What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever built with WordPress? Have you ever thought about using it for large scale application development? In this session at WordCamp Nashville 2015, Josiah Goff talks about why and how his team used WordPress to build an enterprise application for organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to major government agencies.

1. Building an Enterprise
Application with WordPress
by Josiah Goff
josiahgoff.com | github.com/josiahgoff | @josiahgoff | jettyapp.com

2. Overview
1. The Problem We’re Solving
2. Why We Chose WordPress
3. How We’re Using WordPress
4. Q&A

3. What’s the most ambitious project
you’ve wanted to work on?
Could WordPress help you make
it a reality?

4. The Problem We’re Solving

6. Incident Command System
The Incident Command System (ICS) is "a systematic tool used for the
command, control, and coordination of emergency response"... An ICS is
based upon a changeable, scalable response organization providing a common
hierarchy within which people can work together effectively. These people may
be drawn from multiple agencies that do not routinely work together, and ICS is
designed to give standard response and operation procedures to reduce the
problems and potential for miscommunication on such incidents.
from Wikipedia

7. "Enterprise conversation management system"
● Providing information for the public
● Responding to questions from the public
● Monitoring discussions within the online community
● Orchestrating communication within the team
Jetty is...

8. Why We Chose
WordPress

9. There are lots of options

10. Our requirements
On-the-fly website creation
Multi-channel distribution
User roles/permissions management
Reports
CMS
Virtual call center
Easily customizable website
templates
Social media monitoring
Version control / revision system
Inquiry system
Document approval workflow
Multi-site network
Press release publishing
Status boards
CRM
Analytics
Customizable alerts
Integrated help docs
In-app messaging system with email
integration
Intuitive & Responsive UI
In-app notifications
REST API
Integration with WebIAP software

12. What WordPress gave us
On-the-fly website creation
Multi-channel distribution
User roles/permissions management
Reports
CMS
Virtual call center
Easily customizable website
templates
Social media monitoring
Version control / revision system
Inquiry system
Document approval workflow
Multi-site network
Press release publishing
Status boards
CRM
Analytics
Customizable alerts
Integrated help docs
In-app messaging system with email
integration
Intuitive & Responsive UI
In-app notifications
REST API
Integration with WebIAP software
*Full functionality *Partial functionality

14. We’re not the only ones
Wordpress.com Edublogs Happy Tables
Restaurant Engine WPEngine Pressbooks
Examples of using WordPress as a SaaS

15. WordPress might
not make sense
for every type
of application,
but it’s a great
match for Jetty.

16. How We’re Using
WordPress

17. How we’re using WordPress
Modern PHP app with
WordPress as a foundation
● WP and 3rd party
plugins loaded as
dependencies via
Composer
● PHP 5.6.5
Highly customized
dashboard
● Custom menus and
admin bar
● Custom styling
“Mini Single Page Apps”
● REST API
● Backbone.js
Leveraging 3rd Parties
● Pusher for push
notifications
● Twilio for phone
integration
● Mailgun for email
system
● Piwik for analytics
● AWS for queueing

29. Questions?

30. Josiah Goff
Blog: josiahgoff.com
GitHub: josiahgoff
Twitter: @josiahgoff