Month: July 2013

In Search of Applications Build with WordPress

For all of our talk within the WordPress community about building applications with our favorite CMS, I know of very few branded apps out in the wild. I’d like to know of more, to help spread the word and point to when we’re pitching app development at Rocket Lift.

Specifically what I’m looking for are “web application built with WordPress”, defined* as:

  1. Use WordPress as primary framework on server(s) and to render HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (WordPress can be customized as needed)
  2. Users create accounts and log in to use the service
  3. Generates revenue for the operator
  4. Is not simply an e-commerce store selling downloads or physical merchandise.
  5. Bonus criteria: Provides some service beyond managing website content (which WordPress does out of the box)

I know of exactly one application that meets all of these criteria: Hellobar.

When I asked this question Saturday on Twitter, some people suggested HappyTables.com. HappyTables looks like a great service, but it is a “vertical” — WordPress fine tuned to manage specific kind of websites (in this case for restaurants) — and thus it doesn’t meet my “bonus” criteria. I don’t mean to say HappyTables isn’t an application. Criteria number five is a bit arbitrary and reflects that I’m looking for applications outside of WordPress’ core strength of website publishing.

If you know of something that meets these criteria, please post it in the comments!

Thanks. :)

*I’m sure these can be better defined if needed, and I’ll update based on feedback.

Plants communicate via fungus networks colonizing their roots

From Healthy Soil Microbes, Healthy People by Mike Amaranthus and Bruce Allyn in The Atlantic:

A recent experiment in the U.K. showed that mycorrhizal filaments act as a conduit for signaling between plants, strengthening their natural defenses against pests. When attacked by aphids, a broad bean plant transmitted a signal through the mycorrhizal filaments to other bean plants nearby, acting as an early warning system, enabling those plants to begin to produce their defensive chemical that repels aphids and attracts wasps, a natural aphid predator. Another study showed that diseased tomato plants also use the underground network of mycorrhizal filaments to warn healthy tomato plants, which then activate their defenses before being attacked themselves.

Whoa!