Need Help with PHP Program for Church

[WelchTC]

Hi folks,

I'm not quite clear on where we go from here.

Sorry...was on vacation. Now I'm back and ready to go!

Tom, are we waiting for a formal go-ahead from you?

Go go go!

Is all communication on this project taking place on the IRC chat you set up, rather than on this forum?

Some is taking place there. I thought that the IRC channel would be a good place to get quick answers. However we should ensure that all important and pertinent information is posted here.

Should we just review the files mkmurray posted and send feedback on whatever we notice, or do you want feedback on specific aspects of the project?

Yes and yes!

mkmurray has started the ball rolling with some screen UI prototypes. Send feedback. Make it better.

Tom

[mkmurray]

Ok, I have just uploaded a first attempt at some SQL scripts in the "db" folder on the subversion repository. It follows the requirements document pretty closely.

[WelchTC]

Ok, I have just uploaded a first attempt at some SQL scripts in the "db" folder on the subversion repository. It follows the requirements document pretty closely.

Nice work. I'll post my minor comments on the [thread=565]IRC channel[/thread].

Tom

[KathrynGZ]

Sorry...was on vacation. Now I'm back and ready to go!

Go go go!

That's pretty definite. Thanks for the direction!

Sorry for the slow response--I was out of town on business all week, working days and evenings on some company web sites. Intense but gratifying. Just got back last night, and it will probably take a day or two to unbury myself, then I hope to look at what's been done so far and give feedback.

Kathryn

[hpaulsen]

I created a minimally functional prototype in Adobe Flex (as the user interface) rather than exclusively php. Flex tends to be easier to program than DHTML (don't have to worry about cross-browser compatibility). Take a look:
http://hpaulsen.com/lds/main.swf
(Note: Requires Adobe flash player 9)

I don't want to spend any more time on it until I know if it's of interest or if instead a full php version is preferable. For those interested, the mxml code (ui) is here:
http://hpaulsen.com/lds/askquestions_mxml.zip

and the php code (backend) is here:
http://hpaulsen.com/lds/php.zip

The import capability isn't running because my server doesn't currently allow uploads. I don't have a testing server at home, so I'm kind of stopped on this unless I required the user to paste the xml content into a text field in the flex app.

Also, it's based on the database by mkmurray prior to any revisions that may have been made (I didn't get tomw's comments on the IRC channel).

If you decide that you really don't want to do it with Flex, then the php backend should still be useful. It just needs some tweaking and a user interface to make it work with a full php solution.

[WelchTC]

I created a minimally functional prototype in Adobe Flex (as the user interface) rather than exclusively php. Flex tends to be easier to program than DHTML (don't have to worry about cross-browser compatibility). Take a look:
http://hpaulsen.com/lds/main.swf
(Note: Requires Adobe flash player 9)

I don't want to spend any more time on it until I know if it's of interest or if instead a full php version is preferable. For those interested, the mxml code (ui) is here:
http://hpaulsen.com/lds/askquestions_mxml.zip

and the php code (backend) is here:
http://hpaulsen.com/lds/php.zip

The import capability isn't running because my server doesn't currently allow uploads. I don't have a testing server at home, so I'm kind of stopped on this unless I required the user to paste the xml content into a text field in the flex app.

Also, it's based on the database by mkmurray prior to any revisions that may have been made (I didn't get tomw's comments on the IRC channel).

If you decide that you really don't want to do it with Flex, then the php backend should still be useful. It just needs some tweaking and a user interface to make it work with a full php solution.

Awesome work! I've just been playing with it a bit. I'm at a conference right now but when I get back to the office on Thursday I'll do a more thorough review of the software.

Tom

[mkmurray]

Also, it's based on the database by mkmurray prior to any revisions that may have been made (I didn't get tomw's comments on the IRC channel).

I commited those changes to source control a little while ago (at least a week). It appears the current revision number is 7.

[jcircus-p40]

Nice work HPaulsen, however Adobe flex is fairly expensive for members of a developement community to purchase. I think the point of using PHP was that it is free/open source, and had a large following.

It's fine with me if Tom wants to use your code (it is certainly worth using), but that will narrow his volunteers down considerably since I dont have $499 in my pocket and most others won't either. :p

[hpaulsen]

I didn't use Adobe Flex Builder. I used PSPad editor (free) and Adobe's Flex SDK (free, and scheduled to be open sourced). These same development tools are freely available to anyone with internet, so there's no real problem there. Adobe's Flex Builder is just an IDE (albeit nice, and I hope to get it someday).

However, I recognize and have been concerned about the lack of familiarity that people are likely to have with this relatively new programming environment. If people would rather use php exclusively, it won't hurt my feelings. This has been good practice for me, and the php backend could still be a good starting point.

While I'm on the subject, though, let me mention why I like to choose Flex (in order):
1) I don't have to deal with browser incompatibilities.
2) It's easier than dhtml to create graphically friendly user interfaces.
3) The ability to offload a lot of the computation to the end-user reduces network and server load on my websites (for example, the sorting and filtering capabilities in the main window require no server interaction).
4) The flash player is commonly available on users machines.

Some of these issues probably don't apply to the church, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway.

[jcircus-p40]

ah ok then. Learned something new today. I didn't know there was free versions out there.

Thanks for the info!