AFTE Case Study

The Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners (AFTE), an international non-profit professional organization, approached Xynergy in 2015 with a large project that included

• redesigning the fifteen year old website
• updating the hosting to modern infrastructure and security
• converting ten different databases from PC and web sources into one unified database
• converting the site’s membership accounts and data to the new site
• migrating the AFTE bulletin board forum and skinning it to match the website design
• providing modern e-Commerce capability for journal and dvd sales, including downloadable products

AFTE chose Xynergy for this project due to our in-person accessibility and our willingness to provide detailed assessments of project cost and schedule.

Xynergy recommended ExpressionEngine (EE) as the Content Management System of choice for member-based websites and we were able to automate the conversion of hundreds of member records into it.  

EE makes updating the site a snap for the AFTE webmaster and the membership manager.

We architected their custom databases using the LAMP stack:

• Laravel PHP framework for the custom functionality of the front and back end
• AJAX content injection techniques to seamlessly integrate the databases into the site and the EE administrative dashboard
• Custom interface to the EE member authorization to ensure end-to-end data security
• Custom administrative module written for EE as a blend of EE and Laravel frameworks
• MySQL database

The result?  A data rich site in which the custom databases and the native ExpressionEngine functions blend seamlessly.

AFTE’s Headstamp Guide was originally built out in an open-source PHP gallery application.  The original developers had abandoned this application and it could not be easily updated, so Xynergy evaluated the complex application, extracted the relevant data from it and re-built it in simplified form.  Have a peek!

AFTE’s Searchable Journal Index database contained thousands of articles from the AFTE Journal.  In addition to converting the database and implementing a search interface, Xynergy was able to integrate the search results with Expresso Store, allowing the purchase of individual articles or whole journal issues for immediate download.  Later the same features were created for  AFTE’s DVD collection.  Have a peek!

AFTE’s membership enjoys access to a number of other features not available to the public, which are protected by EE’s member authorization functionality and include

• member search implemented using Low Search
• free journal access
• custom searchable firearms forensic classification databases
• member profile updates
• custom database submission forms

Xynergy also provided in-house photography expertise to augment the imagery used in the new site.

After the new website was launched, the AFTE webmaster returned from the annual training conference and said that, no exaggeration,

At least one hundred members complimented him on doing a great job with the new site!