2 functional overview | ADMIN

Admin functions and access thereto will be determined and/or be limited by their permissions as set out by the Super Admin.

New Users: 6 hours

Admins are able to permit access to new users. They will enter a name and email, and a unique link will be sent via email where a new user can register their account with secure a password. For security/access control purposes, this link will only be active for one registration. 

Events: 12 hours

Admins are able to create events to load on the events calendar. This will include setting the date, time, and event information, as well as the GoMeeting link to the event stream. 

Recordings: 12 hours

Admins are able to create, edit and remove recordings. These are videos to be uploaded/embedded for users to watch after an event has concluded. 

Course Management: 60 – 70 hours

Admins will be able to create, edit or remove courses. 

Tools: 12 hours

Admins will be able to load videos and articles to be displayed under the Tools section. 

Moderation: 24 – 36 hours

All user-generated content can be moderated by Admins. When generated, the content will go live on the platform, but an Admin will be able to remove the content after the fact. 

Admins will be able to delete, suspend or block users. 

User Management: 12 – 18 hours

Admins will be provided with an overview of all users. They will be able to search/filter users and will be provided with a profile overview, as well as their rank and course activity. 

Billing: 24 hours

Admins will be provided with an overview of all system billing and transactions. 

SUPER ADMIN: 12 hours

The Super Admin will have platform-wide access as well as the ability to create and invite new admin users. The Super Admin will also be able to assign and revoke certain admin user permissions.

3 functional overview | USER

Login / Registration: 12 hours

An admin user will be able to invite users to register. This will be done via a unique registration link that will only allow one user to register per link sent.

Login will following industry standard practice whereby a username/email and strong password must be provided to log in and gain access. 

The standard email password retrieval process will be followed.  

User Newsfeed / Home Page: 24 – 36 hours

Once logged in, the user will be able to view an overview of the latest content on [ The Market Sniper ], including links to the content and various sections. 

The contact displayed to the user will be limited according to their user role and active subscription. 

Courses: 60 – 70 hours

A user will be able to enroll and pay for [ The Market Sniper ] courses. 

Course material will be loaded in the form of video and text content. Each course will have multiple modules and each module will have the option of a questionnaire that needs to be passed in order for the user to progress or pass. 

Questions and answers will be delivered in either:

• Single choice
• Multiple choice
• Free choice
• Sorting choice

Upon signing up/purchasing on [ The Market Sniper ], the user will gain access to certain courses, while others will only be introduced in a drip-feed format at a later stage (14 days). 

Library 12 – 18 hours

The library is a user-generated content section. Users with applicable access, will be able to upload videos and articles and others will be able to react (like, upvote etc) and comment on posts. 

It will allow users to subscribe to the library and receive notifications when new content is posted or when someone replies to their content or @ mentions them in a comment or post. 

Posts will be searchable as well. 

Setups: 36 – 48 hours

Users will be able to create and view Setups. 

The user will be able to filter by Ticker, Market, Duration, Stage, Position, and date range. Additionally, they will be able to view Setups under the following tabs:

ALL SETUPS – an overview of all setups on the platform

NEW – recently created setups

SUBSCRIBED – a user can subscribe to a setup and will receive a notification if changes are made to it.

TAKEN – setups that the user decided to “take/follow”

MY SETUPS – Setups created by the user.

When creating a Setup – the user will have the option between the following setups, each with its own unique set of information (text and images) that needs to be provided in order to complete the creation:

• Beginner
• Beginner +
• Intermediate
• Advanced
• Advanced+

The forms that are used to submit the Setups will be hard-coded and the admin will not be able to change them on the fly. This functionality can be added at a later stage if the need becomes reality. 

We will also make improvements to the user’s ability to load screenshots and comments on a Setup. Our proposal is to build a page/layout builder of sorts, which will assist in making and arranging the content in a more user-friendly way, at the discretion of the creator of the setup.

Users will also be able to provide comments on Setups. 

Chat Rooms: 48 – 60 hours

Chat rooms will work as a forum-style section where users with applicable access are able to create new posts/chats. Others can then reply via comments and react (likes). 

Users will receive notifications for @mentios as well as replies to their posts or comments. 

Event Calendar: 12 – 18 hours

Users will be able to view a calendar with an overview of all upcoming events that are created by Admins. 

When an event is selected, it will open an overview page with more information including the link to the GoMeetings event and the ability to add the event to iCal and Google Calander. 

You will also be able to click on the event organizer, to open his/her profile page, showing their upcoming events.

Recordings: 12 hours

When an event has passed, the event organizer will be able to download the video from GoMeetings and upload it as a Recording in order for users to watch the event at a time that suits them. 

The recordings section will include an overview of all loaded recordings, filtered by category and date. 

Tools: 12 hours

This section will include important articles and information that Admins can load. Essentially a blog/news feed with content filterable by search or categories. 

My Room: 24 – 36 hours

My room will act in a similar fashion as a chat room, but it will only be viewed by the user themselves. This acts as a personal journal/notes area where comments, links and information can be stored securely. 

Journal / Notes Icon: 12 – 18 hours

Across the website, the user will be able to open the notes icon – this will allow for quick-creation of notes/thoughts that are then saved to the My Room section. 

When creating a note during a course, a timestamp of the video will be stored, allowing the user to navigate back to that section of the video in one click. It will also store URL information on notes, allowing the user to navigate straight to a specific URL for a Chat, Status etc. 

GAMIFICATION: 24 – 36 hours

Each user will be assigned a rank. 

Depending on a user’s rank, they will be given certain perks like discounts on subscriptions or exclusive access to content. 

To increase in rank, users will need to be active on the platform and add value through:

• Creating Setups
• Being active in chat rooms
• Handing out or receiving likes or upvotes
• Complete courses and course material

The rank will increase on a points-system whereby certain action on the platform earns or loses a user ranking points. Wherever the user’s name or avatar is displayed, his rank will also be visible. 

iOS & ANDROID MOBILE APP: 95 – 120 hours

[ The Market Sniper ] mobile application will be available on iOS and Android app stores and will include all the user-side functionality that the web platform offers. Administration of the content will take place in the admin web portal.

5 Hosting

HOSTING

We make use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host all applications. AWS has limitless scaling and support which makes it an industry leader.

The application will run on the following specs until its scale forces us to upgrade. This is done to cut down on server costs.

• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud – EC2 Linux t2.micro (750 hours P/M)
• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud – Block Storage (30 GB P/M)
• Amazon Relational Database Service – t2.micro (750 hours P/M)
• AWS Data Transfer – 15 GB of bandwidth out aggregated across all AWS services (15GB P/M)
• Amazon Cloud Watch – Data logs (5GB P/M)

The costs depend on the amount of data being stored, server traffic, etc.

Cost: R500 p/m ex VAT

6 Technology

WORDPRESS VS CUSTOM DEVELOPMENT

To ensure [ The Market Sniper ] is future-proof, we propose to the redevelopment of the entire platform in a modern sensible tech stack and move away from WordPress completely.

Building an online platform at scale, WordPress simply does not cut it.

We have extensive experience in building large online platforms with multiple moving parts for Nando’s, Spier Arts Trust, and an online learning platform for Digemy, used by the likes of Capitec and Cipla for in-house and public learning and training. The Capitec platform alone has more than 175 000 active users at any given time.

The reality is that the WordPress plugin ecosystem poses many development risks. Critical code and features are out of your immediate control. A single code change through a plugin update can cause the entire house of cards to tumble down.

Specific to [ The Market Sniper ]’s platform requirements, we foresee the following WordPress related stumbling blocks:

1. Speed.

As it stands, [ The Market Sniper ] is slow. Very slow.

In fact, when we ran a Google PageSpeed Insights test, the home page received a score of 4/100. Anything from 90-100 is considered good, while any scores of 50-89, Google recommends making improvements.

Loading speed not only affects the user experience on online platforms but also affects Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Many SEO factors revolve around the good usability of websites – a slow website is not a usable one.

The plugin ecosystem is not designed with speed optimisation in mind – for every plugin installed, a myriad of javascript and style sheets need to be loaded, dramatically decreasing the loading speed of online platforms, creating a frustrating user experience.

2. Security.

WordPress is the most popular CMS by a long shot, making it a popular target for hackers all over the world. An estimated 30 000 websites are hacked or injected with malware every day, and WordPress-powered websites represent over 80% of infected websites.

The ironic thing about WordPress, is that the plugin ecosystem that makes it so popular, is the very same system that makes it a security risk.

Plugins are developed by an open-source network of developers all over the world, with little to no control over the security backdoors that are left open for hackers to exploit. A Wordfence survey showed that close to 60% of WordPress hacks are achieved by exploiting plugins to gain access to websites.

While there are plugins available to help make your website more secure, this once again speaks to the overarching problem – too many plugins cause too many issues – none of which are in our control.

3. Reliability.

WordPress builds are almost 100% reliant on developers and teams that you have no access to. When crashes or plugin conflicts occur, there’s not much you can do about it. It becomes a nightmare to problem-solve and you’re at the mercy of of plugin developers who also serve thousands of other websites.

Deprecated plugins are a major reliability risk for any big WordPress build – when plugin developers no longer continue to develop and update a plugin, it’s only a matter of time before it starts causing crashes wherever it’s installed. Again, this is something that’s completely out of your control.

4. Adaptability

The major up-side of a custom-built platform, is that it’s adaptable to any future growth and functions. Code foundations are built in such a way, that it can grow in any direction, without negatively impacting what’s already there.

WordPress is the exact opposite.

Because each theme and plugin is developed by different teams, adaptability becomes almost non-existing. Sure, you can get someone to adapt the code of a plugin to suit your needs, but as soon as that plugin requires an update, you either need to skip the update (introducing security risks) or you need to update and overwrite the custom code you created.

5. Functionality

When it comes to functionality, WordPress builds are once again at the mercy of plugins. If specific functions are required, there may not be a plugin that offers it.

Additionally, you might find plugins that offer some of the functionality that you require, but not exactly as you require it. Again, you’re at the mercy of what the developers provide and functional limitations are a real risk.

Building a custom platform, offers you near-unlimited functions for future expansions with no risk of breaking other parts of the system.

6. UI/UX

Plugins and themes are provided with pre-determined user interface and experience designs. This leaves little room for improvements to be made in order to make the platform more user friendly and aesthetic. User interface and experience design is a very important part of an online business ensuring that prospects are converted easier and existing users enjoy their experience on the platform enough to remain active and paying customers.

We can design UI and UX experiences that suit the Market Sniper brand and optimises the experience for every user.

In closing, we believe that a custom solution is the only way to mitigate massive business risks for The Market Sniper. We believe that the platform has reached its shelf-life with WordPress.

Providing a robust platform on web and mobile, enables admins to focus on administering the course content and day-to-day moderation of the platform while users will benefit from a greatly improved experience in discussing and setting up trades.

OUR TECH STACK

We make use of the Laravel PHP Framework for all REST API’s needed for mobile applications, platform administrative management, and web portals.

Laravel is an industry-standard cloud software framework with a strong community base.

For any web-based applications, we use React which has a symbiotic relationship with Laravel.

React is a Single Page Application library with a lot of flexibility and freedom enabling us to build with the maximum freedom to match design requirements.

For mobile applications, we use React Native, which allows for one codebase for both iOS and Android. This reduces development time and costs.

React is an industry-leading technology with millions of developers working with it. Notable platforms using React: Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Netflix, Discord, AirBnB.

Conclusion

We are the right people for the job. We have experience in the successful delivery of every functional requirement of this project. There are no grey areas or aspects we are uncertain of. From tech, user experience, security, and scalability – we have technically already built this platform.

Execution of this work is a collaboration –
a perfect blend of creativity, forward-thinking, and experience between
DIGITAL DRAWING ROOM + WAPP