CASE STUDY: The Knot

• Unify functionality from two previously purchased web assets into one new site
• Harvest assets from a Flash!-based site and a Classic ASP site
• Create new site using latest Microsoft .Net technologies
• Create a wizard-based ‘mysite’ creation facility using templates for styles and themes
• Migrate existing users from two distinct systems into one
• Use only modern techniques for site layout and design

The Knot acquired two distinctly different websites, each providing a set of tools allowing users to create and manage all of the intricacies of wedding planning and coordination. The toolsets in each site were built in very different technologies, one Flash! and the other Classic ASP, requiring some functions be migrated, some to be rewritten, and the best features of some to be used as the basis for entirely new functionality. The system had to support the 12 million users of The Knot along with the opportunity to be repurposed for other forms of life-events, such as organizing events around the birth of a baby for another property of The Knot called TheNest.com. Guidelight was tasked with making a flexible and generalized life-event organizational system based on the capabilities of the original two sites.

Guidelight was able to integrate the two web assets to create a wizard-based web authoring system allowing users to create their own personalized interactive wedding website. The new site was created entirely using Microsoft technologies including .NET and SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition, along with contemporary best-practices of fully CSS-based layout and the latest W3C standards. The system was deployed to a cluster environment capable of scaling to the entire 12M users of The Knot.

This web authoring system enables any end-user despite their level of technical expertise to create their own wedding tracking website. The system helps engaged couples organize, plan and conduct all of the myriad aspects of their wedding, including interactive web features such as guest and invitation management, seating chart functionality, gift management, task lists, account management, and wedding calendar.