Read the latest blog on our projects and new developments in areas like security, WordPress and Typo3. The team at Prater Raines write how projects have progressed with challenges that have been faced. We like to keep you informed in technology and security updates.
Traditionally associated with e-commerce websites, HTTPS is beginning to be more widely used on all types of websites to secure user accounts and keep communications private. Traffic to and from your website will be encrypted to guarantee that users are communicating with the website they intended and ensure that contents cannot be read or forged by third parties.
The security of your site users and data is clearly paramount, but there are other reasons why moving to HTTPS is important. Google announced in 2014 that they would give a small SEO advantage to sites using HTTPS over HTTP and are taking steps to further alert users when sites are insecure. They won’t be the only ones.
All good things must come to an end.
Today, we’re retired our “Youtube” embed component from our Liberal Democrat Foci system, which allowed you to embed video (with a bit of difficulty, we will admit) into that website. Sad times.
Happily, “coincidentally” also today, we’ve launched a new component that will allow you to embed any OEmbed content in your site. That content includes videos from YouTube, but also content from Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Meetup, Reddit, Slideshare, Soundcloud, Twitter, Tumblr, Vimeo, Vine, WordPress, Daily Motion… That list goes on and on, and we think its a BIG step forward!
As the release from WordPress yesterday says:
“WordPress 4.6.1 is now available. This is a security release for all previous versions and we strongly encourage you to update your sites immediately.
“WordPress versions 4.6 and earlier are affected by two security issues: a cross-site scripting vulnerability via image filename, reported by SumOfPwn researcher Cengiz Han Sahin; and a path traversal vulnerability in the upgrade package uploader, reported by Dominik Schilling from the WordPress security team.
We do a lot of work with the Charted Institute of Public Relations, including supporting their main corporate Drupal based site, the “Influence” site of curated aggregated content from their members based on WordPress and CIPR Ladder (member login required to view) which is their bespoke CPD (Continuous Professional Development) platform.
This year CIPR have again run their annual “Summer of CPD” to encourage professional development. To support their work on this, CIPR needed some new detailed reports from their CPD system to support their weekly, regionally based updates on the CPD achievements of their members.
Since the launch of PHP7 in December 2015, we’ve been quietly working at upgrading our servers (and all our sites) from PHP5.6 (and at the same time upgrading to MySQL 5.7). We’re pleased to say it’s now complete and all (*) our sites, including our WordPress installations, are running on PHP7.
Although the upgrade process itself had been reasonably simple, it has taken a while to deal with incompatibilities and issues thrown up by the upgrade. There are a number of reasons for the move, but the biggest one is the speed improvement PHP7 delivers: it varies from site to site but PHP7 is estimated to be 100% quicker than PHP5.6!
In July we launched a new site with a bespoke design for Stephen Lloyd, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman (and former MP) for Eastbourne.
The new site was a key part of Stephen’s recently announced bid for re-election at the next General Election.
The site is based on and has the same functionality of our Liberal Democrat service, but the look and feel was intentionally very different to our other sites and based on ideas from Stephen’s team. It’s also designed to be totally mobile friendly and drive sign-ups to build Stephen’s team – and it’s working.
A fresh look for the website of one of our longstanding clients: Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale and Leader of the Liberal Democrats.
The design has been tested to be responsive and look good on a wide range of devices and screen sizes, and is one of over 30 available to the users of our Lib Dem Foci2 service.
Lib Dem clients can find out more on our Foci2 Facebook support group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/Foci2/
The Hampshire Foot and Ankle Clinic combines the expertise of consultant orthopaedic surgeons, podiatrists and physiotherapists with a special interest in foot and ankle conditions.
We moved the Hampshire Foot and Ankle Clinic to a new WordPress website with content imported from their legacy website in March 2016.
Like all our WordPress installations we keep it up to date with the latest updates and offer a host of other support – like making the site a https secured site, full daily back-ups, domain name renewal – as standard.
Prater Raines has been asked by various Liberal Democrat regions to deliver websites for their PCC candidates.
An important part of each campaign will be fundraising, using our Go Cardless powered donation facility, and keeping in touch with supporters, using our extensive email campaigning function.
Email campaigns with Prater Raines can be targeted at every level, with the ability to send emails to supporters in specific polling districts, wards, and constituencies. Email campaigns can also target supporters based upon the campaigns they’ve supported (through signing petitions or completing surveys), the amounts they’ve donated, and whether or not they’re a party member.
Wider campaigns can be developed through the use of petitions, surveys, opinion polls, and events set up from within your site, all of which can easily be shared to social media.
From 11 March 2016 our hourly rate for small jobs and our charges for some domain names are increasing. Most of our other prices are staying the same and other domain name charges are being reduced.