ANDREWS ONLINEBy Darren Scammell

Why did I choose this project to present?

• High profile

• Responsibility

• Enjoyment

High profile• Estate agents spend 41–80% of marketing budget on

internet

• Two way interaction – revolutionary for Estate Agents

• Andrews Online is visited by X unique visitors a month

• Business critical software

• X% of leads generated from the website in the last year

Responsibility• Designed and implemented the architecture

• Led the team of developers

• Ensured successful delivery within timeframe

• Stakeholder involvement

Enjoyment• Delivering a better user experience

• Choosing the best technologies for the job

• Sense of pride and satisfaction for the whole team

STAKEHOLDER REQUIREMENTS

Business Requirements• Generate more stock

• Higher value stock

• More competitive

• Provide the business with Competitive Advantage

User Requirements• Wanted to see properties faster

• To be shown the right information at the right time

• To have big pictures

TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION

Architecture Overview

Technologies used?• C#

• ASP.NET MVC 2

• LINQ to SQL

• Sharepoint

• jQuery

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4

Why MVC?• Routing – Clean URL structure to help deliver better SEO

• Separation of concerns, clean and semantic code

• Testable functionality

• Flexibility to add features as requirements change

Why LINQ To SQL? • Very fast when compared to heavier entity modelling tools

• Ability to implement search predicates

• SQL injection protection

• Integration with existing libraries and infrastructure

Why jQuery?• Well documented and supported framework

• Backwards compatibility and browser support

• Allowed team to get things done

• Easy to extend

Why Sharepoint?• Used as CMS system

• Also the public media server

• Already available in the business

• No extra cost to the company

• Security features to manage department’s access

Keeping things Fast• Media website for non blocking HTTP requests

• Search result timer during development

• Simple, clean, well built HTML and CSS

• Controllers that have one responsibility

• Use of caching for content pages and coordinates

Geocoding and Mapping• Google maps and street view

• Street level searching

• Local information, such as schools and train stations

Feedback• Microsoft launch event

• Positive feedback from internal and external customers

• Improvement to search paging system

• Geo location enhancements

What did we learn• Sharepoint poor choice for a CMS

• Needed more time on site from web designer

• Business content is key to successful site

• Understanding the teams limitations

• Agency skills really enhanced the project

• Geocoding hard to do on small budget

Summary• Project delivered successfully, on time and within budget

• Majority of the key technical decisions proved correct

• Positive feedback

• Sense of pride from all members of the team

Any questions?