Automation: efficient, robust

There's a lot more to being on the Web than simply having a couple of pages online. If you're serious about the Web business, you'll want the security of knowing you have a working business model underpinned by technically competent services to support and grow your business.

We can help you make efficient use of your information through smart database use, effective personalisation, clever automation and a whole host of other techniques and technologies. We provide a range of automation services, based on what you need to make your Website successful.

Standard Automation Services: email and site updates

Any Website hosted on our servers has free access to a number of useful automation features such as email handling, form sending and automated support for site updating. We can provide this as part of our design and development services, work with your current Web development people, or provide on-going support as part of a service contract.

Just let us know what you're after.

From-Site Email Services

Websites often need to send email for one reason or another — either forwarding visitor information to the site owner, or sending special messages, such as requested files, to visitors. Our server's standard email functions cover all these needs, with encryption as a bonus feature for sending confidential email.

• Simple "FormMail", which will email you an easily readable copy of the information the visitor has entered on a Web form.
• SecureMail — as for FormMail, but with optional PGP encryption to ensure that the visitor's confidential information is treated securely. This involves an additional PGP setup fee for the site, and requires a PGP add-on for your mail reader. Please talk to us about your requirements.
• FaxMail allows you to send faxes from the site, and is also easily supported by our FormMail function, thanks to its advanced message template features. As a result, virtually any third-party FaxMail service can be used without special software development.
• Send an email to a visitor, such as a defined message with, for example, an optional attached file. This can be a useful service if you want to email a zip file or large document to visitors who are having trouble downloading it.

All the above services include full template-based layout of the email messages, which means that form information can be included within the message in a nice, readable fashion.

WebQueue Site Management Utility

Our custom site management tool has the following special features to make updating your site easier:

• It knows which files you've changed in your local copy of the site, and only uploads the changed files (pages, images, zip files — in one directory or 100!)
• All files are compressed before transmission, substantially lessening connect times
• FTP connections and transmission are all handled by WebQueue
• Once WebQueue has been set up, an entire update can be done at the push of a single button
• WebQueue's unique "Gather" feature, permits you to request one or more files from the site itself (for example, email logs), or even conduct an entire site backup!

If you want to read more about WebQueue, see our software pages.

Enhanced Site Automation Services

The following services are available on our server, but require some special setup and page creation. Please contact us for information about these features:

• Site-wide page search — users can type in keywords and be shown links to all pages on your site (or limited to certain directories) containing those keywords
• Block search — users can type in keywords and be shown a result page containing sections from your site pages which contain those keywords
• Credit card validation — checking number and expiry date — with form submission via secure or regular server, according the your visitor's preference

Custom Site Automation Services

Please inquire if you'd like our assistance in any of the following areas:

• Full electronic commerce — online credit card authorisation and funds transfer to a bank account, including optional support for multiple currencies
• Database-driven page generation, such as for catalogs, organisational or technical information
• Mail-merge email generation (not available for creating unsolicited email)
• Fully dynamic Web sites, search engines and Web applications