Code! Launch!

Alpha launched the Web site for the new look CompView company site. Alpha provided a streamlined Information Architecture, original designs, and implemented independent SEO data throughout the site. Alpha developed a custom CMS, including a product catalog and portfolio gallery. The project was also the first project that new hire Nate Bedortha contributed on, lending is expertise in IA, XHTML, and some good old-fashioned jQuery lovin.

Our team worked around the clock to make sure that we not only hit our deadline but delivered a solid site. I would like to say thanks to the team at Alpha Multimedia Solutions for their never say die attitude and hard work that made this project a success. With constantly shifting requirements, scope creep, lack of final designs (the usual suspects), we were able to deliver a microsite that would help drive traffic to the store.

The buzz generated around the site was fantastic. Within the first day, Digg, Engadget, CNET, and Slashdot had posted glowing reviews of the Netflixplayer on their sites. The microsite and store withstood a tremendous spike in traffic - the first three days the site had 250,000 users and performed fine under the stress.

Initially, the redesign was to be a simple update of a few graphic elements including an improved flash intro. Three months and 5 designs later, we ended up with a very happy client and a great looking site.

Go check it out here: Infinity Marketing Team

We’re happy to announce that Lanikai Properties was picked for site of the day (Nov 19, 2007) by the Daily Slurp. You can see the site featured on MostInspiring.com. Congratulate Allison and her team in Oahu on their success.

We launched the new and improved PayScan America site. Again, we put to use CakePHP as a lightweight web framework and had a functioning prototype deployed pretty quick. This enabled a closer working relationship with the client which, in the end, produced a final product that was exactly what the client wanted.

A big thanks to the Team over at PayScan America and the design and development team at AMS That Made It All Happen.

Please give a great big applause to Lanikai Properties.

We are very proud of this site as it very unique from the other websites that are out there in the Hawaii Real Estate market. The site offers a wealth of information on the Hawaii Real Estate market. Additionally, the site will create a community around the Hawaii lifestyle with Allison Green offering friendly tips, financial advice, and local wisdom to help make moving (and living) in Hawaii a reality.

A big thank you to the team of designers, copywriters, creative directors, programmers and project managers that made the project come together.

Check out Lanikai Properties >

We were approached to develop a new site for an existing client who wanted to showcase their services specific to the wedding planning industry.

The requirements were straightforward and simple. The copy created during the design process would not change, nor would they need to create dynamic content going forward. Most important, the site would have a very short design and development life cycle. The site would feature a showcase gallery and it would be a cornerstone piece; the client wanted it to be “flashy” and “interactive”.

So, do we make a static html site? Do we use a blog engine type platform like Wordpress or Movable Type and create a custom template for it? We have worked with the client before and they have no shortage of new ideas for their sites, so we also try to anticipate future needs and requests, so we have to be certain that whatever approach we implement, it must be flexible and scalable to accommodate new features six months from now. That said, that eliminates the static html site.

The other alternative is to use a rapid application deployment framework, like Ruby on Rails or Symfony or cakePHP. Since we are still in the research stages of evaluating RoR, that left Symfony and cakePHP. Symfony just has too much overhead to deal with…and the winner is cakePHP. We have had great success with cakePHP and it’s pretty straightforward. We also need a framework that truly separated the presentation layer from the application layer. Often, we find that the client is constantly asking to change design elements of the site during the site build and pre-launch. This can easily be accomodated with cakePHP. A designer can get in there and modify the design without risk of breaking code.

But why not Wordpress? We’ve done it before and it’s worked just fine. The time to crank out a Wordpress theme (with valid XHTML code in hand) is about 40 hours. This includes mapping the site information architecture to the Wordpress lexicon (posts, pages). Remember, Wordpress is NOT a true CMS. The level of effort is certainly worth it if people can comment on articles, or you’re actually going to use some aspect of it as a blog. We had no intention of ever doing that.

What we needed was a lightweight framework, and that’s where CakePHP comes in. Much of our data is stored in a simple page configuration table. There is no expectation from the client to have an admin backend, so using phpMyAdmin to shovel in data is perfectly acceptable and fast. Unlike a traditional static html site, we get an application cache (enabled cached views), an underlying database with connectivity already in place for future projects/features, and a quick deployment scheme in place. Additionally, we use the routing mechanism in CakePHP to produce search engine friendly urls.

Without further adieu:
EIM Weddings

Looking to streamline our development and delivery process, we looked to see what parts could be outsourced.

Carving xhtml from PSD files was an obvious task that could be completed outside of our organization. Finding someone who could do it timely, professionally, and economically was the challenge. We read through many blogs and spoke to professional contacts, and the name that continually popped up was XHTML Slicer.

A particular problem that we have is after the design has been agreed upon with the client, they frequently come back to us with unanticipated content or slight design changes that require modifications to the layout and consequently the XHTML/CSS. XHTML Slicer produces top quality implementations that are flexible enough and well documented that when we have to roll up our sleeves and look under the hood, it’s easy to figure out what’s going on and make our changes.

XHTML Slicer can even integrate their work into existing themes/templates, such as Wordpress, Textpattern, or Expression Engine. They have quick turn around times, reasonable rates, and are reliable. We have used cheaper alternatives, but you get what you pay for. I highly recommend XHTML Slicer.

Here are some sites where we have used their services:
Cottonseed Oil Tour
PayScan America
The Playboutique

We just did a homepage refresh for one of our favorite clients designer8* Event Furniture Rental. One of our original clients, the site uses a homegrown CMS and maintains their digital image catalog of what they have to offer.

I was looking for a simple approach to add a swf movie to my site. The swf movie
contains no interaction between a database and would just simply play a flash movie on
page load. Easy enough. I didn’t want to hack it into a certain view but have a reusable
helper that i could use repeatedly across the site and other projects.

I wasn’t sure if I would have to write my own or repurpose a previously completed work. Luckily, I found something close to what I needed.

I was able to leverage the SwfObjectHelper created for the excellent CakeAMFPHP project. I dropped the wrapper class swfobject.php into the helper directory and was able to access it directly in my views.

Alternatively, I could have set the filename in the controller and passed it into the view that way.

I added the swf files to a directory named flash under webroot.

Within my controller, I added the swfobject helper:

Now, i am able to use the swfobject directly in the view:

The parameters for the display method called above are:
1) path (relative to root)
2) flash name
3) width
4) height
5) flash version
6) bgcolor

And voila! Your flash swf file should play seemlessly.