http://www.virginholidays.co.uk/
Technologies: ASP; ASP.NET; C#; SQL; XML; JavaScript
Although the bulk of Virgin Holidays' several thousand web pages appear as static HTML pages, it is in fact generated using a
complex database and advanced, custom built editing and generation tools.
Intimately involved in all development aspects I performed regular SQL Server maintenance and development;
create advanced JavaScript enhancements and develop dynamic ASP and ASP.NET (using C#) pages.
Further information about particular areas of the Virgin Holiday's website to illustrate expertise:
Sitewide Search
A full text search facility was created using the NLucene indexing framework. The application indexes content on the file system, incorporating
data from both HTML and XML documents. The user interface implements Google style query syntax and result display. Custom paging allows for easy navigation of multiple search pages.
For ease of maintenance and deployment the search interface was created as a self contained UserControl that can be cleanly dropped into any page necessary. This is particularly important
for our client as the ability to search their different holiday brochures separately is required.
In addition to the user facing portion of the site, an admin interface was also created allowing for all or portions of the site to be re-indexed. URLs which are not wanted can be
removed and added to a "block list" to prevent them from being re-indexed.
Try the site wide search at http://www.virginholidays.co.uk/
SQL Server Database
Invisible to website users, the SQL Server database is a core element of the Virgin Holiday's site. Containing relational information about hotels, resorts, flight routes, excursions and more,
the data pushed through ASP.NET templates and saved as static pages (to ensure high performance) before being uploaded to the live site.
Regular brochure releases require frequent importing and modifying of data using complex SQL statements, stored procedures, and DTS.
As with so many tasks, Zolv has written scripts and provided user interfaces to assist less technical users in the generation and modification of this data.
JavaScript Enhancements
Throughout the Virgin Holidays' site, JavaScript is used to enhance the user experience. Multiple, inter-dependant drop down boxes populate without additional requests to the server;
user data is validated for accuracy before submission; additional form elements are added and removed on user request. These and other JavaScript make the site easier and quicker to use.
Written from scratch, they demonstrate advanced JavaScript skills.
An example of these enhancements can be found at: http://www.virginholidays.co.uk/usa/pages/multicentre.asp
Dynamic FAQs
A good demonstration of ASP.NET, C#, XML and JavaScript development is the site's FAQ database. The data is stored as XML which is easy to edit by Virgin Holidays staff and is
displayed in a category based way with additional search. JavaScript controls requests