Project
City of Huntsville
The Star of Alabama
Over the last several years, I’ve had the distinct privilege of working with the City of Huntsville to rebuild and expand their web presence. This started with the development of their main website, HuntsvilleAL.gov, and has evolved over time to include the design and development of three additional websites, a major retrofit to the main, and ongoing maintenance of their network of websites.
Along the way, I’ve had the opportunity to research and build several tools to support the city’s web efforts and ensure performance and stability for the end user. This includes the development of Apollo Data Services, a headless WordPress installation that allows web admins to configure content used across their network of sites from a single location.
To use the data provided by Apollo Data Services and keep every site in sync visually and data-wise, I built the Apollo Framework, a framework contained within the site’s theme that provides a library of common, custom-design design patterns and typography specifications, common dev functions, and integrates with Apollo Data Services to pull data for certain components.
What I Did:
Branding
Visual identity system
WED DESIGN + DEV
VIDEO PRODUCTION
STREAM PRODUCTION
Apollo Data Services was created to centralize the configuration of shared layout components, alerts, and available options for aggregate newsfeeds used across the City of Huntsville’s network of sites.
A headless WordPress solution
Provides a single control panel for site admins to update shared UI components across all city websites.
Allows web admins to target alerts at any or all sites across the network, down to specific pages and placements.
Allows web admins to configure available content sources for aggregate newsfeeds that can be build across the network.
The Apollo framework was developed to keep each city website in-sync and on-brand. It includes the assets needed to build uniform design components and layouts, and integrates with Apollo Data Services to sync information.
Includes a library of stylesheets for common design patterns and typography, keeping each site on-brand
Integrates with Apollo Data Services to pull site navigation and footer content
Includes a client-side alerts loader that checks to see if any alerts are available for a given page on load
Provides controls to override data provided by Apollo Data Services when needed (ex: contact information)
Custom Mapping Integration
Custom map-building capabilities, powered by the Google Maps api, were provided for both HuntsvilleAL.gov and The Big Picture, allowing site admins to easily build complex maps consisting of map pins, polygons, ellipses, and lines (optionally snapped to the nearest roadway). The foundation for these capabilities was eventually released as a free plugin, CMB2 RoadWay Segments.
Targeted Alerts
Through Apollo Data Services, alerts can be targeted broadly to appear across one or multiple websites, or granularly, appearing only on specific pages of specific sites. Alerts are loaded via a client-side script, so that alerts have minimal impact on site performance and cachability.
