amuck-landowner

[Open Source] Offer listings software

Novacha

Content Contributer
Yesterday I was given an idea on IRC (I won't say who it is, in case they do want me to) of a open alternative to low end box. Something that is based on transparency and something that is actually good ;). There are a lot of review sites for VPS' around, but many of them are in a blog format. Lowendbox itself is based on (what I believe is) a wordpress blog. This is clearly not optimised towards listing plans and crunching data for it's users.

I have started development on a system, which is all open source (link at the bottom to the Github repo) that modularises the way offers are listed. It follows the same method of a linear time-based list, similar to a blog, but each offer is based on a provider. This allows you to easily filter each providers offers. Each offer also contains plans. Plans are the individual packages that the providers provide (they show the RAM, bandwidth, virtualisation type, etc) and contain all the billing information as well as coupon codes (if applicable) and so on.

Offers can also be discussed, similar to a blog format, where logged in users are able to comment on an offer. I am also currently working on a selector function, where users can look for a range of plans by filtering data of all active specials.

In the future, there will a provider access, where providers can manage their own offers (obviously moderated before being publicly available) and request new offers to be added to the release queue.

Right now I am in need of resources, and this is where I am asking the community for help. I need to get both a build server up and running, and a beta testing server where users can thrash and look for bugs. If any providers would be able to donate space, it would be greatly appreciated.

The whole system is intentionally loosely coupled to bootstrap 3 and will most likely move away from it in the near future.

Github: https://github.com/OfferTeam/OfferListing

Below are some screenshots:

aiHa8a0.pngEyugVt3.png8RlV7qL.png
 

bauhaus

Member
This looks very interesting from the consumer point of view. Do you think is possible some kind of rating for the providers? I hope you get the resources to finish this project.
 
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Novacha

Content Contributer
This looks very interesting from the consumer point of view. Do you think is possible some kind of rating for the providers?
That would definitely be possible! If you have a github account, could you add that as an "issue" and I will change it to a feature request.
 

WebSearchingPro

VPS Peddler
Verified Provider
Not bad, will it have an API where external users can poll your software for pricing data?

This would be quite nice to integrate into VPSB instead of just dumping all the offers in a section off in the deep depths of the forum.Could bring quite a few more users to this forum as well as the VPS's and availability would be emphasized more than it is now. Plus its just plain good eyecandy ;)
 

Jade

NodeServ
Verified Provider
It actually looks really good. I can't wait to see it implemented somewhere :D
 

Novacha

Content Contributer
Not bad, will it have an API where external users can poll your software for pricing data? This would be quite nice to integrate into VPSB instead of just dumping all the offers in a section off in the deep depths of the forum.Could bring quite a few more users to this forum as well as the VPS's and availability would be emphasized more than it is now. Plus its just plain good eyecandy ;)
Yep, an extensive API will exist with advanced lookups and different return types (JSON, XML), so it could be integrated into any system.
 
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Novacha

Content Contributer
I would like to give a big thanks to @Pmadd for providing a build server for this project! 
 
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Novacha

Content Contributer
Just a quick update. I have spent the majority of time writing unit tests and setting up the build server generously donated by @Pmadd. All views and methods are now covered by unit tests with a 100% coverage status!

I have also started work on the provider pages. Here is a quick screenshot of they are at right now:

YmO9osW.png

Note: The provider logo above (Node.JS) was an image I had in my pictures folder, and thus I do not own and did not create it. 
 

Novacha

Content Contributer
Just hit 200 commits on the development branch! Provider support is the current feature being implemented, so I will need some beta testers once it is released.
 

Jono20201

New Member
Verified Provider
Edit: Nevermind, I should learn to read the whole post.
 
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