Building a web app
Kara-Leah Grant
I run a yoga website, focusing on bring the NZ yoga community together
and I can't find a web app that does what I need in order to run a
clean, simple, effective calendar of NZ Yoga Events.
Here's a call I've put out to the local yoga and developer community
to see if anyone can suggest something I can use, or whether I need to
get something built.
http://pranaflownz.com/2009/10/23/help-me-find-or-develop-the-ultimate-find-a-yoga-event-in-nz-tool/
I've just read 37Signals' book Getting Real: The Book -
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/index.php - very inspiring. It's the
kind of start-up/development that makes sense to me.
So I'm wondering if it would be possible to form a partnership with a
couple of developers to create this sleek event tool which could be
licensed to many other websites?
I've trawled the web, and all the listing/event type tools I've seen
are clunky, ugly, overloaded, a pain in the arse to use... surely it's
possible to build something elegant, simple, effective and desirable?
Or is there something out there I just haven't seen yet?
Cheers,
Kara-Leah
Tim Uckun
There are literally thousands of calender and "groupware" applications
which include a calender. If you are interested in rails there are
also some open source rails plugins and CMS applications like seed (
http://www.railsinside.com/tools/325-seed-new-rails-cms.html ).
If rails is not a criterea there is always plone, drupal etc.
Another good option is google apps which has a great calender and will
also let you set up a mailing list (of course you can also set up a
google group to do that).
I don't want to discourage you but given the plethora of solutions
already out there I kind of doubt you are going to be able to license
whatever application you create.
Having said that if you feel like this is an itch you want to scratch
rails is an excellent platform and I would be happy to talk to you
more about it.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have further questions or
need a hand setting up something.
Cheers.
Kara-Leah Grant
I've had a good look at google calendar and lots of different
groupware apps etc, but none has the functionality I require, or works
that way I want it to. I'd love it if I could find a solution that's
already out there, and that will work with Wordpress.(The platform I'm
on). I've tried all the Wordpress plugins, but while they're a bit
better in functionality, they tend to have a lot of bugs and again,
not work the way I won't them to.
So, like I said, just putting the word out there, listing my
requirements in that article, and seeing if anyone can recommend
something that fits the bill, or that I can modify to fit the bill.
A friend pointed me towards the Rails community and said I might find
help there - but I don't know anything about Rails at all I'm afraid.
Thanks heaps for your reply - appreciated!
Kara-Leah
Tim Uckun
> I've had a good look at google calendar and lots of different
> groupware apps etc, but none has the functionality I require, or works
> that way I want it to. I'd love it if I could find a solution that's
> already out there, and that will work with Wordpress.(The platform I'm
> on). I've tried all the Wordpress plugins, but while they're a bit
> better in functionality, they tend to have a lot of bugs and again,
> not work the way I won't them to.
>
I know next to nothing about wordpress so I am afraid I can't be of
much help with that.
Reading over your article it seems like google calenders might fit
your needs. It does provide searching, you can set up multiple
calenders, you can subscribe to different calenders using ical, it has
a robust API if people want to embed it into their web apps (I know
there is a rails plugin) etc.
>
> A friend pointed me towards the Rails community and said I might find
> help there - but I don't know anything about Rails at all I'm afraid.
I know there are people here who are heavy users of google calender.
Perhaps they can tell you more.
Kara-Leah Grant
I think you're right - I should take a closer look at Google
Calendars. Maybe I can make it work.
Cheers,
KL