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Elohim
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What set of development languages should I use?

Tue Jun 01, 2010 5:43 pm

Hi All,

I plan on a project this summer to create a custom web application with which I would like my customers to be able to create and buy custom kits.

My business involves faith based craft kits and this application will in particular target a banner making craft kit. Here's a pic of a completed banner.

Image

The end goal is to have a GUI interface with which the user can drag and drop pieces onto a base, the size of which is customizable. Once they are done, they will then be able to add the kit to their shopping cart, at which point we will put it together and ship it.

Challenges include:
Tracking each piece that is currently on the canvas and keep a running total of the kit cost as a sum of all the component costs.
Tracking the layer each piece is on so that they can be moved up and down layers so the customer can see what it looks like.
High browser compatability. FireFox, IE and Chrome are musts, as well as Opera to capture the Mac users. Handhelds are not being considered.

The layout will be strictly 2-D from a top down perspective.

I have a mySQL database available. I am pretty versed in PHP, HTML. I have minor javascript experience. I am willing to learn new languages as needed.

All I am asking here, is, what sort of platform should I look at to build this on.
So, what do you all think? Some sort of PHP/Javascript/HTML concoction? Flash application? Something else?

Need more details from me to decide?

Thanks all!
 
Nitrodist
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Re: What set of development languages should I use?

Thu Jun 03, 2010 1:06 pm

I would suppose that the hardest part of this project would be designing the drag-and-drop interface with the components. My impression was that you would just send the components and they would assemble it themselves, a-la arts and crafts style.

A flash interface might be the key to that. Once the people are done with their creation, the flash application can communicate back to the web-server the required components.

The rest of the website can be done anyway you want. The basic ordering systems and websites have been done to death over the last 20+ years, so it shouldn't be a problem other than researching how you want to do it a bit or asking specifically about that in another thread.
Image
 
Evaders99
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Re: What set of development languages should I use?

Thu Jun 03, 2010 1:21 pm

I've seen drag-n-drop interfaces that just use Javascript. I don't know exactly how they would "assemble" to the user. Might be better to code in Flash or Silverlight (I don't know which is preferred here)
 
steelcity_ballin
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Re: What set of development languages should I use?

Thu Jun 03, 2010 1:52 pm

For the drag and drop, don't reinvent the wheel. JQuery is a javascript framework that has a ton of out-of-the-box functionality. Use it, love it! PHP and MySql should be able to handle everything server side, and shouldn't take long to mock up what you want. Here's a link to a simple drag interface. http://jqueryui.com/demos/draggable/

I would avoid flash like the plague these days. Anything you'd want to do with it can be done easier and more intuitively with JQuery, Imo of course.
 
wibeasley
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Re: What set of development languages should I use?

Mon Jun 07, 2010 3:16 pm

This Anime Studio on sale reminded me of your web project. Any recent thoughts? Is jQuery going to be a good fit?
 
Elohim
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Re: What set of development languages should I use?

Mon Jun 07, 2010 3:47 pm

I wanted to quick chime in and thank everyone for their input thus far.

I just got back from an 8 day trip/vacation to my brother's out in Denver and just looked at all the posts today.

I am leaning towards the jQuery/javascript/mySQL/PHP solution right now, probably because Flash is such an unknown to me.

Since I just got back from vacation, the work around here has piled up pretty high in my absence, so I won't have time to do more work on this project until sometime next week most likely. If any of you have more input that comes to mind, please keep posting and don't think I am not paying attention!

Thanks!
 
morphine
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Re: What set of development languages should I use?

Thu Jul 08, 2010 12:33 pm

I'd like to reiterate steelcity's points. If it were a couple or three years ago, I'd say "Flash". But these days the existence of JQuery makes this kind of thing less painful. If you google for "jquery drag drop" you'll get tons of related examples. Granted, most of them are about dragging a single image then making a call, and that's where your challenge kicks in.

As for the server-side implementation, it's relatively simple once you have the former problem solved. One question you want to ask yourself: are those banners editable once they've been purchased/ordered? Because the underlying database structure is simpler if they don't have to be.
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