AppTank | For App Developer Projects!

AppTank is a company dedicated to helping people in need of app development find the perfect developer for their project. It’s not simply an auction house where clients post projects and then wonder what kind of developer they’ll get. Nor, is it a place where a developer wonders if a project is really legit or not. All projects are reviewed by AppTank before they are posted online for bidding. AppTank talks with the client to find out how serious they are and if the budget is real. This ensures the developers are not wasting time with their bids and can get to doing what they love even quicker.

I joined AppTank almost a year after they started. I took over development of the site and began a lot of needed features; not only on the front-end, but the back-end as well. We’ve continued to grow the list of features offered as both an AppTank client and developer. We have introduced an Enterprise Client platform that allows the client to post their projects directly without prior review. Enterprise clients also get a personalized project page so developers can view their entire list of projects. The personalized page displays the company logo and all company contact information as well.

The previous version of the site used modals to display information about developers, clients and projects. The main problem with this was the limited space allowed within a modal. I switched the entire site over a tab/slider/pagination UI for project management under developer and client interfaces. This allows for projects to be laid out a little nicer. It freed up screen real estate so I could advantage of white space. Below are screenshots of both the developer projects page and the client projects page.

Developers

As a developer, you are instantly shown all projects that match you preferences. You can specify your preferred budget and platforms and AppTank will deliver those to your dashboard. Across the top, you can see the tabs that show the developer their options for Preferred Projects (set in the Preferences), All Projects (even those that do not match their preferences), Leads Purchased, In Development and History. If you want to view details about a project, click it and the information slides open for viewing; nice, clean and ready for bidding.

Developer Dashboard:

Client Dashboard:

As client, you are presented with a similar format. Again, it’s all about clean, organized and fast. Immediately upon logging in, you can see your most recent projects. There are notifications alerting you of projects pending AppTank approval, or better, if any have received bids from developers. If a project is still receiving bids, you can easily edit details from the dashboard by clicking on the project title, editing what’s needed and clicking save.

Scope of Work

AppTank is hosted on a LAMP server I built on the Rackspace Cloud Server network. For development of the site, it uses PHP, MySQL, JavaScript (including jQuery) and CSS3. I revamped existing components and added new. I built a couple of jQuery plugins for use in the UI, including the Multi-Accordion plugin I demo under my Blog. Along with the Multi-Accordion, I also wrote a Facebook-type modal alert that can handle custom messages (HTML, text, etc.), button control and callback functions. It’s the same modal I’m using for the image clicks above.