Technologies
Introduction
Byte Services uses a number of up to date technologies to bring design and functionality to your website. Sites take full advantage of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to achieve a consistent look across the whole site and make changes easier. Want to change the font across the whole site? Just change it in the CSS and it will be reflected throughout the site.
Sometimes simple design isn't enough. There is a time and place for a bit of interactivity and used sparingly (you won't see any Flying Toasters in our sites) it can really add to a sites style and usability. Take for example the Social Media menu at the bottom of each page of the Byte Services web site. When you roll over each icon they animate out towards you. This is a bit of simple Javascript that notes when your cursor is over the icon and triggers the animation. Simple, unintrusive and adds to the experience of the site.
But Javascript can offer so much more than this. The Carousel of websites on the home page is done in Javascript, or more specifically JQuery.
JQuery
JQuery is a collection of Javascript libraries that handle all the various differences in browsers that trip up so many Javascript programmers. This means we can get on with programming the functionality and not get tripped up by whether or not it will work in Internet Explorer 7 on Windows and Safari 4 on the Mac. A large portion of the main pages on the Kayell Australia website make use of JQuery.
http://www.kayellaustralia.com.au/
Here's another little example of how jquery can be used to dress up a simple input field:
And this leads us into the what is effectively the backbone of Byte Services.
Witango
Witango is the glue that ties websites and databases together. It allows pages to be built dynamically from up to date information in a database, such as current news events or product lists. It is what our iUpdate, iSellit, and iSend systems are written in.
Witango had a bit of a rocky road in recent times but was recently purchased by Tronics Software LLC. We are very happy to have the support of Robert Schubert and Tronic Software behind a great product like Witango.
iUpdate
iUpdate is an umbrella term for the system that allows our customers to manage and update their websites from nothing more than a browser.
It is a content management system that has evolved over the last decade. In it's current incarnation it can handle any sort of information from news stories to e-commerce shops. It can be used to process orders and send out newsletters. At the minimum it is used to allow a website customer to keep the information on their website up to date and fresh. And without incurring any fees from their webmaster.
iSellit
iSellit is the name of our e-commerce solution.
In it's basic form it can display a short list of products and the customer can order one or more items, in various quantities and submit the order. In it's more advanced forms it can be used to allow customers to search and retrieve products from databases of thousands of products, and to add these products in various quantities to their shopping cart and eventually submit and pay for their order.
AJAX
No, not the cleaning product. AJAX is shorthand for 'Asynchronous Javascript and XML'.
It is a group of interrelated web development techniques used on the client-side to create interactive web applications. With Ajax, web applications can retrieve data from the server asynchronously in the background without interfering with the display and behavior of the existing page. The use of Ajax techniques has led to an increase in interactive or dynamic interfaces on web pages. Data is usually retrieved using the XMLHttpRequest object.
We use AJAX for all sorts of things that call for a little more interaction. A good example is on the Fuzzy Ball Wines Club Info page:
http://www.charitywineshop.com.au/fuzzyballpage/clubs.taf
When you click on the first cell to add a club it brings up a list of states. Select one and then click in the next cell. It will bring up a list of Suburbs, that have Tennis Clubs. Click on a suburb and then the next cell and it will bring up a list of tennis clubs in that suburb.
All of this is going on in the background without ever reloading the page.
Secure Pay
Need to accept credit card payments for goods and services online?
We are a SecurePay partner and our websites are simple and easy to integrate with SecurePay's payment gateway.
Contact us for details on how you can start receiving payments immediately.
Findkey
Findkey is a technology developed by Byte Services to make notifying others of interesting web pages just a little bit easier. Suppose you wanted to point someone to the DroboPro FS on Kayell's website. You could send them a URL that looks like this:
http://www.kayellaustralia.com.au/photo/pages/pages.taf?function=detail&record_ID=33346
It'll get them there but it's unweildy and easy to make a mistake in retyping it.
As Kayell have FindKey on their news system you can instead use the URL:
http://www.kayellaustralia.com.au/findnews/drobofs
Takes you to exactly the same place. This is much easier to type in an email or tell someone over the phone. All that is required is to fill out the 'Findkey' field when making or editing a news article.
