The Gantrisch Nature Park is a regional nature park of national importance and its website was completely redesigned by Magma Branding in 2022. As part of the relaunch, two existing data management systems had to be seamlessly integrated into the website, allowing the marketing team to manage the offers and tours independently of the layout.
The offer database
Managing data independently of the page or website layout is an extremely effective approach. Team members can interact with a much simpler user interface and work more efficiently thanks to the Swiss parks offer database, while the data can be used in a variety of ways – from creating print materials to populating various views on the website with relevant information.
Output of data with customised WordPress blocks
A separate approach to data management is one that I have used in a number of projects for over two decades. When Magma Branding asked me to integrate an appropriate solution into the WordPress website, I used the data API provided by the Valais software company Indual to transfer existing data from the quotation database to the website.
WordPress is ideal for this type of data management, as its core technology has offered entry-based data management since the first version in 2003. However, the client understandably preferred to continue using the system they – and the Swiss Parks – are familiar with.
As soon as the offers are available in the local database (and are regularly updated automatically), a WordPress plugin I developed ensures that a series of individually programmed content elements (“blocks”) are provided based on this data. These elements enable the Magma Branding team to freely design the pages in the Block Editor.
Colour, typography and layout decisions can be made completely independently of the data and editorially filtered list views can be placed on suitable pages. This means that the offers can be configured editorially and placed on topic-specific pages such as “Winter hiking” or “Overnight accommodation” as well as in the overall overview.
Interactive maps from Outdooractive
Depending on the season, the main activities in the Gantrisch Nature Park are hiking or sledging, skiing or snowshoeing. Outdooractive is a widely used, well-known app and website with a wide range of functions – from simple tour suggestions to detailed interactive maps.
Customised development of such an extensive solution would have been disproportionately expensive for this project, so I integrated Outdooractive’s services via their Data API. This allows the marketing team to create and manage their tours and recommendations directly in the Outdooractive system.
The result is a layout-independent data management system in which the most important information appears across all channels – not only on gantrisch.ch/touren, but also on the Outdooractive website and in the Outdooractive app itself.
