Need Help with PHP Program for Church

[WelchTC]

As for being artistic there was a reason why I am a computer engineer.

Well put

Tom

[Stephan-p40]

Hi there,

Is there still need for help? I am living in the UK and am involved in web development. Mainly with php, mysql, html, css, javascript. Im quite busy with work but I will always have time to help to solve a problem or give some advice.

Just let me know guys.

[WelchTC]

Hi there,

Is there still need for help? I am living in the UK and am involved in web development. Mainly with php, mysql, html, css, javascript. Im quite busy with work but I will always have time to help to solve a problem or give some advice.

Just let me know guys.

Absolutely! We are just starting on some screen designs. Do you have any input so far?

Tom

[Stephan-p40]

just the 3 pages in the forum and your initial pdf. Is there any more?

[WelchTC]

There has been some talk about adding in some AJAX to the code. Nothing definitive yet.

Tom

[Stephan-p40]

Thats a good idea. There is a nice article on how to simulate AJAX so that you dont have to mess around with the XMLHttpRequest Objects.

http://www.phpit.net/article/ajax-php-w ... tprequest/

They still call it AJAX but I think I would call it different something like AJ. LOL never mind. I use the method on alot of websites and it is very simple to implement.

[thedqs]

Ah but the XMLHttpRequest is the best part of working with webpages, why would you want to get rid of it?

Anyway that method works if you are not doing any parsing of the information on the user end, but if you want a dynamic application then you need to use the XMLHttpRequest.

[Paul Hepworth-p40]

Is the project completed? What is the deliverable breakdown and who has volunteered to do what? it looks like a 1 (maybe 2) person project -- any more then that may confuse things. (too many cooks in the kitchen.)

I would be willing to help in any way that I can. A status update would be helpful and I wouldn't mind joining in on the next AIM chat. In order for me to be helpful, answers to the following questions would be great.

1) Is it the vignette CMS that is saving these forms in XML on the file system or are these files being imported from another database? If so, is there an existing API for the import from a PHP client?

(it would be easier to bypass the existing form submission system and avoid the XML import as you suggested in your doc, but on the other hand I can see how it would be nice to leverage existing systems as well.)

2) I am not trying to be critical, but do you mean "work flow status" in the following requirement instead of "work flow stage?"

"...Pressing the “Edit” Hyperlink next to an
item would bring up a Question Details Screen where the user can edit the question, move it to another
work flow stage, etc...."

Does this mean that the status can be changed via a select box (or something) in the Question Details Screen?

3) Do the questions get answered by internal Church employees using their own work email account?

Although this app may work for a little while, I am not too sure that it will scale like it should. I have found that the more steps that need to be done by human intervention the more likely errors will occur. Emailing answers through the system may allow better tracking of status.

Why not route all emails sent to the "predefined e-mail address" to a PHP script which will insert the question into the MySQL database and also notify the the question asker that their question was received (step #2 of the existing process?) Why not do this for each step? Another thing that could be done would be using the PHP system to send all of the emails from department to department so all of the emails, revisions, etc are all kept in the same place ensuring that no question is left behind.


Just my 2¢

Paul

[WelchTC]

Is the project completed? What is the deliverable breakdown and who has volunteered to do what? it looks like a 1 (maybe 2) person project -- any more then that may confuse things. (too many cooks in the kitchen.)

No, the project is not complete but. It is in the infancy. Right now it is me holding the project up but it will begin in earnest this week. We have 2 people willing to help so far but time on people is limited so a 3rd would be just fine.

I would be willing to help in any way that I can. A status update would be helpful and I wouldn't mind joining in on the next AIM chat. In order for me to be helpful, answers to the following questions would be great.

We are in the screen design phase. No coding has been done. I'm adding a few more features to the project this week but nothing substantial.

1) Is it the vignette CMS that is saving these forms in XML on the file system or are these files being imported from another database? If so, is there an existing API for the import from a PHP client?

No, I'm using facile forms for Joomla. The forms data is stored in MySQL but the data is in a very generic format. Facile forms keeps all data from ALL forms in the same table.

2) I am not trying to be critical, but do you mean "work flow status" in the following requirement instead of "work flow stage?"

Yes, status could be used instead of stage. I was thinking stage as in which "step" are we on.

Does this mean that the status can be changed via a select box (or something) in the Question Details Screen?

We should make it so you can change it in the event we need to loop for some reason. I'll try and beef up the docs to clarify that.

3) Do the questions get answered by internal Church employees using their own work email account?

Normally yes. What happens is we get a question and then I or someone I assign will have to figure out who in the organization can answer that question. We then shoot that person an email with the question in it. They usually reply via email. We then prepare the answer for publication.

Although this app may work for a little while, I am not too sure that it will scale like it should. I have found that the more steps that need to be done by human intervention the more likely errors will occur. Emailing answers through the system may allow better tracking of status.

I'm cool with the fact that the app could send off the appropriate emails when the right individuals are discovered. However responses will come back via email. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 emails to different individuals to find the right person for the question.

Why not route all emails sent to the "predefined e-mail address" to a PHP script which will insert the question into the MySQL database and also notify the the question asker that their question was received (step #2 of the existing process?) Why not do this for each step? Another thing that could be done would be using the PHP system to send all of the emails from department to department so all of the emails, revisions, etc are all kept in the same place ensuring that no question is left behind.

These would be great ideas - especially if we need that level of detail.

Tom

[Paul Hepworth-p40]

Thanks for answering all of the questions on this. I have worked with Joomla/Mambo in the past, its a pretty nice app.

The project itself is strait forward and shouldn't take that long to accomplish. The two biggest hurdles in my mind are 1) Coordinating volunteers efforts to make sure we don't duplicate work, and 2) granting the required access to volunteers so they can be productive with their available time and actually contribute.

So who is leading the actual development? How can I coordinate with them to make sure we are on the same page? Lets get started.

Thanks,
Paul