Need some help, PHP/MYSQL or other Software? You decide

R

Ruffy

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 31, 2001
Messages
2,012
Ok heres the deal. I Was recently hired in a construction company as a purchasing agent. The Idea is I can bring my computer expertise and revamp the department. Currently paperwork is a big mess and inventory is next to nonexsistant.

So heres what they want

1: Rental Inventory on the computer, searchable by Company, Date, Job location, Etc
2: PO(Purchase Orders) On the computer in a shared updatable format. Again searchable by any field
3: Shared Calandar
4: Shared Contact list

-Currently Rental Inventory is being done in a binder hand written. Half the time it's not updated.
-PO's are written into a binder. Then redone into it's own word file and placed in a folder organized by Job name.
-Calandar is currently a Giant board on the wall thats constently updated, but hard to share with anyone. The giant board would never go away.

I plan on bringing in an Exchange server for shared contacts and shared Calandar so thats taken care of.

My grand plan was either find a program with online database capability and a front end with configurable fields. This is something I haven't really done before so I'm unsure if anything is out there that does this easily. Because of this I've been considering

- mySQL Backend
- PHP Frontend

We already have MySQL set up for the intranet instant messanging(Jabber Server), It's on a semi dedicated server, The server runs some backup routines nightly. That's it. The user load is under 11 at all times.

I have no real prior knowledge of php coding. I've set up a few pages before for Game servers, and edited a few but its all been simple stuff. So creating this intranet site with the features I need is a semi daunting task. I Have plenty of time to implement this though. It is understood that this will take time, things WILL break, and it might not work right. The Boss/President is a personal friend of mine and me messing up will not cost me a job. This job could last a year or ten. I see this as a good learning experiance.

So Finally onto the actual question

Q: Would you reccomend the whole PHP/MYSQL Setup? What about something else? SQL2K/3 and VS.NET? Other program? Hell does quickbooks allow this? Since quickbooks is used for all of the Accounting.
Q: What refence material should I be looking at? I can get numerous things online but I'd also like some books. They'll be on the company dollar so suggest whatevers good.
Q: Any questions, comments? Let me know.

I do have some prior programming/scripting knowledge and can get into that mindset easily so that side is not much of an issue. Just need a push in the right direction.
 
Personally I'd likely use PHP/MySQL.
In saying that however, by the sounds of your description you may find that someone allready has created a solution for this kind of goal.
 
You could get a couple different packages to do what you are looking at. But, it probably won't be an integrated solution. If you are demanding on your requirements, then a custom solution is the way to go.

If you have had prior programming knowledge, PHP isn't that hard to pick up. You mainly need to learn syntax. PHP.net has the best reference of the language that I have found.

As far as recommending PHP and MySQL: Yes. I love the combination.

You could check out HotScripts.com to see if there is anything that would fits your needs.

Many asset/inventory management programs will do part of what you are asking.
 
I think you're half-right. You'll definitely make things much easier if you get everything digital and searchable - that much is a given. But, look at your target demographic. I'm not trying to be mean, but Construction folks are not generally the most computer literate folks around -- nor do they have the patience for filling in a form just to do something like an equipment rental -- they have bigger fish to fry.

So, while getting everything automated via PHP/MySQL will make *your* life easier, it won't neccessarily make *their* life easier. I'd also look into some kind of barcoding system for the rental equipment and then go on eBay and pick up a cheap barcode reader. Then, when they need to do a rental, you can have the form auto-populate the form and then the folks actually using your system need to do as little 'form-entry' as possible.

Also, for the calendar, there's no need for Exchange. When I was the webmaster at www.usm.edu, we used a program called PerlCal to do all of that. It's probably different now, but back then there was a free version that just let you put out events on a calendar. however, there was also a pay version that basically mimicked all of Exchange's functionality. It might be worth a look.

So far as building this system -- expect a lot of work. Plan early and often. work out all of your use cases and do some formal design documents. This wll not only serve to help keep you on track, but it will also give you something tangible you can show to your bosses about your vision and what it will take to get there (as well as their benefit in the end). After you're done programming it, upkeep should be minimal and your life will be a breeze (as will your target audiences).
 
svet-am said:
I think you're half-right. You'll definitely make things much easier if you get everything digital and searchable - that much is a given. But, look at your target demographic. I'm not trying to be mean, but Construction folks are not generally the most computer literate folks around -- nor do they have the patience for filling in a form just to do something like an equipment rental -- they have bigger fish to fry.

So, while getting everything automated via PHP/MySQL will make *your* life easier, it won't neccessarily make *their* life easier. I'd also look into some kind of barcoding system for the rental equipment and then go on eBay and pick up a cheap barcode reader. Then, when they need to do a rental, you can have the form auto-populate the form and then the folks actually using your system need to do as little 'form-entry' as possible.

Also, for the calendar, there's no need for Exchange. When I was the webmaster at www.usm.edu, we used a program called PerlCal to do all of that. It's probably different now, but back then there was a free version that just let you put out events on a calendar. however, there was also a pay version that basically mimicked all of Exchange's functionality. It might be worth a look.

So far as building this system -- expect a lot of work. Plan early and often. work out all of your use cases and do some formal design documents. This wll not only serve to help keep you on track, but it will also give you something tangible you can show to your bosses about your vision and what it will take to get there (as well as their benefit in the end). After you're done programming it, upkeep should be minimal and your life will be a breeze (as will your target audiences).
Click to expand...



issue with not using Outlook is they want to tie it into email/contacts. One program instead of many.

And my doing this wont just make it easier for me. Currently theres like 50 thousand folders with another 50 thousand files all spread out. We' either have to remember paths or use windows search to find a specific file. The entire point of all this is to streamline it into one interface and make it easy.
 
Ruffy said:
issue with not using Outlook is they want to tie it into email/contacts. One program instead of many.

And my doing this wont just make it easier for me. Currently theres like 50 thousand folders with another 50 thousand files all spread out. We' either have to remember paths or use windows search to find a specific file. The entire point of all this is to streamline it into one interface and make it easy.
Click to expand...
Very understandable. I believe that Novell has built an Exchange-compatible Calendar/Mail server app into the latest SuSE Linux. you might want to check that out. It'd be free (if it's in SuSE, not Novell Linux). And, if I remember correctly, Outlook could still connect to it like it was a normal Exchange server.
 
svet-am said:
Very understandable. I believe that Novell has built an Exchange-compatible Calendar/Mail server app into the latest SuSE Linux. you might want to check that out. It'd be free (if it's in SuSE, not Novell Linux). And, if I remember correctly, Outlook could still connect to it like it was a normal Exchange server.
Click to expand...

sweet, i'll look into it since exchange is expensive
 
anybody know of some good mysql, php, database dev books I can Purchase? I'd like an actual book to have in front of me to supplement the online material.
 
Ruffy said:
anybody know of some good mysql, php, database dev books I can Purchase? I'd like an actual book to have in front of me to supplement the online material.
Click to expand...
PHP and MySQL Web Development by Luke Welling and Laura Thomson is pretty good, although by the time I got it, I had kind of outgrown it. It does explain a lot of how to implement the things that are typically hard (or at least require some mental agility) to implement, which is nice.

It's not really a reference, though. If you want that, just use the online version. I've never seen a print version of the MySQL or PHP manuals, and if I had, it would have been out of date by the time it was printed.

FYI, if you've never used PHP or MySQL before, this is going to be a huge task. I've been working with both for a few years now, and I cringed when I read your original post. Svet-am's advice is good, although I'm not sure how you'd work a barcode reader into a PHP/MySQL scheme. I guess you might be able to do it with a Java applet, or maybe an ActiveX control, but beyond that, I couldn't say.
 
RazorWind said:
PHP and MySQL Web Development by Luke Welling and Laura Thomson is pretty good, although by the time I got it, I had kind of outgrown it. It does explain a lot of how to implement the things that are typically hard (or at least require some mental agility) to implement, which is nice.

It's not really a reference, though. If you want that, just use the online version. I've never seen a print version of the MySQL or PHP manuals, and if I had, it would have been out of date by the time it was printed.

FYI, if you've never used PHP or MySQL before, this is going to be a huge task. I've been working with both for a few years now, and I cringed when I read your original post. Svet-am's advice is good, although I'm not sure how you'd work a barcode reader into a PHP/MySQL scheme. I guess you might be able to do it with a Java applet, or maybe an ActiveX control, but beyond that, I couldn't say.
Click to expand...
essentially, i was thinking that you had a single-field form (the UPC code) and the user would scan that and it would auto-fill the UPC code and then submit to the database in order to return the remaining data. this could be done pretty simply with a little bit of Javascript.

Most bar code readers are PS/2 keyboard and simply output the UPC code as plaintext
 
svet-am said:
essentially, i was thinking that you had a single-field form (the UPC code) and the user would scan that and it would auto-fill the UPC code and then submit to the database in order to return the remaining data. this could be done pretty simply with a little bit of Javascript.

Most bar code readers are PS/2 keyboard and simply output the UPC code as plaintext
Click to expand...
Well, I've never used or worked with a barcode reader. I always assumed they required some sort of special driver and software to read from the device, but if it's really that straightforward, then it sounds like a good idea.
 
RazorWind said:
Well, I've never used or worked with a barcode reader. I always assumed they required some sort of special driver and software to read from the device, but if it's really that straightforward, then it sounds like a good idea.
Click to expand...
yeah, it's AMAZING how simple they are. Magnetic card readers are just as easy. Actually, for the barcode reader, he could always just use an old RadioShack CUECat.

At University (www.msstate.edu), I worked several semesters at the ITS help desk. Whenever students would come in, we would swipe their student ID with the card reader and it would output their name, netID (Campus-specific identifier) and SSN as plaintext into our helpdesk app. We experimented with dumping the plaintext into Notepad to figure out what all was stored on our student IDs, various credit cards, etc.
 
svet-am said:
yeah, it's AMAZING how simple they are. Magnetic card readers are just as easy. Actually, for the barcode reader, he could always just use an old RadioShack CUECat.

At University (www.msstate.edu), I worked several semesters at the ITS help desk. Whenever students would come in, we would swipe their student ID with the card reader and it would output their name, netID (Campus-specific identifier) and SSN as plaintext into our helpdesk app. We experimented with dumping the plaintext into Notepad to figure out what all was stored on our student IDs, various credit cards, etc.
Click to expand...
I really wish you hadn't told me that.

You'll have me wanting to buy a stripe reader now just to see what's stored in the stripes on my credit cards and my student ID. (We have student IDs at Texas A&M that are probably very similar to the ones you speak of)

Edit: Not to mention the parking garage tickets... Holy shit, if I could reprogram those...
 
RazorWind said:
I really wish you hadn't told me that.

You'll have me wanting to buy a stripe reader now just to see what's stored in the stripes on my credit cards and my student ID. (We have student IDs at Texas A&M that are probably very similar to the ones you speak of)

Edit: Not to mention the parking garage tickets... Holy shit, if I could reprogram those...
Click to expand...
I have to say Go Aggies just as much I say Hail State. After all, Texas A&M is our sister school. Back in the day, we were Mississippi A&M.

note: card READERS are just that -- they read. In order to reprogram, you'd need a WRITER, and those are a bit more expensive and complicated
 
svet-am said:
note: card READERS are just that -- they read. In order to reprogram, you'd need a WRITER, and those are a bit more expensive and complicated
Click to expand...
I know, but you have to start somewhere. ;)
 
Well we went nuts and ordered

1 of: PHP in a Nutshell (In a Nutshell)
1 of: PHP and MySQL for Dummies, Second Edition
1 of: PHP 5 for Dummies
1 of: Learning PHP 5
1 of: Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL: From Novice to Professional
1 of: PHP 5 / MySQL Programming for the Absolute Beginner (For the Absolute Beginner)
 
My best suggestion is to do all of your requirements analysis, use case analysis, etc, before you even consider what kind of platform to run it on. I would bet that that process (or lack thereof) is much more likely to determine success/failure than what platform it is developed on.

The fact that the boss is a friend will also probably make it harder, not easier. Since he's a friend, I suspect that he would have a much harder time telling you that all the work you put into something isn't what they were looking for at all, and that it needs to be redone. If this is your first big project, I can almost guarantee that this will happen. It is very hard to nail specifications and interface on the first go.

All in all, I wish you the best of luck. This is a large, ambitious project and will likely be quite challenging to do right.
 
fat-tony said:
My best suggestion is to do all of your requirements analysis, use case analysis, etc, before you even consider what kind of platform to run it on. I would bet that that process (or lack thereof) is much more likely to determine success/failure than what platform it is developed on.

The fact that the boss is a friend will also probably make it harder, not easier. Since he's a friend, I suspect that he would have a much harder time telling you that all the work you put into something isn't what they were looking for at all, and that it needs to be redone. If this is your first big project, I can almost guarantee that this will happen. It is very hard to nail specifications and interface on the first go.

All in all, I wish you the best of luck. This is a large, ambitious project and will likely be quite challenging to do right.
Click to expand...

Not really. Trust me here I have alot of breathing room. I've built the entire network here. I laid the cat5 down in the walls, designed the floor plan, built the server room, I set up the rack, Built all the servers 4+Firewall and finally I build all the workstations.
 
svet-am said:
Very understandable. I believe that Novell has built an Exchange-compatible Calendar/Mail server app into the latest SuSE Linux. you might want to check that out. It'd be free (if it's in SuSE, not Novell Linux). And, if I remember correctly, Outlook could still connect to it like it was a normal Exchange server.
Click to expand...

Would that be the Hula Project?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top