SYNOPSIS:
Team span: October 2014 to January 2016
Duration: 1.5 years
Technology: PHP/MySQL, Laravel Framework, WordPress
Development Manager: Umer Farooq
Engineers: Syed Solat Abbas (TL), Imran Yousaf, Mohsin Bukhari, Mohsin Muhammad, Sami Khan, Zeeshan Mazhar
Reason for closure: Successful Project Completion
vteam #496 was hired to work on its client’s idea of simple directory listings for pet products and service providers. The idea was creating other business profiles like manufacturers, retailers and distributors. A search feature was also required by which users would easily search nearby retailers and service providers.
WordPress was selected as a platform for development according to the initial requirements shared by client. Later on, the web application was shifted towards Laravel. Reason being the client wasn’t aware of the detailed level requirements as he had a global level target perspective.
WordPress Phase
Initially, vteams engineers developed a catalogue for different product categories, brands and attributes. WordPress theme was customized as per requirements. Custom plug-ins were developed for products, retailers, service providers, data import and request for proposal. Default WordPress Search functionality was modified for radial search. The Sign-up process customization was also done in this phase.
Complexities
vteam #496 itself researched and extracted specific requirements and finally realized that client needed an advance featured directory, not just a simple one. Reason being that the application had features like:
- Role-based business profiles management
- Interaction between store headquarter and its branches
- Advanced level search feature including radial search
- Customized solution for bulk data import
- Third party service for ratings and reviews
- Business for sale
- Rebate coupons
- Events
- Jobs
.
Rapid changes along with the addition of new features caused difficulty in mapping and maintaining these new requirements on WordPress platform. After various core level customizations, the application became more complex. Thus, affecting it’s work performance.
WordPress to Laravel
The web application had to switch from WordPress to a proper framework i.e. Laravel. Our engineers started working on the application’s version 2 from scratch after client’s approval on proposed solution. Following were the core components of the web application:
- Business Setup: This module provided a user to setup his/her business profile. It might be a profile of manufacturer, store owner, distributor or any other service provider. Step-by-step procedure facilitated a user-friendly experience.
- Store Headquarter and Branches Interaction: Any store would be a Headquarter or have branches as well. A Headquarter would be responsible to manage its own branches. Any change made would also affect its branches. A branch would manage its own profile only.
- Search Listing and Filtering: Latest UI/UX trends were used for search listing, filtering, radial and global search. These latest trends facilitated the user to get required results.
- Third Party APIs Implementation: A third party solution bazaarvoice was integrated to get the authenticated ratings and reviews against business profiles and products. To achieve the radial search functionality, Smarty Streets API was implemented to get the user’s location in latitude and longitude format. Facebook and Twitter APIs were integrated for social media sharing.
- Responsive Website Layout: Bootstrap framework was used to achieve the responsive layout. The application maintained its layout on major resolutions.
- CMS: A Content Management System (CMS) was developed for the application. This CMS consisted of multiple management systems like bulk data import, business profiles, products, dynamic pages, events, jobs and business for sale.