Oqapi Software B.V. was founded by Joeri de Bruin in 2007 in Delft, the Netherlands. Oqapi is an ICT company which develops internet and intranet applications based on open source software using mostly Perl, PHP, MySQL and the content management system WebGUI. The company specializes in building and implementing websites and webshops, as well as writing custom software applications.

Oqapi’s clientele consists primarily of businesses in need of custom web applications representing a variety of industries. The diverse client list includes online dating services, environmental research organizations, testing and laboratory equipment manufacturers, providers of infant supplies and a wide array of internet related businesses.

Oqapi develops custom software for a reasonable price, so the decision to use open source software was an easy one. Joeri is an enthusiastic proponent of open source, as are many Oqapi employees. As former co-owner of Procolix, a web hosting company in the Netherlands, Joeri had prior experience with WebGUI and knew about its many advantages. Today, some of the employees of Oqapi are WebGUI core developers who appreciate the ability to easily add custom applications.

After considering an alternate application framework, Oqapi settled on WebGUI for a number of reasons. The ability and ease with which they could write and deploy add-ons and develop the WebGUI core was a major factor. This ability provided them the flexibility they desired when developing client sites.

The company is a strong advocate of open source. When Oqapi was founded, most employees already had over five years of experience working with WebGUI. Martin Kamerbeek, developer at Oqapi said,”WebGUI is so versatile that we didn’t even think of using something else.”

Their deep knowledge of WebGUI’s inner workings and strong foundation provide them everything they need.The versioning and workflow systems also give them the control they are looking for. “For these reasons WebGUI was the only sane choice.”

Oqapi has found great success using WebGUI’s API to implement custom features for their clients. While they use WebGUI as a content management system for standard client websites, most of their projects take advantage of WebGUI as a content application framework, allowing them to easily deploy their applications in a client’s website. Development time is also decreased because all the major components are built in to WebGUI. This eliminates the need for Oqapi staff to rebuild things such user/group management or URL handling.

Today, Oqapi’s relationship with Plain Black and the WebGUI community is strong. Members of Oqapi’s staff have attended each WebGUI Users Conference hosted annually by Plain Black, and credit that experience for their good relationship. The social aspect of the conference is especially beneficial, allowing users from around the globe to meet in person and foster relationships founded on the WebGUI IRC channel and in the discussion forums.

Oqapi continues to work in WebGUI development, and WebGUI users around the world benefit from their staff contributions. From the humorous XEyes macro to the powerful SQLForm asset, Oqapi’s participation in the WebGUI community remains strong, as does their company.