Developing a Dynamic Status Monitoring Website: Guidance for Beginners

Introduction

In today’s rapidly evolving web development landscape, even seasoned developers can find themselves facing new challenges. If you’re looking to create a simple yet effective process status website, understanding the current tools and best practices is essential. This article aims to guide you through building a straightforward status tracking platform, focusing on usability, functionality, and the right technology choices.

Project Overview

The goal is to develop a user-friendly website that allows users to input a unique process number and view real-time updates on the process’s progress. Inspired by the simplicity of parcel tracking systems or food delivery trackers, the site should display percentage completion, current process steps, and provide a visual indicator like a progress bar for enhanced user experience.

Key Functionalities

1. Main Landing Page

2. Input Field: Users enter a unique identifier (e.g., a process number).

3. Submit Button: Processes the input and redirects to a status page.

4. Process Status Page

5. Dynamic Content: Displays progress percentage, current step, and a visual progress bar.

6. Update Mechanism: Allows process managers to update progress via an admin interface.

7. Admin Interface

8. Accessed via a separate login or URL pattern.

9. Features: Update process progress via sliders, dropdowns, or checkboxes; input current process step.

Technical Considerations

Since you’re currently exploring options within Wix, it’s worth noting that Wix offers various apps and integrations aimed at enabling dynamic content and process tracking. However, for more customized functionalities like real-time status updates, you might need to consider additional tools or shifting towards a more flexible platform such as WordPress.

Recommendations

1. Using Wix

2. Wix Corvid (Velo): Wix’s full-stack development platform allows you to add custom code, databases, and dynamic pages.

3. Wix Apps: Explore the Wix App Market for process tracking or form apps that can be customized for your needs.

4. Limitations: While Wix offers ease of use, complex data relationships or real-time updates might require workarounds.

5. Alternative Platform: WordPress

6. Why WordPress? It offers greater flexibility through plugins and custom development.

7. Plugins to Consider:

   • WPForms or Gravity Forms: For creating input forms.

   • Advanced Custom Fields: To manage custom process status data.

   • Custom Post Types: To handle multiple process entries.

   • REST API Integration: For real-time updates and admin controls.

8. Implementation Approach:

   • Build a custom