Web Apps

Custom Web Applications

Since 2011, Our focus has been on creating powerful, custom applications for our user-friendly website solutions. We design Apps that are specifically made for your business. Maybe you're starting a Social Community site, a Craigslist-style Marketplace, a Product Catalog, or an Online Newspaper with a couple dozen authors contributing articles from around the globe. This is where we truly shine.

  • Employee Directory

    Employee Profiles, with Nested Categories (Departments). Employee info can be updated on the front-end by the employee, or from the back-end by an administrator. Mass/Bulk upload and import with CSV or JSON can be used as well. Individual elements can be set as access-restricted, i.g., phone numbers or email addresses can be set to only show to employees or partners.

  • Product Catalogs

    Custom Products, with nested and multiple categories. A CMS is perfect for both small and large product catalogs. Companies with many thousands of products can import/export product updates with CSV or JSON, and small companies can easily edit from the front-end or back-end interface. Products can be filtered and sorted by custom elements (i.g., devices can be sorted by voltage, temperature, or other industry-specific characteristics). We can also automate and stream products to widgets throughout your site.

  • Events

    Even the most custom kinds of events can be perfectly managed with a custom web application. In the examples above and to the right, you can see Events that are very specific to baseball. These custom Events have more than one Date and Time--with parking lot times, gate times, stadium times and ballgame start times. These can be updated in bulk by JSON or CSV, and stream to widgets like the Slideset of Opposing Team logos above, a sortable list or grid, or a Calendar.
In the above example, we can see each individual element that makes up a Homestand item

Items

Every custom application starts with your custom Items. Whether we're building a Product Catalog or an Events sytem, chances are your items will have aspects that relate specifically to what you do. In the below example, this simple Event Item is made up of some basic elements. Name, Text are plain 'ol text elements. We have a Date/Time element, an Image element, a Google Maps element, and a handful of very standard, basic elements. On the right, you see how they all come together to make up the Item. Since they are separate elements and not just plain text typed into a page, we can choose to stream elements to widgets like a Calendar, Slideshow or List. The database stores your elements in separate tables--so Items can also be sorted in order by a specific elements, like an Event Date. If this Event Item had two Date/Time elements, you might give visitors the option to sort by Events in the afternoon vs Events in the morning. We can also set individual elements to require a certain access level. In the below example, let's say there's a Download that's only accessible to visitors who are logged-in.

Name
Text
Date & Time
Image
Related Item
Social Buttons
Download
Maps
Category
Comments

Name

Events Category
Sep 26th 4:00pm
Text

Widgets & Elements

Being able to create and publish content from the Front-End of your website had been accessible to most business' since 2007. However, until 2011, this was reserved strictly for administrators. Company employees and small business owners would login to the Front-End with restricted access, and edit or publish a new page or article. This changed with the introduction of custom Apps. With a CMS like Joomla, and powerful Content Construction Kits like Zoo, we began producing custom Apps.

Let's use the Craigslist-style marketplace as an example. We would want our application to allow website visitors to create and publish content - in this case a listing - on their own, without any help. We might also want to extend options to registered users, that public users don't get access to. This is a pretty standard, simple application need.

We'd need a bunch of categories for listings to be posted to. We'd also want to configure item creation for the listing model. Some elements that would make sense here would be the Title, Images, Price, Description, Contact and maybe some Tags. We might also want a Date element so the items can be sorted by Most Recent when visitors are browsing or searching to buy things. Lastly, we'd want a Related Item element to associate the User Profile with the listing itself. With the Related Items element, we could automatically show every listing from a user when you look at their Profile. In reverse, we could automatically show a link (or Name and Image, etc) to the user's Profile on every listing.

Common Widgets

  • Grid
  • Gallery
  • Slideshow
  • Slideshow Panel
  • Switcher
  • Slideset
  • Slider
  • Popover
  • Accordion
  • Parallax
  • Map
  • List

Common Application Types

Below are some examples of common custom apps many of our clients have in their web systems. This is by no means a complete list. Often, we tie multiple Apps in together for a website or cloud system. The Oakland Athletics Intranet system, for example, uses 5 custom web applications.

Download Files

Media, Documents or Packaged files.

Contact Info

Phone numbers, Email or Physical Addresses

Video

Multiple format media, linked or uploaded

Maps

Geo-location and Address for live Google Maps

Lists

Text lists, bulelts, checkboxes or radio selections

Images

Multi-format Image or Galleries

Item Options

Choices & selections

Rating & Review

Star-Rating for Reviews

Date & Time

Single or From-To Time Element

Social Buttons

Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Users

Once an App has items configured with custom elements, we can setup Front-End Submission for your App's users and website visitors. Since each element of the item is separate, we can allow or disallow parts of an item on a per-element basis. Using the about Craigslist-style App as example, we'll consider a user submitting a listing for an online marketplace. We may want to allow users to create items with every element available. However, we may only want to allow them to create items with just a Title, Image, Description and Price. Or, we may want Verified, Paid users to be able to submit a Video, Multiple Images, etc and not basic users.

Elements

The custom Items are unique to your Application. An online Retailer may have industry-specific elements to their products (Weight, Depth, Impedance, Voltage - or Insurance Type, Medical Record Number, etc). When users or admins create new items, instead of a blank WYWIWYG box, they have a very user-friendly visual dashboard where they make these selections. Since the elements are separated and configured this way for the Application, the database keeps the content separate as well. This has a variety of benefits. First, it means importing or exporting items or categories can be done in bulk. Mass import or export can be done with a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file or files, like an Excel spreadsheet. Or, JSON can be used as well.

Streamed Content

Continuing with our Craigslist-style App example, once we've developed a custom App, configured custom items, and setup a Front-End submission feature for users to create content, we then have the ability to automatically stream that content anywhere throughout the site or application. Clients with GPS-oriented applications often have applications that stream Map-related content to a live, custom Google Map. From a manufacturer streaming all of the locations where customers can purchase their products, to Real Estate or Hotel, Air BnB Applications that stream available properties or rentals. Widgets and Modules are setup for common searching functions, like Sort-by Item Ordering or Advanced Search Filters. With the above example of a Craigslist-style application, Classified Ads would likely be streamed to a list of "Most Recent", "Most Popular" or "Nearby" items. A more modern site might call for the application to stream items to a Slideshow, or Tiles like Pinterest or Instagram.

Access Levels

The second benefit of having each custom element separate and not as plain-text in a white WYSIWYG box, is that we can screen access to each element individually. We may want to create several levels of User Access for your customers, clients and visitors. We may want to create Access Levels for Distributors, Partners or Affiliates. We may even want to create different Access Levels for Administrators. The technology to make certain sections of a website require login has been around for a long time. This is a much more sophisticated approach. A product, for example, can be compltely accessible to the public, showing just about every bit of content it has. The Images, Video, SKU, MAP Price and Specifications - while the Distributor Price would only show to logged-in Distributors. A User Profile might hide an email address or phone number from all but Affiliates and Retailers, or a Children's Sports Team may hide Kid's names and profiles from anyone not registered as a Parent or Member of the Staff.

User Created Content

Most applications have a need for users, members or employees to be able to create or add content. Whether it's uploading files, photos, videos, or something more sophisticated--content creation is key to most web apps. With an Employee Directory App, employees might need to be able to create an Employee Profile. With an Event App, we might want users to be able to create new Events, set a Date and Time, and associate the Event with another App item like a Press Release or a Location in an office or store Directory. Manufacturers might want Resellers to create and update their own Store Location page and Map location. One client has a custom Recipe App where visitors are able to add and upload their own Recipes, with videos or pictures, and lists of ingredients.

Cross-Related Items

Your custom Items are made up of elements specific to your business and the application. A Baseball Game might have very specific elements, like Game Time, Starting Pitcher or Opposing Team. We might want to associate this Item with another kind of Item in the same, or a different Application. For Instance, we might want to relate the Baseball Game to an Event in our Event App and calendar. This way, when people look at upcoming events, the Baseball Game would be streamed right into the event page (usually, we'd just stream the Name and Image or a link to the related Baseball Game page). Employee Profiles could relate to Office Locations, Service People Profiles could relate to Stores, or Download Files could relate to User Documents.
Featured Clients

We've Proudly Served

  • Aetna USHealthCare
  • Back Sports Page
  • Bay Bella Publishing, LLC
  • Biogenex Labs, Inc.
  • Buddhist Church of SF
  • Braemac CA
  • Bride Nine Magazine
  • BNC Scientific
  • California Women's Caucus
  • The City of Napa
  • Cartelligent
  • 4C's of San Mateo
  • Cupcakin' Bake Shop
  • Colorado Visions
  • Conscious Creative
  • Corral Construction
  • CoreTechs Staffing
  • California Women's Caucus
  • db Autosportif
  • Earthquake Sound Corp
  • Estate Smiths
  • Galaxy Home Theater
  • Glass Owl Digital Marketing
  • Innogenex Labs
  • iParadigms
  • Leapfrog Enterprises, Inc
  • K&C Investments
  • MediPurpose
  • Michael Franti & Spearhead
  • Mooala
  • NIA Creative, Inc
  • Needle Addicted Tattoo
  • Neulum LTD
  • The Oakland Athletics
  • Pixar Animation Studios
  • Picturewall
  • Princeton Gamma Technologies
  • PS Print, LLC
  • Power to the Peaceful
  • Portal to Peace
  • Quantum Composers
  • Spectraflow, Inc.
  • Square Two Design
  • The Grateful Dead
  • The Vegas Hookup
  • Timothy Komo Construction
  • Turnitin.com
  • USA Cancer Free
  • Young's Market Company
"this is how I always envisioned our website. fantastic job!"

Dave Shapiro, CEO, Cartelligent
Oakland Athletics Logo
Read about the custom system we developed for The Oakland Athletics
Case Study

CMS Web Design

Custom Joomla & Wordpress
Since 2008

Popular Pages

The Microtechs, LLC
Strategic Branding, Online Marketing, and
SF Bay Area Web Designer & Developer Experts Since 2008
© 2008-2022 The Microtechs, LLC
Fundraiser