A lot of people have similar requirements for their websites. They need a nicely designed template, a CMS (Content Management System) so they can update their pages, a Shop and perhaps cool stuff like a blog or a group email deployment system.
Normally they would hire a web company in to build this site bespoke, tailored to their needs and the costs would be a fortune. But today us web developers rarely re-invent the wheel each time this scenario comes up. We can use systems that do all of the above and where all of the hard work has been done already. We have our own system and it's called Halogy.
Halogy is a 'website in a box' solution that contains a CMS, a Blog module, a Shop module, a group email deployment system module, templating and even a ticket based enquiry system. There are other solutions like Halogy out there in the market which have been developed by other companies, e.g. ExpressionEngine, and Wordpress, though these systems have come about from being Blog sites and have gradually developed in to 'website in a box' solutions because of all the mods and plug-ins now available. Because of the fact that these systems have been added to lots and lots over the years they tend to be a little 'clunky' and can have a steep learning curve.
Halogy however has been built from the ground up, and it's focus is on usability so that anyone can quickly learn how to make and update their website. All you need is a web design (which we can provide), and then you are good to go. We also provide support and everything is hosted by us so it makes a great package.
We are currently branding Halogy and it is still in Beta. If you want to try it out please let us know.
The techy stuff
Over the next few weeks we will be writing articles on how Halogy is built and sharing secrets and tips for developers. For now we will just say that it is built in CodeIgniter using the MVC model and we have been working on it for about 3 months now.
We think that these systems are the way of the future. There is just no point re-coding something that has been done countless times before by developers, so we are excited about Halogy and also the other systems on the market. If you are unsure about Halogy and you want us to install ExpressionEngine or Wordpress on to your site instead we can do this for you - just email us.
