Finding a competent web app developer for one job
October 26, 2014 8:33 AM   Subscribe

I have a piece of web software in mind which I would like to have created - it's your standard PHP/MySQL webapp, really, but there are probably nifty new technologies which could be used instead of the aforementioned combo.

I'm looking for someone to bring the idea to life - but where should I look? I've had a look on elance but I'm not terribly happy with the quality of applications I've been receiving. And as it's a database based webapp the kinds of websites which tout web developers are not particularly appropriate either. Any ideas? Thanks!
posted by dance to Technology (9 answers total)
 
Metafilter jobs?
posted by procrastination at 8:40 AM on October 26, 2014


And as it's a database based webapp the kinds of websites which tout web developers are not particularly appropriate either

I'm not sure what this means. Most webapps are database driven (In fact these days there's a whole new world of different database types that may be better suited for your task) and should be well within the realm of most "web developers".

I have no idea what you want to do but a "standard PHP/MySQL" webapp would still probably be done in PHP/MySQL though the front end framework might be changing to like a laravel etc. Though a lot of what was done 10 years ago as PHP is now being done in Ruby On Rails.

Usually if you're getting subpar quality applications it means you may have a sub-par listing. As someone who hires a lot of developers I find I have better luck by being more specific with the job and the technologies. "I need a PHP Engineer" is not as good sometimes as "I need a PHP engineer with experience with the Laravel/CakePHP/CodeIgniter stack to build an application that does X". If you know a good engineer who you can buy a cup of coffee for to help define your stack better you'll likely get a better posting and better leads from an elance or Freelancer.com
posted by bitdamaged at 9:23 AM on October 26, 2014 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Thanks, both.

I take your point about my vague wording above. What I was trying to say with "database based webapp" was that the point of the webapp is pretty much to be a database with a few bells and whistles.

I'm not creating a Facebook clone, or a web shop, or a gMaps mashup - the webapp I have in mind is intended to record, store and display data.
posted by dance at 9:27 AM on October 26, 2014


After your clarification, it sounds like you might be better off with a good database designer (which unfortunately, tend to be more scarce than good Web developers). With a well-crafted database design, it would make things much easier to Webappify with one of the many Webapp frameworks available. The PHP-centric ones are listed here.
posted by biersquirrel at 10:08 AM on October 26, 2014 [1 favorite]


Based on your Jobs post, this doesn't need to be completely bespoke. Something like Zoho Creator could be configured to handle most of your requirements.
posted by djb at 6:25 PM on October 26, 2014


Drupal would also be a good choice for something like this. It has a good roles/permissions system for your different groups (admin/staff/customers), and can also handle different workflows and rules as you've specified in your jobs post. There is already a module for TextLocal integration, but it would need to be updated for Drupal 7 (the current version).

I haven't used elance, but had good results with freelancer.com. I think your description does seem clear enough to get accurate estimates. If you had already decided on the framework/CMS you wanted to use, you'd probably get estimates that are easier to compare.
posted by Gomez_in_the_South at 7:04 PM on October 26, 2014


From your jobs post, this almost seems like a fairly standard "Issue tracking application". Or maybe a bug tracking system.

In my experience, many can be configured to:
  • email owners when progress isn't being made
  • update others when progress is made
  • summarize history/status
Maybe you could use something "off the shelf"? (Though setting it up and maintaining it would probably not be trivial.)
posted by sarah_pdx at 8:13 PM on October 26, 2014


This is a very vague request. Basically everything is database-driven. "Intended to record, store and display data" could describe any piece of software ever written.
posted by deathpanels at 8:58 PM on October 26, 2014 [1 favorite]


What do you want to do? Can you be more specific about this "it's database driven and it's web-based" software program without giving any secrets away?
posted by ostranenie at 4:39 AM on October 28, 2014


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