Automated testing is a great thing and something we’re always looking at doing much, much more of. But sometimes it’s just unavoidable that errors in third party systems slip through and make it onto the production website. That’s especially the case for minor bugs that generate warning notices but have no noticeable impact on the site functionality. We can pick up on and deal with these snags before they become bigger problems thanks to our world class server monitoring, and open source means we can fix the problem upstream much more quickly.
Since we created our first “Email Your MP” website in 2018, the service has expanded to support multiple organisations but has remained relatively focused on national campaigns. The API behind it has expanded somewhat to include additional MPs, such as those Northern Ireland, but has remained relatively static in terms of scope.
That changed recently thanks to various development requests. Firstly, the Liberal Democrats needed a new version of their postal voting page. Secondly, a new client wished to use additional data, alongside MP contact details, as part of their campaign. The result? Two new API endpoints and changes to our Fleet and WordPress platforms to make use of them.
In recent weeks, we’ve spent time updating and improving the Sandgate Business Directory to be even better! There are new images of local businesses, opening hours and contact information.
As it is a difficult time with another Lockdown, we have added information about delivery and collection services that are currently being offered. Helping everyone to keep on going during this very difficult time!
Sandgate Business Directory offers a free entry for every local business. The directory contains a geolocated business finder with map view, based on OpenStreetMap. This links to a full page entry for each business. There are local events listed such as the Farmer’s market and local sports events. Built on WordPress and hosted and supported on our own UK servers.
Great to relaunch the Midas Training website this week. We rebuilt their existing site on WordPress, hosted and supported by us on our own UK based servers.
We moved all existing content from the former Midas Training website to the new one. In the process we fixed up some content on transfer, and set-up their WordPress site using our tried and tested WordPress solution.
Prater Raines are delighted to bring live the 2020 HG Wells Short Story Competition website. This website provides information about the competition, rules and is the only way to enter.
We are proud to be in our third year as sponsors for this competition.
The annual HG Wells Short Story Competition offers a £500 Senior and £1,000 Junior prize. The prize also includes a free publication of all shortlisted entries in a quality, professionally published paperback anthology. The prize also includes a Kindle version.
Entry to the Junior competition is FREE and entry to the Senior competition is £10 (£5 for those with student ID).
This years theme is “Vision” – see how to enter (yes, pun intended) on their site – 2020 closing date is 6th July 2020.
Some of the Prater Raines team have known Mark Pack for many years (probably rather more than any of us are prepared to admit). We were delighted when he approached us to become part of Mark’s campaign team to become the next President of the Liberal Democrats.
Mark announced his campaign on Thursday prior to the launch of conference, and his campaign website went live at the same time. The Mark Pack President campaign site is built on WordPress and there is much more to come. However, the sign-up (feeding to MailChimp), donate (backed by Stripe) and contact pages are in place, and we’ll be adding more pages and content in coming days. Mark Pack for President!
Only sometimes do you check the BBC News and find one of your websites being mentioned, but this is one of those days.
Some months ago, we were approached to build a standalone website to support the Whirlpool product recall. We worked to a limited but developing brief but we delivered the site as required.
It has since supported tends of thousands of their customers since to resolve issues with their dryers.
Today saw another burst of media activity around that recall. There was a large increase in the number of people visiting the website. The site responded well throughout: the dryer checker (linked from within the site and hosted by Whirlpool themselves) was slower due to the sheer number of visitors.
We are pleased to bring live a website for Oxford Musical Theatre. The site is based on WordPress and has songs from the shows which can be downloaded. There are shows such as ‘Guilty of Love’ which is a show about Alan Turing and “CLD” which is about the real Lewis Carroll. Show your support for musical theatre by taking a look at current and past performances.
The website for Oxford Musical Theatre offers a range of scores for choral editions of songs by Jane Bramwell and Michael Brand. There are publications and the latest information on their performances.
We work with organisations and companies, understanding their needs and working with them. Ranging from bespoke builds to customising off-the-shelf products – is what we do.
For almost 20 years, Lib Dem Image have been the official supplier of Liberal Democrat merchandise, campaign materials, clothing, gifts & books. In 2005, we developed Lib Dem Image’s first online shop. Previously they had sold only via phone and mail order and from stalls at Party conferences. Although it was developed on a tight budget, the online shop swiftly became the main sales platform. It has been clear that the site needed some investment but LDI and the Party had not been in the position to invest in a significant refresh. The 2005 site had continued to trade and work securely and effectively, with a few tweaks and a very limited investment in development.
In 2018, Lib Dem Image and the Party agreed a new long term agreement to extend LDI’s contract as official supplier. This gave all sides the confidence to invest in updating their web site. As our experience of working with Lib Dem Image had spanned over 13 years it gave us a real knowledge of their service and needs. We were therefore delighted they spoke to us about the re-development!
The re-launch of LibDem Image!
We are proud to launch the new Lib Dem Image website. It is based on WooCommerce and WordPress, and now fully mobile and tablet friendly. We provide the hosting on our own UK based secure WordPress hosting. Stripe takes the payments, which offers good value to LDI a with full API and seamless integration into WooCommerce, which we enjoyed!
Happy New year deal! After a great Christmas and New Year break, it’s always nice to be back in the office – Happy New Year!
Although we’ve been monitoring and checking email and voicemails throughout the Christmas period, we’re now back up to full speed.
You can call us on 01303 905245 from 9am-5pm Monday to Friday, or email info@praterraines.co.uk to get in touch. Alternatively, if you live near our Sandgate HQ then you can drop in there to have a chat – always happy to see you.
New Year special deal
Is this the time to finally get your company website sorted? We’ve got Happy New Year deal to help you meet that New Year resolution – we’ll set you up new basic WordPress website for just £250 plus VAT * this January – HALF our usual price!