Web Design & Development Articles
Insights and advice to help you keep up with the increasingly fast pace of change in web design, brand design and social & digital media marketing.
17/07/2020Quiz: How Drupal Are You?
OK, so you LOVE Drupal, everybody does - but just how Drupal ARE you, really?
Answer the questions below to find out:
You need to make a simple splash page, do you
A. Summon up some boilerplate html
B. Hand code something bespoke
C. Initialise another drupal installation
A customer asks for a one off form, no web site, just a form. Do you
A. Go straight to survey monkey
B. Hand code something
C. Fire up another drupal installation
A friend is starting a new business, do you… Read More
04/03/2020Website launch: Waldersey Farms
We've just launched a new website for Waldersey Farms, one of the largest farming groups in the UK.
Based in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire they are engaged not only in farming, but estate management and environmental protection.
18/02/2020E-commerce Website Launch: LLangollen Brewery
We've just launched another Drupal 8 e-commerce site, this time for a craft ale producer in North Wales.
They have a very exciting range of contemporary lagers and ales, plus a solid selection of traditional beers.
Buying online is simple, even for mobile viewers. The checkout process is very streamlined with credit card processing by WorldPay.
Cheers!
03/02/2020Drupal v Wordpress - Structured Data v Free Text
We are often asked the question, "Which is better, Wordpress or Drupal?" there is no right answer to this question, ultimately, it depends on the project. Select the correct tool for the job. Generally speaking, Drupal is a better fit for large sites with a lot of data. Wordpress - and hosted CMS platforms such as Wix - are suited to smaller-scale ventures.
What is it that Drupal has that Wordpress does not that allows it to scale like this? There are many areas to look at, but one big one is the fundamental question of how the two… Read More
31/01/2020It's Time to Upgrade to Drupal 8
Drupal 8, the best CMS (Content Management System for your website) in the world, has been maturing over the past couple of years and is now in a very healthy state - it's time to make the move.
It is now time for any site still running on Drupal 7 to start planning the upgrade to version 8, but don't worry - we are here to help you through it! It's a relatively simple process which will bring your site up to date - and make it easier to stay up to date.
Why upgrade to Drupal 8?Drupal 7 is nearing its end of life. What does… Read More
30/01/2020Using Composer to Upgrade to Drupal 8.8
Drupal 8.8 brings some changes to Drupal's update system. For the first time, composer is the default method for updating - if you've got sites set up using expanded file sets, now is the time to make the switch to a composer setup.
There are also a few 'gotchas' to be navigated along the way, here is a rundown of our recipe for a safe and happy update experience.
If you are switching from a non-composer setup to a composer setup, your first action is to create a new site using composer
> composer create-project… Read More
27/11/2019Get a Backup Strategy, Now!
After a recent hard disk failure happily resulted in zero data loss, we ponder on the vital role of backups.
Bad things happen, they are unavoidable. Whether it's human error or physical degradation, we can help you to manage your resources so that a problem does not turn into a catastrophe.
It's not enough to say, well, I think we have backups running, you need to have a working backup system that can cater for all eventualities.
What is your problem?It's important when planning a backup strategy to think about… Read More
17/10/2019Pros and Cons of In-House CMS Systems v Drupal
We were very surprised to hear recently of a company using a vendor's own in-house CMS, we thought these had died out years ago!
There are, however, some serious down-sides to using a CMS created by an individual company - especially when compared to a system such as Drupal:
SecurityAll websites are constantly being scanned for vulnerabilities by malicious users, Drupal has a security team issuing patches on a regular (monthly) basis to keep your site protected. It is constantly stress-tested and maintained by its global… Read More
08/08/2019Goodbye Drupal 6, Hello Drupal 9
Last month we said a sad goodbye to our last remaining Drupal 6 sites.
These were set up for Dentsply a multi-national dental supplies company who has since changed name and corporate sturucture. They remained as Drupal 6 sites owing to the changes in the company and a lack of focus to do anything with them - either upgrade or replace.
However, this has been an interesting experience as it has shown us that Drupal sites can live long after their official end of life. According to the official Drupal announcement, the EOL (end… Read More
08/08/2019Drupal Commerce 2 - How to Switch to Dev Branch
Working with Drupal 8 and Commerce 2 requires sites to be built using composer, a PHP dependency manager.
Composer is a fantastic tool for managing code and the ever-growing mesh of dependencies which form the backbone of modern websites. However, it can be a royal *headache* when it won't behave!
We recently had a requirement to switch a Commerce 2 site from the stable code branch to the 2.x-dev branch - and found a bunch of problems stopping us from doing that. The essence of the problem is that everything is dependent on… Read More