Themes as Apps: More Than Just Blogging

Published

March 21, 2013

9 Comments

We’ve talked before how WordPress is becoming more “app” like in both development and implementation as well as how it’s being slowly understood as a platform for application development.

Traditionally (and forever perhaps) it will always have that blog flavor, but that doesn’t mean that WordPress can’t grow up as developers find more and more unique ways to execute against core.

Joshua Sprague over at ThemeForest has a collection that was shared with me late last night that I thought is a good showcase of how some theme authors are paving a way for these “App Themes” that are definitely more than just a blog.

These examples cover eCommerce, community and social networking, geolocation, and more. I hope he continues to grow the collection and showcase more and more great implementations:

Fundify | Crowd Funding WordPress Theme

Directory Portal | WordPress Online Directory

The Navigator | Premium WordPress Location App Theme

iKnowledge | Knowledge Base/Wiki WordPress Theme

Responsive Knowledge Base & FAQ WordPress App Theme

Academy | Learning Management App Theme

ProjectPress | Project Management for WordPress

Thanks Joshua for the curation!

There are 9 comments

March 21, 2013 #

Alvaro

Great post! It shows the true potential of a simple tool like WordPress. I mean, every one of this examples shows a big opportunity with little investment.

I would love to see a follow-up in a few months, with links to real projects using this stuff.
- March 21, 2013 #
  
  Adam Pickering
  
  Hey, Alvaro… I’ll post some on the AppThemer.com blog once I’ve got a collection going of crowd funding/fund raising sites using our crowd funding theme and plugin.
  - March 21, 2013 #
    
    Alvaro
    
    Thanks. I’ve high expectations on this one! In fact, I’m pondering it’s use on a project of my own. Not sure yet.
March 21, 2013 #

Dan

Wrong tool for the wrong jobs. It can be done, but should it? I suppose yes, if ice skating uphill is easier than learning the right tool and scalability. Don’t take my word for it; as noted recently in WP Daily, this is Alex King’s view: http://wpengine.com/2013/03/alex-king-on-the-maturity-of-wordpress/

Glad to see this sensible view from 2009…

http://www.phpvs.net/2009/12/08/an-exercise-in-wordpress-integration-or-why-wordpress-sucks/

…updated somewhat and reprised now, as also noted by WP Daily…

http://jshakespeare.com/the-dire-state-of-wordpress/
March 22, 2013 #

Peter Knight

Those are some sweet looking app themes. I get excited by those and I’m working on my own ones, one of which that fits the WordPress model very well and another one that would be considered by some as trying to do too much with WordPress. I think if you can harness WordPress as a major jump start to a project and you’re using a lot of the built in functionality, you’re not going upstream – even if you’re building something that is pretty far from being a blog.

Another counterargument to those who feel WordPress is the wrong tool of choice for CMS-ish type projects – which would leave most developers to build something from the ground up – is that there are a multitude of benefits to bending WordPress somewhat to your will. You won’t have to reinvent all the features WP provides, you grow your user and developer base, you enjoy the ease of installation that comes with WP and you instantly have a ton of plugins/themes that could add value to your product.

Also, if you’re in startup mode, you can probably get your first concept out faster if you hop aboard an existing platform such as WP, than coding something from scratch. You can always use that experience for knowledge gathering when you do decide to build a platform form scratch.

Now I’m not saying WP is right for every project, but I’m not definitely not in agreement with sentiments such as Dan’s in above comment, which I think are a little too far on the dismissive side.
- March 22, 2013 #
  
  Dan
  
  Peter — What’s too dismissive about “right tool for the right job?” WP is equally the best at all possible applications?
  
  I agree with you about the value of staring with something rather than nothing, so as not to reinvent the wheel. For a startup that wants a PM app, I’d probably say go with one of the many hosted options. If they really ant their own app, it would be a lot cheaper, faster, and better to get Joomla 3.0+Project Fork 4.0 (http://www.projectfork.net/) and run circles around anything existing for WP. Nice and simple, all based in Bootstrap on the front and backend, all designed by the same UX guy (http://kyleledbetter.com/)
  
  But if someone wanted to put together a small to biggish content + ecommerce site, I might say WP, but I wouldn’t have a few years ago. If the case calls for Magento, you just can’t integrate it with WP, so I’d say use Magebridge (yireo.com) and Joomla, which both are moving in the same direction (jQuery) and are connected to the same big guys (eBay).
  
  If I had spent more time in the past on Drupal, I might be holding more of a torch for it, because it could be used too. Or we could go to EE if the project budget was a bit higher. Or, or or… All the options suck in some way and involve compromises for convenience or cost. But there still are things that some platforms do better than others, and that can change every 6-12 months. If WP is all you know–which makes all kinds of business sense for many people–that’s the only tool you can use for any job, but let’s be clear that’s what’s going on.
  - March 23, 2013 #
    
    Peter Knight
    
    Project fork looks really nice. I’ll readily admit that Joomla makes much more sense as a choice for a PM tool. In fact I’m pretty sure any WP alternative will take much longer to build. And I’m also in agreement that you have to pick the right tool for the job. It’s just that it’s a very subjective and contextual assessment to determine what is the right tool.
    
    But you kind of prove my point as well, WordPress wouldn’t be so attractive if it didn’t have so many upsides. There’s really no reason to worry that people are picking WP as the tool for *fill in the blank CMS* project because there are pros and cons for using any software/tech stack. The WP versions of different types of solutions, even for project management, they add value and choice to the market and the WP solutions carry unique benefits.
    
    You make another good point, the landscape changes every 6-12 months and that’s conservative. And I think there’s two extremes here. I think you’re implying that developers shouldn’t see WP as a hammer and every project as a nail.
    
    On the opposite spectrum of that is programmers who are overly infatuated with what is new. What the latest library is, the hottest programming language and the latest solutions (battle tested or not). They wouldn’t even dream of doing anything in PHP to start with. I think that one of the compelling reasons to just work with WP is that you can just focus on getting stuff done and working with a tool that you’re familiar with. And if that tool lets you create the tool you want in a robust and fast enough way, why not.
    
    I have to admit that I’d rather invest time getting better at javascript and css (which is exactly what I’m doing) than having to investigate, learn and get skilled at new platforms. And what I love the most about WP is that I feel I can create just about anything with it.
    
    tl;dr The ‘right tool for the job’ is a subjective thing, it would be shortsighted to qualify WP as the wrong tool just on the basis of existing solutions.
    - March 24, 2013 #
      
      Dan
      
      I’m not saying WP isn’t attractive and doesn’t have upsides — not at all! In fact I’ve had this same conversation for years with people who focus on Joomla or Drupal. When I tell them WP is often better for “pure” content sites that are simple to use they can’t accept even the possibility. It’s absolutely right that neither one should be used as a hammer, viewing every possible project as a nail. That’s a very good analogy. I understand the need to specialize, but it tends to cause precisely this hammer-nail problem.
      
      The “worry” about sub-optimal uses of WP is not that people are “doing it wrong.” (Well that can be a worry if you’re the end user or buyer.) I think the legitimate concern all WP users should have is that a massive commercial development ecosystem is growing like a weed around WP, encouraging people to use it as the Swiss Army knife of web applications for people who can’t or won’t use a more basic framework. This distracts from core competencies and core deficiencies.
      
      For example, Automattic couldn’t just say WP 4.0 is going to chuck the loop and use a totally different data model. Well, they could, but imagine what would happen. That’s would be a costly, challenging prospect for everyone down the food chain.
      
      If WP is going to remain a blogging engine at heart, that’s one thing. If it’s to evolve more fully as a CMS, then a lot of the stuff being done with commercial plugins and themes or “frameworks” probably ought to be done in the core. But now if WP ever makes a move in that direction, you’ve got some serious fights ahead between core and commercial third party development.
      
      Joomla went through all this already when WP had not captured so much of the CMS marketshare, and perhaps it was the infighting that really set it back, as well as the hard choices involved where every major release is a radically different product. Watch and see. People are going to say more and more that WP is krufty, but look at this lean little noSQL CMS over here in a sexy black dress…
      - March 26, 2013 #
        
        Peter Knight
        
        You bring up a lot of good points. All I can say to that is, so far so good. It will be interesting to see how things develop. Right now it seems WP is destined to become more app friendly, which I’m going to continue to be excited about. But yes, there a potential problems on the horizon and just looking at how may different solutions there are for extending content types and custom fields etc, it makes it rather interesting to see how it’s all going to continue to fit in.