8 Awesome WordPress Web Apps Paving the Way for WordPress as a SaaS Platform

De: https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/resources/8-awesome-wordpress-web-apps-paving-the-way-for-wordpress-as-a-saas-platform

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Tom Ewer in Resources | 18 comments

Sometimes you need a web app and don’t have the time, skill, or budget to do custom development. Developing from scratch can be the solution for many problems, but it can take much longer than starting from an existing code base.

WordPress was originally designed as a blogging platform, and it continues to be well known for that. However, it has evolved into a fully fledged content management system (CMS) and, for some purposes, can even produce a solid web application – quickly, and at a significantly lower budget than custom development.

This article will introduce the idea of building a web app on WordPress, show you why you might consider it, examine some tools for building web apps in WordPress, then look at some great examples of what is possible.

Why Use WordPress for Web Apps?

Web apps can be custom coded from scratch, and many developers remain purists who feel that’s the only way to go. However, web application frameworks have been developed to help make the process of building web apps easier.

Ideally, building a web app would be quick to start, so you could get going and take advantage of some common built-in functionality. Wikipedia defines a Web Application Framework as:

…a software framework that is designed to support the development of web applications including web services, web resources and web APIs. Web frameworks aim to alleviate the overhead associated with common activities performed in web development. For example, many web frameworks provide libraries for database access, templating frameworks and session management, and they often promote code reuse.

With that in mind, it’s not hard to see how some people started to look at WordPress as a possible web application framework to help them build web apps. Though not specifically designed for that, WordPress has several features that make it a solid choice for your web apps, for example:

1. Security, user registration and login: WordPress has user roles, which by default belong to one of five access levels, and can be assigned to different capabilities (e.g. edit posts).
2. Database and URL mapping: WordPress enables you to easily connect to its database and run queries. You can modify how URLs are generated using pretty permalinks and add or modify the rewrite rules.
3. Theming: WordPress themes offer a very flexible means of designing pages for your app.

WordPress isn’t always going to be the best tool for all types of web apps. It can work well for simple CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) apps, and more complex functionality like calendar bookings, for example, can be done by integrating existing plugins. In general, projects related to publishing some form of content online may be possible candidates for using WordPress, especially where you want to use the same content across multiple products (e.g. website, mobile app etc.).

Tools for Building Web Apps in WordPress

While WordPress does offer built-in features we can use for web apps, you may require additional functionality. The built-in page and post structures can be used for a lot of things, but if you need custom data and fields to be added, searched or queried, manipulated, and displayed, some additional work is needed. Fortunately, tools do exist to help expand on WordPress’ native capabilities.

WordPress does have custom data capabilities in the form of custom fields, post types and taxonomies, but tools for working with them have been left up to plugins. Here are a few that have proven quite useful in moving WordPress away from simple blogging:

1. Advanced Custom Fields

Available for free in the WordPress repository, Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) has been a long-standing favorite of developers for adding custom data functionality to WordPress. It provides a way to visually create custom data fields of various types (e.g. checkboxes, images, relationships) and easily load data through a simple API. It uses the built-in custom post types and metadata and so is easy to use and fast. For more content types and the ability to add options pages, you’ll need to purchase a licence for ACF Pro (which starts at $25).

2. Piklist

Billed as a rapid development framework for WordPress, Piklist enables you to easily create custom post types and taxonomies, add metaboxes and metafields to all the WordPress data types (posts, pages, media etc.), and create settings pages and widgets. The Piklist Framework can be downloaded for free from the WordPress repository.

3. Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms is an advanced form builder, and includes a lot of functionality that can help with web apps. You can create forms to do CRUD operations on posts, pages and custom post types, as well as take advantage of functionality like commerce, scheduling and logic. Gravity Forms starts at $39 for a personal licence which doesn’t include any of the add-ons.

4. Toolset

Toolset enables you to add custom types and fields to the WordPress admin and create ‘parent/child’ relationships between different types, to build relational-type databases. You can create custom page templates and archives for displaying searchable custom data. It also includes built-in functionality for creating front end forms for submitting content and editing. The Types plugin is free, but access to more advanced functionality requires purchasing the full Toolset (starts at $149).

5. WordPress REST API

No discussion about using WordPress for web apps would be complete without considering the REST API, especially with a non-WordPress front end. Finally moving from the outskirts as a plugin into WordPress core, the REST API is changing the way apps interact with the WordPress back end, as shown in the recently released Calypso desktop app. We will be seeing more development in this area going forward as the code matures.

8 Awesome Web Apps Built on WordPress

Now that you have a broad understanding of how WordPress can be used as a web app framework and have familiarised yourself with a few of the plugins that can make life a lot easier in the process, let’s explore six awesome web apps built on WordPress that showcase just how capable the world’s favorite CMS is!

1. Train.rs

Train.rs provides a totally custom WordPress admin for managing personal trainers’ business.

Train.rs provides online business management for personal trainers. It uses WordPress as a foundation to give users hosted websites with customized administration of clients, training schedules, and billing. With the focus on users and custom data, WordPress makes easy work of this app.

2. YouTooCanRun

YouTooCanRun is a custom WordPress solution for managing the organization of marathon races, including paid registration of participants, generation of bib numbers and management of the event. It uses a combination of the Event Espresso and WooCommerce plugins to provide the needed functionality. As most of the functionality required was standard event and commerce behaviour, a WordPress solution combining plugins was perfect.

3. Pressbooks

Pressbooks manages book content and prepares it for publishing.

Pressbooks is online book production software. They have both a hosted version and a WordPress plugin. You can create your book online and then export to various file formats for book publishing. The tool is built in WordPress using customized admin screens for managing book information, for example. Pressbooks focuses on content, so WordPress is a great tool for this.

4. Focused on Fit

Focused on Fit is an online fitness community built on WordPress. Interesting features include a database of food and recipes with nutritional facts, and the ability to log your meals and exercise and track your progress towards your goals. It goes further and uses the REST API to pull that data into mobile apps for use on the go. The social aspect and user management makes this a good use case for WordPress.

5. StudyChurch

StudyChurch is a web app designed to help small church groups work through study materials together. It pieces together several WordPress plugins, such as BuddyPress, and a forum to enable users to write lessons that are available to group members who can then discuss and collaborate on the answers. With the focus on users management and content, this is a great use case for WordPress.

6. Nomadbase

The REST API powers this app as it pulls together location data for digital nomads.

Nomadbase is a real time map for digital nomads. Using location data from your social media apps (Facebook, Swarm, Twitter or Instagram), users’ past, present and future positions are shown on a city-level to other nomads to encourage connections and interactions. It is built using the REST API with a React and Leaf front end. This is an interesting use case for WordPress, focused on user data.

7. Code Cavalry

Code Cavalry enables coding novices and web designers to connect with experts over Google Hangouts to solve problems. Though based in WordPress, the app interacts with Firebase through AngularJS. The developer outlines the approach taken in The Road to Code Cavalry. The focus of this app is the users and so using WordPress gave a good head start in development.

8. Hello Bar

Hello Bar is a ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) platform designed to help users monetize their websites by building an email list. It provides you with ways to promote content, get more subscribers and measure and test the effectiveness of your campaigns. For more detailed information on how the team approached the development of Hello Bar you can check out the series of articles they wrote. They took advantage of WordPress’ built-in user management with custom themes and plugins to provide an experience that looks nothing like WordPress.

Conclusion

While WordPress is not perfect or suited for all web application needs, it can be a very useful tool for certain types of web apps. Stop thinking of it just as a blogging platform and you can start to see the possibilities for using its existing structure to help bring a web app to life quickly and under budget.

We have provided you with several examples of web apps built on WordPress which should have provided some inspiration and food for thought as to how you can use WordPress for more than just basic websites.

Have you built a web app using WordPress? Please share your favourite tools and tips that we may have missed in the comments section below!

Article thumbnail image by ideyweb / shutterstock.com

WordPress + a Form Plugin

De: https://zapier.com/learn/forms-surveys/simple-database-app-builders/#wordpress

WordPress + a Form Plugin

for self-hosted internal tools integrated with your blog

Yes, it's a blog engine. Yes, it's not your typical app builder. It's not even your typical form builder. But WordPress is built on a MySQL database, and if you're running it on your own servers, you can turn a WordPress installation into a feature-filled app that might not even include a blog.

You'll first need to install a WordPress form builder plugin—Gravity Forms, Formidable, and Ninja Forms are all great options. You'll build a form with your form builder, and then whenever your form is filled out, your data will show up in your MySQL database. Now, you can use the form plugin's own features to display your form data in WordPress, or you can build your own MySQL queries or MySQL plugins to display your database info inside your own pages in WordPress.

It'll take a bit more work, but you'll end up with something almost as customizable as a hand-built MySQL app without the headaches of software development.

• Price: Free, plus form plugin and hosting costs
• Skill Level: Advanced—easy to make a basic form, but accessing the database will take more work

For a deeper look at features and pricing, see our WordPress review , then check our Gravity Forms review for info about a compatible form plugin.

How to Record the Sound Coming From Your PC (Even Without Stereo Mix)

De: https://www.howtogeek.com/217348/how-to-record-the-sound-coming-from-your-pc-even-without-stereo-mix/

You don’t have to hold up a microphone to your computer’s speakers to record its audio. Even if you don’t have a Stereo Mix option on your PC, you can easily record the sound coming from any Windows PC.

You can record the sound coming from your PC in numerous ways, and we’re going to show you the three best we’ve found. The first two options use only software, and the third relies on an old trick that connects your computer’s audio output to its audio input with an audio cable.

Option 1: Stereo Mix

Stereo Mix is sometimes called “What U Hear.” It’s a special recording option that your sound drivers might provide. If it is included with your drivers, you can select Stereo Mix (instead of a microphone or audio line-in input), and then force any application to record the same sound that your computer is outputting from its speakers or headphones.

RELATED: How to Enable “Stereo Mix” in Windows and Record Audio from Your PC

On modern versions of Windows, Stereo Mix is generally disabled by default—even if your sound drivers support it. Follow our instructions to enable the Stereo Mix audio source on Windows. After enabling Stereo Mix, you can use any audio-recording program, and just select “Stereo Mix” as the input device instead of the usual “line-in” or “microphone” option.

On some devices, you may not have this option at all. There may be a way to enable it with different audio drivers, but not every piece of sound hardware supports Stereo Mix. It’s unfortunately become less and less common.

Option 2: Audacity’s WASAPI Loopback

Don’t have a Stereo Mix option? No problem. Audacity has a useful feature that can record the audio coming out of your computer—even without Stereo Mix. In fact, Audacity’s feature may be even better than Stereo Mix, assuming you’re willing to use Audacity to record the audio. This method takes advantage of a feature that Microsoft added in Windows Vista named the Windows Audio Session API (WASAPI). The feature also functions in Windows 7, 8, and 10, and helps make up for the lack of a Stereo Mix option on modern Windows PCs.

In Audacity, choose the “Windows WASAPI” audio host, and then choose an appropriate loopback device, such as “Speakers (loopback)” or “Headphones (loopback).”

RELATED: The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: The Basics

Click the Record button to start recording the audio in Audacity, and then click Stop when you’re done. Because you’re using Audacity, you can easily trim and edit the sound file when you’re done.

Audacity’s tutorial website explains why this feature is actually better than Stereo Mix:

“WASAPI loopback has an advantage over stereo mix or similar inputs provided by the soundcard that the capture is entirely digital (rather than converting to analog for playback, then back to digital when Audacity receives it). System sounds playing through the device selected for WASAPI loopback are still captured, however.”

In other words, your recorded sound file will be higher-quality when using Audacity’s WASAPI loopback option.

Option 3: An Audio Cable

If neither of the first two options suit your needs, there’s always the low-tech solution—although it’s a bit of a hack. Just get an audio cable with a male 3.5mm connector on both ends. Plug one end into the line-out (or headphone) jack on your PC, and the other end into the line-in (or microphone) jack. You’ll stop hearing the sound your computer produces, but you can use any audio-recording program to record the “line in” or “microphone” input. To actually hear the sound, you could get a splitter, and then output the audio to headphones or speakers at the same time you direct it back into your computer.

Sure, this is inconvenient and silly compared to to the first two software-only options we talked about. But, if you desperately need to capture the audio coming out of your computer in an application that isn’t Audacity and you don’t have Stereo Mix, the cable trick allows you to do this.

---

Obviously, copyright laws may prevent you from distributing whatever recordings you make in this way, so don’t use these tricks for piracy! After all, even if you were going to pirate some audio, there’d be easier ways to do it than this.

How to Enable “Stereo Mix” in Windows and Record Audio from Your PC

De: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/39532/how-to-enable-stereo-mix-in-windows-7-to-record-audio/

Ever need to record something on your computer exactly as it comes out of your speakers?  Enabling “Stereo Mix” will let you do exactly that, and here’s how to do it.

Nowadays, most sound cards have the ability to record whatever is being output.  The only hang-up is accessing that recording channel, which can be done rather easily.

Enable Stereo Mix

Go down to the audio icon in your system tray, right-click it, and go to “Recording Devices” to open up the proper settings pane.

In the pane, right-click on a blank area, and make sure both “View Disabled Devices” and “View Disconnected Devices” options are checked.  You should see a “Stereo Mix” option appear.

Right-click on “Stereo Mix” and click “Enable” to be able to use it.

I Still Don’t See It…

In some cases, your audio chipset drivers aren’t helping your cause.  Most likely, this is because they’re outdated.  In other instances, however, it’s because the newest Windows drivers for your chipset don’t support this feature.  This was the case on my Asus Eee PC (a 1000HE), but I got around the issue by downloading and installing the older Windows XP/Vista drivers for my audio chipset.  As always, before changing your drivers, make sure create a system restore point in case things don’t go as planned.

How Do I Use This?

With “Stereo Mix” enabled, you can open up your favorite recording program and select that instead of your microphone before you record.  If you don’t see the option, or your program doesn’t give you the ability to change the recording device, you can disable or unplug your microphone and make “Stereo Mix” the default recording device.

This works well for when you want to capture audio for a screen-sharing session, or record audio from streaming sources–such as live web-casts–that don’t necessarily allow you to download content immediately.  In order to do that, you’d open up your audio recording application of choice (like Audacity), and find the option for microphone input. Select Stereo Mix as your input (if it isn’t already), be sure other recording devices are muted or disabled, and click record.

Be sure to check out our article, The How-To Geek Guide on Audio Editing: The Basics, to learn how to use Audacity.

Starting and Running a Wiki Website/Hosted Wikis

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Starting_and_Running_a_Wiki_Website/Hosted_Wikis

[Anteriores no convencieron]

https://meta.miraheze.org/wiki/Backups

http://www.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page

http://tiddlyspot.com/