It doesn’t seem like that long ago that it seemed like a practical idea to hand code custom solutions for clients using PHP/MySQL from scratch or onto of light frameworks as opposed to just extending CMS (Content Management Solutions), but in reality it has been a long time and I’m just getting old. Several years ago I worked with several Real Estate Companies as well as developers around the country to put together my own database driven content management system for Real Estate Companies to manage their online inventory of properties, integrate their existing IDX MLS data, and create custom HTML pages on the fly. Looking back it was a pretty robust solution for it’s time and quiet honestly it was pretty nice.
Well, fast forward a couple of years and content management solutions like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and MODx, are all over the web and deploying custom applications on top of these solutions using either plugins that are available as open source projects or by premium plugins that are either written internally or purchased from a third party, this is just simply the way to go. Especially given that over half the world is on one of these platforms to begin with. It’s for this reason that I decided a while back to retire my Powersite Real Estate CMS solution because it just didn’t seem like a practical use of my time to continue developing something that I didn’t foresee a market for. One thing that really helped me make this decision was that phone calls w/ realtors became a lot more complicated after the housing crisis and the recent economic downturn. Instead of looking to spend money to have the latest and greatest features, they were looking to cut costs however they could.
Recently I have had a handful of requests from developers to release the source code for this project to them so they could branch it and try some new things. While I strongly urge against trying to stand up my source code today and build anything from it, I can see how it might be valuable for developers working on their own solutions to see how various components of my application worked so that they can integrate them into their own solutions. It’s all about paying it forward I guess, my partners and I have done well with the solution and have no plans to re-introduce it. I have made it available on Github.com, you will need to contact me to allow you access because I am not releasing it to the public because I have no time whatsoever to support it. If you are interested, drop me your Github user ID. You can find me on Github here…
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