Data-driven (dynamic) website design

There are two kinds of Web sites: static and dynamic. We do both.

Static sites are like printed brochures. Every page of the brochure is carefully crafted, edited, and then frozen. When you want to change a page in that brochure, or add a page, you come back to us and we do it for you, usually within a day or two, but sometimes longer depending on complexity or how busy we are.

Dynamic websites put you in control. We design page templates and graphics that represent the “front end” of your site, and then program a “back end” that only you can see — essentially, a set of forms and menus that let you edit, add, or delete information. That information goes into a database; when people visit your site, the Web pages they see are created “on-the-fly” from that database. Hence the term “database-driven.” Common examples are blogs, social media sites, online magazines, ecommerce sites, and corporate Content Management Systems.

Do you need a Content management system (CMS)?

Up until just a few years ago, only big companies and organizations dabbled in dynamic CMS sites. They’re complex and initially expensive to produce.

• But even small companies want dynamic sites nowadays. Why? A variety of reasons:
• You can edit your own site quickly, whenever you need to, without worrying about possible backlogs in our schedule.
• Updating your site more frequently can give you a competitive advantage, since your target audience may visit more often to see what’s new.
• Thanks to recent advances in technology (more on that below), we can develop dynamic, data-driven sites for our clients more cost-effectively than several years ago.
• Once the initial costs of developing the dynamic site are absorbed, you will save in the long run, since you won’t incur our hourly charges for edits down the line

Static sites are still perfectly acceptable, especially if you’re on a tight budget and don’t anticipate editing your site very frequently. But if you need an ecommerce site (an online store), blog features, or a news-oriented site, you should consider building a site based on a central database.

Our technology: Open-source, Object-oriented

If you’re tech-averse, you can stop reading right here. But if you’re interested in what we’re doing under the hood, and what you’re investing in, read on.

Jell is firmly committed to open-source technology. In other words, we develop websites using languages and techniques shared openly by many thousands of developers around the world, without restrictive licensing arrangements or exclusive requirements. No single third-party company is in charge of our programming environment; no corporate entity can suddenly change the rules on what works or doesn’t, or how much you have to pay to use the technology. This technology is considered a global asset, much like the Web itself, mostly unprivatized.

Currently, we develop sites using PHP and MySQL on UNIX and Linux servers. That combination is considered one of the most popular and robust platforms for Web development. That also means you can move your website from one hosting service to another quite easily, as long as they support current open-source standards. And if you ever choose to have another firm continue work on the site we developed for you, they will quickly be able to get up to speed, provided they support PHP and MySQL.

Depending on the project, we may also add XML, JavaScript, and ActionScript (Flash) components to your website. Several of the sites in our portfolio (including this one, jellcreative.com) combine all of these technologies.