Discover Local Gems in Wichita, Kansas

Wichita Business Directory

Your go-to guide for restaurants, shops, services, and events across Wichita

Wichita Business Directory

Welcome to the Wichita Business Directory, your comprehensive guide to discovering local businesses in Wichita, Kansas. Whether you’re a resident, visitor, or business owner, our platform offers an easy-to-use catalog of local restaurants, shops, services, and more. Think of us as a specialized city-focused business catalog, designed to connect you with Wichita's vibrant business community. Whether you're looking for a new restaurant, a reliable service provider, or upcoming events in Wichita, our business directory makes finding the best of the city simple and accessible. Join us in celebrating the unique businesses that make Wichita a great place to live, work, and explore!

Authentication Service

  • Extended the existing authentication service with a custom Auth plugin that manages customer billing plans and controls access to plan-specific features.

Billing Service

  • Integrated the Braintree Billing API and developed a custom Billing Management Service to handle customer subscriptions.

Event Service

  • Implemented functionality that allows businesses to create their own events and schedule them for automatic publishing to Facebook.

Business Directory

  • Provided businesses with access to their own website section to build and manage their information.

Spec

  • HighFusion LLC
  • Full Stack Developer
  • Assembla API Billing API Braintree Custom Plugins Freshbook API MsSQL PHP Wordpress

Wichita.com Project Overview

Wichita.com is a local business directory platform built on WordPress CMS, tailored specifically for the city of Wichita, Kansas. The platform was customized extensively, including a modified user authentication system, subscription management integrated with the Braintree payment gateway, and automated invoicing through the FreshBooks API. Additionally, the platform is connected to the Assembla ticketing system to track new user registrations and subscription events for internal workflow coordination.

Each business is visually represented on an interactive map using a custom plugin built on Google Maps API, allowing users to search and view listings with detailed business summaries.

Integrated Custom Modules

To enhance functionality, the project includes a set of purpose-built modules:

Meta Categories

A custom module developed to manage extended metadata and categorization within the WordPress environment. It includes:

  • A flexible metabox system with its own templating and logic classes
  • Google Maps integration for business display
  • Enhanced admin UI built with jQuery UI components
  • A structured domain model for advanced filtering and categorization

This module enabled dynamic attribute management for each business and improved filtering capabilities across the directory.

Signup Module

A fully-featured business registration system with:

  • MVC-style structure and service layer (CF_Signup_Service, CF_Signup_Manager)
  • Object models for Place and Category
  • A shortcode-powered frontend registration form
  • Integration with the ticketing system to trigger onboarding workflows in Assembla

This allowed for real-time team notifications when a new business registered and selected a subscription tier.

Shotcodes

A rich shortcode library providing custom visual components such as:

  • Rotating business showcases
  • Event and category displays
  • Visual Composer blocks for intuitive layout creation
  • Custom icon sets and layout templates

These shortcodes enabled content managers to build rich, dynamic front pages without additional development effort.

Meta Search Bar

A modular search system with:

  • Custom filter logic via SearchBar classes
  • Dynamic search bar templates with real-time filtering
  • Easily embeddable via shortcode or template integration

This search tool provided users with an intuitive way to find businesses based on attributes, improving usability and engagement.

Workflow Summary

When a new business registers on the platform:

  • A ticket is automatically created in Assembla, notifying the team of the new registration and the selected subscription plan.
  • Based on the subscription tier, the team initiates appropriate onboarding steps.
  • The integrated billing system automatically issues invoices and logs payment history.

Conclusion

The Wichita.com platform is a robust and scalable business directory solution combining:

  • A highly customized WordPress foundation
  • Deep integrations with third-party services (Braintree, FreshBooks, Assembla)
  • A set of modular extensions for registration, categorization, search, and visual content delivery

This architecture supports both user-facing convenience and efficient internal operations, making it a strong solution for local business discovery and management.