

Ask HN: Review My App - Alchitect - Zelphyr
http://alchitect.com

======
gizmo
It looks like Alchitect is a PHP MVC-style web framework, but I had to click
around quite a bit to figure that out.

Why not make the first sentence on the front page something like this:

"Alchitect is a MVC web framework written in PHP that does [ whatever it is
that makes Alchitect special]"

~~~
jerryji
Hold on mate, Alchitect does not seem very MVC from its Twitter timelines
tutorial ( <http://alchitect.com/app/documentation/twitter_timeline> ) -- the
HTML (V) is weaved deep inside the function (C).

Technicality aside, for a framework to be popular, it's necessary (though not
sufficient) to have lots and lots of documentation/tutorials.

~~~
gizmo
Well buddy, it is MVC according to the documentation, and the Twitter example
itself uses the file AboutController.php. That's reason enough for me to give
it that label.

It may not be _good_ mvc, or even a good framework. Of course, whether it's
MVC or not has nothing to do with the point I was making: that websites should
tell the visitor clearly what the website is about.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
If it looks like a duck but wears a shirt that says "goose"...

------
apsurd
I like the premise: To help non-coders make modern websites.

My project is similar in premise. I admit I haven't installed your framework
but here are my thoughts.

I think you either are a coder or you aren't. I don't think its beneficial to
have a middle road. Things like dreamweaver are said to allow anyone to "make
a website". The kicker is you need to _learn_ how to work dreamweaver. All you
are doing is trading one learning curve for another. It doesn't make sense to
me. I'm not saying you are trying to be dreamweaver, the example is meant to
illustrate the problem with targeting non-coders and telling them "hey you can
make a website with my program".

The point of all this is that since my project involves the same premise, and
after thinking long and hard about it, I realize that enabling non-coders to
make websites is all about the UI. If you tell a guy that is just starting
with code "hey you don't have to write any sql!!! Well he won't know what that
means either way, so your proposed benefit flies right over his head.

I would say I am probably in your target userbase. I know how to code well
enough to understand the benefits of your framework, but _since_ I know how to
code well enough to understand your benefits, that basically means I'm already
comfortable writing sql and enlisting MVC to make things easier on me. (I use
kohana). So as much as I appreciate all the work you've put into your
framework to help me, I am extremely hesitant to abandon kohana and learn
alchitect.

I guess my point is about marketing. Figure out _exactly_ who you want to
target, and make a product that fits their needs to the T.

In my case, my project targets non-coders. Therefore it must be 100% about the
UI. Think of weebly.com That site is bleeding out of the nose with insane UI
features.

I'm not saying in any way that this is your demographic, but rather to
encourage you to pinpoint your customers!

Hope this helps.

------
pedalpete
I personally think your installation demo would lead directly to a no sale.
There are a few reasons. In your demo video 1) The first thing you show is an
error. I understand why you do this, but saying to somebody 'here's the error
that comes up when you first start' isn't a great experience. 2) I suspect
that the installation looks overly complicated to anybody who is not already
familiar with how to set-up a website and sql, and you even go on to show them
how they can change their settings in text if they need to. If you made it so
simple, why do they need that info. You also take the viewer to a command
prompt, and look at their database tables. Non of this spells 'Unprecedented
Ease' to me. 3) You don't show what making an actual web-page is like. I
suspect that is going to be the most important thing for most people. They can
probably get through the install (though I suspect you should be able to make
it an better experience), but I want to know what it looks like to build a
site.

Looking at your documentation on 'creating a page' 1) you say that a user
entering a field in to a form must put the '_' character between words. If
this is so simple, you should be doing that for the user. Don't let the user
make a mistake, you're supposed to be taking care of them. 2) 'Now for the
really interesting part' you say. Put this code in the form??? wait, if you're
making this so easy for me, why do I need to know code? Plus this is now code
that I would need to learn, so I am going to need to learn how you think it is
best to implement.

Basically, similar to apsurd, I think you've gone middle of the road here.
You've taken out some of the work for programmers who probably don't mind
writing the code, and you haven't made it simple enough for non-coders, and
you're forcing them to learn too much stuff.

------
JimmyL
You may want to play with the name a bit, but it could be too late in your
development for that - the first thing I thought of when I read "alchitect"
was a site that I could tell all the kinds of booze I had in my closet, and it
would give me some interesting mixed drinks (alcohol + architect). But that
may just be my mind being somewhat recently out of college.

I would also change the video you have highlighted on the front page - after
watching it, I have a good idea how to install _something_ , but I'm not 100%
sure what I would have installed, or why I would have wanted to do that. Based
on the description at the top, I think Alchitect is some kind of web
framework, but I'm not clear on what makes it special, distinctive, or even
what language/platform it's for.

As opposed to an install video, I'd make the main front-page video into
something like one of the Rails videos - "Watch me go from nothing installed
to a basic CRUD MySQL site in under two minutes" - and highlight along the way
what makes your framework different from every other one.

------
timzon_dot_com
Great Job on the short installation manual video, it seems pretty
straigforward to get started. A Demo of what Alchitect can be used for would
be great. Also, I couldn't find the other Video Tutorials mentioned in the
introduction. Good start...

------
DTrejo
Zelphyr, make sure that you have showdead turned on in your HN profile, as
there is a comment by JimmyL which may be helpful.

------
Zelphyr
Great suggestions! Thanks all!

