# Updated My Website!



## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Over the months of January and February, I decided to re-write my website! :fear:

The previous version was hand written PHP using Eclipse. While it worked, it was quite labour intensive and although CSS was used in places, it would have been difficult to update the style etc. And it could not adapt to smaller devices like tablets and smartphones.

So decided to go with a Content Management System....but which one? Krystal, my web hosting company, had all sorts on offer...all free and part of my subscription. I looked at Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress and, of course, they all had their pros and cons. Anyway, I decided to go with Wordpress; although it started off primarily as a Blogging tool, the latest versions are very suitable for static pages etc. According to Wikipedia, WordPress is used by more than 18.9% of the top 10 million websites as of August 2013...so I guess I'm in good hands :lol:.

The next problem was to decided which of the many hundreds of Themes to use. In the end, I decided to use one of Wordpress's own themes, Twenty Twelve. It's an "adaptive" theme which means the pages will adapt to whatever device they're being displayed on. I'm particular pleased with how the new site behaves on tablets and smartphones.

And what plugins should I install? Actually, I've used quite a few, all free apart from Ubermenu which cost abiut $20, but well worth it for a well supported, adaptive menuing system. Anyway, hope you like it, same address as usual http://electric-watches.co.uk/

I'd really appreciate feedback, especially if you encounter problems, errors, etc. You can even leave it on the site http://electric-watc...co.uk/feedback/


----------



## tixntox (Jul 17, 2009)

Excellent Paul. :thumbup: Added to my bookmarks. :yes:

Mike


----------



## dobra (Aug 20, 2009)

Excellent right through Paul! Navigation top notch and "ergonomic" in terms of mouse strokes . Thanks for sharing it.

Mike


----------



## Ryan P (Sep 20, 2011)

Nice, fresh look & smooth to navigate.

Cheers

R


----------



## PDXWatchCollector (Nov 15, 2013)

It looks great Paul! Nice and clean!

And I'm glad you went with Wordpress ... of all the options you listed (Drupal?! Really?!), it's the easiest to use by far (IMHO.)


----------



## PhilM (Nov 5, 2004)

I miss the old banner  but otherwise I do like the look of it, apart from under the makers tab I would prefer if they went down in alphabetical order rather than across.

Other than that, I like it :thumbsup:


----------



## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

PhilM said:


> apart from under the makers tab I would prefer if they went down in alphabetical order rather than across.


I know what you mean Phil...I don't like it either; it's not me doing...it's Ubermenu. I specify # of columns and it then lays the items out row-by-row .... rather than column-by-column. On smart phones, the four columns become one, so everything is is order 

Since I've paid for it, I think I'll post a support topic and see what they say.


----------



## PhilM (Nov 5, 2004)

Surely there must be a fix, or setting, for that :blink: as you can't be the first that wants to specify the flow of items 

But otherwise, as I've said it looks very smart


----------



## Deco (Feb 15, 2011)

Congratulations on the new website Paul


----------



## S2K Tuning (Dec 18, 2013)

Lots of information. Nice one.


----------



## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

PhilM said:


> Surely there must be a fix, or setting, for that :blink: as you can't be the first that wants to specify the flow of items
> 
> But otherwise, as I've said it looks very smart


Phil, your wish is my command!


----------



## MerlinShepherd (Sep 18, 2011)

It's a really big improvement Paul. It must've taken a lot of work but it's certainly worth it. Congratulations.

Roast?


----------



## minkle (Mar 17, 2008)

It looks great Paul.

I use Krystal and Wordpress for mine, surprisingly easy for an idiot like me!


----------



## Who. Me? (Jan 12, 2007)

Hi Paul - like the font and the clean look.

I agree with PhilM though - where's the banner gone? Are you going to put it back? :shocking:

My only criticism is that the pages seem to take longer to load with the new style - not sure if that's just because they're not cached on my laptop yet though?

BTW Something's clearly wrong in the world of Google. I searched of 'Electric Watches' and it returned this as the first hit... http://www.electriccalifornia.com/electric-watches That's just not right.


----------



## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

No plans to put the banner back...and the pages did take longer to load but I've been using this tool to seek out the guilty offenders (Jetpack :taz.

Quite happy with load times now.


----------



## PhilM (Nov 5, 2004)

Hey glad you managed to find a fix, don't know how you did it but it does look at lot better :yes:


----------



## DJH584 (Apr 10, 2013)

Nice piece of work Paul.

Does my eye deceive me or are there more manufacturers names in the listing than there used to be?

Regards

David


----------



## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

DJH584 said:


> Nice piece of work Paul.
> 
> Does my eye deceive me or are there more manufacturers names in the listing than there used to be?
> 
> ...


Well spotted David!  Only a couple though....

I was going through my photos and realized that I had somehow omitted to include them on the old site: Junghans, Saga and Zenith spring to mind.

But I also expanded a few others due to recent arrivals i.e. Certina and Baume & Mercier --- both due their version of the Omega Speedsonic.


----------



## Vaurien (Jul 19, 2010)

Well done, Paul!

I like your new site appearance :yes:


----------



## DJH584 (Apr 10, 2013)

> I was going through my photos and realized that I had somehow omitted to include them on the old site: Junghans, Saga and Zenith spring to mind.


Darn it!! That's more of them to search for and try and buy :wallbash: :wallbash:


----------



## Deathboy (Sep 7, 2008)

Very nice Paul!

havenÂ´t been around in quite a while and it was a nice surprise to see so much info for this type of watches I enjoy so much.


----------



## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

Looks great, Paul! :good:


----------

