This is the project I've been working on for last 3 years on my regular job. Mostly the app was for our main client Coca Cola Germany but later we used improved version with other customers. By the time when I started they had an old version based on pure php and postbacks. During next years I rewrote the whole system from the scratch, built a new architecture based on modern technologies like nodejs, web sockets, non-sql database and others which were available at the time. I built the whole structure of the new app the way that it became scalable, customizable and well structured. The maintaining of the system and speed of development became significantly better which allowed us to implement new modules, manage many servers at the same time and customize the app for each customer really fast and easy. Besides, I made a lot of optimizations for the performance and ease of development.

Since I was mostly working alone on the whole app, I also did all the design. I developed user interface for each single element in the app. I always was considering the best webdev practices like material design and did a lot of research for each case to make better user experience. We also improved a lot after testing and I changed few version of design while the trends of design were changing. Internet and web in general changed a lot from 2012 till 2014. There were many technologies, libraries and ui/ux practices coming each month and I always tried to follow and put the newest things into the project. By the end of 2014 I ended up with white flat minimalistic version with a lot of white space. I used bootstrap, less, grunt, jade, require and sublime to develop the app faster.

I developed the front-end and server-side parts of the app. Basically, Blau is a corporate portal (or a local social network) with a centralized data storage, information center and separate public and private pages. Each person has his own tasks, projects, reminders, timeline and a calendar. The app mostly used for project and guest management purposes, calculating costs, performing statistics, sending mass emails and so on.

People can communicate via chat, live comments, private messages and also the app works like an email client, allowing you to receive, send, keep and convert your mail to personal tasks and TODOs. All the events and in-app changes are shown as user notifications, so, you will never miss anything related to you. Each user has personal dashboard and statistics.

Each project (or event) in the system has a file cloud document storage and a management part which allows you to upload, download, preview and edit documents in the cloud on mobile and desktop. Besides, each project could appear as a guest management tool with sophisticated crm, guest accreditation system, guest feedback statistics, public web page and reporting functions.

The app has a lot of tools to work with users. Like address book with different kinds of import and export. Flexible rights and roles management system combined with strong server-side security system and global search.

This is one of the main tools. Past, recent, upcoming projects and events, appointments, reminders and TODO's are clearly listed. You can easily create new entries and tag them with a color. Assign and edit team members which are always shown for better visual recognition. Alternatively, you can watch the list only with projects, tasks or switch to the infinite calendar.

Apart from status, progress and rights management each project has a summary, statistics and a lot of special properties like hashtags for the global app search. Team members can leave comments and chat in real time. The offline members will receive notifications and can join later. Also each user can follow the community activity and keep track on projects progress and statuses via notification center on his personal dashboard.

People and companies are clearly placed in one list. Quick and intuitive realtime search with hashtags support, infinite scrolling and mini statistics allows to work with data really fast. Guests, customers, users, participants, suppliers, employees and company information could be imported and exported in a few different formats.

The system helps to organize events with thousands guests. Manage their personal data and contacts, send serial invitations and information mails, collect their feedbacks from the accreditation page and private emails. A "traffic light" system helps to keep track on confirmations, comments and cancellations in real time. Clear statistics and overview helps to calculate costs for transportation, book hotels and be prepared for each guest individually, for example, a size of the gloves for playing golf or tickets for amusement park for kids.

Blau can be be adjusted for a customer’s workflow to work more effectively than any standard software. The front-end, server-side, database - everything could be changed depending on the business requirements. Here is an example of an adjustment for a movie rental company and the invoice editor.

I’ve been working as a software developer for last 10 years full time. I wrote on many languages and used many technologies and platforms. After all, usually the tasks while developing business software are quite the same. What is different is representation and techniques.

Web platform and the way how the web changed last few years gives a lot of advantages. For example it’s cross-platform and you can use the same language on client, server and database which reduces time for development and make it more stable.

With latest web technologies, flat design and mobile platforms software became interactive and game-like thing for end-users. Nowadays the software is considered as more fun than, let's say back in 80’s. And I was really excited to watch all these changes last few years with web and mobile platforms growth.

Besides that, the development tools and market have changed. Now the dev tools, libraries and platforms are brought by open source communities and not by big corporations and from my experience it made software development way more exciting and easier.

This app for me was a step from business corporate old-school development world to the new generation developers world and I really enjoyed it.