new project idea, is it practical within php or..

Not for 'how-to' coding questions but PHP theory instead, this forum is here for those of us who wish to learn about design aspects of programming with PHP.

Moderator: General Moderators

Post Reply
clayrp
Forum Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Aug 05, 2009 3:11 am

new project idea, is it practical within php or..

Post by clayrp »

Hi, i'm new to the forum and having seen a windows application in action i had a crazy idea that i could create something very similar as a webapp (php) that would allow users to just work from any PC on the network and login remotely if required.

As im not a hardcore php expert im seeking advice from the experts here to determine if what i want to do is practical, which parts can/cant be done and is there a better language to use to achive what im after.

The situation is a good friend of mine has recently started up his own business as a solicitor and the system would need to do the following, i appreciate that some items listed below are going to be straight forward, but are listed for completeness of the project idea.

System

1, Create Clients - collect client details, ie name, address, dob, etc.

2, Create 'Matters' Under Each Client - each time a client instructs there needs to be a new 'matter' created under the client record.

3, Basic search engine to search for clients/matters.

4, Basic report engine to extract set information.

5, Keep a record of all time spent on a matter.

6, To have multiple user logins.

7, Produce Templated Documents - using popular word processing format such as MS WORD or open office, and pull through database information.

ADMIN

1, Time Recording Unit Setup - set default unit of time, ie 6 minutes = 1 unit of time, so any drop downs or time entry boxes will work in multiples of these units, 6, 12, 18,etc

2, Time Recording Activity Codes - to allow for default actions to be setup, such as sending letter out, sickness, admin tasks, etc to allow for weighting of charge costs, so you may want to charge 50% normal costs for sending out an email as to producing a letter.

3, Time Charge Bands - to allow certain types of work/activity codes to link to costs, ie you may want to charge different rates to the default value, ie work for big contract, family friends

4, User Grading - staff will have different levels of expertise and experience, so work needs to be charged at different rates so will need a template setup for each charge band and default

5, interface to create and manage user logins and other information, such as hourly rate

SCREENS

1, Set of Standard Database Capture Screens - initially general screens for common types of work so information can be stored.

2, Ledger Screen - this is going include a table/grid of costs/income on that 'matter'.

3, History Screen - a table/grid style screen that allows for manual entry of information, will contain basic information such as subject, notes, date entered, time spent on that item, charge cost, import/store different file types such as word,pdf,jpg,etc

4, Action Screen - to action documents, i would like to make the documents templated and linked to the standard screen information, ie a bill letter would be able to extract client name address, bill amount etc when a document is produced.

5, document auto saving set information to the history when produced/exited, so a user wouldnt need to create manual entries to record the event

EXTRAS

1, Email Capture / Saving - ideally to have a toolbar button/macro of some kind from within an email app such as outlook where the selected email could be saved to a matter, maybe a prompt for matter number or launch search engine

2, schedule tasks/To-DO lists - to setup set tasks within a list so when one document/event has been actioned it could put for example another 2 tasks in the list, this could be used so people with less knowledge would know the 2 other tasks need to be actioned by a set date, these could be additional documents that need to be run or simply message prompts

thanks in advance for any comments or further ideas
User avatar
Jenk
DevNet Master
Posts: 3587
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2005 6:24 am
Location: London

Re: new project idea, is it practical within php or..

Post by Jenk »

Yes
User avatar
Ollie Saunders
DevNet Master
Posts: 3179
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 6:01 pm
Location: UK

Re: new project idea, is it practical within php or..

Post by Ollie Saunders »

Sorry I didn't read all of the initial post. Got to ask though -- heard of VNC?
User avatar
califdon
Jack of Zircons
Posts: 4484
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 8:30 pm
Location: California, USA

Re: new project idea, is it practical within php or..

Post by califdon »

That's a very ambitious specification for someone to develop a custom web application from. I'm sure that all of it is do-able, and PHP is a reasonable language to use, I think, although I'm not sure how I'd manage the email captures, and the template documents could be a real bear if you tried to incorporate it in the web application rather than do it offline, but the real question would be whether you need to reinvent the wheel.
clayrp
Forum Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Aug 05, 2009 3:11 am

Re: new project idea, is it practical within php or..

Post by clayrp »

Ollie Saunders wrote:Sorry I didn't read all of the initial post. Got to ask though -- heard of VNC?
ive used vnc alot in the past, but it would be of no use here as there is currently no system to remotely connect and use
clayrp
Forum Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Aug 05, 2009 3:11 am

Re: new project idea, is it practical within php or..

Post by clayrp »

califdon wrote:That's a very ambitious specification for someone to develop a custom web application from. I'm sure that all of it is do-able, and PHP is a reasonable language to use, I think, although I'm not sure how I'd manage the email captures, and the template documents could be a real bear if you tried to incorporate it in the web application rather than do it offline, but the real question would be whether you need to reinvent the wheel.
the email linking is of less concern, and if it could be done then it would be a bonus.

Its the document integration side of it thats going to cause me some problems, which you have already picked up on. ive done some research generally on google and ive noted that some people have created modules to read WORD files, and that its possible to output in XML or html and simply save extension as .doc and word isnt any wiser. I would assume if it was loaded into the app then at that point coding code be added and then saved/exported out.

would this way of amending/creating documents be a good or bad idea? does anyone know a better way?
Post Reply