An application framework, for those of you non-techies, is a toolset that enables rapid application development by automating some common needs (permissioning, data entry/modification/deletion/configuration). It helps you get a custom app to market much faster than traditionally possible.This comes from a dialog on Prescott and I have been having on how Prism/Penton is leveraging open source content management systems, and more importantly, software frameworks, for building Web sites.
Also good reading is Paul Conley's post on open source CMS's, with some good comments from the B2B media peanut gallery.
I have now started a framework collection, which I'd love feedback on from the B2B publishing community. Which do you use? Which ones am I missing, that I should add to my collection?
Let me explain...the astute reader will note that my last post to this blog was over a year ago. That's because I was sucked into software development hell. Three vendors, tens of thousands of dollars in the toilet, and a boatload of broken promises later, I have emerged with successfully relaunched Web sites, Packworld.com and AutomationWorld.com, built on the Joomla open-source CMS. This is after a well-known vendor in the B2B space failed, after nearly 15 months, to deliver anything, with their proprietary "enterprise" solution. Another well-known vendor in the space charged lots of dough for consulting and then told us the obvious.
Thought all the charlatans were flushed out of the system during the dot com boom? Think again. They live and thrive. Beware!
M29, a small, nimble, West-coast development shop was able to haul my sorry keister out of the fire and deliver a working full-blown Web site in 7 weeks, with another one delivered 3 weeks behind that.
The fact is, I find Web site development to be a messy, unpleasant process.
In the software development world, relying on pre-existing frameworks can speed up the software development process, and ostensibly make it much easier to build a robust Web site, or increasingly, web-based application.
Publishers need to learn what software product developers already know, by building software in a way that's fast and flexible, without falling apart at the seams every time the requirements change.
Feel free to comment on this post with your horror story, or success story, in the use of application frameworks for developing Web sites and Web applications. Let's all be a little wiser, and spend less time developing software, and more time serving our readers and advertisers with great products.
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