#TeamProdo loves developing websites with Umbraco. We’ve been using the content management system for over 5 years, and as Gold Partners, we’d like to think we know a thing or two about it. Our developers have given us the lowdown on how to make the most of your Umbraco website with the 5 best add-ons.
1. Contour Package
What it’s good for: Form-building, questionnaires or appointment booking forms that are easy to implement.
Kicking things off with our most-used package, Contour comes at a cost of €99 per domain (around £78), and we think it’s worth every penny!
Contour is a form-building package that gives clients the flexibility to add forms to their website and tweak them to their exact requirements, e.g. textboxes, dropdown lists and date pickers.
Contour can also be used for questionnaires, polls or appointment booking forms. It’s versatile and so easy to use for non-technical editors. Integrating client branding can also be done within a few clicks.
What it’s good for: Dynamic cropping and creating responsive images
Strong, engaging imagery is key to many of our client’s websites but uploading images in all different sizes and aspect ratios can become a very time consuming task.
CropUp cuts time spent on images in half. After uploading a single image to the media section of your site, CropUp will ask you to select the crop for each size image that your site uses (e.g. banner image, listing image, featured article).
CropUp also sets up the main focus of your uploaded image, so that any other crops that are done on the site will always be cropped into the focal point of the image.
3. DataGrid (part of uComponents)
What it’s good for: More control on how content is assembled
We use open source package uComponents day in, day out, so it’s safe to say that we’re big fans!
uComponents comes packed with over 30 data types, 10 XSLT extension libraries, neat drag-and-drop features, as well as a welcoming developer code base.
One of our favourite features of uComponents is the Data Grid.
The Data Grid is essentially a group of content types which can be smartly grouped together to give more control on how content is assembled. Think of it as a repeatable block of content types – a handy feature when working with content that requires multiple fields, such as an Accordion, Slider, Carousel, etc.
What it’s good for: Showing an exact location on a website
A common requirement from our clients is plotting their office, a property that they’re selling, or the location of one of their shops onto a map. The Google Maps data type allows users to drop a pin onto a Google map interface for a given location, so the user can search using a city name, postcode, monument or anything that would work using Google.
Once the pin has been dropped in the CMS, we can use the data to plot this on a Google Map for a website. There’s also the option to drop multiple pins on the same map, like the example below.
5. Prodo Base Package
What it’s good for: Speeding up website build whilst keeping the quality at its highest
We had to leave this one until last! This package isn’t available from the package repository because it’s our secret weapon when it comes to building quality websites in Umbraco quickly and efficiently.
It allows us to pick and choose the elements that make up a site from a library of features that we have developed over the last 5 years (building over 130 websites!), and then adapt each feature to the client’s needs without having to start each website build from scratch.
Much of what we’ve learned about building great websites over the years has gone directly into our base package, so each time we build a site we have a head start from day one.
What are your must-have Umbraco packages? Let us know!
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