Ceros is an innovative online magazine publishing platform. When they asked for my help, the site was already in existence but needed several enhancements to improve its manageability, including the creation of new content types, associated views and theming. XML versions of content were required as data sources for various Flash animations.

One particular challenge was the requirement for some data associated with a type to have a more complex structure than the CCK module normally provides, which I solved by writing a new module which represents both the data and its definition as XML.

Last week I got the idea for a site where people could post pictures of mysterious things and ask for, or provide, an explanation. So I set to work and within a few hours there it was: Knowthings.co.uk, everyday mysteries.

It’s a good example of how a Drupal site can be built very quickly if the needs are simple. It uses the celju theme with one or two small modifications to fix cross-browser issues.

The whole thing cost very little - £6.56 to register the domain name, plus about 3 hours of my time, plus some hosting space and bandwidth on a package I’d already paid for. If it starts attracting hordes of visitors - which I doubt, to be honest - then I’ll put ads on it and maybe it’ll pay for itself. It was fun to do, anyway.

Have you an idea for a site which could be done as quickly?

A Drupal development project involving lots of media integration: flash, images and movies.

My role involved building the custom theme from artwork and HTML supplied by other team members; writing a couple of modules to integrate media files and another to provide a simple competition facility. I also heavily customised the advanced search facility to suit EFD’s particular needs. As a team member I also took on a consultancy role where necessary, advising others on the best approach to solve various technical problems.

“Alfred did a great job, bringing quality and expertise to the project.”
— Gilles Boisselet, unit9.com

Carried out for unit9 and their client Entertainment Film Distributors.

The Sustain-a-what?!?! application is a quiz intended to amuse while making the user think about the issues surrounding the hot topic of sustainability.

The quiz runs on the Drupal platform so the client can maintain its content for themselves. I wrote a custom module to manage the quiz questions and answers, as well as storing the results and displaying them for users taking the quiz.

“An excellent service from start to finish. There were delays in us being in a position to begin the project but Likemind stayed in touch regularly and were ready to go as soon as we were. The technical specification was immediately understood by them and suggestions were made to improve it with regards to how facebook actually works. Their understanding of the visual as well as the technical was particularly useful to us.

We were very impressed with the service, the level of competence and the end result. Would not hesitate to recommend.”
– Chris Hillier, twelfth man limited

Developed for twelfth man and their client synnwyr busnes.

Wolf and Water Arts Company is a charity which does art work with various groups. The company wanted a new website to help them manage and present their extensive archives of material related to past and present projects. Their old site was hard to update and hence new content tended to be added belatedly or not at all.

Drupal provided a good match for their needs, with its flexible categorisation and general ease of use. Although the new site has a lot more content, it is more accessible due to the clearer menu structure and other navigation options.

“Likemind were excellent - they took plenty of time to fully understand our requirements, exceeded our expectations & delivered a splendid website on time. Training & follow up was also excellent. I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone.” - Peter Smith, Wolf + Water.

The brief for the web site of this popular North Devon tourist attraction was to create an attractive modern site with a clear organisational structure which would be maintainable by L&B staff.

Given the large amount of content with varying needs for its presentation and management Drupal was the obvious choice. I created a custom theme and companion module that matched the major divisions of the site and installed and configured other appropriate modules. One of the challenges was in the Visitor section, which is internationalized (in seven different languages) whereas the rest of the site is not.

The result is both aesthetically pleasing (the graphic design in large part thanks to Nik Barrie, the L&B webmaster) and highly functional.

“The web site was excellent, containing a vast amount of information, supported by photography of the highest standard. With an easy to browse layout, the pages provided all the information a potential visitor was likely to need, as well appealing to the narrow gauge railway enthusiast.” - VisitBritain inspection report.

I was asked by unit9.com to help develop the backend administration for Metro International’s new website. This involved radical customisation of the Drupal content management system so Metro staff could easily maintain the content of this beautifully designed site with its many complex page structures. It doesn’t look like a Drupal site, does it?

“Working with Alfred from Likemind was great, he knows how to use Drupal to do what is needed and make the project happen. I am very happy with his insight into what features will be useful to the end user without laboring on what will not be as effective.” — Yates Buckley, unit9.

The Great Torrington Cavaliers are an energetic local fundraising organization. They had an existing website but they were struggling to cope with the changes required whenever they ran a new event. They also wanted a site which would act as a centre for the exchange of information amongst their membership. I chose to use Drupal to build the site which, with its great flexibility and power, has made it much easier for the Cavaliers to publish information and present it in a well-organised fashion. The new site also has a much stronger visual design than the old one.

“Likemind Web services have helped bring the Great Torrington Cavaliers into the 21st century.

Alfred’s knowledge and understanding of the extremely clever Drupal software is second to none. I gave him our requirements and within a couple of days he had a demo site up and running for me to look at.

Having used Microsoft FrontPage previously I had a job getting my head around this new way of administering, and made several desperate requests to Alfred to get me back on track. He was always there to help and never once made it feel awkward or inconvenient.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Likemind to anyone for the website needs.

Thank you Alfred from ALL the Cavaliers — ” — Steve Blake Secretary, Great Torrington Cavaliers