Groundbreaking for the Zoho Creator Depot

With this, my first post,  I want to invite our readers to comment and vote on an idea we’ve been kicking around here - that of starting the  Zoho Creator Depot (ZCD).   As we currently envision it, ZCD would be a good destination if you’ve made up your mind about Zoho Creator as your platform of choice to deploy an application and you’re searching for tools, materials and advise or development help .

The ZCD would include:

• A gallery of production-quality ZC components and applications.

• Documented Case Studies and Success Stories.

• A list of ZC developers  and consultants, with their credentials and areas of expertise.

• A knowledge base of different topics that apply to ZC.

• Frameworks for developing or deploying mash-ups with Zoho Creator

• A simple way to purchase previously developed components, applications or development services.

As a client of ZCD services,  you could  resell the application or component and recover part of your original investment. If you sell it multiple times  you could conceivably make some money too. And if you’re a developer,  ZCD would be a way to connect with your potential clients.

I’m just borrowing ideas from brick-and-mortar places I find useful, like Home Depot, the Weaver Street Market and Play it Again Sports. If there is enough intest in this we’ll go ahead and build some ZC forms, get a Zoho Wiki started and see where this takes us.

Zyndafeed Prototype

This incomplete version of Zyndafeed has some interesting characteristics, most of which aren’t particularly flattering, but at least we can fix the first two:

1. Photos in the wrong place (fix in next version)

Currently the form labeled New asks Ted how many photos he needs to upload (with a maximum of 50) and then dutifully renders only that number of upload fields for him to complete. Now that Mark has clarified the requirements to support a range beyond 25 photos, leaving them here is pretty ridiculous. In the next version we’ll break them out into their own form. We’ll also fix the 50 photo fields that are currently hindering attempts to edit the existing records in the Main view.

2. Photos published in XML feed (fix in next version)

We still need to render a new XML element for each photo before we have compliant custom XML feed. After we get #1 squared away this shouldn’t be a big deal.

3. Non-intuitive form behavior (won’t fix)

Even after we do make photos a separate part of the application, Ted may still suffer at the hands of some non-intuitive (albeit innocuous) application behavior — if he fills out a few photo fields at the bottom then later hides those fields, then submit the form, any data in those hidden image upload fields would still be sent.

4. Unfortunate code (won’t fix)

ZC’s simple back-end is sometimes a limitation. We’ve managed to commit more than a few unspeakable crimes against all that is holy in the land of law-abiding script writers:

1. The lack of dynamic field definition means that our only way of supporting up to 50 image upload fields is to statically define each field up front then show or hide the required number of fields as appropriate.
2. The lack of one-to-many relationships marches us down the ill-advised path of generating our own unique-ids.
3. Both the inability to add a new record from a script and the inability to update existing records (without also creating a new row) make our table “design” and the scripting required to maintain it unwieldy to the point where we hope we don’t have to maintain it too much. Oh well, at least part of any necessary maintenance can be done via the GUI and if it gets much more complicated we actually will check the source into Subversion.

I’ll update again when the next version is published; separate photo functionality and a complete XML feed should present something Ted could conceivably use to cover the listing entry duties of his job.

We’ll also take a look at how Zoho CRM might hook into the process Mark needs to enable.

Zoodle Rhymes with Poodle

- and you know what they say about Poodles…..? Well, you could say a lot of things about poodles, but specifically, I was referring to their finicky nature. As you’d imagine, we’ve discovered in trying to launch this nifty Zoodle prototype, that despite Pete’s five submissions of our feed, Oodle has not replied to our small potatoes endeavor. No worries, there are other dogs in the kennel, so to speak.

Fortunately, I have been working with a developer of a nice new real estate listing syndication site that will distribute our feed data to Oodle, Google Base, and a slew of other advertising mediums for us.  We’ll title our new prototype Zyndafeed.

The process of creating these CSR friendly tools forces one to really think about how an application is going to be used, and what’s going to matter to the telephone reps on the front line.

Ted may not like the fact that by using ZC to gather the essential data we need, we are practically forcing him to complete multiple forms. In other words, in order to complete the attributes section of the listing, he first has to complete the basic listing data - essentially we have multiple ZC forms within this one app, and this makes the process of submitting essential BuggyRocket listing data a multi-staged endeavor.

Though a multi-staged approach may seem clumsy to some, it also provides natural checks and balances so that Ted can’t skip ahead and neglect an important required data field. Not surprisingly, real estate sites like Zillow, Trulia, PropSmart and others have specific required fields that must be completed in order for the listing to be displayed. Our multi-stage approach helps minimize the likelihood that an important field is accidentally omitted.

But what if a customer calls Ted and isn’t ready to do business with BuggyRocket yet? Good question! - We’ve asked it too. Zoho has a nice little CRM app called, not surprisingly, ZohoCRM. It will allow Ted to capture a prospects contact info for brochure request purposes, as well as to schedule future marketing efforts and follow-up.

What is surprising is that there doesn’t appear to be a seamless integration available between Zoho Creator and ZohoCRM. Hmmm? How is that possible? Don’t know, but from an end-user perspective it seems a bit odd to not be able to unify the mighty possibilities of Zoho Creator with the simple, yet relatively elegant CRM software available under the same roof. (However, a separate account is required to use ZohoCRM and up to three users can use it for free.)

Aside from that grievance, I don’t have too many reservations about using ZC for our CSR users. After playing around with our prototype, the only other feature I would really like to see is dynamic image upload capabilities. It’s a bit cumbersome to have to to create a massive form simply because we need to upload more than a couple pictures. It’s not unlikely that we will need to upload 25 pictures or more. That could get rather bulky!

Next time we post, we hope to provide you with results from our new Zyndafeed app.

ZC plus Oodle = Zoodle

This is the third post in a series detailing a real-world example of using Zoho Creator as a small business software platform. If you’re interested in catching up, here are the previous posts:

• In How Zoho Creator Can Help My On and Offline Business Pt.1 Mark Galloway detailed his hopes and expectations related to using Zoho Creator as a tool for his small business.
• In Ted vs. Zoho Creator, we introduced Ted the CSR, clarified our assumptions, and showed an unwieldy example form.
• In BuggyRocket Illustrated we sketched out an option for how the BuggyRocket customer service process might work from a high level.

False Assumptions

When we last left Ted, we said the next step was to publish a prototype that would let him enter a customer’s real estate listing and automatically post it to Google Base once it was ready. And a few days later in a tangentially related post about ZCrIS, I mentioned we’d be throwing ZCrIS into the mix of technologies for this case study. As it turns out both of those statements were lies, lies, lies.

We’re actually going to use Oodle instead of Google Base in our example because Oodle’s feed requirements are much simpler, allowing us keep our focus on Zoho Creator instead of Google Base’s API and relatively complex feed requirements. Furthermore we won’t need ZCrIS because as it turns out Oodle will actually come and get our XML feed from us (after we email them to tell them about it), instead of us having to submit it to them. It took a few iterations before this simple approach became apparent but our prototype in its current state is both fairly straightforward and entirely self-contained within a Zoho Creator application.

Meet Zoodle

The current prototype, nicknamed Zoodle, includes a couple unique features:

1. A multi-part form: We break up one long record of real estate listing data into four smaller forms. Contrast this approach with the proto-prototype that implemented one big form.
2. A custom XML feed: Oodle requires its users to submit a feed using its own custom format. We manage to export a feed that matches this format directly from Zoho Creator.

We provided a diagram depicting a high-level take on the BuggyRocket customer service process in an earlier post, but let’s look at a slightly modified version that shows how the Zoodle-to-Oodle interaction fits in:

Zoodle will let Ted enter the listing data he gets from a BuggyRocket customer as it becomes available and only publish it for Oodle to pick up once it’s complete. Other features include:

• Listing detail page: Although it’s not the slickest looking thing in the world, we do manage to provide a “detail page” served directly from Zoodle. We also provide an image URL in the same fashion.
• Private application with some public pages: Ted’s use of Zoodle requires his authentication but the detail page, image URL, and Oodle XML feed are all publicly available on the web.
• Gradual approach to form completion: Through the use of several forms that are attached to the main “Essentials” form, Ted can easily fill out the parts of a real estate listing that he currently has data for and come back to finish the rest at any time before publishing.
• Republishing: Data can be edited, overwritten, and republished at any time.

Given our current understanding of the business need, Zoodle is probably OK as a conversation starter for enabling BuggyRocket’s information system. But we can’t rest on our laurels, Zoodle is only intended as a prototype so Mark can check in with our efforts and see where we need to go from here. Look for Mark’s comments on this very subject in an upcoming post.

BuggyRocket Illustrated

This is the second post in a series detailing a real-world example of using Zoho Creator as a small business software platform. In the first installment we introduced Ted, clarified our assumptions, and showed an example form.

Sketching out how BuggyRocket will help offline customers post their items online is still preliminary and a bit messy but the effort does help us clarify for Mark and ourselves how we plan on things fitting together. First, a somewhat jumbled diagram:

The customer sees a BuggyRocket print add, remembers he’s trying to sell his house, and calls the 800 number. Then a bunch of stuff happens. Ted takes the call, receives content from the customer, and completes all the data entry (using Zoho Creator). In case you can’t tell that’s Mark in the lower left, keeping tabs on his business and interacting directly with Ted or his customer if needed. Remember, the customer by definition isn’t online so interacting with him or her means going to the phone, fax, or post office.

A simple swim lane diagram hopefully makes the “best case” or “happy path” process more clear:

Starting in the upper left above, the process is triggered when the customer makes the phone call. It completes when the customer’s listing is published online. The sequence transpires something like this:

1. Customer makes phone call
2. CSR notes call/explains product
3. Customer orders product
4. CSR enters order
5. Backend validates/stores order
6. Backend publishes listing

While all that’s going on, at certain steps other observations and conversations are taking place. Mark is monitoring things as he can, Ted reports back status to the customer as requested, etc. It’s a purposefully trivial process at this point: we aren’t illustrating any exceptions or errors, we just want to understand how this thing is supposed to work.

In the next post we’ll get down to the nitty gritty with Zoho Creator by starting work on a system that can help Ted take an order and automatically post something to Google Base.

Introducing BuggyRocket

I’m excited to give an LoZC welcome to Mark Galloway and his young company, BuggyRocket. I was introduced to Mark a few months ago when he needed a little contract work performed on his site and at some point during our discussions he foolishl^H^H^Hbravely agreed to be one of LoZC’s entrepreneurial guinea pigs. Wish him luck…

BuggyRocket’s mission statement is Harnessing the Power of the Internet Marketplace for Everyone Else!

If you visit the site you’ll see that BuggyRocket is focusing on the “65 million Americans at least 18 or over do not have an email address” but what’s most exciting to us here at LoZC is that we’re actually going to be working with Mark over the coming months to explore how Zoho Creator can help BuggyRocket fulfill its mission.

This will be a “trial by fire” approach to seeing if and what Zoho Creator can deliver to a single small business; we’ll get each application online as soon as Mark OKs it.

You might be thinking, How is Zoho Creator going to help a business focusing on people who are offline?, and it’s a good question. We’ll let Mark explain.

Mark is going to be an occasional guest contributor to LoZC as well; look for an upcoming post from him that delves into more detail about how BuggyRocket is interested in leveraging Zoho Creator and what he hopes LoZC can help him accomplish. As we go along and Mark finds time, he’ll hopefully be able to provide some status updates from his perspectve.

Welcome, Mark!

ZC, Eating Someone’s Lunch

Back in April I posted Web 2.0 Sites as Cheap Toasters which basically argued that many popular but smallish web sites today might be overvalued or overly esteemed since any other web company could probably, easily, quickly, and cheaply develop a nearly identical site. I quoted Om Malik who wrote that entrepreneurs might need to “worry about web giants’ ability to go from friend-to-foe almost overnight”.

In a similar vein, Zoho Creator and sites like it could end up eventually eating the lunch of many a micro-scale web enterpreneur. The Craigslist ad below shows someone willing to pay money for functionality they could probably prototype themselves if not evolve to reach “good enough” status relative to their needs.

While I certainly don’t think this means the typical Craigslist-surfing web developer will be eclipsed overnight, I do think that if word gets out and the do-it-yourself application sites like Zoho Creator take off, many baby steps evolving into giant steps will result in fewer Craigslist ads like that one.

Luckily for those who feed themselves by doing small web projects though, Zoho Creator isn’t (yet) a resource that many small businesses know about much less consider when they need to whip up a relatively simple web application. For now the Craigslist nomads are probably safe.

In any case here are the Google search terms I used. Since ZC is not suited for graphic design, etc., I excluded terms that might return a bunch of noise:

site:craigslist.org small web -logo -photoshop -graphic -graphics -flash

And here’s the Craigslist advertisement I chose (click the title for a screenshot):

bid for small web development job

Key Requirements:

• “very simple”
• “easy to use and update the information”
• “automatic scheduling functions”
• “archiving for mailing lists”

My Results:

• Example Application: Lead Tracker
• Time to develop: 22 minutes
• Scripting Required: none

Discussion:

I probably fail to meet the somewhat nebulous automatic scheduling functions requirement but other than that those 22 minutes served me pretty well. I’d argue this is a decent start on meeting the person’s need. Remember that if your cost is 0 and you get to design it yourself, your definition of “good enough” is probably more relaxed than if you had to negotiate back and forth with and eventually pay a contractor.

Also remember that, for free (virtually no development time), the user will be able to export their leads into Excel™ friendly formats, generate a PDF of the leads if they need one, or embed their Leads into a web page they are already using (if they know how to cut and paste). Not bad.

Finally, those 22 minutes included 4 minutes Google searching for some domain-related inspiration.

Putting My (no) Money Where My Mouth Is

I emailed the original poster of that Craigslist ad with the link to this post and a little explanation, just to see if I get a response. I don’t really expect any (or at least any beyond, “Who the heck are you? Please go away and never email me again.“) but we’ll see if any response comes back and if so I’ll be sure to post the email I sent here and the response to it (with permission, of course).

Also if it turns out the respondent tells me I am headed in a good direction, I’ll offer to spend another hour fleshing out the prototype to closer meet their specific need and then give them the resulting Zoho Creator script so they can upload the application in their own ZC account…

New Case Study from Zoho Creator

Check out the new Zoho Creator Case Study of K. Hovnanian® Homes.

It details how this small (mid-sized?) company headquartered in Arizona developed an online database application with Zoho Creator (augmented with Zoho Chat and “another free website hosting service”) over the course of three weeks and as a result saw their home listings process speed up “by at least 48-72 hours”.

Nice — using a free web-based service to rapidly develop a software application that helps a business run more efficiently — exactly what ZC aims to do.

Alan, if you happen to see this post, can you add a comment with some of the finer details of your experience that the case study might not have had the room to mention? In particular I’m curious what were the biggest challenges and biggest surprises experienced during your ZC development and deployment process…and how many folks are using the system?