More about website development

Dave Hrynkiw
October 15, 2019

A decent website is a core of a web-centric store like ours. Back in the early days, I hand-coded HTML (yeah, go back to waybackmachine to admire that work), and what you got is what you got. Since then, we rebuilt Solarbotics.com through 3 more iterations of totally refactored hand-coded platforms, and then 2 aborted attempts as re-releases on Magento and then WordPress/Woocommerce. Those last two attempts cost us the ball-park of a really really nice Tesla with nothing much to show for it, with a devastating website hack in-between to kick us in the nether-regions. Many expensive and painful lessons were learned in this process.

Since then, we've released unsatisfactory consultants, brought the development management in-house, and piece-mealed specific development aspects to consultants with MUCH better results. It's come at the cost of letting our internal R&D coast for the better part of a year while we focus our top-talent on getting the website reworked, but its something that needed to be done.

We are about to re-release Solarbotics.com on a WordPress/Woocommerce platform, with some new features added, and some others removed. We'll be staging out further enhancements as we get comfortable with the platform, and hope you'll continue being good customers of Solarbotics.com.

MORE POSTS

May 9, 2014
Solarbotics at MakerShed

Yeah, you got it: at the Bay Area Maker Faire, on May 17 and 18, 2014. With some exciting new stuff. It requires sun, balls and mice. And no, it is not a solar-powered feline. It is much better. (Note: mice mention was only for confusion purposes, I confess). In any case, whatever it is, […]

August 15, 2012
Wednesday Cool Links: They're Back!

Yikes. It seems like we've been sorely neglecting our Wednesday Cool Link duties over the past month. Let's fix that, shall we? Here's our latest selection of neat-o internet thingers. Tom Sachs' Firearm... Things Yana pointed out this interesting mixed media artwork gunwork firearmwork thingwork. It's not actually functional, but it's a neat example of […]

November 29, 2011
Ardweeny & Strandbeest Make An Exce...

So we've just released a ton of awesome little bundles for our Ardweenys, and you're thinking "Wow, what would I do with all those?". Well friend, why not build a Strandbeest with an Ardweeny for a brain? For those few who aren't familiar with a Strandbeest (or don't know it by name), they are the […]

December 6, 2000
New Kit!The Hex Pummer

View our newest kit we have online, the Hex Pummer, a very amusing night display that is charged by the sun. When the lights go out, it triggers the high intensity LEDs to start flashing on and off. They start out very STRONG and then fade away until the next LED "PUMMS" on. These amusing […]

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Solarbotics has been operating for more than 25 years, bringing electronics know-how and supplies to both the electronics professional and hobbyist. We'll be happy to help you too!

Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.

Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.

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