Building a web app with Ning
Tim February 25th, 2007
Update: Ning has relaunched their site with version 2 and a host of features to allow even novice users to go beyond cloning a create an entire social network at the click of buttons. For a full writeup check out TechCrunch’s report and watch this video for the new features.
Have you ever had this idea for a great web application? Something with tagging and google maps and possible a digg like voting system built in, or maybe something complete different. Problem is, you’re not a programmer and don’t have the money to hire one just to find out if your idea would be successful or not.
Well I’m not a programmer either and lucky for you and me, Ning has made a product that makes building a web application something that takes a matter of minutes (No, I’m not kidding). The idea intrigued me so we’ve decided to give them a run for their money and make a Web Application Review Site using their service. Here goes nothing!
Requirements
- Nothing! Ok, 1 email address to sign up, but that’s it!
1. Ning is a free, online platform for creating social websites and social networks. One of the outstanding features is the ability to copy any other Ning site and make it your own, customizing it to your hearts content. We’re going to attempt to do something just like that. From the main page we’ve got a few more popular options for social websites, Video, Photo, and Group sites. Since that’s not exactly the type of site I want to create I choose the “Get a Site” tab.
2. On the Site Builder page I get the same 3 options as before but near the bottom I now have a few other options available. Keep in mind that at any point in browsing other Ning sites I could have simply chose to build one based on that, I’m just lazy. I see near the bottom the choice to create a Review Site. Bingo, let’s do it.
3. I’m greeted with a demo of what the menu will look like and a bit more information about how I can customize it. Some of the options available to me are choice of colors, review information, and custom modules like a Google Maps module. For now the first step will be to sign up with Ning so I can copy the review site.
4. When I click the Sign Up link in the upper righthand corner of the screen I get a popout form to fill out. Easy peasy, I enter a few bits of information and I’m logged in.
5. After logging in I’m back at the same review site but this time the Ning bar up top gives me the option to build this site. I choose that option and input a title for my new review site as well as a URL. All Ning sites are subdomains under ning.com. Once I’ve added the information I’m set to move on to the next step.
6. The settings page is the most lengthy of all, and that’s telling you something since this form is not even that long. Basically I will be setting up exactly what my site will review and what options reviewers should have. I’ve decided to make it a Web Applications Review Site (original, eh?).
7. The next step simply asks if I want the reviews to show up on a map. Maybe I’m not thinking outside the box enough but for now I can’t really think how Geotagging and Onling Web App Reviews could fit together. If you think of something let me know and we can go halfsies on the investment and make millions. For now I choose no and hit next.
8. We now get the option to change up the colors of the review site. They given a lot of nice color combinations but if you really had a specific color in mind you can create a custom set. I’m going to choose a nice earthy green tone because I’m feeling like a hippy today.
9. Our final step (almost done already? crazy) is to shoot off a mass email to anyone we want to invite to use our little social site. I don’t have many friends and when it comes to spam they’d probably rather tar and feather me than come see another site I’ve built so I cancel this screen.
10. 5 minutes of work and we’ve got a Review Site up and running. That’s pretty impressive by any standards. Now we get to test out and create a review of our own, and I’ve got just the web application in mind to review.
11. Adding a review is quite simple and the form is straightforward. The only extra field I added was “Location” for inputting the web address of the site to be reviewed.
12. All done and the DemoMarks Review Site has it’s first review (and a positive one to boot!). I still have yet to even have to look at code, Ning has made this process completely seamless for the novice user which is quite an accomplishment for building something as complex as a social networking site.
13. On the homepage I can keep track of the sites I’ve created. Another amazing feature is the built-in site analytics to track page views and referrers for your own Ning site. Clicking through gives even more information on where your visitors are coming from and how many you’ve had so far.
While my brand new review site at http://demomarksreviews.ning.com may not be anything special, many of the other creative mashups created on Ning are. From cheeky sites like CuteOverload Caption Me and 80′s Commercials to the very awesome CC Hits for Creative Commons Music Voting, there are many innovative and useful sites being put together. One other thing that I should mention is that my one Ning logon will give me access to every single Ning site created, so no need to sign up for each service individually. All in all Ning has come leaps and bounds with this product and brought social site building to the common man.
