mardi 31 juillet 2012

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Lessons Learned Building a SaaS with WordPress
Jul 31st 2012, 10:00

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Lessons Learned Building a SaaS with WordPress

WordPress has been dominating the content management system landscape for the past few years. WordPress is used by over 50 million sites; among them are ubiquitous web properties and companies like Mashable, TechCrunch and CNN[1].

In this article, we’ll talk about some of the lessons I learned while developing my latest startup, Restaurant Engine, a web design service for restaurants built on top of WordPress.

Introduction

WordPress had humbling beginnings: It started out as a blogging tool. Now, WordPress has grown into a very capable web publishing platform, and we’re continually seeing innovative ways it’s being used.

Some examples? PressTrends offers analytics tracking for WordPress product creators. WPAppStore just launched, offering an app store built into the WordPress dashboard. Browsing all of the advanced functionality that can be achieved using Gravity Forms opens up amazing possibilities. These are just a few of my favorite innovations happening in the WordPress ecosystem.

And it’s not just about dreaming up new tools. When you start thinking about specific groups of people, industries and sectors — and how WordPress can be used to solve their specific problems — we find many opportunities. But, as with anything else, there are challenges and questions that need to be thought through, dissected and reconstructed.

Essentially, my goal with Restaurant Engine was to automate (to an extent) the process of designing, building, hosting and populating a new website built with WordPress, and design this as a solution to a specific group of people (restaurant owners) who have a common set of problems that need solving.

Working with Constraints

In the case of Restaurant Engine, the decision to use WordPress was a no-brainer. In my opinion, there’s no better CMS than WordPress.

But there are certain drawbacks to using WordPress that are worth considering.

One of the disadvantages of using a CMS instead of building a web app from scratch is your ability to customize. If we built from scratch, we’d have the freedom to dream up the best possible solution for every feature. But, when working with WordPress, we must consider questions like "If we modify this feature of WordPress, how difficult will it be to maintain when WordPress is upgraded?" This can lead to more complexity, which may or may not be worth the effort.

Should You Use WordPress for Your Project?

WordPress is fantastic and can do many things. But it can’t do everything. It’s important that we accept this fact and not force WordPress to be our solution if the shoe just doesn’t fit.

It’s quite common these days that a client approaches you with big ideas for a web app, laying out a list of features that clearly will require custom web development. Sure, an eBay-inspired auction system with the ability to pull crowdsourced data from third-party feeds while auto-posting to Pinterest is possible. But is it wise to use WordPress for this?

My opinion is if the central focus of your project is related to publishing some form of content online, then WordPress could be a great choice.

Understanding Your Users

It’s important that we understand who our users are. Choosing to build our solution on top of WordPress introduces an interesting question we must resolve from the outset: Are new users of our web app already familiar with WordPress?

The answer to that question will heavily inform several things: Our marketing communication about the product, the way we communicate features within the product (labels, documentation, etc.) and the extent to which we need to customize the WordPress dashboard.

For example, below is a section of our marketing home page. In this section, we mention WordPress, but didn’t make it the central focus of our marketing because it’s only relevant to some visitors.

Customizing the WordPress Dashboard

Although WordPress has evolved into a very powerful and user-friendly piece of software, we must still question how its usability applies to our target user-base. In my case, I took the approach of "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it", but added "if it can be better, improve it."

Labeling post types, taxonomies and other features goes a long way to making the tool easier for our users to understand.

For some things, like editing posts and pages, I decided to leave the WordPress interface intact. Same with the dashboard menu design and the general visual aesthetic of the dashboard. I wanted users who already use WordPress to feel right at home when using the app. But for those who’ve never heard of WordPress, the interface still works nicely for them.

However, there were certain WordPress features that our users repeatedly found confusing or could use improvement. One example was the WordPress Featured Image, which requires a series of steps to initiate, upload, assign and save. We customized this to be a one-click action and relabeled it to say "Food Item Image".

Another example was the admin bar, which normally contains quite a few items and dropdown menus. We removed most of these and left only the most relevant items, like "View My Site" and "Log Out".

Every project and application will have its own set of requirements, goals and user groups to satisfy. That may mean fully redesigning the WordPress dashboard or leaving it alone.

Plugins

One advantage of using WordPress is the amazing selection of plugins; and some of the best ones are often free. While some things in your app may require custom development, it’s not a bad idea to rule out using plugins.

Here are a few plugins we use:

  • Hide Welcome Panel for Multisite – since we use WordPress Multisite, this little tool proved helpful
  • Simple Page Ordering – it turns your Pages list (and other hierarchal post types) into a drag-and-drop order interface
  • SB Uploader – when we modified the ‘Featured Image’ function, this plugin helped us do that

Conclusion

I just shared with you some of my experiences working with WordPress to build my startup. WordPress is easily customizable, open source, and a terrific platform for publishing web content. However, keep in mind that it has limitations and isn’t the perfect tool for every job.

References

  1. WordPress.com Stats

Related Content

About the Author

Brian Casel is the founder of Restaurant Engine, a web design service for Restaurants built on WordPress. Connect with Brian on Twitter @CasJam.

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mercredi 25 juillet 2012

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samedi 21 juillet 2012

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mercredi 11 juillet 2012

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Native App vs. Mobile Web App: A Quick Comparison
Jul 11th 2012, 14:00

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Native App vs. Mobile Web App: A Quick Comparison

A light bulb goes off. You have the next great idea for a mobile app that you want to develop. It’ll change lives. It’ll make you millions. What’s the next step you need to take?

One of the things you’ll need to decide early on in your mobile application development process is how you’ll build and deploy your app. There are two main directions you can go: native app or mobile web app. In this article, we’ll talk about the differences between the two so you can make an informed decision.

Native App vs. Mobile Web App: Definition

First, let’s define what we mean in this article when we say "native app" and "mobile web app".

What is a Native App?

A native app is an app for a certain mobile device (smartphone, tablet, etc.) They’re installed directly onto the device. Users typically acquire these apps through an online store or marketplace such as The App Store or Android Apps on Google Play.

Examples of native apps are Camera+ for iOS devices and KeePassDroid for Android devices.

What is a Mobile Web App?

When we talk about mobile web apps in this article, we’re referring to Internet-enabled apps that have specific functionality for mobile devices. They’re accessed through the mobile device’s web browser (i.e. on the iPhone, this is Safari by default) and they don’t need to be downloaded and installed on the device.

Comparison of Native App vs. Mobile Web App

Let’s do a quick rundown and evaluate native apps versus mobile web apps under these factors:

  • User interface
  • Development
  • Capabilities
  • Monetization
  • Method of delivery
  • Versioning of the app
  • Strengths
  • Weaknesses

User Interface

Some companies choose to develop both a native app and a mobile web app. Here’s a side-by-side look at Facebook’s native app and mobile web app:

Notice that, in terms of the general look-and-feel, there’s little difference between the two, making for a consistent user experience.

Development

Native Apps Mobile Web Apps
Each mobile application development platform (e.g. iOS, Android) requires its own development process Runs in the mobile device’s web browser and each may have its own features and quirks
Each mobile application development platform has its own native programming language: Java (Android), Objective-C (iOS), and Visual C++ (Windows Mobile), etc. Mobile web apps are written in HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and server-side languages or web application frameworks of the developer’s choice (e.g. PHP, Rails, Python)
Standardized software development kits (SDKs), development tools and common user interface elements (buttons, text input fields, etc.) are often provided by the manufacturer of the platform There are no standard software development kits (SDKs) that developers are required to use to make a mobile web app
There are tools and frameworks to help in developing apps for deployment on multiple mobile OS platforms and web browsers (e.g. PhoneGap, Sencha Touch 2, Appcelerator Titanium, etc.)

Capabilities

Native Apps Mobile Web Apps
Can interface with the device’s native features, information and hardware (camera, accelerometer, etc.) Mobile web apps can access a limited amount of the device’s native features and information (orientation, geolocation, media, etc.)

Monetization

Native Apps Mobile Web Apps
Mobile-specific ad platforms such as AdMob (though there can be restrictions set by the mobile device’s manufacturer) Mobile web apps can monetize through site advertisement and subscription fees
Developers have the ability to charge a download price and app stores will typically handle the payment process (in exchange for a percentage of sales) Charging users to use the mobile web app requires you to set up your own paywall or subscription-based system

Method of Delivery

Native Apps Mobile Web Apps
Downloaded onto a mobile device Accessed through a mobile device’s web browser
Installed and runs as a standalone application (no web browser needed) No need to install new software
Users must manually download and install app updates Updates are made to the web server without user intervention
There are stores and marketplaces to help users find your app Since there is no app store for the Mobile Web, it can be harder for users to find your app

Versioning of the App

Native Apps Mobile Web Apps
Some users may choose to ignore an update, resulting in different users running different versions of the app All users are on the same version

Strengths

Native Apps Mobile Web Apps
Typically perform faster than mobile web apps Have a common code base across all platforms
App stores and marketplaces help users find native apps Users don’t have to go to a store or marketplace, download the app and install the app
App store approval processes can help assure users of the quality and safety of the app Can be released in any form and any time as there isn’t an app store that has to approve the app
Tools, support and standard development best practices provided by device manufacturers can help speed up development If you already have a web app, you can retrofit it with a responsive web design

Weaknesses

Native Apps Mobile Web Apps
Are typically more expensive to develop, especially if you’re supporting multiple mobile devices Mobile web apps can’t access all of the device’s features (yet)
Supporting multiple platforms requires maintaining multiple code bases and can result in higher costs in development, maintenance, pushing out updates, etc. Supporting multiple mobile web browsers can result in higher costs in development and maintenance, etc.
Users can be on different versions and can make your app harder to maintain and provide support for Users can be on different mobile browsers and can make your app harder to maintain and provide support for
App store approval processes can delay the launch of the app or prevent the release of the app For users, it may be harder to find a mobile web app because of the lack of a centralized app store (though listings do exist such as Apple’s Web apps and you can request to be listed in them)

Native App vs. Mobile Web App: How Do You Choose?

To help you decide how you should build your mobile app, ask yourself these questions:

  • Does the mobile app require the use of any special device features (i.e., camera, the camera’s flash, accelerometer, etc.)?
  • What’s my budget?
  • Does the mobile app need to be Internet-enabled?
  • Do I need to target all mobile devices or just certain devices?
  • What programming languages do I already know?
  • How important is speed and performance?
  • How will this app be monetized effectively?

Answering these questions can help you make an informed decision.

Conclusion

Whether you decide to build a native app or a mobile web app depends on many factors: business objectives, target audience, technical requirements and so on.

You don’t necessarily have to choose between building a native app or a mobile web app. As mentioned earlier, companies like Facebook maintain both native apps and a mobile web app. However, for many of us, budget and resource constraints will require us to decide if we need to build a native app or a mobile web app (or, at least, will require us to prioritize which one to develop first).

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About the Author

JT Mudge is the co-founder and technical director of LitmusBox, a web development services company. He’s been involved in web development and Internet business consulting for over 15 years. You can reach JT via his website, LinkedIn and Twitter (@jtmudge).

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dimanche 8 juillet 2012

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Announcement: Winners of PageLines Developer Licenses
Jul 8th 2012, 23:02

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Announcement: Winners of PageLines Developer Licenses

We recently hosted a giveaway of 10 PageLines Framework Developer licenses. With over 320 participants, this was one of our most successful giveaways. In this post, you’ll see the lucky Six Revisions readers who’ve won!

The Winners

Here are the 10 winners of PageLines Framework Developer licenses:

I’d like to congratulate all of our winners! The winners should have already received an email from me with instructions on how to claim their prize.

SQL query displaying the 10 winners that were selected at random. Email addresses were removed from the screenshot for privacy purposes.SQL query displaying the 10 winners that were selected at random. Email addresses were removed from the screenshot for privacy purposes.

About the PageLines Framework

PageLines Framework makes WordPress design and development easier for new and pro users alike. Try the Live Demo.

Follow PageLines on Twitter and Like them on Facebook.

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About the Author

Jacob Gube is the Founder and Chief Editor of Six Revisions. He’s also a web developer/designer who specializes in front-end development (JavaScript, HTML, CSS) and also a book author. If you’d like to connect with him, head on over to the contact page and follow him on Twitter: @sixrevisions.

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