February 2007

We continue to collect the best web-development-related sites, articles, references, tutorials and freebies released or published online over the last month. Below you’ll find a list of useful resources you shouldn’t have missed in January 2007. You really shouldn’t.

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Two days later and its ALIVE!! This post is a follow up to Part 1

Swamble is taking its shape and I will be opening it up for private beta testing later this week. Here is a breakdown of how I got it to where it is in less than 24 hours..

It all starts on paper. I sat down and sketched out what I wanted the basic layout to look like. I already had the logo and color scheme done, so that was a plus when I drew the design in fireworks. This process took about 3 hours. I am the developer on this, so I was bouncing around. Everytime I drew out something I was thinking about how the backend would need to react. Navigation, tags, profile management, etc. Once I was finished with the sketch, I moved to the white board.

Tip: Go to Home Depot and pick up whiteboard material and turn your wall into a whiteboard for around $20.

I drew the sketches on the whiteboard and wrote down notes for the functionality of the layout.

So, now I have a solid foundation for how the home page and interior page should function. I wanted to keep this as simple as possible so, I decided to go with a 2-column layout. The header containing the logo, and depending on the login state, either a login box or a blurb about swamble. Under that, My original plan on paper was to have a horizontal navigation, but instead decided to make it the first call to action. “What are you willing to Swamble for?” Its the first step in creating a swamble and it should function like google suggest. Under that, I planned on having a “tag cloud” of popular swamble’s going on. In the left column, a join button, some nav elements, and a link to the blog. In the right column there will be a digg style list of the most recent and popular swambles. The footer is going to be more than just a copyright and privacy link, but I haven’t decided yet on that.

So, I’ve got my layout drawn and now its time to move to the other board and work out some flow. This is only version 0.2 not 2.0, so it needs to be simple (thats what I keep telling myself). Lots of great feature ideas came into my mind while designing this, but I just kept telling myself to get something done so I can build on it. So, came up with a simple db schema…

• users

• id
• user
• pass
• email

• id
• creator_id
• ect..

• id
• tag
• etc..

And a couple more ;)

Ok. Now its time to code. I like to start with the ui and work into the backend. I laid down some xhtml and css for the template then split it up using php’s natural templating system. Keep it simple right. Sure, I could have used a framework, but I decided to polish up some of my old code from the first test of swamble. I do use somewhat of a MVC architecture. For this app its all in the view and controller, not enough to get into the model just yet. After I split up the layout into the views, I turned to a some Dojo action to spice it up.

The first layout on this run was just like I drew it up, but of course, there were changes I needed to make to get it going. I didn’t change any of the functionality I drew up, just the position of the elements. I’m going to do a detailed post soon about a quick way to build a working wireframe/demo/prototype using xhtml, css, dojo, php, and mysql.

Here is a screenshot of where its at now:

If you are interested to see it in action, submit a comment here or through my contact form

Tags: startup, prototype, beta, webapp

You may be thinking ..

My idea is unique. There is nobody else building it. Hopefully a few months from now …

… you’re NOT thinking ..

Ahh…AHH.. damn, A company just launched something similar to my idea.

This just happened to me. I’ve been dreaming about my cool idea Swamble for a while now. I did build a simple demo, tell some people about it, got their feedback, made some changes, then I stopped. Not because it turned into a bad idea, but life got in the way. Another opportunity came up and I had to act on that. Do I regret it? Yeh, for about 20 minutes .. don’t worry .. i didn’t loose too much sleep over it. Looking back, the past is full of excuses: Spread thin, stressed out, working all hours of the night, yada .. yada .. yada.

Did I mention .. Still no product .. Still no revenue?

Today I read a great blog post, “NDA = Not Doing Anything?“, by Brian Oberkirch, and he hit the nail on the head.

In Brian’s post he says:

One way that I mark companies I think will win & lose: I tend to devalue those who rely on lawyers, trademarks, IP, etc. for their edge. To me, you are already showing you are worried about being able to translate community feedback and iterate in real time if you’re hung up on legal barriers. Your eyes are already on the wrong prize.

Similar to developing a web app - I want a framework for the business. I think it’s necessary to get structured from the get go and prepare for things to come. When I built the first version of Swamble, I built it without a framework. Decent structure, but a little shaky. As I received feedback and made changes, it became difficult to manage. I have a feeling that if I do the same on the business side of things, problems will indefinitely lie ahead.

This morning Scott and I met with a CPA. We started to explain our “ideas” for business models. He was a little confused at first, but then we started throwing more “ideas” back and forth. All in all, a really good meeting, and we will probably select his firm to handle accounting. The best part was the end of the meeting when he said, in so many words: Focus on developing the product and we will be here when you need us.

Yeh, he was probably selling me on his service, but I like the peace of mind. He suggested we use Quickbooks Pro online to handle our accounting and they will review the books as often as we are willing to pay them (daily, monthly, quarterly). He explained all the advantages of s-corp, llc, shares, percentages, draws, valuations etc. I learned more this morning than from hours of researching online. I left the meeting feeling very relieved. Armed with his advice and some great feedback from the guys over at Voodoo Ventures last week, I feel comfortable with the current business foundation, my priorities and where things are headed.

Back to Brian’s post ..

Instead of worrying about guarding your great idea, just do it. Then worry about building the tribe of people who will help you make it better. Not perfect, but better. Then a little better. And so on.

Some of the first advice I received from people was - “Get it TM’d”, “Work on a patent” and “Get a lawyer.” I don’t know jack squat about trademarks, patents, or lawyers. I’m good at project management, specs, wireframes, user interfaces, and enough to develop a solid prototype.

So, thats what I’m off to do. I’ve got two days until I need to refocus on Simulagent with Mykhaylo. How much can I get done in 2 days? Stay Tuned!

Tags: startup, prototype, beta, webapp