Additional Services for your website

Database Design & Dynamic Web Pages

Database driven web pages, which are also called "dynamic web pages", redisplay information from one or several databases. This might be as simple as an Access database or a special online database configured to deliver web pages - such as Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL. In very simple terms an online database can be compared to a Mail Merge Application.W web pages take fields from a database (or series of databases) and display them appropriately in different places on the page.

The vast majority of news, financial and e-commerce websites are database driven. This is because they need to integrate with up to date data in real time and also because they might have many hundreds of contributors to the content. Also because several pages on the same site might use the same content then having a database to drive that content means you only have to change the data once to update several pages.

Static web pages always look the same and the content does not change unless you load a new page or you change the page yourself manually and then and upload the new version of the pages unto the server. Static means that something does not change.

Dynamic pages do the opposite, they can change every time they are loaded and they can change their content based on what user does, like selecting a specific product or information item.

Dynamic Database Example

If you have large product ranges to show on your website, visitors won't thank you for having to endlessly scroll down pages to find the products they want. Careful web design, incorporating a database attached to the website, means customers can select the types of product they want to see (from a selection of criteria they choose) and have only those products delivered onto the page. Thus, a car dealer with 1000 cars in stock need only add and delete them from the main database to keep the website up to date. Visitors could then make quick selections, perhaps based on price, model, style, color, mileage etc, and the website will show them those models which fit the criteria. Database driven sites are more complex to build and maintain. Please contact us to discuss your requirements.

Content management systems

CMS Some companies prefer to have access and update their website's themselves. This approach allows for instant updating rather than sending a request update to us. We can provide you with content management solutions which will enable you access areas of the site and update it on-line in a Microsoft Word® like interface. Users of content management systems need to have no web development experience whatsoever. If you know how to use a text editor and a web browser, then you are ready to use a content management system. Contact us for details.

PDF file conversion

If you have information documents you'd like visitors to access and download on the web (saving you from having to process inquiries and mail out information all the time) we can convert your documentation to PDF format for universal viewing. Alternatively we can create PDF documents for you from scratch. Contact us for details.

MP3 file conversion

If you have sound/music files you want to put on-line, we can convert files from normal CD's into MP3 format (plus a range of other music formats). Contact us for details.