It is quite difficult to believe that our Quickadminpanel has already been online for 2 years, in its current SaaS version, the first customer paid $ 9.99 in August 2016.
We have learned a lot, established good relations with dozens of customers and are born from the initial vision. So in the summer of 2018, we started Recreate the product from zero. In this article, I will share why we do it and what you can expect from the new version.
The most important: when?
The current state of the new QuickadminPanel system is in progressThe live version is scheduled for February 2019, but we already invite our current customers to help us test new features.
Now what are our goals with QAP 2019?
Objective 1. Stability and performance
The main problem and the reason why we have started to recreate the system is the amount of problems linked to large administrators. When creating the first version, we are considering the generator as a quick panel manufacturer, but we did not expect our customers to build panels with more than 100 CRUDS (I don’t like it).
Thus, the quantity of deferred generator operations has increased, with unhappy big Customers, which is the worst that can happen – these people actually deserve the best product because they have invested a lot of money.
In addition to that, the amount of panels generated (30,368 panels At the time of writing the editorial time, including trial users) caused performance problems, some customers had to wait 10 to 20 seconds to update any CRUD. Unacceptable.
Finally, we have experienced several problems with the use of certain modules with each other unexpectedly. For example, we did not build Multi-tens in connection with Mega-RecharcheBut in reality, the search results must be filtered with the same range.
Anyway, all these problems just forced us to rewrite the software. The architectural decisions for the current version were simply not taken for such a scale. You can call it a “growing pain” or a “beautiful problem to have”, but for us, it started an operation called “back to the lab”, which is in progress for the semester now.
New: Automatic deployment to our server
The most important fundamental change is that we Deploy all the panels generated on our own serversTo make sure they really work. In the current version, we generate the code and do not see potential bugs after being downloaded and installed locally or on a server. In the new version, we will deploy each panel and perform automated tests, and only then Green Light to download the code that will actually work.
Thinking about it, we could even offer accommodation for the panels. But currently, we are not actively planning this new business model.
Objective 2. More modules and customizations
Currently, we have 28 modules, some of them are only sets of predefined Cruds, others much more complicated.
During these two years, we have received many customer requests to personalize models, mixing them together and creating new ones.
Again, the current architecture did not allow certain wishes to be answered. So, currently, in our plans for 2019, we have this list:
- More flexible multi-tension module
- Push more reliable in Github / Bitbucket
- More options in the dashboard widgets module
- Best multicangue integration with a language switch
- MEGA-RECHERCHE MODULE Integrated into Algolie
- Stripe modules updated to the latest version of the Stripe API
- Import CSV – To manage relationships
- New module for time zone management for separate users
- More thematic modules based on CRUD as we have done for the management of assets, the management of contacts.
- …etc.
The list will become even larger, I am sure.
Objective 3. Visual themes
This is by far the most popular question of our customers – how can I change or personalize the visual theme of the administration?
We use the most popular free theme on the market – Adminlte 2, based on Bootstrap 3.
In a new version, customers will be able to choose from three themes (so far):
More importantly, we have changed the architecture of the operation of the blade and assets, so it will be relatively easy to add more themes in the future.
Objective 4. Documentation and education
I know, it seems boring. Who reads the documentation these days? Well, our official page of documents gets 20 to 40 visitors per day, I don’t know if it’s a lot:
This documentation covers all the features of QuickAdminPanel, with screenshots and code samples.
Side note: Here is a video of the tool I used to generate this Docs page.
But this is not (only) what our users need.
What we have noticed over the years that our customers are not necessarily professional Laravel developers. So they need help with Code customizationOr sometimes even understand certain concepts. So what we will do in a new version is having a FAQ section with a lot of typical questions related to Laravel, not just Quickadminpanel.
In addition, the plan is to have a quick search on various subjects, integrated in Algolia. In addition to that, research must “understand”, which user page navigates and suggests relevant subjects or the most popular questions.
These are therefore the objectives and reasons for change. We hope that with a new system, we will have a new jump jump for new features, modules and even more administration created.
