TheLEK
TheLEK.com is a dating site that matches singles based on the places they like to go and the things they like to do. Members select their favorite bars, restaurants, clubs and cafes and can easily find other members who like the same places.
Back-end
The back-end started as a custom PHP framework deployment on a MySQL database. The continuously increasing number of features soon reached the limits of this custom framework and we decided to migrate to Zend Framework.
Front-end
This is the application in which we discovered the great power of jQuery. While browsing TheLEK.com, users can find a lot of visual candy: auto-complete fields, AJAX buttons and parts of pages, overlayed modals, calendars, scrolling picture galleries, rating stars and Google Maps.
To ensure seamless cross-browser compatibility, the YUI CSS framework does a reset of all the HTML tags, sets a common base of attributes and keeps a stable grid system.
Features
Events and places
From the first moment, TheLEK.com has been populated with a huge number of Los Angeles venues, called “leks”. Every lek can hold any number of events. Event or venue managers can have full control of the people who visit their places, reviews posted or tickets sold.
Events are not fun alone and to let everybody know where you’re planning to go, RSVPs can be streamed into Facebook Activity Stream.
Users
Users, called lekkers, can attend events, write reviews about places and, most importantly, interact with other lekkers quickly. Lekkers express themselves by posting questions, uploading pictures to their albums, filling fun info about them and marking the attendance to parties.
Facebook integration
Joining TheLEK is fast and fun, and Facebook Connect is there to help, leveraging on the info you already filled on Facebook. If uploading pictures sounds boring, lekkers can use the Facebook picture importer, which helps you bring the Facebook pictures you choose into TheLEK.com
Newsletters
Newsletters help people keep in the loop and not miss out a cool parteee. A tight integration between TheLEK.com and a separate newsletter system synchronizes both databases, making the manager’s job easier.
Payment systems
There are two main payment systems, one of which is PayPal Pro that allows seamless integration with the existing user experience.
Webcam capturing
If lekkers have no picture to upload, no problem, they can take a quick snapshot with their webcams. We have deployed a webcam snapshot capturing tool in Adobe Flex.
Forum integration
We have integrated Simple Machines Forum, for community announcements and general talk. The integration comprised user profiles and visual them.
