Adam Foster Web Engineering
References:
Based in Derbyshire, central England, we undertake commissions all over the UK and in continental Europe. As well as in the UK, projects are ongoing in Brussels and Berlin. Recent projects include the following examples:
- WIDEM: Wheelset Integrated Design and Effective Maintenance - an attractive, straightforward static website with an introductory description, partner links and contact information for an EU-funded industry project. Built using standards-compliant XHTML 1.0 and CSS, and page templates based upon server-side includes (SSIs) so is very easy to extend and maintain.
- EURNEX: The European Rail Research Network of Excellence - a technologically similar site for another EU-funded industry project, but with the addition of a dynamic news system with a simple 'ticker', an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) news feed and news articles with both file and image attachments. Behind the scenes, a multi-user, password-protected document collaboration and sharing system is present, with nearly 250MB of data accumulated over more than two years. Calendaring and email notifications of updates are also available for users of this site; the software used is wholly written and owned by Adam Foster Web Engineering and can easily be modified for many different purposes.
- MODUrban: Modular Urban Guided Rail Systems - using the framework of the EURNEX website described above, a new project website was set up in a fraction of the time that would have been needed to build it from scratch. This meant that the design could concentrate on the content and visual appearance (including the redrawing of draft-quality diagrams and the introduction of high-quality photography) instead of on technical minutiae.
Thanks to the powerful templating systems and project-independent code developed by Adam Foster Web Engineering, all websites are made significantly easier to maintain, with bugfixes and enhancements immediately made available to all projects using the same codebases. We believe in making ongoing maintenance possible - once a website is 'complete', it is in no way abandoned!
Anna Macdougald EU Public Affairs
For this Brussels-based European Union affairs consultancy, a new public website was built, with a simple contact form facility. Behind the scenes, however, a powerful, open-source Webmail facility was modified for use on the particular web host, installed and set-up, then work began on a complex, multi-user contacts database covering a significant number of the European Union's institutions.
"I was very impressed at how Adam Foster successfully interpreted the relatively non-technical brief that I gave him on developing our business in the complex area of European Union public affairs.
The dialogue that took place while we were building both the website and what turned out to be a very sophisticated but user-friendly CRM system showed Adam's ability to identify clients' key objectives and requirements.
His work was delivered on schedule and within budget. He also showed an ability to think laterally and grasp the key elements of, what to him, was a new subject area. Accordingly, while we were putting the finishing touches to eu4u.be he was able to input several useful refinements which showed how well he had come to understand our business.
As a non-techie, I was never made to feel foolish and found his technical explanations easy to follow.
My working relationship with Adam has been most enjoyable and I intend to continue to develop further projects with him in the future."
Anna Macdougald
Riddings Pottery
An old, difficult to maintain frames-based site was rebuilt around a very simple-to-use content management system based on PHP, GDBM and ImageMagick, which was tailored specifically to match the hosting service being used. A variant of the image gallery system, ported to MySQL and NetPBM, can be seen on our own photography section.
"A number of folk had tried to update our website (www.riddingspottery.co.uk), but never quite mastered the problems. Adam seemed instantly at home with the site. He altered its appearance and background to good effect, but - more importantly - simplified the programming so we can update text and images without fear, despite our own marginal computer competence. He will come to you highly recommended."
John Rivers
Previous projects:
- Adam Foster was a systems administrator for the Manchester University Computer Society for two years and learned how to set up and maintain complex server and network systems, running various forms of UNIX and Linux.
- Since graduating, he has acted as an independent IT advisor to various organisations, both in the UK and in Belgium, on cost-effective systems upgrades.
- He has also designed and programmed web front-ends for databases, using PHP to access complex relational databases stored on a remote database server. The systems were individually designed to meet the clients' needs, and modified as new features became necessary. Extensive security features and thorough checking of all input, combined with features such as database table locking, ensure database integrity at all times.
