I recently upgraded this website. This post is about how well things went, and how this might apply to independent application developers. I had set up the products pages of my original site using Joomla, but I later added a blog to the site, which I powered using WordPress. The product pages highlight the apps that I’ve developed. As time continued, I realized that the schizophrenic origins of my site, having some parts powered by Joomla, while others were powered by WordPress, made some basic things, like tracking usage, ridiculously difficult. So, I’ve finally united the two sides of the site into a single WordPress backed site. Some aspects of the upgrade went well, like unifying on WordPress and making lists of existing urls for easy testing; other things, like forgetting certain urls, could have gone better.
What went well
When I published the original site, mostly in Joomla, I knew that I might upgrade to a different Content Management System (CMS) at some point, and so I tried to plan ahead for that eventuality. It really paid off. The problem with changing CMSs is that the different systems represent their pages using different URL schemes. I, of course, wanted search engine results to still work after I upgraded to the new software because search engine rankings are always hard won and are important to marketing efforts, so I wanted the URLs to stay constant. I did that by using permalinks for each product page, like ‘/aboutwalletzero’ for the Wallet Zero product page, instead of Joomla’s default scheme that looks something like ‘/page.php?id=234’. So, when I moved to WordPress and when I had to recreate a Wallet Zero product page, I simple gave it an identical permalink url, instead of sticking with the WordPress’s default scheme, which looks something like ‘/page.php?page=123’. Now, search engines and anyone that has bookmarked a page, will see the right results because the url ‘aboutwalletzero’ that went to the product page on Joomla also goes to the product page on WordPress.
For mobile browsers, I used the WordPress plugin iqTouch (???). This tool pretty much automatically made the site nicely available for iPhones and other mobile devices by reformatting the look and feel appropriately for such a small screen. I had to do a little tweaking, but it was still quite easy. Plugins like this make my heart sing with glee. It would have taken Herculean efforts to make my old set-up mobile friendly. I had experimented with the neat mobify.mo (???), which isn’t a WordPress plugin, but will handle any website by doing the reformatting on their own servers. Mobify.mo is a good service that offers a lot of flexibility for the non-WordPress site, but iqTouch is working better for me. I can now mention my site at conferences and feel happy if an attendee looks at my site right then and there on their mobile phone.
What could have gone better?
I forgot to create a list of urls from my old blog, and also forgot to put in re-directs from old blog posts on the old WordPress to new blog posts on the new WordPress. I was so focused upon the Joomla product pages that I forgot about the blog pages. I eventually remembered to fix it, but it was an embarrassing oversight.
I mainly wish I had made the upgrade sooner. All in all, it probably took several days of effort to upgrade the site, but I could have easily made the change happen a long time ago. It is the type of activity that usually doesn’t require your undivided attention, so you can accomplish most of the work when you need a short break from other projects, say, over your lunch break, or sitting on the couch during family reading time. It is hard to justify putting off upgrades that improve your brand and give your venture increased capabilities, like using the mobile plugin and visitor tracking.
Implications for Independent Application Producers
Now, none of these observations are unique or insightful, but it underscores the importance, I think, for planning ahead for structural changes. For example, let us say you have developed several apps that are all listed under your company name, but if you hope to re-sell the app to another company, say, to eBay, then you need to know whether or not Apple will let you transfer the rights from a single app to another company. Technically, how would that work? Perhaps it would be smarter to list each of your apps under different accounts in order to facilitate the transfer. You need to plan ahead for these structural changes. Maybe your apps talk to your servers? Do they use a common domain name, or do they each have their own domain that could be transferred to a separate company? How about the name of your app? It might be available in the Apple app store, but what about for Blackberry and Android? If you ever want to branch out to those devices, you had better plan ahead.
Summary
The upgrade went well enough and I got a nice new look with a unified infrastructure. Planning ahead for these upgrades was the real key to success, but next time I’ll try to do a better job of remembering to track all of the urls that need to move. Planning ahead for infrastructure upgrades is also an important concept for independent application producers, for both technical changes, such as changing SDKs, and for business changes, like selling an app to another company. I just wish that I made the these changes sooner.