Need some advice on merging open-source applications
I'm trying to build a single-tenant prototype/MVP by combining multiple open-source applications (PHP/Laravel, mostly) into one dashboard. In other words, the dashboard would have a menu on the left, with each menu item loading that respective app in the work area.
I've had a few bids on Upwork come in super high ($6000 and up) - when I was expecting something more like this:
- 2-3 hours to set up each application on the server and test to make sure it works as it should (I can do most of this)
- 10-ish hours building the dashboard that houses the apps
- Total cost: $1500 or less
My questions:
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Is there an established outline/framework, or existing github example, of something similar I could use as a point of reference for a developer?
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What am I missing that makes this kind of project more complicated than it appears on the surface?
As I'm sure you've surmised by this point, I'm not an experienced developer. With that said, I have managed multiple technical teams and projects - but I'm in uncharted waters on this one.
Any feedback/ideas would be much appreciated!
It's impossible to assess what exactly is needed. High bids might be experienced agencies/devs who know that they will have to actively extract every bit of information from you, which will cost them (unbillable) time, as opposed to just sit down on a well-specified project, and do the actual work.
What do you mean by dashboard?
Generally, a dashboard aggregates multiple data sources and visualizes them.
What you describe is a bookmark service: You have a sidebar with links to Twitter, Hubspot, GMail, whatever.
Does the user have to log into each application individually? If not, how does App A know that the user already logged into App B? Building a single-sign-on mechanism into multiple apps like that alone would cost $6000.
Do you have screen mockups? How does the developer know that they're finished building what you wanted? Is there an acceptance criteria outlined?
If the dashboard is aggregating information in one screen, as a dashboard is supposed to do (as opposed to just giving you links to the services), where does the data come from? Is there an API? Is the API well-documented? What kind of API is it, REST? GraphQL?
If there's no API, what databases are these projects using to pull the data from? Is it all the same database? Multiple instances, but the same vendor? Multiple vendors (MSSQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL)?
Are you really sure that this needs coding at this time? Do you have a customer base that you know is willing to pay for your solution? Did you try any of the No-Code Admin building tools like https://www.retool.com/ or solutions like Zapier? Where do they fall short? What would need to be developed beyond Zapier?
Thanks for the feedback. I think you've found part of my problem - how to best describe/explain the concept. Let me try again.
By dashboard, I mean a UI similar to: https://github.com/Labs64/laravel-boilerplate#theme-demo
So starting there, I'd want to replace the menu items on the left so that each one loaded a single open source app that we install on the same server.
Example: I click on the 'Projects' button, it loads an open-source kanban app in the work area.
For now, all of the apps will live on the server via individual open-source apps mashed into one dashboard. Eventually, I'd like to ping 3rd party apps via API's, but for this MVP I'm trying to cover most of the functionality in-house.
Does that make more sense?