On the 16th February the new Hilly Field Barn Holiday Cottage website went live. The website was designed and developed by myself. Take a look at: http://www.hillyfield-holiday-cottage.co.uk/

A little while ago, the owner of Hilly Field Barn approached me, PanoConsulting Ltd, for a quote to build a new website. They already had a website but said it was hard to update it. So, we discussed the project at length and I proposed a solution.

The pivotal part of a Holiday Cottage website is keeping the availability calendar up-to-date so as well as re-designing and developing the website, I built a bespoke calendar management system into the owners password-protected CMS (Content Management System) that I also created. So, in the CMS, as well as being able to update the content of the website pages, add new images to the gallery, and maintain the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) settings, there is also a separate module for Calendar management.

The calendar section of the CMS couldn’t be easier to use. Please see the image below as an example. The image below shows the month of April 2011 in the CMS as the owner would see it:

Click on the image to view a full-sized version

As you can see it looks just like a normal calendar for April but here are the key features of it:

1. Down the left-hand-side the owner simply enters the price for each week of the calendar month.

Then, for each day of the month,

2. The owner ticks the left-hand checkbox if the day is PROVISIONALLY booked.

Or,

3. The owner ticks the right-hand checkbox if the day has a CONFIRMED BOOKED.

Finally, the user would click the save button and then the changes they had made to the availability calendar would be instantly reflected on the website to their customers.

If you haven’t already done so, check out the website at: http://www.hillyfield-holiday-cottage.co.uk/

Sometimes I forget to update the portfolio section of this website, it is a fair bit out-of-date. One such site that has not been added yet is one we did for Okehampton Deer Park. The website was designed and developed some time ago but for reasons outside of our control the launch of it was delayed. The website eventually went live on the 10th November 2010 and has a bespoke CMS (Content Management System) enabled the end user to update the web site content themselves. Take a look at: http://www.okehamptondeerpark.co.uk/

The current design of this website was completed two years ago this month. February 2009. Wow , that is like a life-time in web development terms! It doesn’t look too shabby after two years if I do say so myself.

Most web developers will tell you that they are so busy building other peoples websites that they neglect their own. That is definitely what has happened with mine. Now, regular viewers of this website (I can dream) may have noticed a couple of additions I have made to this website:

Number one, rather than being a ‘flat image’, the big image above now fades in and out to reveal more images. This gives the site a fresher and more dynamic look.

Number two, I have added a sub-menu at the top just below the main navigation links. Refresh the page and see how the sub menu slides down and then the links flash once. I have put these links in place to make it more obvious what my key services are. They are:

• Web design/development
• Web hosting
• SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
• Domain names

Click on some of the links to read more details on what we can do for you.