Bespoke Web Search Tool For UKSearchDirect.com
GiraffeDog.net were contacted by a start up company who were interested in a new online directory allowing people to search for a company or service using an online search engine. UKSearchDirect.com is a commercial venture, and the main source of revenue is from companies wanting a listing on the UKSearchDirect.com website.
The UK online directory service is a multi-million pound industry helping organisations and individuals locate companies who offer a specific product or service whilst charging for this service.
The design brief given to GiraffeDog.net was to develop a scalable company search tool allowing UKSearchDirect.com to update the content themselves using a secure administration panel.
UKSearchDirect.com allows visitors to their website search a specific business or service in an area, giving them contact details as well as the ability to display a small website that explains in more details what the company offers, as well as contact details and associated products and services.
The key web visitor functionality included:
- Simple search facility to look for companies and organisations quickly
- Ability for site visitors to contact the members quickly whilst protecting them from spam abuse
- Ability to search by service, location, post code and/or company name
- Search Engine Optimisation so that it would be found and spidered by Google.com etc
- The key site administration functionality requested included:
- Ability to administer company entries and their expiry dates
- Ability to add new administration users
- Ability to view user action history
- Ability to create mini websites using a simple WYSIWYG HTML editor
- Ability to upload photos using just a browser for client websites
- Ability to backup and restore the database using a secure administration panel
GiraffeDog.net were initially given a basic Microsoft Access Database file with the requirements needed in order to start the project. We used this database as a foundation, suggesting additional elements that could separate UKSearchDirect.com from its competitors.
After researching various technical paths, it was decided that the best solution was to develop most of the site using Active Server Pages (ASP) using a mySQL database foundation, and fill in the gaps using PHP.
GiraffeDog.net have commercial experience in developing professional database driven websites using this technology since 2001.
UKSearchDirect.com was given detailed progress reports, and kept up-to-date with all bug reports and fixes through-out the entire life-cycle of the product.
UKSearchDirect.com is now up and running and providing a commercial solution in the search engine business. The overall development time for this project was six months from inception to going-live date.
We handed over the website and provided a further support role ensuring that all bugs and errors were ironed out during the initial test phase by UKSearchDirect.com.
If you would like to know how we could help your company realise its web dreams, please feel free to contact GiraffeDog.net.
