Ottawa Canal Winterlude Website Project Overview

A comprehensive tourism website promoting the Ottawa Canal as the world's largest skating rink and host of Canada's Winterlude festival. The site provides event information, trip planning tools, and visitor resources for hundreds of thousands of annual visitors.

Frontend Development

• Built with

  React 18

  and

  TypeScript

  for a type-safe, component-based architecture

• Wouter

  for client-side routing with seamless page navigation

• Tailwind CSS

  with custom design system and dark/light theme support

• Shadcn/ui

  component library built on Radix UI primitives for accessible, polished UI elements

• TanStack Query

  for efficient server state management and data caching

• React Hook Form

  with Zod validation for robust form handling

• Fully responsive design optimized for mobile, tablet, and desktop

• SEO optimization with meta tags, Open Graph, structured data (JSON-LD), and XML sitemap

Backend Development

• Node.js

  with

  Express.js

  REST API server

• PostgreSQL

  database with

  Drizzle ORM

  for type-safe queries

• RESTful API endpoints for contact form submissions and data retrieval

• Zod

  schema validation for secure request handling

• Session management and server-side rendering support

Key Features

• Contact form system with admin dashboard for managing inquiries

• Interactive search functionality with keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+K)

• Event calendar and trip planning tools

• Automatic scroll restoration for smooth navigation

• Comprehensive SEO implementation for Google search visibility

Tech Stack

Frontend: React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Shadcn/ui, TanStack Query, Wouter Backend: Node.js, Express.js, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM Tools: Vite, Zod, React Hook Form, Lucide Icons