SharedTables

SharedTables is an innovation and training hub for young chefs and those who
aspire to be one.

Project Summary

The SharedTables team wanted a robust solution that can cater to the needs of their target audience and supports its business operation across all platforms. Achieving this degree of seamlessness required a website, iOS app, Android app and a web app. Each of these elements had to sync perfectly with the others to deliver a smooth experience to their users.

Industry
Hospitality

Solution
Web app, Mobile app (iOS and Android), and Website

Technologies Used

Laravel

Licensed by MIT, it is an open-source PHP framework. We used it to develop the web app of SharedTables.

Lumen

It’s the lighter and faster version of Laravel. Developers use it to enable microservices such as order and payment processing, server-side application.

Swift

Developed by Apple, it is a general-purpose, complex programming language. This is the primary language that allows the development of apps for the iOS

Java

Java is a platform-independent and general-purpose programming language. We used it to develop the Android app for SharedTable as well as the User Profile formation 

Client overview

SharedTables is an innovation and training hub for young chefs and those who aspire to be one. Since the inception, the managing team at SharedTeams has strived to get as many culinary enthusiast on-board as possible. Thus, they wanted to upgrade their existing Joomla-based booking platform into a modern one.

Key Challenges

The booking feature had to be available to users from the web, Android and iOS platform. To achieve that, all three platforms needed to seamlessly connect to the Java codebase of the booking process.

All three platforms had to allow users to add a new credit card or use the previous card across all devices.

The booking logic for special events such as gala ball, overseas and multi-day events are complex. The SharedTables platform design had to house each logic in proper sequence on all devices.

All participation related documents had to be printable. All these documents had to fit and be printable by label printer.

Our Solution

To fulfil the client’s requirements, we developed a tri-platform solution. It consisted of a web app, an Android and an iOS app.

The web app was Laravel based. To ensure smoothness and congruency of performance, we went for a web app instead of a traditional website.

For the iOS app, we used the SWIFT programming language. Since a significant number of culinary enthusiasts use Apple devices, the iOS app was crucial to open SharedTables to people across the spectrum.

The micro-services such as authentication, order and payment were developed using Lumen. The Android app was developed with Java. And last but not least, we developed the API that connects all three pieces to the micro-services with PHP.

Development Process

For the development of SharedTables, we used the Waterfall process. This was because all the requirements
from the client were clearly defined. We started with analysis and segmentation of those requirements. The next step involved designing the interfaces. After moving through development, testing and implementation,
SharedTables was ready for deployment.

Analysis

Design

Development

Testing

Implementation

Final Results

The client was satisfied with every aspect of the solution we developed. SharedTables, in its final form, delivered the
intended service with agility and ease. Furthermore, it was a significant jump from its previous Joomla based booking platform. For the development team, it was another feather in their caps!

Client's Feedback

”I have worked with Webalive for over 10 years and they have delivered a number of sites for me including a ticketing site. This site was custom built and quite complex but they did a good job and the site has proved to be a great success and has meet my needs.”

– Kathy Doherty