portfolio

APP(ideas) was founded in 2001 by Chris Ostmo in Ashland, Oregon

While APP(ideas) has been the launchpad for numerous noteworthy projects, spanning both professional and personal realms, it proudly remains a solo venture. This portfolio is a showcase of the work of Chris Ostmo, the singular force behind APP(ideas).

Click here to see the brief history of Chris and APP(ideas)

Or check out Chris’ portfolio examples below

Extreme WordPress

Employer: Mission Lab
Client: StoryLoop
Highlights: Complex custom WordPress admin; multiple custom services for content processing using PHP, Javascript, Node.js, Docker and Kubernetes; Elasticsearch integration; custom enterprise WordPress hosting architecture; desktop app for administration; CDN distribution

StoryLoop already had a large user-base and a great product-offering, but their current technology had reached the limits of its capabilities and the site’s users were paying the price. Mission Lab was tasked with rebranding, a site redesign and technical execution. The vast majority of technical execution was in Chris’ hands.

Off-site video processing. Each new video or graphic asset added to the site requires as many as 6 size and resolution variations, each product may have several dozen videos, and each video may be as large as 100 GB. That translates into many thousand of videos and dozens of terabytes of content. To eliminate the burden on site administrators and end-users alike, Chris developed a system that processes images and videos off-site. Prior to this project coming to Mission Lab, videos were processed one at a time, in serial, on the public web server. This caused massive slow-downs of the main website, and added hours, if not days to the process of adding a new product. The system developed by Chris launches an external Kubernetes cluster to process each new asset in parallel. This has enabled site administrators the ability to manage dozens of assets per day while having no impact on end-users. In addition to coding the WordPress REST API, Chris wrote several Node.JS API servers and services to control the work, provide real-time status feedback, recover from errors, fine-tune the (very technical) parameters of the video and image processors, and more Technologies employed: Docker, Kubernetes, PHP, Javascript, first party API, third party APIs, WordPress REST API, Node.JS, ffmpeg, ImageMagick
Off-site zip processing. As a new requirement for StoryLoop.com, the client wanted for customers to have access to ZIP files that contained very large, related files, which meant that instant access was needed to dozens of zip files that may be (as Geico would say) up to 100 GB or more. Chris designed and developed a system that detected when changes were made that required new zip files, then created the files needed. Technologies employed: Docker, PHP, Javascript, first party API, third party APIs, WordPress REST API, Node.JS
Dropbox integration. The limits of “simple” Dropbox integration end at 1 GB. Since this site commonly has files that exceed 100 GB, Chris developed a custom, server-based API that authenticates users to Dropbox and facilitates file transfers between StoryLoop’s CDN provider and Dropbox. Technologies employed: Javascript, first party API, third party APIs, WordPress REST API, Node.JS, OAuth
Elasticsearch integration. StoryLoop has thousands of products and tens of thousands of assets spread across more than a dozen taxonomies. Regardless of the amount of money the client was willing to spend for more database resources, the strain on the MySQL system was proving too much to bare. Chris implemented a complicated Elasticsearch integration, based on 10up’s ElasticPress plugin. The end-result was a site that will never get slower due to the size or complexity of its data. Technologies employed: PHP, Javascript, first party API, third party APIs, WordPress REST API, Elasticsearch customization
Desktop application. To administer products, StoryLoop needed to upload as many as 50 videos to be processed at once. The strain was too much on the web servers and the client alike. Chris developed a custom desktop application that acted as a CDN client for uploading new videos directly to their destination, then communicated with the WordPress REST API, which kicked-off the video processing mechanisms. Technologies employed: Electron, Node.JS, Javascript, first party API, third party APIs, WordPress REST API
Custom, enterprise server architecture. Regardless of how much of admin had been offloaded, some processes still required a lot of server resources, and we did not want to “borrow” those resources from website users. Chris’ solution was to separate WordPress front-end and admin into separate servers, which was not an easy or well-documented task. Technologies employed: Linux server administration, nginx, Apache, PHP

CLICK TO SEE MORE DETAILS ⌄

Artificial Intelligence

Employer: Mission Lab
Client: Gospel in Life
Highlights: Summarizing and analyzing varying content formats; complicated AI workflows; OpenAI and langchain implementations; agile OpenAI beta feature development

Gospel in Life had many years of sermon audio transcripts in various formats, representing thousands of sermons. Chris’ task was to convert those transcripts into HTML, then feed the HTML through a chain of AI tasks: 1) Create a long-form summary of the message, 2) create a concise, three-point summary of the message, and 3) rank each sermon against a list of keywords as defined in a custom-trained AI bot. The size and complexity of the dataset and of the task required the use of langchain, OpenAI, Javascript and Node.js. Further, churches are particularly sensitive to AI creating “offensive” or inaccurate content, so custom, multi-step workflows that mimic corporate work environments were developed and implemented using AI. During the execution of this project, OpenAI released beta features, and Chris’ ability to quickly adapt led to training custom AI bots and using AI Assistants, which greatly improved the quality of the product and the time to delivery.

Massive Enterprise WordPress

Employer: ShareFaith
Product: Church Websites
Highlights: Leading development efforts of market-leading front-end WordPress editor; Custom theme integration and functionality; Immense WordPress multisite management; Vendor and customer support liaison; Test-driven development; Significant, measurable growth through process improvement, developer mentoring, product vision and product improvements

ShareFaith was the leader in Church Websites. They produced an impressive, front-end website editor for WordPress that was fully WYSIWYG. Even more impressive, it was fast, smooth, and not at all glitchy (unlike most page builders). Chris was responsible for leading development efforts from version 1 until its final version.

Lead architect. Architected and oversaw code changes from version 1 until maturity, implementing and enforcing coding best practices, utlizing design patterns, implementing Agile project management, and bringing test-driven coding practices.
Building for scale. Responsible to guarantee that thousands of sites could be launched, monitored and controlled at all times.
Interoperability a must. Had to guarantee that nearly any third party WordPress plugin worked within our system – and that our system properly used and obeyed the proper WordPress and third party hooks.
Stability could not be questioned. With thousands of websites, downtime is not an option. Chris managed the server vendor resources, internal site operability, monitoring and emergency response.
Beauty was paramount. Chris was provided designs from a very creative and talented team and had to make sure the end-result was pixel-perfect as a WordPress theme. Further, the front-end, WYSIWYG editing interface had to guarantee that each pixel stayed in its final destination at all times, while never creating a “slow” user experience. This was a challenge that required cross-discipline and patience.
Responsible for growth. Chris’ position at Sharefaith required careful analysis of sales and losses numbers so that he could make informed decisions. The results had to be easily demonstrable, and not only did they meet that expectation, they were quite remarkable.
Customer service, communication and empathy. A big part of Chris’ success at ShareFaith was his interface with the Customer Service department. This experience enabled him to build on the important foundation of listening to customers, feeling their pain, and fixing their problems. This care to custom support led to significant sales growth and a sharp decline in customer cancellations.

CLICK TO SEE MORE DETAILS ⌄

Capable Mobile App Platform

Employer: ShareFaith
Product: Church App Platform
Highlights: Provided initial product vision; Massive ecosystem architected and built; Developed separate iOS and Android apps; Sophisticated and robust first party RESTful API for WordPress; Streamlined and automated distribution; Managed all development of other features

ShareFaith was looking to grow its customer base with new products, and Chris’ passion for and previous experience with mobile app development gave him the inspiration to design and architect this popular app platform, which enabled churches of any size to have a unique and beautiful custom app that used their existing website for content management. The product was an immediate success and propelled ShareFaith into an entirely new class of business. In addition to architecting and developing all of the necessary APIs and related services from the ground-up, Chris coded version 1 of the iOS and Android apps. Chris was responsible for the successful launch and maintenance of more than 2,500 apps on each of the iOS and Google Play stores.

Total solution, from the ground-up. Chris architected and built a complete system with many moving parts that enabled people who have a website and a lot of media to create their own, unique app. This involved WordPress REST API creation and the creation of a number of custom server-based APIs to communicate between apps and websites, websites and third party services, and to monitor and control app submissions and updates.
The mobile apps. Chris developed version 1 of the mobile apps without aid from other developers. Due to the lack of reasonable cross-platform development tools at the time, the app was coded twice – once for iOS using Objective-C, and a second time for Android using Java. The end-products behaved the same on each platform, and were subject to a battery of Unit Tests on each update.
Busy, robust APIs. Several mission-critical APIs were architected and coded from the ground-up by Chris. Those include services for authenticating websites, synchronizing conent in apps, tracking publication statuses, tracking user activity, logging errors, executing app updates and more. Various APIs were built to handle thousands of requests per minute.
Necessary automation. Manually managing the update and distribution of thousands of apps would be a full-time job for a hundred people. Chris wrote code so that it could be done by one person as part of her normal day. All possible and appropriate technologies were tried, and what didn’t exist was made. In the end, Chris built a system that automated the entire process using Java to update and prepare apps, FastLane (Ruby) for most app submission tasks, and Selenium (more Java) for tasks that “had” to be performed by a human.
Managing the results. Chris had the aid of the ShareFaith team in art direction and in the building of a web-based management interface in WordPress. After those parts of the system were complete, Chris managed the ongoig technical operation of the App product.

CLICK TO SEE MORE DETAILS ⌄

Custom Enterprise Results

Employer: Steelhead Advertising
Client: LG Electronics
Highlights: Architected multi-year projects; Development lead; Responsible for the execution and delivery of the company’s Customer Relationship Management system; Client management

LG Electronics North America needed a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, and no commercial products fit the bill. After meeting with SalesForce and others to see how their needs could be met, LG turned to Chris and his team at Steelhead to fulfill their needs in a way that no other company could. The end-product was a PHP-based system that LG used to manage it’s clients and sales channels for day-to-day operations. Iterative updates to the CRM system involved integrating with LG’s legacy accounting and inventory systems. Chris led development from start-to finish and managed as many as 10 developers on a single project.

Mission-Critical Execution

Employer: Steelhead Advertising
Client: Panasonic
Highlights: Architected multi-year projects; Development lead; Delivered massive, mission-critical Instant Rebate Processing and Supply Chain Management projects

Panasonic North America tapped Chris and his team at Steelhead to develop a system that automatically processed instant rebate submissions from their customers while rooting out fraud. The implementation of the system had to pass internal audits, external audits, required access to secured facilities, and required for Chris to manage a large team of IBM tech workers for several days – in addition to his in-house staff of 6. The system found and recovered several million dollars of fraud the first week it was turned on, and it enabled Panasonic to reassign approximately 200 employees to new positions. Panasonic was so pleased with the results, they hired Chris’ team to build a custom Supply Chain Management (SCM) tool that tied into Panasonic’s archaic accounting system, its warehouses and several of its supply chain partners. The SCM tool was able to combine sales history, raw material availability and warehouse inventory to make informed decisions about what products to promote with special sales in the future.

Apps For Fun and Profit

Project: TimeLogger
Highlights: Delivered iOS app on App Store day-one; Complicated internal data structure, using SQLite; Accompanying Pebble smartwatch app;

Before the iOS App Store was available, Chris had developed mobile apps professionally for palmOS and Windows Phone. His employer at the time offered no opportunity for app development, so he embarked on his own journey and created the popular TimeLogger iPhone app. TimeLogger made tracking time easy for hourly wage earners. At its zenith, TimeLogger was being actively used by approximately 100,000 people. TimeLogger was coded in Objective-C and, despite being a personal project, adhered to Chris’ strict code management guidelines and was the result of test-driven development. The first smartwatch that became popular was from Pebble, and Chris was actively involved in Pebble development and the Pebble developer community. TimeLogger was proudly the very first business app for smartwatch. The Pebble app was coded in C and C++.

A.I. Satire

Project: The Gaslighter
Highlights: Custom WordPress plugin development; Complicated AI workflow for specific, desired results; Chains APIs from three different AI services to achieve results

Artificial Intelligence is taking over the conversation in many ways, but 2023 and 2024 were not providing Chris with enough professional opportunities to satisfy his curiosity. That’s why he spent a couple weekends writing the code for The Gaslighter, a website that generates absurdly false news stories. In today’s world, we’re getting gaslit on a daily basis, and AI is becoming increasingly effective in tricking people into thinking that false is actually true. For fun, Chris wanted to see how much time and energy would be required for a single developer to create a website that could pass as real news, even though everything it posted was false. Ethical considerations compelled Chris to make sure that the site doesn’t take a particular side and that the stories are so preposterous that people will find them funny instead of offensive. It also serves to point out the absurdity of gaslighting by exaggerating the real-life phenomenon. Given the limitations and the expense of OpenAI at the time of development, the API services of Cody AI are used for daily training and to write rough drafts. OpenAI’s API is used to create a final draft of the story. Finally, getimg.ai’s API is tasked with generating a featured image. The end result is automated fun.

3D Printing

Project: ostmoxy printerX
Highlights: Custom, upgraded 3D printer; Original, iterative design and prototyping; Node.JS, python, C, C++, scripting; Hardware testing and design; Printed Circuit Board design and delivery; Custom manufacturing; NodeMCU

Beginning in 2018, Chris started working out how to resolve some of the frustrations he was having with 3D printing. By early 2020, he had built seven distinct prototype iterations, and a final product that was getting ready to launch in local stores under the brand name ostmoxy. When COVID hit, part of the necessary supply chain collapsed, Chris’ distribution channel went out of business, and the money for this self-funded project ran dry. It was a classic country song, tech style! Without help, Chris designed, tested, built – then did it all over again – the entire system. printerX boasts highly upgraded parts, a built-in web server for printer and job management, a custom-made wi-fi controller, higher speeds with fewer defects and less noise, a webcam that provides real-time streaming and time lapse video, custom firmware, a unique Z-axis/lift mechanism engineered by Chris, and a beautiful wood encasing.

Music and Apps

Project: reeDminder
Highlights: React Native mobile app for woodwind players; Custom WordPress membership integration; Custom WordPress theme; first party RESTful APIs in PHP and Javascript; third party API integration; SQLite database; AI-assisted development

Chris loves music, and he recently began playing the clarinet. After managing his reed collection on chalkboards and spreadsheets for a while, he started looking for an app to help. Surprisingly, none was found. Launching Spring, 2024, reeDminder is a feature-rich app that helps woodwind musicians achieve their best sound with ease. Bringing simple, yet complete reed management to the pocket of musicians everywhere. See a need, fill a need.

A Brief History

Chris began programming dynamic websites in 1995, while working for Rosenet Internet Services in Roseburg, OR. Looking for sustainable growth for this emerging technology, he settled Rosenet on a LAMP stack in 1997 (before such a thing had its own acronym) and has been pioneering, improving and executing web-based and mobile solutions ever since.

In 2001, Chris launched APP(ideas) with the goal of bringing Open Source to the enterprise. Before long, he was made a partner of Steelhead Advertising, landing lucrative contracts and executing mission-critical projects for huge companies like LG Electronics, Mitsubishi and Panasonic.

Since 2013, Chris has been dedicated to developing his expertise and contributing significantly to various organizations, either as an employee or consultant, in roles as Developer and Development Manager. His work has spanned a wide array of technologies and projects, including sophisticated WordPress execution, large-scale mobile application development and distribution, specialized and utility desktop software, custom APIs, RESTful services, and even integrated hardware solutions. This portfolio showcases a diverse range of successful projects, so I invite you to explore the details above.