nightclub website with lots of custom development

[sa247]

Put it live today... still a few bugs to sort out but its almost there...

Website URL : http://www.cowboysdancehall.com

Template: From the ground up custom

Additional Extensions:
Community Builder /w custom plugins
Chronoforms
Docman
Event list /w heavy customization
Expose gallery
Fire board forum
Virtuemart - products to come

Custom Development:
Lots!!!!
Heavily customized event list to suit requirements
Rodeo Section was a custom built component specifically designed for the site using MVC
There really hasnt been anything that hasn't been tweaked...

Other Features:
Had a lot of cross browser issues think we have ironed the majority of them out - backwards compatibility issues with ie6 and 5 due to heavy use of png's..

I'd like feedback on:
Overall look of site, usability, design

Additional Comments:
First big site using j1.5.x got easily 50+ j1.0.x sites under the belt.

Site was initially designed in J1.0.x but decided to port everything over to j1.5.x which took a lot of work but think its worth it its running a lot better and was much more flexible - still a few bugs to iron out and more features to come!

[window]

The graphics are outstanding, the zoom effect with the menu across the top is a nice touch. You must have put a serious amount of work and customization into this!

[sa247]

thanks window for the positive comments!

this was a big challenge for us and one of the first joomla 1.5 projects for Red Flame Media

[sa247]

fixed some more bugs - feedback greatly appreciated!

[andesteg]

This is truly amazing. I'm not worthy...

[sa247]

This is truly amazing. I'm not worthy...

awesome thanks!

[Joyce Mar]

I love the design/style of the website!

The only thing that I'd suggest is, if possible (I know you need the images crisp for the look/design), to reduce the size of the site.

The home page is ~600KB, which isn't that bad considering the graphics on there and that it's the main page. But one of the sub-pages that I browsed:

http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/index.p ... 1&Itemid=4

is a whopping 2MB, with 1.7MB of it being images. The image "module_poster.png" alone is 500KB and looks like it can be compressed a bit without losing much quality.

Everything else -- great. Again, I'd like to compliment the person who came up with the design.

[sa247]

Hi Joyce,

Thanks for the feedback - the heavy use of images has always been an issue, will look at doing further compression

We had initially done this using 1.0 and the load times where a lot slower

Am thinkiing the size of the page you mentioned is due to the revolving headers and the random image module on the side

we are doing a dot mobi version at the moment which obviously has to be a lot smaller in size!

[Joyce Mar]

Hi sa247 -- I thought it would have been the headers or random image module too at first (since I saw an image load over the top of another one for the header. Inspecting the page pointed out the "module_poster.png" file as being the largest file, surprisingly enough:

Images (47 files) 1727 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... poster.png 504 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... ule_bg.png 136 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... ges/bg.jpg 120 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/images/ ... der001.jpg 105 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/images/ ... der001.jpg 105 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... ain_bg.jpg 76 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/images/ ... der002.jpg 71 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... deo_bg.png 59 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... outube.png 51 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/images/votebox.png 37 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... ne-top.png 35 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... cebook.png 35 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... yspace.png 34 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/images/ ... closed.png 33 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... logout.png 31 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... rofile.png 28 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/mainima ... /title.png 23 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... /forum.png 22 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... embers.png 22 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... ccount.png 21 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/images/ ... brlogo.jpg 14 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/templat ... ssages.png 13 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/images/ ... 202008.jpg 12 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/images/san-antonio.png 11 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/images/ ... essons.jpg 11 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/compone ... 327_sm.jpg 10 KB
http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/images/ ... ne-bot.png

More in the list, but the rest are under 10KB. Gives you an indicator at least.

Interesting to know that 1.5 loads faster than 1.0! I haven't had any direct comparisons yet with the sites I've worked on.

[ducksauce123]

great site, cant believe its joomla

[zero_one]

great site, cant believe its joomla

yap that's right.. i cant believe too.. This site great..

[sa247]

thanks for all the positive feedback guys

we did originally design this using 1.0.x can see it here www.cowboysdancehall.info - but we had several issues with it and found it was loading slower and slower...

with upgraded components, better support and more flexibility J1.5 in this instance was definitely the right choice for this project!

still finding bugs here and there

[pmg]

Very nice web site!
I'll take my hat of for a really good job.

[sa247]

thanks pmg

[johnlewis718]

WOW, thats awesome bro.

Am also creating a part site, but I have no idea on what to do.

I want to create something similar to alltheparties.com and 7days7nights.com

[2mymall]

Have to admit, you are one talented cowboy

[steven34]

Very nice... Great graphics...

[Big Red]

Like window said a lota work and great graphics. the graphics are outstanding and blew me away. I guess you want the site to look good and it does but it might be loaded a bit heavy with movies. If I can add my 2 cents worth I would say keep the graphics and menus and what not but lighten up on some of the movie and slideshow stuff.

[MrMoxxx]

Cool design - it's very slow you, maybe you can optimize the speed further?

[rockandroller]

Very nice. At least what i was patient enough to wait around for. Unfortunately i'm stuck on dialup at the moment and it's almost impossible to load.

[unen]

Outstanding template man, makes me wanna check it out.

[l33p]

Yup, the effort definitively shows. Many Joomla prospect users are looking for examples like this one when they ask "What can Joomla do?" (the answer to that is anything you want it to do).

I noticed that the header menu doesn't show on every page (try San Antonio > Press Releases). Don't know if this was done on purpose, but this means you get "stuck" on those pages (you have no choice but to use the browsers back button). Also, that menu doesn't work on the Gallery page (San Antonio).

Also, you have nice bikini girls. I'm gonna have to drop by San Antonio some time.

[sa247]

again thanks for all the feedback guys

we will be trying to address a number of points in the coming weeks!

[keefrichards]

Generally I don't like that sort of woody background, but your site looks really sharp.

Congratulations on a great looking and professional site.

kr

[Kyliefun]

looks great (home page expecially)- whoever came up with the design should be padded on the back
could do with less business on the content pages though

[keefrichards]

looks great (home page expecially)- whoever came up with the design should be padded on the back
could do with less business on the content pages though

What is this extra income thingy you refer to?
kr

[Kyliefun]

best to PM me kr

Cheer

[keefrichards]

best to PM me kr

Cheer

OK, so let me know when you're available for PM.

[Dallasjmoore]

I am the designer for this site and I appreciate your comments. Yes, the page load time is an issue and we are working on it. If you have any other questions or comments, feel free to hit me up.


Thanks,
Dallas Moore
Viper Web Solutions
http://www.viperwebsites.com

[keefrichards]

best to PM me kr

Cheer

So....when you next on line to discuss this "extra income" thingy?

kr