Web Development Sheffield
[01]
Web Design vs Web Development
Web development is the creation of software that makes your website work. Without that software all web pages would be completely static. Once opened they wouldn't change and you couldn't interract with them - no forms, no menus, no slide shows, no videos. Facebook and Twitter would be impossible, as would Amazon, Ebay and Google.
[02]
Location Finder
We have been asked several times to provide a means for visitors to find a branch or stockist near them. There a many ways to approach this, from doing Pythagoras calculations on a post code database, to simply showing a map of the country with spots on it!
On the right is the javascript powered UK county map we came up with. It's kinda fun to play with - and educational if your UK geography is a bit rusty - mouse over the map to see the names of the counties. It's a short step from here to clicking a county to look it up in a database of... well pretty much anything - shoe shops the last time we used this program.
[03]
Image Slideshow
A common requirement on websites to to play a sequence of images and have them fade gently from one to the next. There's a small scale example on the home page of this website, showing examples of our previous work.
Such slideshows use a javascript program to sequence the images, timing how long each is displayed before moving to the next and controlling the speed at which one image fades to the next.
The version we wrote also includes a caption paragraph which changes with the image and provides thumbnails or video control buttons to let you pause the slideshow or find a particular image. We didn't include eye-boggling transitions tho. While these may be fun to play with at first, they can be very distracting, even annoying, after a short while.
[04]
Web Page Forms
Forms on web pages are possibly the most common use of web programming - most of us fill in such forms almost every day.
A form typically uses a small javascript program, to ensure that you have filled it in correctly and not missed any mandatory fields. Once you've filled in the form correctly the information you entered is sent to another program, this time on the web server. This program might enter your data into a database, or perhaps log you in to a restricted part of the website, or, most commonly, just email your information to the website owner.
[05]
Database Driven Websites
Programming the web server really winds up the power and scope of your website, especially when you start to use a database to store the information your website collects.
A content managed website, like this one, uses a database to store the text and images that appear on the web pages. The content management system itself is really nothing more than another website programmed to let you make changes to the database.
An ecommerce website uses a database to store information about the products you can buy - their names, descriptions, prices etc etc. And if you buy something, your details, along with a record of what you bought, are also stored in the database. That way the website can send you an invoice or delivery note and can keep records for its owner's accounts.
[06]
Web Applications
A database-driven website can behave in much the same way as a program that runs on your computer, except that it runs on a webserver, a computer that you can get to from almost anywhere on the planet. A computer that can be shared among your workforce, your suppliers and customers. A computer that is inherently connected to your customers, your suppliers, even your friends and family.
Sales reps on the road can check stock, enter orders and generate sales invoices from laptop computers or mobile phones. Your customers can track goods you've shipped to them, you can check stock and delivery times from your suppliers, book a squash court or even order a pizza!