Build Your Box Custom PCs UK

www.buildyourbox.co.uk: UK Custom PC store

http://www.buildyourbox.co.uk

Build Your Box Custom PCs allows users to put together their ideal PC with options to choose every component and peripheral and create the product themselves. The website offers resources and information to help users when 'building' their PCs as well as technical support materials after purchase.

The custom and gaming PC market is highly competitive even in the UK, a system was needed to give an edge and stand out above other well established, but possibly outdated, sites.
Build Your Box operates entirely online and began trading in Oct 2010 after a 16 week Drupal development to create a content management system with e-commerce capabilities.

Theme and Layout

The custom Build Your Box theme was developed in house for Drupal 6.x. The theme was designed by taking the existing Garland theme which is shipped with Drupal. This was used as the basis for the site theme files which were then easy to customise fit for purpose. Editing the existing CSS file, page and node template files allowed full control over elements on the page, some of which were taken out and others features added.

Functionality

The main requirements of the site were;

• To allow users to 'build' custom PCs
• To allow users to purchase PCs whether pre-built or customised and track their orders
• To provide technical support to customers
• To provide decent communication tools to customers
• To provide up to date news and content

Also from the point of view of administrators;

• Have an easy to maintain secure site
• With the ability to quickly update content
• With automated processes where necessary

It was found that Drupal along with contributed modules could cover almost all the functionality that was required. The main functionality needed was ecommerce capabilities, fortunately Drupal has a contributed module called Ubercart. Ubercart is feature rich, it allowed integration with Google checkout, Paypal pro and other merchant accounts so there was plenty of flexibility and choice. It also came with its own shopping cart system, reporting system and more.

Drupal allowed for a complex site structure to be developed which would allow multiple users to maintain content, the workflow module came in handy for managing and keeping track of this content. Updates to modules and Drupal keep the site secure and pulling in RSS feeds provide users with the latest tech news.

Challenges

The only additional functionality which was very unique and specific to Build Your Box was the process of customers 'building' their custom PCs. To accomplish this a module was developed which used hooks which automatically created node pages (as products) after taking users through a process of 'building' their PC.

Noteworthy Modules

The following is a list of modules that were used in the development of Build Your Box that are worth mentioning for the unique attributes they present. Especially mentioned here are a few of the SEO modules that will help search engine rankings.

CacheExclude - Even dynamic custom PHP code is cached before its presented to an anonymous user. The cache exclude module gave the functionality to supply path/paths which will not be cached therefore running the PHP code each time the page is requested.

CSS Gzip and Javascript Aggregator are no longer maintained, Advanced CSS/JS Aggregation is the new preferred method - Help improve page load times by compressing CSS and JavaScript files on the server.

Global Redirect - For SEO purposes. When the node ID path is requested by a user this module will ensure they are redirected to the clean URL for the page. Search Engines no longer see two separate pages with the same content but through a permanent redirect they see just one.

Nodewords - Meta data is a very important feature of SEO, this module allows control over meta tags and descriptions on a sites pages. Default and custom tags can be set for each node.

Page Title - Control the page title of pages to make them more relevant for any particular page, remember SEO is all about creating relevant content.

reCAPTCHA - Excellent module to prevent spam through site forms, part of a free Google web service.

Ubercart - Ubercart is the entire online shopping accessory for a web developer. With its vast amount of features it may take some time getting used to but eventually you will realise this module has everything needed by small to large online shops. Plug-ins for Ubercart include further merchant providers than that already provided by the core modules.

XML sitemap - A handy module which generates a configurable XML sitemap and submits it automatically to Google and Bing when updates have been made to site content.
Remember if it doesn't ship with Drupal the chances are there is a module out there to add the functionality required.

Why Drupal?

Even for a basic site?

Even a basic site will require updates to content, Drupal provides a strong case for any site as it can then be updated anywhere in the world by simply logging in. There are simpler systems out there to accomplish this task but by using Drupal it enables the future proofing of a site as additional functionality can be easily added later.

When a site becomes big and more is required from it including different users to maintain content and users who would like to register Drupal and its roles and permissions allow fine grained content control. Expanding to include user comments, forums, blogs etc. will be easy to setup and then you will realise why it makes sense to future proof by beginning with Drupal.

Future Developments

For the near future the plans are to improve upon user interaction, resolve minor accessibility issues and further theme development to advance the site visuals. An add on to the Ubercart module is also being tested as well as an affiliates program. That's all we'll mention for now...

http://www.buildyourbox.co.uk