The 'How We Do It' Blog

Disclosure: Optimate Group Pty Ltd has an interest in Urban Heirlooms and Garden Clippings.

Background:
The Jujube Tree Nursery was becoming an established business, and being an all-round plant-nut in general (!), I was motivated to expand into other rarer and unusual plants — not only edibles like jujubes, but ornamentals as well. I chose the names Urban Heirlooms for the edibles and Garden Clippings for the ornamentals.

Analysis:
It soon became apparent that there would be some overlap between the two sites. For example, a coffee tree can be both an edible and an ornamental. As could a pot of lemongrass with its gorgeous draping foliage! Similarly the Air-Pot^® containers we sell, which I swear by, are products common to both sites.

Similarly, there were bound to also be blog posts common to both sites, such as this one on scientific nomenclature and this one on the Air-Pot^® containers.

The thought of duplicating products and posts across two sites was horrific! Never mind needing to log into one site to adjust the stock quantities of an item actually sold on the other site.

The Approach:
The obvious and only choice for me was to take full advantage of the ability of OpenCart to run multiple stores in the one installation. (Much like how b2evolution can also run multiple domains and websites in the one installation.) This way you only need enter a product once, or write a blog post once, and set whichever store(s) you want each to display on. You also have complete control over how each site looks — while my two stores have an identical theme, it is very much possible to have each store display a completely different look.

And while both my stores have an identical theme partly for branding and partly because of the natural overlap each has with the other, I still needed each to be slightly individual. Each has a very similar, but still different home page for example, with a slideshow and banners in identical positions, but with content unique to each. Similarly, the footer and product pages of each store are very much alike, but altered slightly so as to display each store’s unique email address.

And all updates are done through a single login too, no matter how many different stores and domains you have!

In Conclusion:
OpenCart’s ability to run multiple stores in a single installation proved invaluable here. I still needed to spend as much time building each store as if I had built each as a separate installation, but being able to work on both stores in the one spot alone was worth the price of admission! And without question so much more time will be saved down the track as both sites grow.

Please get in touch if you’d like a similar set up for your own needs, or even if you’re just after a single OpenCart store — it is very easy to add future stores at any time, and we can supply the web hosting prowess that makes this easier again. We run our own web hosting company with full control over our own servers, unlike many others that are actually reliant on third-parties and the pitfalls that can entail.

For example, yes, it is very straightforward to set up multiple stores in the one installation (though a touch fiddly and time-consuming to make everything perfect). However, not all hosting companies make available the ability to create subdomains and addon domains that make this possible in the first place. If your hosting company does not allow the creation of subdomains and addons then you will not be able to run more than one store per OpenCart installation.

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Back in September 2017 I began a blog on animal breeding. It was part personal interest and part sounding out a business idea. The personal interest was my wanting to explore more deeply the science of breeding. This is incredibly maths-intensive, and there was potential, with the help of the programmers on our team, to create subscription-based software that did all these calculations for all animals in a central database.

Yes, this already exists for large, commercial industries such as cattle and sheep, and is well-resourced and funded. Our version, if there was a demand, was aimed at a smaller industry, and worldwide, so breeders in one country could compare their own animals locally, nationally and even internationally.

The plan was to create the blog — I wanted to anyway — and see what interest there was. The blog did attract subscribers and non-subscriber regular readers, but there was not enough demand to fund development of software, and the project lapsed.

But this post isn’t about that — that was simply the necessary backstory. This post is to showcase just how deep and thorough our research can be, even when coming in cold on a subject with not much knowledge or experience.

In this case, I had a good knowledge of genetics from university days, but had never studied breeding. I wanted to learn more, and so began!

I registered a domain — now expired — and installed b2evolution. Because it’s b2evolution (!), it was very simple to transfer the entire site across to another b2evolution installation when that domain expired. And here it is here, The Better Breeding Blog. You can see for yourself just how detailed the content is, with all images, graphs and maths by me as well!

If you’re in need of a researcher and writer who can, well, research and write on even difficult and technical subjects, please do get in touch!

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We’ve used, and seen come and go over many years, many ecommerce platforms. We have even written — and still do where appropriate — custom mini-platforms of our own. And when something comes along that does everything we need, we pay attention!

The ecommerce software OpenCart in its current form came onto the scene in 2009, and by 2017 had evolved into a platform with many features of interest to us. We tested it on a few of our own sites, and were very impressed. We could see OpenCart had a potentially great future, and stuck by it through every upgrade. We saw vast improvements with every major upgrade, and it is now our go-to software when needing a sophisticated ecommerce platform.

We chose OpenCart for several reasons.

Like our two content management systems, b2evolution and Silverstripe, it is open source with a strong developer and support community behind it.

Our web hosting service enables OpenCart to be installed with a couple of clicks, and the default ‘out of the box’ design is pleasing and easy to navigate. This combination is ideal for people who just want a shop up and running quickly, but who lack the technical expertise to do it all from scratch. (We can, and do, install and set up OpenCart shops for people who’d much rather that option.)

The massive third-party market was another factor in our consideration. Pretty much any look can be created from the plethora of themes (or ’skins’) available, and while looks aren’t everything, some themes certainly lend themselves to better navigation that others. (I’ll cover examples in future posts.)

There is also a massive marketplace for third-party add-ons which extend the shop’s functionality, whether you need a specialised report or incredibly-detailed control over postage calculations.

An OpenCart site can also handle blogs, though this is not part of the core code and does have to be added after a default installation. This is a brilliant feature that helps with content creation and search engine optimisation, and can be used to link to products for extra promotion. I wrote about an OpenCart site with a blog here.

Speaking of search engine optimisation, OpenCart has this ability built-in, though it does require a small change to a file on the server to implement, which we can help you with. Once implemented, you can create search engine-friendly urls, meta tags, meta descriptions, and keywords for all categories, products and blog posts on your site.

OpenCart is also very easy to use, whether you jump in to explore for yourself, or prefer some get-up-to-speed directions and a little helping hand. Once you know your way around one thing it is a simple matter applying that everywhere else.

If you’re considering setting up an ecommerce site, please do get in touch! We can discuss how best to set up a store to sell your products. We can help you get started with full support, or for a negotiated fee are most happy to do all the site maintenance on your behalf. This could include all product entries, writing blog content to complement your products, or both.

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All too often people attribute a poorly-performing site with its (to them, lack of) looks. They see a competitor’s site which they feel looks ‘prettier’ or ‘more modern’ than their own, immediately perceive that to be more successful, and want their own to look exactly the same.

This is a classic example of the grass being greener on the other side, with a bit of ‘eye of the beholder’ and a nod to style over substance thrown in for good measure!

In reality there is no way to know whether another site is ‘doing better’ just by looking at it — your site may in fact be the superior one and you don’t even know it!

Let’s examine possible reasons as to why this could be the case, or not.

Looks

We all know the saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, but let’s be honest and admit that we all probably do it anyway. Even if only sometimes! Similarly, people do and will judge a site by its looks, absolutely.

So yes, looks are important — to the extent that they may make or break a favourable first impression. But I’ll almost guarantee that you comparing others’ sites with your own on the basis of looks only, is you in the mindset of a casual visitor to that site. How does a customer compare sites? What do they see, and why are they there in the first place?

I can assure you as a mad plant-nut that I’ve seen plenty of old, awful-looking plant sites and plenty of pretty, modern-looking plant sites. And I’ve bought from the older sites just as much as from the newer sites. Without prejudice or favouritism.

Why? Because they have what I am looking for. If a site has a rare or unique something that no other site has, I don’t care how old or ugly the site looks, I’m buying that thing, and from that site, because that site and only that site has what I want.

In fact, you could make an argument that the older and uglier a site is, the more trustworthy and reliable it may be, because it’s been around a while and is still in business.

So while a casual, uninterested visitor may immediately click away to some other site, a person looking for information or to buy something is going to stay a little longer, regardless of how the site ‘looks’. This is because they aren’t there for looks, but for…

Content

Content, the one thing that determines whether a visitor leaves, sticks around a little longer, makes contact with you, or buys right there and then. The prettiest site in the world may be the most devoid of anything of interest, and its looks won’t ever be enough to keep potential customers there. The simplest, most amateurish-looking site packed with the best content, whether information or products, will.

There is a caveat, in that no matter how content-rich your site is, your customers still need to find what they’re looking for! How good is your…

Search-Engine Optimisation and Navigation

These two elements are crucial in attracting customers. Optimsing your site’s content gets your site in front of potential customers in the first place, and once on your site, good navigation helps them to stay and explore everything you have to say. Broken links and information buried in obscure and poorly-labelled sub-menus are not the best ways to turn visitors into customers.

Your Niche

You may feel that your site isn’t attracting as much business as you’d like. But if you’re in a very small or exclusive niche, you may well be attracting the lion’s share of that tiny market and not realise this. Are enquiries and sales coming in at a fairly regular rate, even if only once a week or less? That’s actually a good sign, especially if you’re new to that market. It shows that there is a reliable clientele you can work with, and that you’re already attracting them. Consider complementary products you can add, or other ways to value-add and add revenue to your business. Keep at it little by little and you’ll be amazed at how a once-weekly enquiry or sale becomes twice-weekly, thrice-weekly, and soon, a fully-fledged sideline or even business. (We have a lot of experience with up-selling and cross-selling — get in touch for a chat! — and have a knack for thinking up ideas that aren’t always obvious to people immersed in their business.)

In Conclusion

If you genuinely feel your site should be performing better than it is, please do look deeper than just its looks. Looks, after all, are only skin-deep. It’s what’s inside that really counts.

Do consider your customers and what they are looking for, and finetune your site to their mindset. Add content that speaks to them, and they will come with time. If you have what they are looking for, your site will be the most beautiful sight (!) to their eyes, and they will stay, and they will buy.

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We have two go-to Content Management Systems (CMS), b2evolution (overview here), and Silverstripe (overview here).

Both are open source applications, and with a strong developer community behind them. And each has its particular strengths which makes one better suited for some solutions and one better suited for other solutions.

Where b2evolution Shines

b2evolution is designed to work straight out-of-the-box and immediately upon installation. Everything including a home page is automatically created and all a user need do is log in and add their own content. Pages can be created and modified to some extent without needing to know any code.

Once installed, anyone can, in theory, log in immediately and create any combination of multi-page websites, blogs, photo galleries, forums, and online manuals/books right then and there without knowing a line of code. I say ‘in theory’ as there is a learning curve, as with anything new and unfamiliar. But even then, b2evolution has the option of installing sample data that helps people navigate their way and learn as they go. The sample data can be easily deleted or simply overwritten with real content. (Even so, we are most happy to install and set up a b2evolution-driven site on your behalf, with your content, and of course offer full hand-holding support all the way!)

The default looks are aesthetic as well as functional, and the software is search-engine and mobile-friendly from the outset. b2evolution is for people who don’t want to mess around with styling, and who just want to get on and write, blog, showcase photos, or create a community forum.

Many hosting providers, including us, include the ability to install a wide range of software with a couple of clicks. b2evolution is one such software, and thus can be installed and set up by anyone regardless of technical ability. (Nonetheless, we provide full support with our hosting accounts should people not feel confident doing this themselves.)

At its simplest, b2evolution requires no more than to pay for a domain and hosting account, and to have the willingness to learn and use it. For more outlay, we are of course more than happy to set up a fully-working self-managed site populated with your content. We are also most happy to continue managing it on your behalf for a negotiated ongoing fee.

Where Silverstripe Shines

Silverstripe’s strength is that any bespoke site can be made editable, no matter how specialised or technical the requirements. (Future posts will showcase examples of these.) This is because Silverstripe is a ‘framework’, a set of coding tools that enables a developer to turn any static site into a site that can be managed by anyone, regardless of skill set. This allows far more flexibility with design too, as Silverstripe slots into the site rather than is the site. This means we can either design a site from scratch to your exact requirements, or adopt an existing design — we then add Silverstripe to make the entire site self-manageable.

This allows incredible control across the entire site — there is no compromise on design or function as there can be with b2evolution, as any aspect of the design or usability can be made self-editable. Silverstripe has proven its worth when needing to add and update slideshows, highly stylised image galleries, and downloadable files such as minutes and other documents  — the user simply logs in and uploads the files, and Silverstripe makes sure they display where and how they need to.

Silverstripe is a tool for professional programmers with a deep knowledge of PHP, javascript and MySQL, and thus not something ‘just anyone’ can set up and create an editable site with. However, once a Silverstripe site has been developed, it is incredibly easy to maintain yourself — you can even create additional pages yourself if necessary.

Once set up, a Silverstripe site is very easy to manage — in fact we rarely hear from anyone with a support query, and even then those are requests for something new to be added rather than calls for help.

If you’d like to explore further the possibility of using b2evolution or Silverstripe as a CMS, or to seek a quote, please do get in touch! We pride ourselves on offering genuine no-strings-attached advice, and if we don’t think something is appropriate we will say so. If we think a different solution will work best for you, or even another service we don’t offer, we will say that too.

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Often a website needs to be more than a set of simple pages with content attached. Different sections of the site will suit different layouts that best promote the parts of your content that matter most, and strong cohesion of information between pages will be desirable. For instance, you might have a set of products or services that each merit a full description, and would like to list them all on another page, each with a short summary for comparison. With the Silverstripe CMS, we can automatically update the list based on changes made to its individual members, so you only need to enter information in a single place.

Silverstripe is fundamentally a framework – a set of ready-made code that focuses on the nitty-gritty foundations of a website, so we can focus on extending it to suit your needs. Out of the box, Silverstripe appears bare-bones, providing little more than a basic text field for each page. That is because the strength of the Silverstripe CMS is its extensible flexibility, and that flexibility is achieved by having no preconceptions of how you want your website to work. Instead, we can work with you to address what you need and provide a site and CMS that works for you and your content, rather than requiring you to work around it.

Advantages

Custom-Built

Easily the most significant aspect of the Silverstripe CMS is that the “meat” of the site is built for your requirements. With it, your site can retain its unique flavour that makes you stand out.

We have ample experience moving content and designs over to Silverstripe, such that the new site looks and feels exactly the same to your visitors as it had before, but with the added bonus of being intuitively edited and managed by yourself. Other platforms would require a significant shift in layout and presentation. With Silverstripe, we have never needed to abandon anyone’s unique flair.

Ease-of-Use

As any Silverstripe site is built to your specific use case, it is free of the baggage that more “generic” approaches need to address a wide base of users’ requirements. The interface of the CMS is self-documenting and intuitive, and especially easy to navigate when your ready-made content is already present.

Performant and Secure

Because the Silverstripe framework provides a firmly-designed backbone for your site, we can focus exclusively on your business needs without the risk of exposing protected information to attackers, nor the hassle of working to prevent it.

A site built with Silverstripe is fast and performant, so none of your visitors will be annoyed or turned away by sluggish load times and can find what they need.

Disadvantages

Development Expertise

To properly bring a vision into the Silverstripe CMS requires a skilled developer with knowledge of the language of the framework and its API. Unfortunately this does take additional time, but the result of a website built specifically for your purposes is well worth it.

Maintenance

As a framework, Silverstripe doesn’t have the same sort of plugin-based Do-It-Yourself approach seen in other applications. As such, if your needs ever expand you will likely need a developer to implement the necessary changes. Fortunately this is almost never necessary, and the few requests we get from clients are relatively minor with quick turnaround.

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I’ve mentioned b2evolution as one of two Content Mangement Systems (CMS) we use a few times now (the other is Silverstripe) — and no doubt will be mentioning it a few times more!

François Planque, the creator of b2evolution, wrote a post on May 4th, 2019 titled Why we make b2evolution (vs. WordPress, Joomla and Drupal) which covers why b2evolution was designed the way it was, making it better-built and designed overall — all of which I completely agree with.

Like François, I’ve tried plenty of CMSs over the years and been disappointed by all of them. The ones that promised super-simplicity were exactly that — too simple and unable to cope with more sophisticated and complex sites. (And a key reason for why we also chose Silverstripe, the subject of next week’s post, as our other go-to CMS.) Others were more sophisticated, yet lacking in other ways. Still others were just outright nightmares to work with.

In his article, François summed b2evolution up best with this sentence: “No other CMS (content management system) is as integrated as b2evolution. No other CMS is as easy to maintain.”

I wholeheartedly agree, and this post is my take on that statement, and with my reasons for choosing b2evolution over the plethora of alternatives out there. Mind you, I’m not so blinded that I can’t recognise b2evolution’s deficiencies — of which, for me, there are two which I’ll also cover.

Advantages

Plugins (or rather, a lack thereof)

The more famous CMSs that can cope with complex sites — WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are the best-known — look very slick and professional on the outside but are absolute horrors to maintain on the inside. They rely on too many third-party plugins for maximum functionality, whereas b2evolution has everything — and I mean everything — built right into the core software.

Take WordPress for example, probably the most popular CMS out there. It began as a dedicated blogging platform, but over the years more and more things were bolted on to make it more like a CMS. Unfortunately, adding ‘things’ to software for which it was never intended has consequences. Worse is when adding those ‘things’ relies on external, independent developers to provide them by way of third-party plugins. For WordPress especially, many of its ‘best’ features are only available as installed third-party plugins. Even making a WordPress site search-engine friendly requires a third-party plugin!

There are a few problems that come with relying on third-party plugins for key functionality. One is that the quality of the plugin is completely down to the proficiency of the developer, and some developers write incredibly poor code. Some deliberately write (free) plugins with the sole intent of compromising your site and infecting it with who-knows-what!

Another common problem is that some plugins may clash with others. Fixing a site that has broken because of a plugin clash is an absolute nightmare — do you hope one or another developer issues a patch quickly, or do you uninstall one of the plugins? In which case which one stays and which one goes?

And absolutely the worst problem is when an upgrade to the core software breaks some or all of the plugins you rely on, and round and round you go again with patches, clashes, and fixing breakages.

What would be an external plugin for other CMSs comes already built into b2evolution’s core, though documentation is available for those wishing to develop their own bespoke ones. The few external b2evolution plugins that are available to install are intended for users of older versions of the software that need the feature but don’t wish to upgrade for whatever reason. New b2evolution plugins are routinely bundled into the core software by the development team and are easily activated within the software with a single click. And because they are part of the core code, and added by people who actually work on the core code, they never break any other part of the site.

Maintenance

Maintenance of a b2evolution site couldn’t be easier, with no plugin clashes to worry about, and with plugin updates automatically carried across with core software updates. One upgrade installation upgrades everything, in one go and without fuss or breakage.

Multiple Websites on the One Installation

Admittedly this isn’t needed by most people, but is an incredible feature nonetheless, and unique in the world of CMSs. One installation of b2evolution can literally handle any number of completely different websites and domains. Which means a single upgrade propagates immediately to each and every one of those sites and domains. And all accessible by one login! Absolutely ideal for anyone with a blog on one domain and a completely unrelated site on another domain — combine the two (or three, four,…) within one installation and one hosting account!

Completely Integrated: Built-In and Ready to Go

b2evolution comes with a site-builder, a blogging engine, a photo gallery, online manual/book documenting software, and forum software built-in and ready to go. Better still, because of the ability to run multiple websites with one installation, any number of each and every one of these can be set up in the one installation as described above. Case studies here show the different ways a b2evolution installation can be moulded for specific requirements.

Internal Messaging Software and User Levels

Anyone who creates an account on a b2evolution installation can message anyone else with an account and who allows themselves to be messaged. This is particularly useful on a site with forum activity, for example, where some conversations between participants evolve into private ones, or an administrator needs to be contacted privately. It’s also a handy way for collaborators on a book project or several editors of a large blog to keep in touch with each other.

Users can be further assigned permission levels that allow degrees of accessibility. A user could have administrator, moderator, or editor permissions for example. Other users could have special access to private sections of a site — a good example of this is where a blog is mostly public, but paid subscribers are entitled to access private content.

Again, I stress that all of this functionality is built-in and ready to go with every installation. This is not the case for many other CMSs out there, such as WordPress, which require any number of plugins for the same functionality.

Disadvantages

Themes/Skins

This is definitely the most common criticism of b2evolution in the community. A ’skin’ or ‘theme’ is a collection of files that change the appearance of a site without touching the content. Compare one of our b2evolution sites, The Jujube Tree Nursery, with this very Broad Ribbon Designs one, for example. They have different home page and internal page ‘looks’, and this is because each uses a different theme. However, you may notice similarities as well, especially concerning the look of the blog on each. (The look of the blog can be changed too, but I stuck with the default version for both as it’s the best for my purposes).

These similarities are due to a lack of off-the-shelf themes together with a lack of flexibility in modifying them without some serious coding. Developers can still create their own bespoke looks, as they can create their own plugins, of course. WordPress and others definitely have the advantage here with themes, and whole markets exist that cater just for this alone.

eCommerce

A lack of built-in ecommerce ability is a lesser criticism in the wider community, but very much a major one for me. b2evolution shipping with a built-in shop would be my every dream come true! While I get around this problem by simply installing separate, dedicated ecommerce software, this isn’t ideal as it requires separate logins, databases, and behind-the-scenes tinkering to make the two installations appear as one. Without question WordPress is superior with its WooCommerce plugin (albeit a third-party plugin at that!) which not only does do a good job, but more importantly is accessible via the same login as the main WordPress one.

Learning Curve

I’ve included b2evolution’s steep learning curve here as some people would definitely name that as a criticism. But I regard this as an unavoidable consequence of the software’s incredible power. b2evolution, as shown above, can handle a wide variety of situations and complexity with ease. Some incredibly sophisticated stuff has even been added with experienced and seasoned web developers in mind (and can be otherwise safely ignored without consequence!).

But this sophistication does come at a cost: firstly knowing how to access this functionality, and then knowing what to do with it once you do find it. This can be intimidating or even overwhelming to a newcomer, especially one without much web development experience, which is why there is an option to include sample data with a first-time installation. Exploring the sample data and set-up is a great hands-on way to get up to speed on the software while learning as you go. Alternatively we can set up an installation and populate it with enough real content to hand over to you, with full support always available.

On that note, if b2evolution appeals to you as a solution for your own web site(s), or you’d like to explore further the possibility of using it, by all means don’t hesitate to get in touch!

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Background:
The AABFJ (Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal) is a double blind peer reviewed academic journal published by the University of Wollongong. I was approached by the founding editor-in-chief, Dr Ciorstan Smark, to format and edit submitted papers in the early days after the original editor could no longer. I performed this role for two years.

Implementation:
The first step was to format the plain Word documents that were accepted for publication. These could have any combination of font, font size and margin applied, so these were the first items to be standardised — all pages and all papers to be published. To each I then added the AABFJ logo to the first page and applied styles to the title, headings, sub-headings, paragraphs and bullet lists:

And because this is a journal, additional formatted was needed, such as inclusion of keywords and formatting all citations and references to comply with the UOW Harvard referencing style.

The next step was to edit the content. This included the routine fixing of typographical and grammatical errors, of course. But English was not a first language for many authors, so sentences and paragraphs were also reworded and rearranged where appropriate for easier reading.

In Conclusion:
I’ll let Dr Smark’s testimonial speak here:

Kristi has now edited and prepared proofs for several issues of AABFJ (Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal). Kristi’s academic background and experience make her easy to work with from an academic journal’s point of view because she understands the conventions of academic publishing and writing.

Kristi has very good attention to detail and is always prompt and professional in her work which makes working with her a very pleasant experience.

Yours sincerely,

(signed)
Dr Ciorstan Smark
Editor in chief – AABFJ

If you have your own journal or magazine, whatever its audience, and need technical assistance with formatting and editing, by all means don’t hesitate to get in touch!

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Disclosure: Optimate Group Pty Ltd has an interest in The International Alpaca Reference Library.

Background:
A long-time client (Ian) rang out of the blue and asked if I’d like to set up an online library for alpaca breeders, and I said ’sure!’. Ian knew what he wanted, but was very happy to leave all the implementation to me — we have worked with each other for years and he trusted me implicitly to git ’er done. (This eventually evolved into a partnership: Ian’s contribution was to source all the articles and mine was to put everything together.)

Analysis:
The site was to be the definitive reference site (library) for all alpaca-related information and scientific research, and would rely on funds from sponsorships, donations, and running advertisements for ongoing maintenance.

Ian provided links to a plethora of alpaca-related articles and research papers via Word docs. I needed a way to collate those links in a way that was ordered and logical, as in a library, and which didn’t breach copyright or was plagiarism. These articles also needed to be found easily with a search function. Writing the software from scratch was possible, but was not a viable option owing to time and costs involved. And because this was a site for alpaca breeders, and this was around the time the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal was in the news, we thought it worth adding an online community/forum for the intended readership, which was guaranteed to protect people’s privacy.

The Approach:
The obvious and only choice for me was the excellent Content Management System (CMS) software, b2evolution. It took no time to install and within a day I had the basic structure fleshed out. This included a custom home page, two library sections, a page which recognised all supporters, a page which recognised all advertisers, and a forum. I also added a page advising how people could sponsor, donate, or otherwise advertise on the site, and linked that to an OpenCart ecommerce installation for taking payments online. (The lack of inbuilt ecommerce functionality is the only downside to b2evolution in my mind, but even that is now a promised feature on its way I hear!)

The software comes with a ‘manual’ interface, which made the collation of articles a breeze. I could create any number of categories and sub-categories, each of which then displayed a list of relevant articles or papers by title and a text snippet. Clicking on a title displayed more information again, such as the author, date of publication, name of publication, and a larger text snippet. A link to the full article or paper was provided for people to follow if interested.

b2evolution made it very easy to organise and display sponsors’ and others’ advertisements. The same ads were displayed together on the aforementioned sponsors and advertisers pages, further displayed by category within those dedicated pages, and were further again displayed individually in dedicated positions on all other pages. It was also a simple matter to have ads appear in a randomised order, which ensured all advertisers had an equal chance of being in the number one (or only) spot for any given page view.

In Conclusion:
Having access to the wonderful b2evolution CMS saved countless hours of time in development. Using that time to build the site, rather than its foundation. was far more productive and rewarding. Indeed, it took much much longer adding the content than setting up the site itself — and that site was a rather involved and sophisticated project in the grand scheme of things.

The only aspect b2evolution couldn’t handle was the ecommerce requirement, but that may soon be a problem of the past, and our go-to ecommerce software OpenCart more than adequately fills that role in the meantime. Apart than that, b2evolution readily handled every other need we could throw at it, with plenty of room left over for even more large-scale upsizing if required. For example, the forum never really took off despite our best efforts — Facebook probably won out in the end — but if it had, one idea we had was to offer regular/popular/informative posters their own blogging platform on the Library site. And we could do this for any number of guest bloggers without b2evolution breaking stride, it really is that powerful. I’ll be writing more about this software — you may have gathered by now that I am quite enamoured of it!

Please get in touch if you’d like a similar set up for your own needs. We can make it as simple or as sophisticated as you need from the outset, and the beauty of a powerful CMS like b2evolution is that the site can grow as you grow, without any compromise in performance, as this case study has shown. All support offered should you wish to maintain the site yourself, or we can do this on your behalf, whether fully or in part, in whichever way works best for you.

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A Content Management System, or CMS, is software that enables people to manage online content efficiently. A CMS enables people who don’t know how to build a website to still maintain and run their own site regardless. A CMS is also an incredible time-saver for people who do know how to build websites, but who would rather spend time creating content.

We (Broad Ribbon Designs) use CMSs for both groups of people — our clients who mostly fall into the first category, and other clients along with ourselves in the second category. The site you’re reading this on uses a CMS, for example.

The ‘content’ that is ‘managed’ can be anything: web pages, news articles, newsletters, blog articles, online tech/how-to manuals, online books, photo journals (also called photo blogging), video journals (also called video blogging or vlogging), and online forums. Ecommerce software is also a form of CMS, albeit more specialised.

While we have worked with other software (usually when ‘inheriting’ a new client’s legacy setup), our go-to ecommerce software is OpenCart and our two general-purpose CMSs are b2evolution and Silverstripe.

We like to have a pick of two, as b2evolution is simply better for some things while Silverstripe is better for other things. I chose b2evolution for this site broadribbon.com.au because of its excellent blogging engine for example — this was my sole reason as this blog is a major part of this site. This was also one of several reasons behind choosing b2evolution for The Jujube Tree Nursery website.

I’ll be covering Silverstripe and the reason it was chosen for other applications in future case studies.

Feel free to get in touch if you’d to discuss the setup of a CMS for your own needs, whether ecommerce, general blogging, or a complex multipurpose site. We can lay out for you the common pros and cons we’ve seen over many years, and help suggest a best-fit approach to take.

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