You will have noticed the Haberdashers' Company website gradually evolving over recent months. Last year the Company took control of the content of the website, which has made it easier to keep up to date. Now we are entering a new era, with the start of a process to tidy up and expand the website.
Stage One: Design You will have noticed that there have been some changes to the look of the website, this is the start of moving the website to a smart, dynamic, professional look - matching the Company's approach. As part of this process the "behind the scenes" structure of the website has been transformed. Now based on OpenSource technology and using MySQL and PHP (for the technical afficionadoes!), we have the platform on which we can base future expansion.
Stage Two: Dynamic Content. You may notice on the website, news items with dates etc. against them. These are now generated automatically, whenever news is added to the website. In addition, all news has a start date and an end date, so that it gracefully expires when no longer relevant. Not quite the BBC website yet, but an improvement and no out-of-date news!
Stage Three: Graphic Re-design. In stage one, the website was tidied up, in this stage a new look has been developed, looking smarter and more professional, the website builds on the work being done to protect, secure, and keep professional the brand of the Company. NEW
Stage Four: Dynamic Content. Further to stage two, the vast majority of the website is now database driven. With a custom built Content Management System (or CMS) behind the scenes the website can be easily edited by anyone with 'Admin' privileges with no technical knowledge at all. This is being developed to allow different people to take ownership of different parts of the website so that they can keep up to date the data they own. NEW
Stage Five: Understanding the visitor. You will have logged in to this site with the usual username and password, however as part of the re-development the security system on the website has been tightened up and expanded to allow us to set up each Haberdasher with their own username and password. You might ask why we would wish to do this; it is so that when you log in the website will know who you are. This will allow the website to be tailored to your requirements, choose the page you go to when you login; check that your address details are held correctly by the company, and update them when you move house, or change your email address; book for events as you do now, but in addition, the website will remember the events you have booked, show you others who have also booked and tell you when there are new events, or changes have been made. Lots of exciting possibilities to give you a more 'personal' view of the website [enough of the trendy jargon - Ed.]. This part is not yet live, but look out for it!
Stage Six: The Future. And on into the future - the structure and technology of the website allows us to develop it in many exciting ways. Why don't you let us know how you would like to use the website - all ideas welcome to: The website.