Pocock & Shaw 'recently modernised' by MJB Data
A chance encounter, some broken functions and good timing leads to a complete redevelopment of pocock.co.uk.
Andrew Brown of Pocock and Shaw contacted MJB at the end of August 04 to see if something could be done about the lack of thumbnails on Pocock's property listings on MJB's Cambridge Property Database website. Completely rebuiding pococok.co.uk was an option but at the time no-one thought that that was what would happen. However, during the course of a few conversations it started to look as though a rebuild was propably a very good idea - the old site had a few problems that nobody seemed to be able to fix, and MJB had a production slot available.
HTML? FTP? Do people still do that?
Editing and uploading HTML pages can be a real drag, particularly when you have a large inventory to manage. Searching and other functions can be a headache with static files, and style and structural inconsistencies can crop up all over the place.
A database application with a website stuck on the front is lot more useful and efficient. Suddenly, rather than having to wade through a load of strange code, you can concentrate entirely on content and forget about everything else.
Automatic everything
On the new PAS site titles and headings are styled automatically, images can be uploaded directly to the site through a web browser and are resized automatically. Even different sized thumbnail copies are generated automatically, in the background, and simply appear when needed.
Sure - if you're a whiz with Notepad you can probably knock out web-pages pretty quickly, but then if you're well practiced with a pair of tweazers you can probably pick the dirt out of a carpet in less than 4 hours too, although MJB Data would recommend that you might be better off using a vacuum cleaner.