A Guideline For 3rd Party Designers
Topics Covered:
Introduction
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Most BengeWeb websites run within the "Common Execution Environment". This environment is made up
of various shared resources:
* Shared common scripts
* Shared common data
* Common database table design
* Shared common Images
* Consistent build and implementation processes
* Hosting service and management processes
* Consistent "LAMP" hosting environment - Linux, Apache, MySQL
and PHP
The ability to share such resources makes the process of designing,
building and hosting a website very efficient which becomes a competitive
advantage in regard to pricing for the client.
All websites designed by BengeWeb staff utilise the common execution
environment and it is highly recommended that any 3rd party designer do the
same to take advantage of the efficiencies described above.
To utilise the common execution environment (and BengeWeb modules) a
website may be designed by a 3rd party (usually a web or graphic designer)
but it must be built, implemented and hosted by BengeWeb Services.
If a website has been completely designed, built and ready to be
implemented without reference to the common execution environment, then
BengeWeb offers an industry standard hosting service at a competitive price
that does not utilise the common execution environment or any of the
BengeWeb Modules (see below).
This document describes the flexibilities and boundaries the common
execution environment provides so a web or graphic designer may layout
pages that conform to the common execution environment.
BengeWeb Pre-Written Modules
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In addition to the common execution environment, BengeWeb has several
pre-written "modules" that may be optionally allocated to websites. Each
module provides a set of functionality that can be easily "plugged in" to
client websites.
Examples of modules are :
? Image Galleries
? Customer Relationship Management
? Events and Calendar
? Online Documents
? Notice Boards and Guest Books
? Voting Polls
? Online Orders / Shopping Cart
Essentially a module is a set of pre-written web pages that provide
functionality anticipated to be re-usable across multiple client
websites.
Each BengeWeb module has been written to take advantage of the common
execution environment.
All modules come with a set of password-protected web pages that allow the
nominated client website administrator to maintain the content displayed by
that module. These content maintenance web pages form the basis of the
BengeWeb Content Management System (CMS).
BengeWeb modules are designed to fit within the unique and customised
layout of specific client websites, thus allowing the "look" of a module to
be quite different when used across different websites.
When evaluating the requirements of a new client website, BengeWeb will
decide whether any requirement can be directly met by the functionality of
an existing module, - if so then that module is allocated to the client
website.
Please refer to the BengeWeb website for the full list of available
modules:
When part of a client website's required funtionality cannot be matched to
an existing module, then there are three options. BengeWeb may :
1. enhance a current module to meet the functionality requirement
2. write a new module that matches the functionality requirement
3. write a set of customised pages (see below) to provide the functionality
requirement
BengeWeb recommend designers review the breath of functionality of the
existing modules before designing pages that require a customised page to
be built.
In particular, designers should review the flexibility of the Online
Documents Module (below). The Online Documents module provides a very
flexible method of presenting text, images and URL links as specified from
within the BengeWeb CMS.
BengeWeb welcome suggestions for improvements to the modules so they may
suit a wider range of client functionality requirements.
Custom Designed Web Pages
A customised page is any page that has been built by BengeWeb to fill a
client requirement that could not be filled by an existing module.
Customised web pages utilise the BengeWeb common execution environment and
therefore can be used on websites that also use BengeWeb modules.
Customised pages have the following disadvantages compared to pages
generated from the modules :
* As customised pages need to be manually built by a skilled web
developer, they take longer to create and therefore are significantly more
expensive.
* The content on customised pages cannot be maintained by the
BengeWeb CMS. Customised pages are therefore inherently more expensive to
maintain because a skilled web developer is required to make the smallest
of changes.
Online Documents Module
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As the functionality of BengeWeb modules expands, the need to build
customised pages has lessened over time.
In particular, the Online Documents module has been designed to be
extremely flexible. This module allows the creation of web pages via the
CMS.
Within an Online Document, text may be grouped into paragraphs and subjects
under varying styles of headings.
Images may be supplanted from the Image Galleries module into an Online
Document. These images may be displayed above, below, to the left or right
of the subject's textual content and may have captions attached. The
website administrator may additionally choose the display size of each
supplanted image from a standard drop-down list.
There are currently six styles of subject headings, and the CMS allows the
heading text to be changed by allowing manipulation of font, colour, bold
or italic properties.
Textual content within a subject may be bolded, italic, or justified
left/right/centre. The website administrator may also select from a large
range of colours for the textual content, and/or have the text indented
from left margin.
Subjects may have URL links attached, thus allowing navigation to another
web page (or another website) when visitors are viewing the Online
Document.
Here are various examples of Online Documents:
The web page you're currently reading is also an example of an online
document.
As you can see from the above examples, the Online Documents module can
produce web pages of varying layouts and styles, and like all BengeWeb
modules, utilises the pre-set page layout of each uniquely designed
website.
Designing Websites For The BengeWeb Environment
To take full advantage of the BengeWeb common execution environment, a web
page needs to broken down into it's component parts. In general, these
component parts are common to every page on a specific website.
As the site designer, you specify position, size and layout of the
components for your client website.
The page components:
Header
The Header component generally sits across the top of each page and
contains various sub-components:
Site Name :- Name of the Client organisation
Logo :- As supplied from the client. If the logo contains the client organisation
name, there may be no need to use the Site Name component above.
Main Heading :- This is the title of the page. Each page within the website would have a
different title
Sub-Heading :- An optional component that further describes the content of the page.
Main Menu
The menu component contains the menu items. The menu may appear across the
top of the page (below or even part of the header) down the left or right
of the page and/or across the bottom of the page (as part of the footer).
Menu Items :- Each menu item links to one a page on the website. Not all pages within a
website necessarily need a menu item linking to them.
Primary Content Container
This component is a large rectangular area in the middle of the page, below
the header and above the footer. The primary content container is usually
the largest component of any page.
Generally all other page components consistently surround the primary
content container giving each page within a website the same look and feel.
The Primary Content Container is also in the same position on every page
but the content within the container is specific to the page being
displayed.
Footer
The footer runs across the bottom of every page. It may optionally
contain:
* a repeat of the menu items using a small font
* a business sales by-line
* the business name copyright notice
* a "to top" link image
Both customised web pages and module pages will utilise the layout and content of the page components as laid out for
a client website.
Most components are optional and have varying "styles" to display their
content.
In it's simplest form, the process of designing a website to take advantage
of the BengeWeb common execution environment comprises simply of
determining the content of each page component and laying out where those
components are to reside on the page. BengeWeb will then take the component
layout and build it into the new website.
In addition, colour schemes, images, font styles/sizes may be applied the
components.
Page Component Layout Examples
Below are some sample layouts of the various page components. By no means
is this the definitive list of acceptable web page layouts when wanting to
utilise the BengeWeb common execution environment.
If you have a layout that you think may not suit, please contact BengeWeb
to discuss. There is a lot flexibility when dealing with these page
components, so chances are we will be able to accommodate your design even
if it varies from the examples below.
Sample Layout 1
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Sample Layout 2
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Sample Layout 3
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Sample Layout 4
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Sample Layout 5
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