Reserved order application idea...

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buglen
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Joined: Sun May 24, 2009 9:31 am

Reserved order application idea...

Post by buglen »

Hello,

I'm looking for a way to implement a system on my small business site where a customer could sign up for an email notification of when the back ordered item they want is available. This would be completely independent of any shopping cart application. Please review my concept below and let me know if there is already a package that does this (I don't want to reinvent the wheel), or if you have any good information on code samples that might help me build this puppy.

Here's the basic concept:

A link would be provided on the product page to take the customer to the reserved order sign up page automatically passing the item number. The customer would then enter their name, email address, and an optional comment and submit the request. A confirmation email would be sent to the user with an email verification link to validate the address they provided. Once verified, the system would send a final confirmation of the order reservation, a link to the product page, and a link and instructions on how to cancel the reservation if they need to do so. The customer request would be stored in a SQL (or more likely MySQL) table with a special stock item number (as a reserved item) for later use in the system when the item becomes available. The request would be marked as 'pending' at this point.

When the stock is replenished, the administrator will log into the system and provide the number of items available and the system will send notification to the first x customers in the queue based on when they submitted their request (first in, first out). The email notification to the customer will include a link to a reserved item page in the application which will provide instructions and links for ordering. The request would be marked as 'active' once the notification is sent.

When they click the 'add to cart' or 'buy now' button on the instructional page, the system will mark the request as 'completed' and optionally send the customer a thank you email. If the customer uses the cancellation feature, the request would be marked as 'canceled' with an optional email sent to the customer which might include a link to change their mind within a specific period of time to re-activate the request.

Additional features would include:

Timing out requests when they have been sent out and have had no response from the customer in x days so that the item can be moved to general stock or the next customer in the queue. This would mark the request as 'inactive'.

Optional notification frequency to re-send the email every x days while the request is active (notification sent, but no response).

Full historical audit details on the request actions, providing details appropriate for either customer or administrative persons.

Maintenance scripts that can be scheduled via cron for redundant notifications, timing out requests, etc.

That's it in a nut shell, but a pretty good project for my first PHP endeavor, unless there's already a system like this. Please let me know what you think.
Last edited by buglen on Mon May 25, 2009 6:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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buglen
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Re: Reserved order application idea...

Post by buglen »

OK, I'm working through the design and started researching MVC frameworks available for PHP. Right now, I'm looking at the Zend framework, but wanted to get some feedback from the experienced PHP developers in this forum.

Can anyone tell me their experience with the MVC frameworks, which they prefer, and maybe a brief explanation why they like it?

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
alex.barylski
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Location: Winnipeg

Re: Reserved order application idea...

Post by alex.barylski »

Which framework you use is a matter holy war... :P

I've used many all of the popular frameworks (Drupal, Joomla, Zend, Cake, CodeIgnitor, Symphony)...each has it's strengths and weaknesses...

For a new-er less experieced PHP developer, I would recommend going with something like CakePHP or CodeIgnitor, as they are not as detailed in terms of what good design is (their focus is more on RAD than avoiding bad).

Joomla will most certianly get you up to speed the fastest but will get in your way for anything advanced faster than any as well. Drupal is OK but I have the least experience with that and the admin panels are horribly confusing -- Joomla is not much better once you get beyond the basics of content management).

Zend, Symphony are more for design conscience developers, with a stronger focus on good design (which is subjective). They are also lower level in that they really provide you with the basic building blocks, whereas CodeIgnitor/CakePHP go a little further and provide more automation at the expense of 'clean' design and separation of concerns.

Joomla and Drupal go even further in that they provide backend admin panels, components/modules, etc.

All follow their own interpretation of MVC to one degree or another.

My biggest issues with most frameworks is separation of concerns. For example I hate seeing HTML in classes (ie: pagers, forms, etc) cause I know modifying the HTML now means 'hacking' the core framework source code, whereas templates by nature are intended to be overidden or replaced outright.


My keyboard is screwing up so I have to stop now :(
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buglen
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Re: Reserved order application idea...

Post by buglen »

Thanks for the suggestions. After working with the quick start example, and having issues right out of the box with trying to get it to actually work from a sub folder of the site, I decided it's probably not the right choice for me at my current level.

I've read many good things about CakePHP and CodeIgnitor regarding getting noobs (like me) up to speed quicker, so I'll be checking those out. I also ran across one that claims to be very lightweight and fast called PHPulse. Have you ever looked at that one?

Thanks again for the help!
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