We built this city on rock an’ roll…
- Updated August 24th, 2009 in Reviews
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…well, almost.
It’s been written about many times that modern sites incorporate services and products from open source and third parties, but it wasn’t until I created SuperFunDays Out.com that I realised the extent that this has become the norm for new startups and the maturity of free products.
As a way of exploring this idea, I’ve listed the services and products that Super Fun Days Out is built on.
Online services
What is it? The biggest social networking site in the world.
How is it used? Helen uses the Facebook Group to share pictures and videos of SuperFun. A discussion group is automatically created and she can email the whole group.
Mashable? SuperFun just links to the group, although there are options to embed the group in the website using javascript.
Google Maps
What is it? Embed a Google Map onto a web page and manipulate it through javascript.
How is it used? The key focus of Super Fun Days Out is exploring activities easily using a draggable map.
Mashable? Widely used and simple to start with.
Geocoding
What is it? Maps deal with locations using latitude and longitude, rather than road names. Google Maps API provides a geocoding service to turn postal addresses into geographic co-ordinates, which Super Fun Days Out then uses to display company and activity details on a Google Map.
Mashable? Within the Terms of service of the API
Google Analytics
What is it? Free web site traffic data collection and analysis.
How is it used? We use this to track user journeys through the site, including map interaction and the destinations when leaving the site
Mashable? Not really. Google now has an API, but it’s more of a useful tool to access directly.
Gravatar
What is it? A gravatar is a picture associated with an email address centrally hosted at gravatar.com
How is it used? On the SuperFun Adrenablog!, people can leave comments and if they’ve registered on gravatar.com, their image will be used. The people behind Super Fun Days Out also have their images served through a gravatar.
Mashable? Very. Explicitly designed to be embedded and used in other sites, there is a simple RESTful API.
Pingdom
What is it? Web site monitoring tool.
How is it used? Pingdom checks SuperFun every couple of minutes to make sure it is still responding and will notify me by email or text message if it is not.
Mashable? There is an API, but it is not widely used.
What is it? Hot new simple tech that helps spread the word in 140 characters or less.
How is it used? Bex builds up interest in the site with regular updates and interaction.
Mashable? Entirely. Embedded in the main page of Super Fun Days Out.
Youtube
What is it? The largest video hosting web site.
How is it used? YouTube hosts videos of SuperFun activities that are embedded on the site.
Mashable? Very. Every video has an embed code, and the API allows automatic embedding and searching.
Open source and free applications
jQuery
What is it? Open source Javascript framework that made client-side coding fun and took the pain out of cross-browser incompatibilities.
How is it used? It’s the glue that binds together standard Google Maps functionality and new Super Fun Days Out functionality.
jQuery plugins
What are they? Bundles of open source extensions to jQuery that usually do specific things.
How are they used? SuperFun uses Jörn Zaefferer’s AutoComplete plugin to provide on-demand live search of companies and activities and Christian Hellsten’s Google Analytics for better performance visitor tracking.
MySQL
What is it? An extremely open source popular database.
How is it used? SuperFun stores companies and activity details in a MySql database.
Notepad++
What is it? A text editor similar to notepad, but includes syntax highlighting, auto complete and has a plugin architecture.
How is it used? The very useful FTP plugin is used to make minor modifications to the web site without needing to redeploy or upload and download the files separately.
WordPress
What is it? Mature blog publishing system.
How is it used? It manages all non-map pages on the site such as Advertise With Us, Contact Us and Adrenablog!
WordPress plugins
What are they? Bundles of open source extensions that enhance the core WordPress product.
How are they used? SuperFun uses a bunch of plugins. From enhancing the contact form with Contact Form 7, to automatically adding social bookmarking with Social and filtering spam comments through Akismet.
Windows Live Writer
What is it? A free Microsoft desktop program that interfaces with most blog software to enable offline and rich authoring.
How is it used? Handy to compose blog entries using the built in image editor, spell checker and media embedder.
