Archive for April, 2010

It’s not easy being prolific.  WebCommons has worked on so many projects over the years that it’s difficult to distill what our best specialties are, and so on the Specialties page, it has ended up being a laundry list of most things WebCommons can do.

So this is a post to talk about the most notable current capabilities of WebCommons.

Well, first of all, and overall, WebCommons develops programmed websites and website features using the PHP programming language.  So what does this mean to you, the potential customer?  It just means that WebCommons uses an open, free and very common web programming platform to put together your website.  If you don’t already have a website, you probably don’t care about what platform your developer uses, as long as you end up with a great website (and you will with WebCommons!).  On the other hand, to be perfectly honest, if you already have a website and it’s not done with PHP — unless you’re wanting the site to be redone, WebCommons probably isn’t for you.  Of course we can review your existing site and tell you what platform it is utilizing.

Secondly, WebCommons has been working quite a bit with the following technologies and approaches these days (and this is just a sample):

• WordPress, a blogging platform that’s also usable for producing widget-filled websites, which may or may not have a page with a blog.
• jQuery, a fantastic JavaScript library that dramatically extends user interface and entry processing capabilities on websites.
• Visual website makeovers, because your site might be turning people away and you may not realize why — but WebCommons can analyze your site and tell you why.  And it’s not always about aesthetics — it can also be about navigation and coherence (are things balanced and does it make sense?).
• Advanced web forms and processing — when forms are designed with PHP and jQuery, amazing capabilities that used to be much more time-consuming to create in times past are easily doable.
• Image galleries — image display technologies have been really becoming advanced as of late, and their integration is increasingly being asked for.
• MySQL database design — If your website needs a database, we’re on it!
• Back-end data entry — when your website has the need to display well-formatted real-time data, it has to come from somewhere, and its entry needs to be sanitized (proper data design and validation) and secure.
• Installing, configuring and debugging plugins for WordPress-based sites.  Sometimes the hardest thing is finding the right plugin, and if your site already has a lot of them, making all the plugins work in an integrated manner and without problems can be rather trying.
  
• Retrofitting websites with new capabilities.  This may sound generic, but a lot of development requests follow along these lines.  And it’s not simple.  Adding a new website feature to an established site that’s seamless, maintains design balance, and introduces no bugs isn’t for the faint of heart.
• Fixing visual and functional bugs.  Maintaining websites can oftentimes provide the biggest headaches.  Let WebCommons zap those bugs for you and put your mind at ease!
• Helping people discover your website.  If you want potential visitors to maximally discover your content via search engines like Google, or via social networking sites like Facebook, WebCommons has all sorts of ideas for you.  Some ideas might require development tasks to implement, but not all.

Sure, not everything in the above list is sexy, but in reality, a lot of web development is “meat and potatoes” in nature, and it’s what a lot of websites need.  And WebCommons does what websites need.

Last, and never least, the greatest capability of WebCommons really has more to do with communication than working with web technologies.  WebCommons is good at helping customers navigate their way through the steps of a project, from figuring out the site requirements (what you want to do), through design, coding it up (showing you your site in mid-stages and addressing your feedback), and all the way through making your new site or site changes public.

WebCommons strives to use plain English in describing what’s going on, so that you’ll never feel like you’re in the dark.  You’ll know what you’re getting, and then you’ll get it!  (and frankly, in many cases, we deliver well above expectations!)

If what WebCommons does sounds like what you need, please contact us.

The newest incarnation of the WebCommons logo

In response to a sponsorship advertising request for my company’s logo to display against a black background, I re-rendered the WebCommons logo by using a fiery back-glow to help with antialiasing and generating cleaner text for the “programming services” part.  The result looked so good (to me, anyway) that I decided to use it on this site and for other marketing purposes as well.

The fickle finger of fate (this time just a little request from out of the blue) sometimes leads to positive developments.

Speaking of positive developments, with the new logo inspiring me, along with the realization that I need to better present what I can do for web development customers, I started re-developing the content on the site.  I realize it’s a droll thing to say, but please pardon the dust!  Heh.  I’m sure that went over like a stale fart.  But I heartily assure you, the final result won’t be farty in the least. 

As always, let me know what you think of the ongoing changes.