A website shows the same pages to everyone. A web app shows each user their own information. When you break it down, every web app does five things. It lets people add data. It stores and connects that data. It processes it. It controls who can see it. And it displays it. Let's take them one at a time, using Airbnb as the example, and see which Ontraport features handle each one.
On Airbnb, hosts add their properties, and guests add their details, payment information and reservation dates. All of it comes in through forms.
In Ontraport, forms are the main way to add data. One form can create several related records at once, like a deal and the contact it belongs to.
To bring in data you already have, like your existing contact list, import a CSV file. To connect other software, there's the API. It's built for developers, but integrator tools like Zapier use it to connect other apps to Ontraport.
Ontraport also tracks activity in the background, like the emails contacts open, the pages they visit and the products they buy. Each contact's log shows their page visits, form fill-outs, and email opens and clicks.
Airbnb stores all of that in a big database and connects related data. Listings are linked by location and features, and it keeps track of each host's properties and each guest's trips.
In Ontraport, you organize data with objects, fields and relationships. Each kind of data gets its own object, with its own fields and its own collection of records. Contacts is one object. You can turn on prebuilt objects, like Companies and Deals, or create custom objects, like Pets for a veterinarian.
Relationships connect records across objects. Link companies to contacts, and each company record lists the people who work there. Planning your objects and relationships is a big part of designing a web app, so don't skip the Custom Objects section of this course.
When an Airbnb host submits a listing form, a bookable listing goes live. When they unlist it, it comes out of search. Hosts also get live dashboards on how their listings are doing.
In Ontraport, automations, webhooks and the API process your data. An automation's Update element changes a field when something happens, and it can do math. For example, it can subtract one credit each time a client uses one, or add one to a purchase count each time someone buys.
Automations can also publish pages, like a deal's page when its status changes. And webhooks send data from Ontraport to other software, or back to Ontraport's own API.
On Airbnb, you log in to see your private information, and only you can see it.
In Ontraport, access starts with your team. Each user has their own login, and their role's permissions decide which records they can view, edit and delete, based on who owns each record.
Once your data is on the web, protecting it matters even more. Membership logins let you show a page only to logged-in members. On a dynamic page built from contact records, you can go further and show each member only their own record. Before you publish anything sensitive, make sure it's protected. The Privacy and data security lesson covers this in depth.
Everything you see on Airbnb, from listings to search results, comes from data people added. The same data powers booking confirmations and reminders.
In Ontraport, the Dynamic CMS presents your data on the web. You design a dynamic template once, and Ontraport creates a page for each record. Every blog post or course page looks the same but shows its own content.
Dynamic blocks list several records on one page, like related articles or upcoming events. Page types and publishing options control how those pages go live. And merge fields bring the same data into your messages.
Custom objects, apps, and dynamic pages and blocks all need a Dynamic CMS package on your account, which the account owner adds. Each package sets how many custom objects you get, how many records each one can hold, and how many records you can display each month.
So: forms, imports and the API add data. Objects, fields and relationships store it. Automations, webhooks and the API process it. User permissions and member logins control access. And the Dynamic CMS displays it. You can build your web app from scratch, or start with prebuilt apps. Next up, we'll look at those apps in the App Marketplace.