Fédération des Francophones de la Colombie Britannique (FFCB)

Project Background

The FFCB's mandate is to represent the interests of Francophones living in British Columbia.

The organization's website is an essential resource tool for the francophone community. But the previous site had a confusing structure, making it difficult to find information. In particular, it had no search engine. Some pages containing lists of organizations were very long.

On the administrative side, the web site's content often needed to be updated. But the site was made of static HTML pages, making it very time consuming to maintain. As a result, many sections of the website were out of date.

In 2003, the FFCB decided to redo their website to make it searchable, easier to navigate, and easier to maintain.

Project Objectives

• Re-think the entire website structure.



• Include an administrative section offering an easy method of maintaining the website.



• Include a database-driven search engine.



• Put online the existing directory of francophone organizations, and make it searchable.



• Allow visitors to register for the online directory through the website.



• Design a more intuitive navigation system.

Requirements and Challenges

• Information contained in the website should be searchable. Content should be stored in the database.



• The administrative section of the website should allow FFCB staff members to maintain the website easily. In particular, they should be able to:
  
  
  • upload publications and register them in the database to make them searchable
  • add or remove upcoming events from the online calendar in a timely manner
  • add or remove news releases and news articles to/from the website in a timely manner
  • add or remove job postings in a timely manner
  • manage registrations in the online directory of francophone organizations


• The new website should be simple and user-friendly, to appeal to a diverse group of visitors.



• The system should be multi-user. Participants with different levels of permissions should be only allowed to use the sections of the web site that are relevant to them.

Solution and Outcome

• Thin-client web solution. Web server: Apache. Scripting language: PHP. Database: MySQL.



• The development process started in July 2003 and the application was ready for the launch of the new website in November 2003.



• FFCB staff reported that the system considerably facilitated the maintenance work. As a result, the website's information is always up-to-date.