January 29th, 2010 by Arcas Computing
We are pleased to announce the launch of our latest site, http://www.totallysorted.co.uk!
The site is a for a new business which aims to offer people home organisation, decluttering and other useful services. The client approached us wanting a website for their new business as well as help regards the overall branding of the site and we were please to help.
This is yet another Joomla 1.5 website which we have built so, as always, if you are interested in getting a website which you can take control of then why not contact us for more information?
Posted in Site Launch
January 25th, 2010 by Arcas Computing
We have just launched our latest site, Craig’s Eco Construction, a website for a local construction business located in West Lothian.
Having worked with the parent company Craig’s Construction on their previous website build (design by Darren Perry from Babes In The Womb) they wanted to create another website for a special side-area of the business which deals exclusively with energy-efficient and eco-friendly constructions and techniques.
We therefore created a design template for them within a Joomla 1.5 installation and then instructed them in how to create the content for their site and how to administer the pages. We guided them through this process until they were happy with the content they had and so we are now happy to launch the site for them!
Check out the finished product here.
Posted in Site Launch
January 13th, 2010 by Arcas Computing
We were approached by the MD of the Waterless Valet Company to assist him with a series of sites that he runs for franchises across the country.
Since he had a number of sites all of which had contact forms which would email the results to him he was finding that he was getting large amounts of spam to his address every week. What he wanted was for us to research and find a CAPTCHA script which would hopefully cut down on the amount of spam coming in through those forms and roll this out across all of his sites.
CAPTCHA is a technology which is designed to cut down on spam coming in through form-to-email forms on websites by only allowing the form to be submitted if a unique code is entered from an image which appears on screen (you may have seen this on various other websites).
Do you have a problem with spam coming in through forms on your website? If so then perhaps we could help you install a similar system. Contact us to let us know!
Posted in Uncategorized
January 6th, 2010 by Arcas Computing
As an existing customer of our whom we had helped to update their websites in the past we recommended to the chartered consultant town planners PPCA that they upgrade their site to a Joomla 1.5 one in order for them to be able to take control of the updating of site content in the future.
They agreed and we quickly converted their site from a plain, static HTML one into a full-functioning Joomla 1.5 one within a few days (launch delayed due to server issues which were quickly resolved). The site looks and acts exactly as it had when it was static, however they can now edit the content, add pages and insert photos and documents as they please – with ease!
You can view the site at http:/www.ppca.co.uk.
Do you have a static website which you would like to take control of? Would you like to be able to quickly and easily update your own website with fresh content, new pages and photos etc?
Then why not contact us for more information on what it would take to convert your site into a Joomla 1.5 one?
Posted in Joomla Site Conversion
January 5th, 2010 by Arcas Computing
The owner of the site www.lasertechdiscos.co.uk came to us because he was experiencing some problems with his website which was still running under Joomla 1.0 after his hosts upgraded to PHP5. He therefore asked us to upgrade his site to Joomla 1.5 as a matter of urgency since his site was non-functioning over one of the busiest times of year for him.
We therefore rebuilt his site’s template in a Joomla 1.5 compatible format then exported and imported all content from the old site to the new one. Since this upgrade isn’t always a straightforward process we then had to go back through each page and verify it was working and looking as it should. In addition we had to research and install/configure several extensions that his site was making use of to their Joomla 1.5 equivelants including an MP3 player, a gallery component and a contact form.
We performed the upgrade within a week or so of being asked and the site was once again live and functioning!
Upgrading from Joomla 1.0 to Joomla 1.5 is not only a good idea when your site stops working properly because of hosting upgrades but it is actually now essential for security reasons. Since Joomla 1.0 reached end of life in the Summer of last year it is no longer being upgraded or patched which potentially could mean security problems for you and your site.
If you have an existing Joomla 1.0 site then we recommend you upgrade it immediately to Joomla 1.5 in order to ensure it is secure. Once this is done you will also have access to all the latest components and plugins for the system – contact us for more details on how we can help!
Posted in Joomla 1.0 Conversion
December 29th, 2009 by Arcas Computing
We are proud to announce the launch of our latest site www.myrace.co.uk!
The site is a replacement site for an existing, basic HTML site for Scotland’s top running magazine and when the client came to us in mid-December they told us that they needed the site done before January 1st – we told them no problem!
The site is a slightly different one for us in that it is the first one we have built with membership control built into it. The site owners wanted to allow people register with the magazine/site and pay a subscription fee online with all membership details and access controlled auotmatically by the site itself.
We researched the available extensions and found the perfect one which allows for:
- Online automated user registration
- Online payments (using Paypal)
- Complete control over what content can be accessed
- Automated “switching off” of memberships when they expire
- The potential for different levels of user access (ie “Gold” and “Silver” membership)
It was also vital that users who registered were able to get instant access to the restricted content as soon as their payments had been received and we managed to configure the extension to do so.
You can view the site now at www.myrace.co.uk!
Do you have a site with membership control or a site which you would like to install membership control onto? If so contact us to see if a similar setup to myRace.co.uk would be of benefit to you!
Posted in Site Launch
December 21st, 2009 by Arcas Computing
PlanetHPC is a new project from the EPCC group at Edinburgh University which we have just designed and launched a website for.
They came to us wanting a clean, efficient website design for a website which would have both public and private content to allow them to give out information relating to the project and its subject area.
We built the site using Joomla 1.5 and configured secure members-only access to certain pages and content for them. We also installed and configured a forum through which their members could post messages and participate in discussions relating the project and beyond.
In addition we made use of the JoomDoc plugin to allow them to prevent unauthorised access to the documents which they were offering for download to ensure that only members could access them.
The site is now live at www.planethpc.eu.
Posted in Site Launch
November 13th, 2009 by Arcas Computing
We were recently approached by the owner of the just-launched website Yooni Circle, a website dedicated to student life, who had had their site built by another developer using Joomla 1.5 but who had several issues that their current developer wasn’t able to address. They therefore wanted us to help them change the configuration and implementation of their site to ensure that it worked in the way they wanted it to and within two days we had their site ready to go with all issues addressed. We also provided some basic training on the usage of the system.
We are only too happy to assist customers who have existing Joomla sites (1.0 or 1.5) that have been designed and built by other developers, whether that be installing new extensions, configuring existing extensions, recommending extensions to use, adjusting the way the site works (ie for security) and also providing training on how to use the various, often very powerful, features of Joomla 1.5. We can also patch your site to the latest security release which is an important part of the maintenance of any Joomla site and is highly recommended in order to keep your site secure and stable.
Do you have an existing Joomla website that you would like to change or develop? If you have then why not get in touch with us to see if we can help? In order to get the most from any website it should be constantly changed, adjusted and grown and this is easier than ever with Joomla so why not take advantage of it?
We helped Yooni Circle … maybe we can help you too!
Posted in Joomla
November 9th, 2009 by Arcas Computing
We have started work on a brand-new site for the stoves provider Bonk & Co .
The site will be a fairly extensive pamphlet-style website which will feature a much more modern, CSS-based design and will list all the products and services that they provide. The site will be based upon Joomla 1.5 to allow the client to quickly and easily update the content and add new pages as and when they please.
We are currently in the middle of the initial design process and will soon be starting work on the page build.
Posted in Joomla, New Projects
October 28th, 2009 by Arcas Computing
We have been chosen by the EPCC, Edinburgh University’s Supercomputer Group, to design, build and develop a new website for the PlanetHPC project which will launch in November.
The site will feature publicly-accessible content as well as restricted-access content which will only be made available to registered members, who will be vetted by the PlanetHPC staff before having their accounts approved and access granted. The site will feature forums and download pages and will be based on Joomla 1.5.
The timescale is fairly short on this project so we are looking towards a mid-to-late November launch, based upon the client’s ability to supply us with the neccessary content. More news on this project will be posted to this blog as it comes along.
Posted in New Projects
