The client operates a community-driven pigeon racing platform where event results are time-sensitive and must be displayed in a clear, consistent, and credible way. The existing reference website already had a recognizable format (date tabs, leaderboards, and public navigation), so the new system needed to match that user experience while providing a clean admin panel to manage everything without technical help.

The competitive challenge was not just “show results,” but to make the site:

• Easy to update daily (even by non-technical admins)

• Fast to browse and search (large tables)

• Structured to prevent data entry confusion

• Deployable on shared hosting environments

The client needed a complete portal that solved these key issues:

1. Manual & confusing result entry: Admins needed a guided flow to set up clubs, lofts, tournaments, dates, and arrivals without mistakes.

2. Date-wise results display: Results needed to be shown by event and by date (tabs), matching the reference layout.

3. Dynamic pigeon count: Each tournament can have a different pigeon count (e.g., 1–10). The system must adapt columns/inputs automatically.

4. Accurate time logic: The table must display duration (Start time → Arrival time difference), not just raw arrival timestamps.

5. Homepage content management: Slider images, featured clubs, ticker text, and featured events must be editable from admin.

6. Hosting limitations: Shared hosting often blocks symlinks (storage:link) and certain server functions, so media handling had to be reliable.

We built a modular Laravel 11 application with a public portal + admin panel to manage all content and tournament data.

Primary objectives:

1. Admin-controlled homepage blocks

   • Slider/Carousel (images managed in admin)

   • Featured Clubs strip (green bar)

   • News/Tagline ticker (scrolling line)

   • Featured Events strip (blue bar)

2. Tournament management

   • Create tournament with start time + date range

   • Automatically generate date tabs

   • Register lofts/participants per tournament

   • Enter arrival times for pigeon #1…#N

   • Compute and display duration totals

3. Fast results browsing

   • DataTables search/sort/pagination for large lists

4. Weather page integration

   • Admin-configurable Windy map embed (location-based)

5. Hosting-safe media uploads

   • Upload images directly into /public/uploads/... to avoid symlink issues

To ensure smooth delivery and easy maintenance, we planned the system around “modules” and admin-friendly workflows:

1. Database-first approach

   • Stable schema for clubs, lofts, tournaments, dates, and arrivals

   • Clean relationships to support date tabs and dynamic pigeon columns

2. UI consistency

   • Bootstrap 5 layout aligned with reference style

   • Reusable layout file so header/slider/ticker strips appear on every page

3. Performance and usability

   • DataTables integration for public result tables

   • Lightweight queries and clear indexes for common lookups

4. Deployment strategy

   • Shared hosting support with direct public uploads and caching controls

The delivered platform provided a full “reference-style” public experience while enabling the client to manage everything from admin:

• Tournament results displayed date-wise with searchable tables

• Dynamic pigeon count supported per tournament

• Accurate duration calculations from start time

• Homepage sections fully managed by admin (slider, clubs strip, ticker, featured events)

• Weather page embedded and configurable

• Reliable image display on shared hosting without storage:link

The most important technical challenge was deployment constraints on shared hosting, where symlinks and command execution can be restricted. To ensure image reliability, the upload system was redesigned to store images directly in a public uploads folder—eliminating the common “images not showing” problem after deployment.

A second core challenge was getting the time logic right: the requirement was to show duration differences (start vs arrival), not raw timestamps, while also supporting a variable number of pigeons per event.