This is a post by Peter Swemmelaar as part of our Customer Showcase series. If you have a beautiful project and would like to share your story and experience with the JoomlArt community, please tell us your story!
Introduction
My name is Peter Swemmelaar. I am working in the IT since 1991. First started as a developer in CA-Clipper and SQLWindows/Centura. Next step was to be Project Manager in several software-projects. Then I made the switch to the testing-field. First started as Test Analyst / Test Coordinator and later specialized in Performance Testing on SAP-systems with HP Loadrunner.
Developing websites using Joomla is my hobby and I started developing websites with Joomla in 2006. In 2008 I became a member of JoomlArt, first as a standard member, then as a developer member. I also have been moderator in the forums of Joomlart for several years. After a 2-year break in developing websites, I continued developing in the end of last year.
Another hobby of me is to be a roadie in a Rock ‘n Roll band, named The Romance.
About the project Barend Courbois
Barend Courbois page
Barend Courbois is the bass player in our band. He also plays for Blind Guardian, Vengeance, Tank and several other bands. He was rewarded with the title “Best bass player in the Benelux”. He asked me if I could make a website for him. With the website he wants to share his experience, tour schema, video, photos etc. with his fans and other interested people.
First thing I did (what I always do) was browsing through the JA portfolio to find a suitable template that I could use as a base for the website to build. My eye was caught by the Responsive Joomla template JA Music. Next step was to select third party products to fill the needs of showing off videos, photos and the tour schema and a guestbook.
Once the selection was over it was time to build up the site piece by piece. I did not have to do much customization, I just changed the background-picture and maybe a little customization in CSS. I implemented JEvents for the tour schema and the upcoming gigs module that can be found on some pages on the website. I used Phoca Gallery for showcasing photos. I implemented Viper Youtube Gallery Pro for Videos. I did choose this component because it has a great range of nice templates for the module. Unfortunately, this module is not responsive, so I have to wait for the developer to come with an update, besides the support of this module is terrible. I used Easybook Reloaded for the guestbook, and for the front page slideshow I used Unite Nivo Slider Pro. The list of endorsements at the bottom of the website is a custom HTML module. The social bookmarks on top is also hand coded by me.
Barend Courbois page
Next year, Barend will go on a World Tour with Blind Guardian. Before that I will implement a blog section and Barend will maintain a blog while he is on the World Tour. He will send his writings to me and I am responsible that it is published on the website.
A follow-up of this project was the website I made for Timo Somers, a fellow musician of Barend and a close friend of him.
About the project Timo Somers
Timo Somers page
After I finished the website for Barend Courbois, he asked me if I could build a site for his friend and fellow musician Timo Somers. Timo is a Dutch guitar talent who plays as lead guitar for the Symphonic Metal band Delain in Netherlands. I picked out the template JA Mixmaz for this job.
Next step was to select third party components to fill the needs of displaying videos, photos, tour schema and a guestbook. Most of the things to do were similar with the previous project, so I was pretty fast with the selection of third party products. I chose Viper Youtube Video Gallery Pro and JEvents for the video-section and the tour-section. For the photo-section I decided to choose Event Gallery this time. First because I liked the layout of the galleries, second because I did not want to build 2 websites with the same look. I used JA Popup plugin in the “Gear” section to pop-up gear photos that Timo play.
On this project, I also did not have to do much of customization. The customization I made for this site is quick and easy, I made Turquoise the color theme and also the bottom-modules to fit the length of the site. I used the Unite Nivo Slider for the homepage slideshow, as well as the two endorsements banners in the footer and the right column. The demo-video on the homepage is an instance of Viper Video module, that I made for displaying only one video. The module for displaying New Photos is part of the Event Gallery package.
Timo Somers page
Third-party extensions I used for this project
- Event Gallery – For showcasing photos
- Viper Youtube Video gallery Pro – For showcasing videos
- Xmap – For making a sitemap / SEO
- JEvents – For tour-schema
- Unite Nivo Slider Pro – For slideshow on frontpage and endorsements banners
- Google Analytics Free – For monitoring/optimizing traffic
- JA Popup – For popup photos in the Gear section
- Phoca Gallery – For showcasing photos
- Easybook Reloaded – Guestbook
Why I use JoomlArt-templates for developing my websites
In my opinion, JoomlArt templates are well documented, come with nice extensions and are easy to customize. After my break in web development, I had to get used to the new T3 framework and responsive design, but I could find my way easily.
What are your thoughts on Peter's rocking sites?! Please share with him on the comment section below!