Site reconstruction ( Taming a monster )

[vabtz]

I need advice on rewriting an existing set of sites.

I recently was hired by a goverment agency to reorganize and rewrite there web applications. Currently is a real mess. I am the first professional webmaster they have hired and the "applications" were written in several flavors of serverside VB & Javascript using ASP ( Classic ).

Problems:
- The organization uses several app's that have the worst code I have ever seen. If I had my druthers I would thrw it all out and start from scratch but I can't.
- No coding standards were ever in place
- The Site organization is awful. There is none.
- No one knows whats being used and what isn't.
- The information is far flung and unorganized and its huge.

Any advice on how to take monsters like this and reorganize them into something useful and migrate the code base to something secure and desingned would be appreciated.

[vabtz]

One thing I was thinking of starting with is updating the major sections to be xhtml compliant. My reasoning is that once I get all the Frontpage developed html updated it will be more legible and the intent of the authors will be more clear.

[pensive jack]

Take the pay in advance...

I have had this problem with some sites.
I had do rewrite everything from scratch, and just start all over again and the sites was only in html.
So isnīt it better to start all over insteed of rewrite?

[vabtz]

- luckily I am a goverment employee now so its not a contract job thus no worries about pay.

- Your right a from scratch rewrite would be the best alternative for me but they are actually using this crap and would freak if I axed it.

[httpwebwitch]

sounds like an awful situation (possibly more frustrating than you are admitting). I don't know what these apps you've inherited are for, but I can suggest a general strategy... If it was my job, I would:

1) set up a parallel domain or subdomain for beta development

2) whittle down the static content to bare HTML or PDFs where appropriate

3) Build a database to keep track of the location of all documents, and add fields as needed during development

4) start from scratch rebuilding the apps in PHP

5) slowly introduce your staff to the beta version as sections are finished... or redirect old URLs to the new ones once they are tested and working

a general tip: pay close attention to useability issues and don't radically change the interfaces unless it's necessary for functionality or useabilty. Interview your cohorts and ask what features they like and use often and which features they hate or find cumbersome. Buy the book "GUI Bloopers" if you don't already have it in your library.
[ASIN:1558605827]

good luck!
httpwebwitch