as documents and files. It also provides management control facilities to ensure that information is preapproved before going live.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is a Biztalk orchestration

In some cases it is important to do more than simply change the structure of a message as it passes through Biztalk. In those situations you can influence what should happen – ie you can orchestrate an activity such as a simple go/no go rule. To create the rules you use the Biztalk Orchestration Designer.

Web development in Scotland – get a CMS

CMS or Content Management Systems allow you to develop and maintain websites in a much more easy way than hacking around inside pages and pages of html. However, not all CMS packages are the same. To get the most out of any CMS package you will need some basic HTML coding skills and some CMS’s are better than others than providing this. So shop around and seek opinion. Make sure you can edit Metadata including image tag and description metadata. Almost all web developers will use a preferred CMS or work with a couple.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for portal creation

The word Portal now sounds sort of old fashioned and it’s better to simply say that Sharepoint allows enterprises to create websites whether internally or externally facing that are highly personalized based on the user/visitor and their permissions.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is a Biztalk pipeline

Once accepted incoming messages are passed along pipelines which, if required, can perform transformations on your data to ensure the outgoing message is compatible with the receiving system. The result is a highly efficient data transformation process allowing your systems to communicate effectively.

Web developers in Scotland – some guidelines

As web developers Web Wise Business are often put in a position of trust by our customers who look to us as the experts. So as a way to share some of our thoughts and to help explain what we do we thought we should document a few of what we believe are important web development guidelines.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is a Biztalk adapter

Biztalk accepts messages using a wide range of available adapters which are specific to the message in question, and as you would expect bespoke or custom adapters can be created. Your adapters can, therefore, be set up to cope with Web Services, SAP, Siebel, Oracle or IBM Webshere for example.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for collaboration

The key benefit around Sharepoint is Collaboration. Or in simpler language that means “working together”.

Teams of any size can benefit from the Sharepoint platform as it allows information to be shared easily – whether that is through it’s ability to assist in the sharing of documents or via blogs and wikis to keep information flowing around the enterprise.

Biztalk support in Scotland – what is Biztalk

We have added Biztalk to the range of services we offer as think the need for the product is now either at or just beyond the tipping point.

Biztalk allows disparate applications to communicate with each other regardless of the message types.

Because of that systems of differing types can communicate effectively. In addition Biztalk also provides the user with a Business Rules Engine in order that decisions can be taken based on the data being transferred.

Sharepoint support in Scotland

As software developers Objective Associates based in Stirling, Scotland have long used a wide range of Microsoft products. Now we have started to promote our services for businesses using Microsoft Sharepoint but have came to that point through an odd route.

For a good while we have been using the Open Source Dot Net Nuke product and have now extended the DNN CMS product so much we felt we should be offering our customers something complimentary.

Our extensive dot net skills and DNN developers allow us to tackle the most challenging projects and we have cracked a good many using DNN. So why the addition of Sharepoint to our portfolio?

Well it's not that DNN has failings or issues that we can't resolve it’s just that we know that customers like to be given a choice and often have their own views on what platforms they would prefer to use. So we have added Sharepoint to the portfolio and will be supporting Sharepoint in Scotland from now on. So from Open Source to Sharepoint - interesting route to get there.