Mountain CARE

Project
Mountain CARE
Live Website
Challenge/Opportunity

Mountain CARE is a 501c3 non-profit group located in the San Bernardino Mountains, serving a region encompassing three towns. The organization wanted a website to facilitate community engagement in the following ways:

  1. Announce community service opportunities (e.g., graffiti cleanup, roadside trash pick-up and recycling events).
  2. Recruit volunteers from the community.
  3. Provide downloadable PDF version of the organization’s quarterly newsletter, The Bear Facts.
  4. Provide instructions for advertisers to place ads in The Bear Facts.
  5. Provide a donation form integrated with PayPal.
  6. Deliver the community safety service of providing current road and weather conditions from a network of web cams and weather stations.
Scope of Project

Deliver standard features via our Blue Core CMS™ platform.

Deliver on specialized requirements (web cam network viewer components) via custom features integrated with Blue Core CMS™.

Installed and configured several IP web cameras and IP weather stations - each of which transmits its images and weather data to a central server. The website then picks up the images and weather data and formats each for display on the website.

Solution

To deliver on the wide array of requirements, we first implemented the basic features using the pre-built site components of Blue Core CMS™. The back-end components of the web cam network were then developed to run in parallel to Blue Core CMS™, while also integrating custom photo viewing components into the website so as to provide a seamless viewing experience. The end-result is one coherent website presenting a single unified browsing experience while combining back-end features from two systems; (1) Blue Core CMS™ and (2) custom web cam network components

Built-in Website Features
  • Responsive Design
  • Informational Pages
  • Forms
Custom Website Features
  • Web cam photo viewer components
  • Web cam photo processor
  • Weather data viewer components
  • Web data processor
Technology
  • Blue Core CMS™ 
  • jQuery 2.x
  • Bootstrap 3.x
  • HTML 5
  • CSS 3
  • JavaScript
  • Custom .NET Windows Service
  • ASP.NET 4.x
  • SQL Server 2016 Database
  • IP cameras with built-in FTP client
  • IP weather stations with FTP client
Tools
  • Adobe Photoshop CC
  • Visual Studio 2017

Built-In Website Features


Responsive Design

All websites hosted on our Blue Core CMS™ platform are cross-device and cross-browser compatible. Each website is integrated with jQuery 2.x, Bootstrap 3.x and supplemental JavaScript and CSS libraries. These open source libraries provide a useful balance between support for modern mobile-friendly website features and backwards compatibility with older browsers.

Informational Pages

Informational pages house static content on the website that may be permanent or routinely updated. The self-service administrative features on Blue Core CMS™ make it easy to safely perform these updates yourself. Alternatively, our support team can perform updates for you, and typically at no additional cost.

Forms - Inquiry Form

Choose anything from a basic contact form to a full custom application form that can be submitted online.

The forms delivered via our Blue Core CMS™ platform are easily customized. Each form is backed by a database where the data provided by your website visitors is stored permanently. When visitors submit a form, the data is automatically written to the database, then sent to you and/or others in your organization as an email message.

Advanced security features built into our Forms component prevent automated form spam from being submitted through our system.

Forms - Paypal-Integrated Donation Form

Our Blue Core CMS™ platform includes Payment Forms as a pre-built but customizable type of form that enables your website visitors to select from amongst several options and provide information. As they select options, a total payment amount is automatically calculated. Your website visitors then proceed to pay (or donate) at PayPal.

The Payment forms delivered via our Blue Core CMS™ platform are easily customized. Each form is backed by a database where the data provided by your website visitors is stored permanently. When visitors submit a form, the data is automatically written to the database, then sent to PayPal when they proceed to pay.

Advanced security features built into our Forms component prevent automated form spam from being submitted through our system.

Lists

Our Blue Core CMS™ platform includes Payment Forms includes a generic Lists feature which provides a tabular presentation of information. A frequent use is to provide a calendar of events, schedule, or some other row-and-column presentation of data.

Custom Website Features


Web Cam Photo Viewer Components

The web cam photo viewers each present a still image from the corresponding web cam. The web cams send a new photo once per minute. And the web cam photo viewers automatically show the new image.

Weather Data Viewer Components

Weather data for each web cam site is presented immediately below each Web Cam Photo Viewer. Summary data is visible at all times. And full historical weather data is available, but hidden by default. The website visitor can click the "Show Weather History" button to show historical weather data.

Other Deliverables


On behalf of this client we researched, ordered, installed, and configured 5 IP web cams and 5 IP weather stations. The web cams and weather stations were installed in pairs in various locations in the San Bernardino Mountains.

We provide ongoing monitoring of the web cam network, and provide all hosting, management, and support services for the website.