Limitless developed LML - Limitless Mark-up Language - in 1996 so that they could create Carsource for an entrepreneur; Carsource was one of the UK's first car buying and selling web sites and became one of the top 50 visited sites in the UK.

Carsource began with the simple idea of combining car classifieds with car magazines. Andrew Dyson wanted to provide access to photos, car specifications and articles for listed cars.

This meant holding the data in a relational database and then creating a web site with dynamically-generated pages which displayed information relevant to the visitor's actions.

Prototype of the new car page, 1996

Limitless chose Oracle for the database; nowadays, developers use PHP or ASP for dynamic, database-backed sites or for sites which maintain session information. However, nothing useful and robust existed in 1996. In consultation with us, Julian Perry developed LML.

LML is an SGML-compliant mark-up language which means that web pages are marked up in HTML and LML extensions which are interpreted by the server, rather than have a site consisting of complex programs which churn out HTML.

The site keeps track of entered user information while they browse the site so that their details do not have to be re-entered each time they perform a proximity search, book a test drive or request a brochure. By registering with the site, these details can be recalled on subsequent visits.

We were heavily involved with the original Carsource development at the beginning of the project by providing the following:

a competitor review followed by a written report;
site navigation design;
requirements document;
page prototype - a series of linked pages to show page layouts with dummy copy but no visual design;
template pages based on the prototype;
copy-writing, including the help text and
liaising with Denison Design on the visual design.

The whole site was redesigned and redeveloped by Carsource in 2000.