HouziBuilder
Shipped Mar 2022 – Aug 2024
HouziBuilder is a Flutter desktop app for Windows and macOS, purpose-built for owners of WordPress sites running the Houzez real estate theme. Rather than hand-editing configuration files, they use HouziBuilder to visually configure every screen of the companion Houzi mobile app before publishing changes to their live site.
Built With
Flutter 
Dart Hive 
REST APIs 
JWT 
WordPress 
Windows 
macOS Project Overview
HouziBuilder is a Flutter desktop app for Windows and macOS, purpose-built for owners of WordPress sites running the Houzez real estate theme. Rather than hand-editing configuration files, they use HouziBuilder to visually configure every screen of the companion Houzi mobile app before publishing changes to their live site.
The workflow runs in three stages. Activation verifies a Code Canyon-style purchase code against a licensing endpoint, re-checked every 24 hours and cached locally with Hive; a connection wizard then links the app to the owner's WordPress site, talking to the Houzez theme's REST API plugin and a JWT-auth plugin to pull in taxonomies, site info, and partner data. From there, a drawer-driven builder screen covers branding and colours, home screen layout, bottom navigation, the side drawer, search, results and maps, property detail pages, blog design, and the add-property form — each change reflected instantly in a live device-frame preview.
Every choice is serialized into a configurations.json file, versioned and copied to the clipboard, which the Houzi mobile app reads at runtime to render its UI. Under the hood, HouziBuilder runs on Dart/Flutter with manual, callback-based state management rather than a state package, uses Hive for local persistence, and ships with five localizations — English, Urdu, Chinese, French, and Arabic — letting Houzez's international theme owner base configure the app in their own language.
- Challenge
- Houzez WordPress theme owners who wanted to offer a companion mobile app (Houzi) previously had to hand-edit a configuration file to control the app's colors, layouts, navigation, and content sections. That manual, code-level process was error-prone and inaccessible to non-technical site owners, since any change to branding or screen layout meant directly editing structured JSON rather than using a visual interface. There was also no straightforward way to preview how configuration changes would look inside the actual mobile app before shipping them, and no built-in mechanism to verify that only legitimately licensed users — via a Code Canyon-style purchase — could access the configuration tool.
- Solution
- HouziBuilder replaces manual file editing with a Flutter desktop application for Windows and macOS, built around three stages: purchase-code license verification (cached locally for 24 hours via Hive, so re-verification isn't required every session), a connection wizard that links to the owner's live WordPress site through the Houzez theme's REST API and JWT-auth plugins to pull in real taxonomies and site data, and a large drawer-driven builder UI covering every visual and functional section of the mobile app — branding, home screen, navigation, search, property profiles, blog design, and the add-property form. A live device-frame preview shows changes as they're made, and the final result is serialized into a configurations.json file that can be version-bumped and copied to the clipboard for direct use by the Houzi mobile app.
- Impact
- Turning a manual, code-editing workflow into a guided, form-driven desktop tool with live previews lowers the technical barrier for Houzez site owners to customize and ship their branded mobile app. Configuration that once required understanding a JSON schema can now be done visually, reducing configuration errors, speeding up setup time, and making the companion mobile app accessible to a non-developer audience — while keeping license enforcement and WordPress site integration built into the same tool.
Frequently Asked Questions
Houzez theme owners had to hand-edit a structured JSON file to configure the companion Houzi app's branding, layout, and content — with no visual preview and no way to verify licensed access.
HouziBuilder was built with Flutter, Dart, Hive, REST APIs, JWT, WordPress, Windows, macOS.
This was built as commercial/client work, so the source code isn't publicly available. Get in touch to discuss the implementation.
HouziBuilder is a Flutter desktop application for Windows and macOS that lets Houzez WordPress theme owners visually configure the companion Houzi mobile app without hand-editing config files.
It provides a form-driven UI with a live device preview so theme owners can customize colours, layouts, and screens, then export the results as a configurations.json file that the Houzi mobile app reads at runtime.
It runs as a desktop app on Windows and macOS only — it isn't a mobile or web application.
Through a site connection wizard that talks to the Houzez theme's REST plugin and a JWT-auth plugin to verify the integration and pull data such as taxonomies and site info.
Yes — it includes a license activation step that verifies a Code Canyon-style purchase code against a licensing endpoint, re-checked every 24 hours and cached locally with Hive.
It's the exported output of HouziBuilder containing all of a theme owner's configuration choices; the Houzi mobile app reads this file at runtime to render its UI accordingly.
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