SDC Systems is a company that understands security vulnerability so when they wanted to host their own WordPress site we didn’t mind!
Although we recommend that we host your website for you, it doesn’t have to be that way…
We were approached in April 2016 by data software and security company SDC Systems. They were looking to move their website from a legacy system to WordPress. This was in order to make the site easier to update and add new content.
Initially they wanted the change to occur with the minimum of design changes. They also wanted to continue to host their new site in-house as they clearly had significant technical expertise. We did so for them, porting their content and site structure with a limited number of changes in under two working days – all to time and specification.
We’ve been delighted to work on Major Foodie since moving to our hosting a few weeks ago, and have already delivered the first batch of changes that site owner Richard had been seeking.
The changes have been about evolution not revolution: tweaking design and functionality to be easier to use, work better on a range of devices and make reviews and content east to find – all to Richard’s specification.
As examples of the changes, on the home page we’ve reworked the main image slider, making it resize nicely whatever screen size (and orientation) of device you are reading on, adding captions to each picture and a click through to the relevant review in each case. We’ve also added a bespoke styled Twitter feed to bring their very active Twitter presence to the front page of the site in a style that fits well with the rest of the content rather than a standard plug-in.
When we first met Major Foodie, his WordPress site had been going some time, and although he was, in the main, happy with it there were some changes and upgrades that his previous developers hadn’t been able to deliver.
A little while after our first discussions the site started to have problems, and, when we investigated it became clear it had been hacked.
We cleaned the site on its existing shared hosting, updated and re-set logins and passwords, restored files (from a back-up we’d taken when we first met – there was otherwise no regular backup in place), updated PHP, the WordPress install itself and the plug-ins to the site which were out of date, and generally got things back up and running.
We’re delighted to have brought live a new web site for APDS – The Association of Palliative Day Services – who are the national representative body formed exclusively for palliative day service professionals in the UK.
The site is, as you would expect from a site designed by Prater Raines, a fully secure https site throughout, and designed to work well on screens from desktop to mobile. We worked with APDS designing them everything from a new logo upwards, and assisting in getting the content in place.
The site is built on Drupal 8 but some of the key areas are the ones you can’t see.
We’ve hosted and updated a bespoke website for the Sandgate Business Forum for some time, but recently took the opportunity to modernise it and move it to WordPress to make updating it rather easier.
Although the site has retained its distinctive colour scheme and “look and feel” it is now much easier to use on mobiles and tablets, and includes a filterable Google Map view of businesses in the area to make finding any business easy.
There have been a host of other enhancements including a Google Calendar events widget to the right hand side, and of course designing to ensure it works well on mobile, tablet and desktop.
The Sandgate Business Forum is a genuinely free business directory for any business based in the Sandgate, Kent area.
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.
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/