Maisons Bellevue
Maisons Bellevue is a modular home manufacturer based in Rigaud, Québec. They sell bungalows, cottages, two-storey homes as complete turnkey homes and modular kits. They are frequently adding new models to their 50+ design catalog.
As new home models became available, the client has a requirement to update their website.
The `slider`on the first page should show all available models The old website architecture did not easily support updates. It required uploading of files, configuration and manual editing of HTML, both for the gallery and the initial 'slider' on the main page.
The number of homes available at any on point of time ranged between a low of 50 and a high of 60.
If images were missing, or the configuration was mixed up, or an HTML error was made the entire site was broken.
Consequently the website was often out of date. Additionally, there was no easy way to navigate between a house shown on the slider and the model detail page.
The client believed that sales opportunties were being missed.
We initially considered a Wordpress™ solution. A good combination of a robust content management system, a good administrative user interface and no requirement to edit HTML.
However, initial review of the Wordpress™ administrative interface was deemed to be confusing by the client.
The client was comfortable with uploading of files but was not comfortable navigating the Wordpress™ administrative interface. A new approach was required.
We worked with the client to standarize a file naming convention as each model is known by a unique name (Ambre, Emerald, Jade, Lotus etc).
A server side script would dynamically build the slider, the gallery pages and the model detail pages based on filesnames.
Updating requires only that a series of files be uploaded to a folder.
Each time a user requests a display of a gallery, a server-side script (PHP) reads the image folder, and dynamically creates the gallery page including all embedded links.
Maintenance of the front-page slider and image gallery requires that new files be uploaded to specific 'house' folders (bungalow, two-storey, cottage etc.)on the web server. All configuration is handled by server-side scripts that dynamically create the galleries.
Removing a house model requires deletion of the relevant files.
Since the gallery is dynamically created the website is up to date within seconds.
Gallery page with a model detail page