Aerodyn Engineering focuses on providing their customers with the highest quality service and support available in the market, so when they sought to design a website that supplied their clients service and product information, they chose to work with Six Feet Up and Plone.
Aerodyn Engineering, Inc. was established in Indianapolis, 2002, and has since expanded into the United Kingdom. Aerodyn's focus is on the power generation and aerospace markets; specializing in gas turbine instrumentation and field testing. Primarily a service organization, Aerodyn manufactures precision slip rings, which are used in applications requiring the transfer of data from rotating machinery.
Aerodyn's website needed to easily manage service and product information, provide an easy to use product catalog for clients to search for spare part details, and utilize dynamic features to keep clients engaged.
The first feature developed for the Aerodyn Plone site was to integrate and customize the Dropdown Menu add-on. The add-on was configured to allow certain content types to display in the dropdown menu. Styling was then developed and applied to match Aerodyn's designs.
A second add-on was installed and configured to allow for dynamic image slideshows on the site's homepage. Six Feet Up utilized their own EasySlideShow add-on that allows Aerodyn to choose images, add them to a folder and have a slideshow displayed automatically.
In addition, the homepage design was developed by creating customized templates that were applied on the landing page. For continuity, the Plone portlets were also customized to match Aerodyn Engineering's theme. In an effort to maintain continuity throughout the site, the portlet templates were applied so all child portlets would adopt the parent styles.
The Navigation portlet was also implemented to provide Aerodyn a simple method of organizing important content. It allows a menu to be created by simply adding a new folder, paper, etc through the Plone adminstration panel and the object displays in the navigation portlet. If the item does not need to be in the navigation portlet, a simple checkbox can be selected while in edit mode to disable this feature.
Aerodyn also wanted to provide their clients an easy method for finding spare part information on the website. In order to accomodate the requirement, custom content types were created. The Product and ProductGroup custom type, along with indexes were incoporated into a product catalog. Using a few search filters, clients can find part names, categories, part numbers, descriptions and available quantities with a simple click.
Six Feet Up also developed custom forms using the PloneFormGen add-on. A contact form, as well as a newsletter sign up form, make it easy for online users to submit information directly to Aerodyn Engineering. Each form also had a specialized template designed in accordance with the site's design themes.
Lastly, Plone makes it easy to provide clients with site search capabilities. Three different methods for search are available, including standard search, live search and advanced search. Standard search provides a results page while live search offers a quick navigation method to search results without reloading the page. Advanced search offers more filter methods by category, item type, author, status and/or description.
Six Feet Up and Plone have made it easy for Aerodyn Engineering's clients to find the information they seek. From the easy to implement dropdown menu and the automatic navigation portlets, to the filter based product catalog and the three site search tools. Dynamic slideshows are created with the simple image upload, and theme continuity was applied through customized templates. Plone makes it easy to manage content while providing an engaging design for the user.
Six Feet Up, Inc.
11208 Windermere Blvd.
Fishers, IN 46037 - USA
Phone: +1 (317) 861-5948
Email: info@sixfeetup.com
