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Thread ID: 108650	2010-04-06 04:52:00	Suggestions for web-based form/MySQL backend	nofam (9009)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
873545	2010-04-06 04:52:00	I've been asked by management to develop a tracking system to monitor customer orders from creation date through to product arrival, which needs to be accessible by nearly everyone in the business; the original version that this idea is based on was developed in MS Access (with which I'm very familiar); I don't need to go into details as to why this isn't suitable other than to mention the cost of Access CALs and the likelihood of there being dozens of people using this system concurrently (:yuck:). To my way of thinking, a web-based PHP form using a MySQL backend would be the way to go, but my PHP skills are non-existent, so I was hoping there's already a stable, heavily customizable front-end/back-end app available; it could either be hosted elsewhere, or run on a server locally (which would probably be better). Quite out of my comfort zone here, so any and all help gratefully received!! :thumbs:	nofam (9009)
873546	2010-04-06 04:59:00	There are many - any chance you could post a detailed list of your requirements?	Erayd (23)
873547	2010-04-06 05:25:00	I haven't been given the full use case yet, but essentially it starts with a customer wanting to order a widget which isn't stocked. The customer details would be logged in the form, along with the widget information (price etc), and any miscellaneous order info such as whether it needed to be freighted. This creates a record for that customer order. The next component of the design would be for various parts of the business to amend the status of the customer order as it moves through those parts, possibly as follows: Status 1. Frontend form filled out at Customer Services Status 2. Widget is ordered by purchasing division (ability to add purchase order # to the customer order record) Status 3. Widget arrives at Inwards Goods and is shown as in stock Status 4. Customer is contacted by Customer Services to tell them the widget has arrived Status 5. Customer pays for and receives widget I'd anticipate housing transactional data in a separate table from customer details, and being able to report on customer orders by any of the Status's, within a date range etc etc (all the usual tracking queries). Being able to find a customer's records by a variety of means would be useful too; i.e. a boolean search on name, phone number, address etc	nofam (9009)
873548	2010-04-06 06:07:00	ZenCart or OSCommerce perhaps?	HAL9000 (12736)
873549	2010-04-06 07:35:00	ZenCart or OSCommerce perhaps? Neither would suit as they are more geared up to purchases made online, the OP is after a system to track orders already generated. Would you be better to get something custom developed?	nate (15033)
873550	2010-04-09 01:47:00	So now a second project has come my way for tracking the design of construction projects using the same form/backend DB concept - if I have start from scratch, can anyone point me in the direction of some good tutorials/knowledge bases on PHP and MySQL? My plan thus far is to set up a dev WAMP box (probably an X-series server with Win2K3) and go from there . . . . . Would still be keen for some open-source solution though! Boy have I got a lot to learn . . . . :blush:	nofam (9009)
873551	2010-04-10 02:21:00	So now a second project has come my way for tracking the design of construction projects using the same form/backend DB concept - if I have start from scratch, can anyone point me in the direction of some good tutorials/knowledge bases on PHP and MySQL? My plan thus far is to set up a dev WAMP box (probably an X-series server with Win2K3) and go from there . . . . . Would still be keen for some open-source solution though! Boy have I got a lot to learn . . . . :blush: Good luck its hard to wage through the website spam when searching for php or php tutorial . Perhaps sourceforge or similar . Il keep an eye on this since im interested in simialar thing .	pkm (13527)
873552	2010-04-10 02:29:00	Out of interest... why are you going with a Windows server for this? That's a rather expensive license for something you may not need... As far as resources go - this (nz.php.net/) is the best source of PHP documentation you'll find anywhere. This (http:) is where all the official MySQL documentation lives - comprehensive, but may confuse you a bit if you don't already know SQL. Get a book ;).	Erayd (23)
873553	2010-04-10 04:19:00	Out of interest . . . why are you going with a Windows server for this? That's a rather expensive license for something you may not need . . . As far as resources go - this ( . php . net/) is the best source of PHP documentation you'll find anywhere . This (http://mysql . com/" target="_blank">nz . php . net/) is the best source of PHP documentation you'll find anywhere . This (http:) is where all the official MySQL documentation lives - comprehensive, but may confuse you a bit if you don't already know SQL . Get a book ;) . Only reason for running on a Windows box is that we already have one that's about to be virtualized out of existence . . . . And my Linux skills are rudimentary at best, so I figured an AMP server would be less complex on an O/S I was familiar with; having said that, does AMP play as nicely with Windows as they do with Linux distros? And I'm not too worried about the MySQL side; we run a D/W server on RHEL using it, and I make a point of writing SQL statements directly in Access when I have to do anything complex, rather than kludging it with QBE .	nofam (9009)
873554	2010-04-10 04:53:00	...and my Linux skills are rudimentary at best...Perhaps this is an ideal opportunity to learn? ...so I figured an AMP server would be less complex on an O/S I was familiar with;Generally not - it's hard to beat 'apt-get install apache2 libapache2-mod-php5 mysql-server' for install simplicity, and upgrades / patches / config for the above are all infinitely easier to deal with on a Linux box. ...having said that, does AMP play as nicely with Windows as they do with Linux distros?No. It plays reasonably well on Windows, but Linux still can't be beaten in that area. ...I make a point of writing SQL statements directly in Access when I have to do anything complex, rather than kludging it with QBE. OUCH! You do realise that Access kludges things all on its own, no outside help needed? If you can, learn SQL properly and write your queries by hand - it's a much smarter way of going about things, and once you know it well enough it'll also be a much faster approach than using Access.	Erayd (23)
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