NetSoft Design - Custom Web Applications

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Open Source Web Applications

NetSoft Design offers services for installing and configuring a variety of third-party Web applications. Many of these third-party applications are open source applications. For third-party applications that are open source, NetSoft Design also provides services for modifying the design and functionality to better fit the needs of your business or organization.

It is common to hear the term Web 2.0 used to describe these open source applications. Web applications (whether open source or custom) that are considered to conform to Web 2.0 allow Website visitors a high level of interaction with the site, other users, company representatives, sharing of information through social media or blog posts, etc. Web 2.0 compliant applications may also provide user interface interactivity as instant feedback to visitors when they perform some action, such as filling out form fields, clicking buttons, etc. to make sites more user friendly. This can mean that Website visitors will stay on your site longer, increasing the chances they will take the desired action (such as making a purchase), they will be likely to return more often if the interaction offers something useful to them, and they will be more likely to tell others about your site. Below are just a sampling of the third-party applications that NetSoft Design can install, configure and modify to fit your business needs.

Common types of open source Web applications include:

Content Management Systems (CMS's) - these applications allow clients to create and manage their own Website content and do other administrative tasks, such as administer user logins and control which portions of the site different users can access. Some examples of CMS's include Joomla, Mambo, and Drupal.
Blogs (stands for Web Logs) - these applications can be used to allow your business to post announcements, short articles, photos, video clips, and other miscellaneous items that may be of interest to site visitors, but don't really fit in other places on the site. Visitors can also post comments about your posts if you choose to enable this feature. NetSoft Design currently recommends WordPress due to the level of customization it allows.
Wiki's - A Wiki is a Web application that allows site visitors to post content and other visitors to add to this content. A popular Wiki is Wikipedia (an on-line encyclopedia where visitors can post information on a topic and other visitors can continue posting additional information on the topic. Some common ways in which wiki's are used are as replacements for static intranets, knowledgebase's and FAQ systems, to design and document projects, a collaboration tool, bug and issue tracking, software archives, and internal company message boards. One of the most popular Wiki applications is Twiki.
Shopping carts - Shopping carts allow your company or organization to sell products and services online. For more information on shopping carts and e-commerce, please see our e-commerce page. Some popular shopping carts include Oscommerce and Zen Cart.
Bulletin boards/message boards/forums - These types of applications allow site visitors to interact with other site visitors through forums where they can post messages and other site visitors can reply to their post. This is a popular way of providing technical support or product support on many sites as it allows visitors to answer each other's questions. They are also popular for non-profits where members can post questions and other members can respond. phpBB and SMF are commonly used message board applications.
Calendars - There are many different calendar programs available and they can be used for a variety of purposes, such as displaying event schedules or appointment scheduling applications. WebCalendar is powerful option for calendar software.
Chat rooms - These are often used to allow Website visitors to interact with each other by typing messages back and forth to each other in real time. Another popular use is customer service or sales. Some of these applications can alert an operator when a potential customer visits the site and attempt to initiate a chat session to allow the operator to interact with the potential customer. Help Center Live is an application that can be used to provide live customer support, support tickets, FAQ's, and many other features. More general chat applications are also available.

NetSoft Design is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Joomla Project or Open Source Matters. The Joomla logo is used under a limited license granted by Open Source Matters the trademark holder in the United States and other countries.