Tim Foss, All Things Web

Yapsie.com is a centralized resource for all things pet-related. A personal project started with a couple of friends, Yapsie's goal was to create a site where pet owners could go to find everything from a well-recommended vet, to a pet-friendly apartment, to local pet-related events. Focused on San Diego and San Francisco, Yapsie has hosted several successful pet events and aims to be the go-to source for hosting or attending local events. On the site, you can create a profile for all your pets, network with other pet owners, and get or share advice in the forums. As they say on the site, Yapsie is a friendly place for pets and their people.

What I did

I set up a new Ubuntu server using Rackspace Cloud. Secured the server using best practices, such as limiting port access by using iptables, disabling root login, securing the shell and properly configuring SSH. Installed and configured all necessary applications, such as Apache, MySQL, PHP and Subversion. I set up development, staging and production environments. I set up Subversion and shell scripts to easily push changes between the environments. I created a custom framework in PHP to give us the flexibility we needed to achieve the functionality that we wanted for the site. I configured the MySQL database and created all the necessary tables. Converted the mock-ups provided by our graphic designer to HTML/CSS/Javascript.

I also created several social aspects to the site, such as friending, adding pets, setting up profiles, searching business, writing reviews and rating, browsing for pet-friendly services, the ability to view other registered users in your neighborhood, the ability to upload and comment on photos, and a mail system for communicating among users. Used Facebook API to integrate with users' walls and the activities they posted about on the site.