Approaches to Website Development

There are three basic approaches to developing a website:

 

Whichever approach you take, it will be a lot easier (and cheaper) if you have a good idea of what you want your site to look like and how you want it to function from the start.  

 

Using a professional website developer 

Each website developer will have their own way of working and development methodology. The important thing is to find someone who:

  • you feel comfortable working with and explaining your ideas
  • can give you a good indication of the costs (or even better, a fixed price, usually based on a scope or specification) and development timeframe
  • can develop the website you want within your budget.

If you are working with a web developer for the first time, check references and websites they have developed previously. Also make a list of other websites noting what you like and don’t like about them to discuss with the web developer.

Using a website developer can often result in a very professional looking and functioning site, although it can be expensive, particularly if you don’t establish exactly what you want and what it will cost up front.

Going it alone 

While creating the website yourself is likely to be cheaper than employing a professional website developer, this approach is only recommended if you have the necessary technical expertise and experience required to use website development software.

If you have the skills and software in your community website group, you may decide to develop the site yourself using commercial or free software packages.

While creating the website yourself is likely to be cheaper than employing a professional website developer, this approach is only recommended if you have the necessary technical expertise and experience required to use website development software.

Joomla
Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular Web site software available. Best of all, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone. Fore more info visit http://www.joomla.org/ 

Mambo
Mambo is a full-featured content management system that can be used for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Visit http://www.mamboserver.com/ for more information

Drupal

Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website.

Wordpress

WordPress is a blog publishing application and content management system. You can find out how to build a website using Wordpress at Guide to your first WordPress website or How to Build a Website with WordPress

For more on open source softwares, visit http://www.cmsreview.net/

Using a ‘templated’ solution  

A ‘templated’ website solution is a good alternative if you don’t have the skills to build the website in-house or the budget to employ a professional website developer.

There are a range of different products on the market, but generally they all use a content management system (CMS) with templates for the ‘presentation layer’.

All the content elements of the website (text, images, etc.) are stored in the database. The CMS is used to enter, delete and edit this content and set up structure of the site. Most content management systems use a simple, text-based system accessed through a standard web browser such as Microsoft Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Netscape Navigator. When a visitor accesses the website, the content is drawn from the database and displayed within the template-based graphic interface. 

Community Site in a Box

For information on "Community Site in a Box" - visit this section on our website.