Website Development Standards

Berkshire Direct’s website development standards are the basis for all proposals we send out. They are our internal instructions for building websites UNLESS our customer specifically requests something else. If there is special preference which supersedes one of our website development standards, we will clearly identify it in the proposal or in an email amending the proposal.

Website Development Standards: The Basics

Berkshire Direct will:

initially build site on our development server (dev.berkshiredirect.com/projectname)
use the latest version of WordPress available when project is started
create properly commented and logically ordered CSS files
set all external links to open in a new window
disable comments on blogs and other posts
QA test the sites for the following browsers
- IE9+
- Firefox 31+
- Chrome 40+
- Safari 7+
- Microsoft Edge
QA test the sites on the following devices
- iPhone
- iPad
- Android phone
- Android tablet
Move the site at the completion of development to the customer’s final hosting location

Berkshire Direct will NOT:

create a child theme for Foundation or Bootstrap sites
use any inline CSS
style comments form or comments thread views

Website Development Standards: Header and Footer

Berkshire Direct will:

use Dashboard » Appearance » Header for header logo file
link logo to home page
use Dashboard » Appearance » Background to set background color and/or image
use Advanced Custom Fields » Options Page to create global options for header content, footer content, etc. resulting in a Dashboard menu item called “My Options”
will setup Dashboard » My Options » Contact Info as custom fields so novice user can edit contact details
will setup Dashboard » My Options » Social Media as custom fields so novice user can choose icons and links for social media sites
will setup Dashboard » My Options » Copyright Statement as a custom field so novice user can add/edit the site’s copyright statement

Website Development Standards: Navigation

Berkshire Direct will:

create all menus using Dashboard » Appearance » Menus
clearly identify Menu Locations
build the responsive navigation using the Bootstrap or Foundation defaults

Berkshire Direct will NOT:

use breadcrumbs

Website Development Standards: Slider (a.k.a. Slideshow)

Berkshire Direct will:

create custom sliders using Custom Post Types and Advanced Custom Fields
add Slider Options to the My Options area where transition type (e.g. fade) can be selected from a list and transition speed can be set with a numeric variable
make images in the responsive versions of the slider proportional
put all text that overlays the slider in the full screen view underneath the slider image in the responsive views

Website Development Standards: Pages and Posts

Berkshire Direct will:

list pages on Dashboard » Pages to closely follow the same order as the navigation
use only one <h1> tag per page or post around the Page Title or Post Title
setup custom fields used in the Page Editor or Post Editor in a logical tab order and using obvious naming syntax
use Dashboard » Settings » Permalinks to set the default permalinks to /%postname%/

Website Development Standards: Templates

Berkshire Direct will:

create the following templates and provide custom CSS for:
- home.php
- full-width.php
- single.php
- archive.php
use the default responsiveness provided by Bootstrap or Foundation

Website Development Standards: WordPress Plugins on Every Site We Build

Berkshire Direct will include the following WordPress plugins on every website site we build:

Website Development Standards: WordPress Plugins Used When Required

Berkshire Direct will include the following plugins if the functionality is required: