help with pre-pro, planning ?

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DiamondLil
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Joined: Fri Oct 04, 2002 11:14 am

help with pre-pro, planning ?

Post by DiamondLil »

Hi guys.
Be gentle >> I'm not looking for help with code right now - could use help with the planning. Want to know what in your opinion is the *proper (most organized, but not most complicated)* way to do this (theoretically)...

The scope:
Need area where all of the retailers of a mall can go to sign up to participate in(& provide content for) their malls' weekly email that goes out to all the consumers that have signed up for it.

Retailer should be able to sign up for one of the available 5 slots of any of the 52 weeks of the year (ideally not for more than 1 slot in any 1 week. If it gets too complicated coding-wise to try to restrict them, I may just indicate with text on the page that the retailer should not sign up for more than 1 slot in a week for now- hey c'mon, I'm still new!). There should be 1 additional slot that is always reserved for the main mall to put up there own content.

For every slot that that a retailer would sign up for there would be 2 possible areas of text and 2 possible images that they would be providing for the newsletter for that week:
  • 1. feature store logo or pic;
    2. feature store text;
    3. coupon pic;
    4. coupon text.
    Obviously retailer will need to be able to upload images (or since our host has php upload disabled, 'copy' files over).
Should be as modular as possible, because if it is utilized by the test mall it will be used again for different malls.

So...
  • Initial area lists the:
    - week number,
    - week ending date,
    - available slots (just names the 5 slots platinum, gold, silver, bronze, & copper AND the mall slot rather than 1,2,3,4 &5 ) &
    - the name of the retailer (or blank if no one has signed up yet).
If a retailer has signed up, it makes their name a link to following info:
  • 1. area that shows what contact info they have submitted, allows them to update it;
    2. shows their content or a blank area that indicates what content we need from them;
    3. allows them to add/edit text;
    4. contains the upload area;
    5. also has a field that, if checked, adds a value in a table so that they can later be made part of an email list to whom we can send a digital proof.
In order to access this area, users should have to log in . Ideally they should have unique passwords that will allow them to edit only their info. Mall user is a super user, should have access to all the retailers areas.

Questions:
  • 1. Multiple tables on server or one? How would multiple tables "talk" to each other?
    2. Should the images just be stored in a directory on the server or as part of one of the db tables where the rest of the info is?
    3. How should I handle the user/login area? Would it be easier to assume for now that the usernames & passwords will be assigned by us first  and given to the users?
    4. How much more difficult would it be to try to create area where users sign-up and choose their usernames & passwords?
    5. Will I need to use sessions?
    6. What should be developed first?
In trying to think this through, I did a quick mock-up(dummy area, no code):
http://www.mallcommunications.com/retail/index.html
username: retail
password: s526

I know - I've dumped a ton of questions that would probably take too long to answer coherently but really, anything that you could tell me on how you would go about setting this up(I don't want to start this all wrong)?
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