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HTML5 SEO friendly web framework

Why are we building it?

We have been creating websites and cloud based applications for over 15 years and prior to that many years of CD-ROM creation and pc and mac based software development. Having created well over 200 websites we realise there are many common factors across all the sites we have worked on.

We have worked with various existing web frameworks and blogging platforms such as WordPress. These systems are often very impressive and packed with features and plug-ins that can get you up and running with a professional looking website very quickly. For many people these solutions will be ideal.

We have researched and tested many infrastructures and unfortunately or fortunately these never did exactly what we wanted and are often over engineered to be a one size fits all solution.

We set ourselves quite a tough task and have strict set of requirements, we have come across a lot challenges so far and anticipate plenty more.

What does it need to do?

  • It needs to be lightweight and fast
  • It needs to work without any databases and be totally portable
  • It needs to work just as well with databases
  • It has to work for large websites and small websites
  • It must be easy to deploy mobile websites
  • It must be naturally SEO friendly
  • It must be easy to add additional functionality via plug-ins
  • It needs several data processing systems so content can be stored in various formats
  • It needs to support plug-ins without impacting on the core framework
  • The core framework needs to be easily updateable with new infrastrutre changes
  • Fully support html5

What does it need to include?

  • A default CSS framework
  • CSS templating system
  • A web page templating system
  • A custom built javascript framework to include javascript animation librarires
  • Easy to customise self validating forms

The core

There are a number of things that we often found ourselves bolting on to existing applications. Our objective was to make sure that some of these features were planned and build at the beginning of the project. Here are some are key features of built into the core:

  • An efficient form management system
  • Vanity URLs or SEO Friendly URLs
  • AJAX functionality
  • 301 redirects and efficient management of all headers
  • Web page templating system
  • Centalised url parser
  • Extensive debugging system
  • Analytical and error reporting systems
  • Config files for setting up company and website specific data

Beyond the core

The frameworks needs to be expandable beyond the lightweight core. This is done via the addition of plug-ins. These plug-ins will have access to core elements such as AJAX functionality, 301 redirects and self validating forms.

To open source or to not open source?

That is still a question we need to answer. We love open source software, but feel supporting this would reduce our valuable development time.

Still to do

We have achieved a lot, we have the core infrastructure in place, with the page templating systems; AJAX functionality; header management; debugging and reporting system; a couple of plug-ins built. But We still have a lot to do.

Some of the key elements we still have to build:

  • CSS templating system
  • Self validating forms
  • A content management system
  • Javascript libraries