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Darren Healy
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 23,565 PointsBest way to show build to client?
Hi there,
Can anyone advise me on the best way to showcase to a client where distance is an issue (i.e. I can't readily travel to them) how their website is coming along?
I now use Xampp for local development, is there a way to do it here?
I would like for them to be able to view it in their browser or on their mobile/tablet through a URL. Maybe that's not the best way...open to suggestions.
6 Answers
Stephen O'Connor
22,291 PointsI would normally just put the site on a development/test server somewhere, do you have access to that? A personal account or even their servers if they have one.
Or you could set up something like LogMeIn, which would allow the client to log into your machine and look at your local site, it has a free trial, I'm not sure if this would be a bit overkill though ...
Jeremy Lindstrom
6,646 PointsYou can also dump the whole site onto a site like http://www.bitballoon.com and then simply send them the link. Any updates you do you just reupload the complete folder.
You can view some of my traininglessons I am working on here. http://careerfoundrylessons.bitballoon.com and I just drag and drop the folder to update the site for someone to view my updates, it also can use your github account.
Andre Romano
8,809 PointsIf you dont mind your work being public, you could set up a GitHub repo, and use the gh-pages to make a preview.
More on that: https://pages.github.com/
Simon Truong
2,179 PointsHi Darren,
I'm not an expert in that field...But i've looked around the web and there are some tools to show your mock ups to your clients. Some of them are :
http://mockupr.com/ http://qwik.vu/
Hope that will help,
Peace, Nam
Gunjeet Hattar
14,483 PointsDo you want to show them in real time? In that case Stephen's suggestion would work fine. Other known alternatives could be Skype (share screen) , google hangout or even remote desktop incase you are using Windows.
If your objective is to show them every week (kinda like an Agile Development method) where the project has reached in terms of development, you could set up simple login page, pass your clients the credentials which will redirect them to the development page. Hope I made sense :)
If that seems like too much of a task you could easily share screen shots of your work, or weekly share your screen to show them the progress.
Will update incase I find a better solution
Hope this helps
Darren Healy
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 23,565 PointsThanks for the responses guys!
Really I just want something as simple as being able to share a link to a live preview of the current site, where they can click, resize and so on. What's the best way to do that?
Darren Healy
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 23,565 PointsDarren Healy
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 23,565 PointsHi Stephen, the development/test server sounds like the best way, how would you go about doing that? Would I have to set up a hosting account with a provider and pay for a hosting package to do that?
Stephen O'Connor
22,291 PointsStephen O'Connor
22,291 PointsHi Darren,
Yes, you would need to sign up to a hosting account somewhere and also buy a domain, www.darrenhealy.com for example, you could then structure that space however you like - have a clients folder or subdomain. Once your files/database etc have been uploaded then all you need to do is forward the link onto the client, www.darrenhealy.com/clients/client-name/ for example.
JustHost have always been a decent hosting company for me, they are reliable, cheap and offer unlimited everything (ftp accounts, databases, email addresses etc) with their packages, but, of course, you can use any hosting provider you like.