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Online Advertising System for Personal and Commercial Use

Marketing
.NET
ASP.NET
Android
iOS
Java
Objective-C
MS SQL

Summary

Online Advertising System is a Web portal for publishing personal or commercial advertisements that can be accessed through the website or a mobile application. The high capacity system was designed to easily handle 1,000,000 clicks per month, 500,000 advertisements a year, and 250,000 registered users. Goods and services can be filtered according to 5,000 categories depending on their specific features and types. While browsing the catalog, users can bookmark the pages they liked and arrange bookmarks in folders.

The optimized search algorithm of a mobile application enables fast searching using both text queries and four-symbol identification codes. Customers can locate shops and service providers as well as view the items available in their area with integrated Google maps.

The administrative part of the portal is used to configure website settings, manage user accounts, place banners, create reports, record transactions, and support users.

The need

The customer’s main goal was to create user-friendly and easy to configure Web and mobile applications that could be customized for different countries. They wanted the system to sustain a large number of users and have social Web services integration (Facebook and Twitter). Apart from that it had to offer various online payment options, so advertisements could be placed within seconds.

The portal was designed to make advertising and buying goods and services simple, therefore it was crucial to ensure simple navigation across a complex hierarchy of interrelated categories and subcategories. The final product’s design was to be user-friendly for both the customers and the business companies using the Web site as an advertising platform. So the task was to create a system where users could quickly get advanced search results with various parameters, compare them, share information with other users, and communicate with support staff. Meanwhile reports on these activities were to be compiled and generated for the advertisers.

The challenges

The greatest challenge for the team was to create an architecture that would support a large number of users and quickly provide search results among loads of advertisements. It had to be scalable to handle an unlimited number of users and growing content volumes while maintaining the same performance. Furthermore, we had to ensure a possibility to extend the system’s functionality in the future.

Testing a system designed to endure a constantly growing data load is a complicated task. The team configured a complex environment to replicate average load by emulating a large number of user accounts and various content.

A simple user interface was created for the 5,000 interrelated search categories making navigation more user-friendly.

When synchronizing the server with mobile devices the developers had to enable:

  • Working in both online and offline modes.
  • Fast and consistent data exchange.
  • Secure delivery of data packages and detection of synchronization errors.

The solution

Altoros used the advantages of ASP.NET MVC to create high-quality, clear, and manageable code for an easily customizable modular system. Once designed, the ready-made modules can be tailored to different purposes with little additional expenses. This approach ensures high performance, reliability, and scalability required by the customer.

The final product features country-specific settings including mobile network codes used for SMS payments, local language, date, and currency. The team implemented GPS to track users’ location and offer nearby services.

MS SQL Server was used to ensure the system’s scalability in the future. With the database divided into clusters, capacity can be increased by upgrading or adding new hardware. New servers can be added easily thanks to the Web farm. This means enhanced performance and faster query processing.

Visual Studio Ultimate Edition made it possible to use the “controller – agents” environment for emulating activity of multiple users and test the system’s performance under high load. When the server and the mobile application were synchronized, local data storage was created for processing all possible errors and conflicts. As the result, data exchange became more consistent. Altoros provided project management on all stages of the working process, so the customer could concentrate on business instead of negotiating technical details.

The outcome

The project became one of the leading advertising solutions on the Norwegian market with easy navigation, advanced product filtering options, and a built-in payment module compatible with any type of payment systems. The good return on software investment is guaranteed by the flexible architecture, easy customization, and scalability. Apart from the features designed for managing advertisements, website content, and user accounts, the system provides broad possibilities for communication, which help to build long-lasting relationship with users.

Technology stack

Server platforms

Windows Server 2008 R2, IIS 7.0

Client platforms

Web: Internet Explorer 7 and above, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari<br/>Mobile: Android, iOS

Programming languages

ASP.NET, Java, Objective-C

Frameworks and tools

.NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET MVC 3.0, AJAX, LINQ to SQL, Android SDK, (iOS) Core Data Framework

Databases

MS SQL Server 2008, SQLite

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Alex Tsimashenka
Business Development Director
a.tsimashenka@altoroslabs.com
Headquarters
+1 (650) 419-3379
Toll-Free
1-855-ALTOROS